Vinegar, Baking Soda & Hot Water Method...

Post by Mark

1. Obtain a bowl or a pan that is roughly the size or larger of the parts that you intend to clean.

2. fill it half way (or just enough to cover the parts) with hot tap water.

3. Obtain some plain white (distilled is preferred although not really necessary) cooking vinegar and add some to the hot water. Plain white vinegar should be available locally in local groceries etc.

4. Obtain some Baking soda (baking powder/sodium bicarb) again, this should be available locally at the groceries. (I use the "Arm&Hammer" brand)Now, take a small amount of the baking soda (a "pinch" will do) and drop it into the water/vinegar mix. This will cause the vinegar/hot water to foam and expand. So try to do this in a container that is tall enough to contain any extra spill over.

Try it i think that you will like it
_________________
Wanted to buy: MGC Sten MK3....trades?(still)

MGC MP40 Marushin MP40 Nakata MP40 TRC MP40

Modelgun manufacturers, past and present:CMC,CAW,Hudson,HWS,LS,MGC(R.I.P. 1960's~2007) Marushin,Marui,Kokusai,Shoei,Tanaka and Western Arms

hey erm...
is this a method to clean used cartridges as well?

have a nice day^^

It works great to clean and restore original color of brass cartridges :-)

Below you can see a picture of a cartridge that I have left uncleaned for about a month, as an experiment.
After vinegar&soda bath it was almost restored, required just a bit of of polishing to remove one last patch of discoloration.

The only cartridges where this does not work 100% is "real look" Mulberry Fields cartridges. These are made of two metals, brass and copper I think, to look more like a real bullet. After some time copper changes color to brass, and I could not find a way to repair that. They do clean well, just don't regain proper color.

One question I have to guys using this method - what vinegar do you use?
I normally use spirit vinegar, as it is the most widely available, very cheap, and smells more like spirit than a foul thing.
Recently I have bought a wine-based vinegar (italian I think) to see if there is any difference. It did not seem to work any better than spirit vinegar, and the smell was unbearable for me.

Hey!
Thanks for the reply...

Yeah I also would like to know what kind of vinegar is needed...

Isnt there a method with a cleaning machine for watches and glasses and stuff?
How does that work?

Try spirit vinegar, it works for me :-) I do not know what types of vinegar are available in Germany.

Ultrasound machine is a good solution for cleaning. I have one that works ok, but does not seem as good as others have described. I think it is a matter of power in machine - cheaper ones have weaker power and do not work as good as ones where you can select higher power. My machine also had a plastic basket where you put smaller things before inserting it in machine. That plastic basket seems to block a lot of power. Without basket it works better, but metal parts damage inside of machine due to vibration. More powerful machine would work ok even with such plastic basket.

Now comes one of the rookie questions again xD
(i kinda like the word "rookie")

-> I put metal pieces into water... doesnt it rust?????

Steel will rust.
Other metals such as brass, aluminum or zinc used in modelguns do not rust from water.

Good example of what rusts quickly is bottom and base of some Marushin cartridges (MP40). The have a pin there, made of steel. You can almost see it rusting real-time as soon as you take cartridge out of water ;-)
If it happens, put cartridge for some time in Coke (or Pepsi). These contain orthophosphoric acid that reacts with rust stopping it. Surface becomes dark (instead of rusty red) as iron oxide (rust) is converted to iron phosphate. It is a bit like parkerizing or blueing (because it now protects the surface from rust), but of course it is not recommended in a long run.

That's a perfectly good question Washing metal parts in water doesn't sound quite right does it

If you left brass cartridges in water for a long period, or even left them in a damp place, the brass will corrode, it'll start turning green. If left even longer, the brass can stain almost black
Steel will rust so magazines and springs for example and detonator pins can rust so to prevent this, best method is to wash your components in either hot soapy water, the vinegar/soda/hot water solution then rinse and dry everything thoroughly.
If you're in a hurry, a hairdryer comes in useful to speed things up.

Once dry, either polish the metal parts if desired or give them a light coat of silicone oil.

Cerwyn wrote:

If you left brass cartridges in water for a long period, or even left them in a damp place, the brass will corrode, it'll start turning green. If left even longer, the brass can stain almost black

Ooops, didn't know that. I thought that only steel has this problem with water.

So how cleaning the detonators correctly?
If I put them in hot water with vinegar and soda powder they shoudl rust, dont they???

I did that.... I cleaned them with ballistol (for real weapons, against rust) and keep them a bit wet with it, just like you do with swords that easily rust... you think thats ok?

Be sure that all traces of residue from the burnt caps, smoke and soot are cleaned away from the Detonator Pins. You can use small stiff brushes if you need to.

A light coating of oil (gun oil, silicone oil) will certainly help them keep clean and corrosion free while the model is in storage.
As the shotgun's Detonator Pins strike the cap directly, make sure the pins are dry before you attempt to fire it.
Too much oil will dampen the cap so it won't ignite. A little oil in the chamber area can give off a bit more smoke too but don't get it wet.

back to that vinegar soda water method...
How long should I keep my parts in there?
I left a few cartridges and my washan m9 ballen in there about 20 minutes.
The cartidges went perfectly to clean after that, but in the barrel there was still all that dirt from the firing...

BadBean wrote:

back to that vinegar soda water method...
How long should I keep my parts in there?
I left a few cartridges and my washan m9 ballen in there about 20 minutes.
The cartidges went perfectly to clean after that, but in the barrel there was still all that dirt from the firing...

20-30 mins can be enough to clean up light dirt, but as the water cools down it isn't as effective so heavier deposits will need another soak in fresh, hot solution.
The cartridges will each only have dirt from one shot, the barrel is going to accumulate dirt from every cartridge you fire.
I've seen barrels completely blocked with dirt, these could take 2 - 3 good soaks in the UltraSonic cleaner using Hot Water /Vinegar / Bicarb.Soda and a run through with a brush and cotton buds (Q-tips) to return to spotless

argh

I followed your rules... baking soda, vinegar, boiling water

but my kokusai cartridges got ugly dark undefinable spots on them...

any idea what that is? doesnt seem like rust... how can I get them away?
antirust and weapon oil didnt help

It'll be the start of corrosion, best way to remove it is to polish the cartridges with a good metal polish such as Brasso, Duraglit, Solvol Autosol.
Wire wool can be used to remove the worst of the spots, then use soft cloth rags and they'll come up lik new

Doing this by hand will take time, it's laborious but worth it.

Because I have several hundred cartridges in different sizes, and I fire them 100-200 at a time, I bought a Tumble Vibro Polisher produced to polish up real ammunition brass cases.
This machine has restored some really badly tarnished and stained brass cartridges to an as new gleam.

@BadBean: You are from Germany- so I think you have used "Backpulver"?
Backpulver(Baking powder) is not the same like Baking Soda!
Baking powder is Sodium hydro carb (Natriumhydrogencarbonat)
Backing Soda is Sodium bi carb (Natriumbicarbonat)

Buy pure (Sodium bi carb)Natriumbicarbonat in a Pharmacy and try again...

Around the spots road-got shut, you must polish your Carts... I recommend "Never-Dull"...