I may have screwed up???

[mmande]

I have used Simple Green in my ultrasonic cleaner in the past with great results. The solution was getting dirty so I changed it with a brand new bottle of Simple Green but I did not dilute it with water as the label says. I put in some gummed up parts from a 1950's S&W revolver and let it run for 1/2 an hour. When I pulled the parts out there was only about 10% of the bluing left. They were almost "in the white"! I'm really glad I did not put the frame & barrel in there.
Did I screw up by not diluting the solution or were the parts possibly reblued in the past? The finish looks to be most certainly original. Could Simple Green have changed their formula?
Any thoughts are very much welcomed...
Mike

 

[Hondo44]

I wish I had an answer for you, but I speculate it was just too strong for blued gun parts.

I stick to gun products for cleaning gun parts. Although an excellent cleaner for real dirty and especially rusted gun parts with the ultrasonic (best) or w/o (takes longer) and inexpensive is a 50/50 mix of ATF and acetone. It will NOT remove bluing.

 

[pasound]

Over a year ago, when the virus shutdown started, we studied cleaners for our museum. Simple Green was too caustic to lots of finishes - wood, metal, plastic, even concrete. Switched to Green Works, cleaning is good, and no damage to finishes. But don't use commercial cleaners on guns. Standard old school solvents and oils, only. Newest thing I've used in the past 20 years is CLP.

 

[smithra_66]

Hoppes #9 and elbow grease from now on!

 

[chief38]

Hmmm, I often use Simple Green around the house but always have diluted it 10:1 as they recommend. The ONLY time I used it full strength is when I used it to remove a fresh oil stain from concrete. It actually worked quite well, but the concrete area I cleaned was noticeably cleaner than the rest of the concrete so I guess it's more potent than I had thought.

I do not like using anything containing water on firearms if I can help it. I stick to gun solvents.

 

[Benchrest1]

I've heard of too many people having some kind of problem using Simple Green. For this reason I will not use it.

 

[AzShooter]

I use MPro-7 in my Harbor Freight sonic cleaner with good results. I put in my small parts and my magazines then blow dry with a can of air.

 

[chief38]

I've heard of too many people having some kind of problem using Simple Green. For this reason I will not use it.

Simple Green is an EXCELLENT product and extremely useful around the house! That said, I'd never use any product containing mostly water on firearms - bu that's just my personal opinion. For general purpose household cleaning, it is great!

 

[bigwheelzip]

MC25 is an excellent "green' cleaning product designed for firearms. I've used it for years, though not in an ultrasonic cleaner. Their product data says to dilute for use in an ultrasonic cleaner.



MC25(R) | Eco-Friendly Enzymatic Cleaner & Degreaser | MIL-COMM

Sent from my SM-T510 using Tapatalk

 

[2152hq]

There's around 25 or more separate 'Simple Green' cleaning products or specialized formulas for about everything you can think of.

Many of them, though not all, contain a small % of Citric Acid.
Most 1% or less.

That will strip bluing very nicely even at that low of a concentration. It may take a little longer than full strength, but it surely will do the job just as any other weak acid will like acitic.

There is one formulation especially labled for cleaning stone surfaces.
It's 94 or 95% water (most all the Simple Green stuff is 70%+ water). The rest a combination of 1% and less of a bunch of stuff including some lye. Which actually would be a good oil and grease cleaner.
A warm water/lye soln was the old cleaner soln used in hot salt bluing. Then rinsed and into the salt tank.

Lye turns oil & grease spots in cement or stone into soap and then it washes away cleaning the surface so you get a 'new' look to that area.