Cleaning and preserving old magazines

[wanneroo]

You can skip the hairdryer if you set them out in the sun in a box covered with a black garbage bag on a sunny day.

If you can find some MEK (I think Lowes still sells it in the paint dept) this should make cleaning them pretty easy, but it is highly flammable.

An ultrasonic cleaner is not something that everyone has, they make small ones for cleaning jewelry and a bit larger ones for cleaning reloading brass, the one I was talking about would be found at a quality gunsmith or industrial cleaning shop.

I actually set them out in the sun today and wiped them down some.

I have another 4 that I had previously cleaned up, one of which I had taken apart and discovered all the mess inside which prompted this thread. Another mag I had filled with ammo and I removed all of it today and there was not a huge amount but some of the ammo ended up with trace swipes of oil and some grit on them. That may explain some of the issues I have had with the Suomi M31 gun.

I've looked at the ultrasonic cleaners and will probably get one at some point.

A lot of this is all new to me and it's all a learning process but it's fun taking something that probably would have ended up as recycled metal and making it usable again. The Suomi is a heavy beast of a gun but the parts that have survived most likely have some history in the War.

[762xIan]

I have access to a parts washer, so when it comes to cosmoline or any other type of parts cleaning or degreasing this has never been an issue for me.

You don't need any fancy cleaners or sprays. Any kind of light clean oil will work breaking down grease dirt and cosmoline. In the Navy every machinery part we got out of stock was caked with cosmoline. We grabbed a bucket and some #2 fuel oil and started scrubbing.

Diesel would work so would Kero, a cheap dishwashing tub and various scrub brushes from walmart or a dollar store would round out the whole set-up. Shouldn't cost no more than $10. Only thing is a safe place to dispose of the greasy and dirty solvent, personally I have a burn pit and would save it for "bonfire night".