Ultrasonic Cleaner
Addendum, Saturday 7:30PM
The wadder is now spanking clean and gorgeous. It hasn’t looked this good in years.
The ultrasonic cleaner needed half a gallon of Low Stink Mineral Spirits ($11.00/gallon at Home Despot) to cover everything in the roof construction screen basket I fabricated for this purpose, and then it took a full run of 480 seconds to shake loose one heck of a lot of soot, baked grease and dried oil. When done, the soup looked like yesterday’s coffee. After wiping and blow drying (compressed air) the parts, however, it was a joy to reassemble, clean part by clean part. (Took three tries to get the three fingered devil to stay in position.)
We’re shooting a practice 2700 tomorrow with first shot at 7:30AM, the earliest we’re supposed to make noise on the range. I’ll be shooting a completely clean gun (and barrel) when we get to Center Fire and, worse, I had the dot off during the shaking today. There’s no predicting what’ll happen on that first Slow Fire target tomorrow but it ought’a be fouled and zeroed by the second.
10s and Xs!
Addendum Addenda, Sunday 8:00PM
Ultrasonic cleaning removes everything, including that on trigger parts that might have been lubed “way back when” or that have a coating of carbon that acts as a lube.
When I fired the super clean wad gun today, the trigger felt like it was eight pounds instead of the usual three. Nor could I feel the roll. This was because when I reassembled it after the ultrasonic cleaning, I had left the trigger operating faces dry.
After centerfire was over, I mentioned the problem I was having and how I had recently cleaned the gun and the more experienced shooters shared the much needed education.
Oh.
This evening, I took the wadder down to loose parts and added the barest wipe of TW-25 which I’ve been using on other rubbing faces in the gun for some time.
But I’m also interested in some of the moly-containing lubes that, after application, become completely dry. That would avoid any crud buildup with the use of oil and, less so, with the TW-25 product.
So I’ve asked the experts for their opinion this time instead of diving in blind.
Once burnt, twice cautious.
Stay tuned for Tuesday evening’s Addenda-cubed here when 1) I try the now lightly lubed trigger, and 2) I hear some recommendations on moly-containing products.
Addenda^3, Wednesday Morning, 7:20AM
Yep, the trigger is much better now at 3 lbs instead of 6,000.
Got some more input on ultrasonic cleaning re process, liquids and how often. And I need to check the overtravel screw - I think it was ultrasonically adjusted, too.
No more Addenda will be appearing on this post. Instead, look for a (new) post on this topic soon – there’s a lot of learning goin’ on.