The UK's Finest Independent Forum for Shooters and Gun Owners. Est 2010.

So, I have made up my first batch of Ed's red with the intention of using it in a heated ultra sonic cleaner, to clean my BP revolver.

Can anyone see any pitfalls? I don't want to use water in the cleaner and CLP is stupidly expensive. This seems to be the solution I am looking for, but I cannot find anything on t'interweb about it being done.

In The Library on this forum there's a thread about Ed's Red. This may quell your fears! or not!!

JohnG

johngarnett wrote:In The Library on this forum there's a thread about Ed's Red. This may quell your fears! or not!!

JohnG

Aye, thanks.. Done the reading and Ed's Red have good reports, I have just found little regarding Ultra Sonic Cleaners. I cannot see it being a problem, but there is always someone who knows more than me..

As there are some concerns about U/S cleaning removing blueing, even with just water, combining that with something strong like Ed's Red, I would be concerned....

Saying that, I only received my U/S cleaner last night, so I'm very much a noob concerning them...

Is there a small unseen part you can take from the gun to testit? I managed to strip the finish off my Benelli M2's bolt carrier with just water and washing up liquid in an US cleaner so I only ever put bare aluminium or s/steel in it now

Blackstuff wrote:Is there a small unseen part you can take from the gun to testit? I managed to strip the finish off my Benelli M2's bolt carrier with just water and washing up liquid in an US cleaner so I only ever put bare aluminium or s/steel in it now

Yes, I was thinking of trying it with an internal part first. Not read about cleaners stripping bluing before.. *Goes off to do some research*

Daryll wrote:As there are some concerns about U/S cleaning removing blueing, even with just water, combining that with something strong like Ed's Red, I would be concerned....

Saying that, I only received my U/S cleaner last night, so I'm very much a noob concerning them...

Yes, I would highly advise not ultrasonic cleaning a blued firearm part! I cleaned the bolt of one of my rifles using an ultrasonic bath which only had a teaspoon of dehydrated citric acid with 2L of warm water and some of the bluing was removed. The bolt was from a semi-auto rifle so losing the bluing is not as noticeable compared to the bolt on a bolt action rifle.

It might be different with Ed's Red, but I would first perform a test on a part which is not seen, such as the timing hand from an 1858.

What is wrong with your gun that it needs ultrasonic cleaning?

For BP fouling all that is needed is tap water, it doesn't want to be hot either.

BP fouling is easily removed with water.

Hrun wrote:Yes, I was thinking of trying it with an internal part first. Not read about cleaners stripping bluing before.. *Goes off to do some research*

Mine did a brilliant job of removing the bluing completely from my Euroarms Rogers and Spencer cylinder, and that was only using detergent and water. Wasn't amused... :/

dromia wrote:What is wrong with your gun that it needs ultrasonic cleaning?

For BP fouling all that is needed is tap water, it doesn't want to be hot either.

BP fouling is easily removed with water.

I did water once when I first got it, never again, it was a nightmare trying to stop it rusting for the next two weeks.

I have a good cleaning regime, but the cylinder is a pain to get clean and I like the idea of an occational deep clean.

My local gunsmith has a ultrasonic cleaner, but uses water and then drops it in a chip fryer with hot oil to push out the water. Did a nice job of my cylinder when I first got it and we could not get the nips out, but I would prefer to do it in one pass and avoid the water.