Ammonia-based floor cleaner?

C

Chuck Bogardus

Guest
Saw some 10% ammonia stuff at the hardware store today... Got to thinking (and those who know me, know that's a bad thing). Do you think this could be used instead of Sweet's? Or maybe via a recirculating pump?
 
Seems to me Sweets & other such proprietary products have detergents & other modifiers included, the outcome of which is that they don't run into every nook & cranny at the least opportunity.

I would worry about applying something as watery as that stuff without some procedure worked out to guarantee I won't do some damage thru sloppy work.
 
Bogie, as long as you use a large floor mop and one of those bucket thingies that has a wringer for the mop,your hands should be safe.
I'd still recommend eye protection though!!
 
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Several years ago

I bought a gallon ofAmonia that is used in Blue Print copying machines. I don't recall the percentage of amonia but I think it around 10% and I think I recall that water can only absorb a certain percentage of amonia and whatever the ratio I have is was the max. I use to mix it with GM Top Cleaner.

After awhile I read the ingredient list on the Top Cleaner and saw that there was amonia present in the Top cleaner so I stopped using it. I mixes only a couple of tablespoons with a pint of Top Cleaner. Back then , there was a big discussion and suspission that Amonia had an adverse effect on SS and "Dried Out" the bore.

Subsequently I have been using Bore Tech Eliminator to remove copper. I clean with the GM and once I get the carbon out I switch to the Eliminator. I use a plastic Jag and a SS rod so that there is no way I can get fales readings.

I am beginning to question the need to remove every last bit of copper. I now have a bore scope and see that most of the copper I am seeing on the patch lives in the divots and cracks in the barrel surface. Perhaps it isn't necessary to remove it every week. Just a thought.

I am going to buy a case of the GM Top because I have no faith that GM will survive.
 
Pete,

Back in the day, our blueprint machine ammonia was 28%, which was what was used to make "blue goop". Given my experience with benchrest quality barrels, (no copper problems) I wonder why anyone would use something so strong for cleaning a hand lapped barrel that had been broken in. I find that for 133 at top pressure Butch's with patches and a brush does a fine job.
 
For about 18 months I was a tank commander in M48 tanks. These had a coaxial mounted 30 cal machine gun. That machine gun had immediate access to 3,800 rounds of 30 cal (30-06) ammo.

The Army's official dish and pot cleaning soap was some brown stuff that looked and smelled exactly like "Grandmas Lye Soap". Barrel cleaning SOP was to slice and dissolve some of that soap in boiling water. Then using the insulated gloves supplied to change hot MG barrels and a steel cleaning rod tipped with a wire brush, we scrubbed the carbon buildup out or the MG barrel bores. It worked great!!

Just remembered, that is the same way I cleaned black powder barrels...lye soap and boiling water.

We had GI bore cleaner but were not allowed to use it, just as we had ear plugs in nice green plastic boxes that attached to our uniform epaulets, but we weren't allowed to use them either.
 
Seems like I remember in Hatcher's Notebook that the good general mentioned the use of "stronger ammonia water" which is 28% ammonium hydroxide to clean copper out of barrels at Springfield Arsenal. Plug the chamber with a cork, fill the barrel with the stuff and cork up the muzzle. The only problem is that the odor is overwhelming, it'll eat the skin right off your hands, and might not be the best stuff for a stainless barrel (or maybe even chrome moly). Without stoppering both ends of the barrel the corrosion was something to behold though from what was written.
 
Put some Eliminator in sometime

Boyd Allen said:
Pete,

Back in the day, our blueprint machine ammonia was 28%, which was what was used to make "blue goop". Given my experience with benchrest quality barrels, (no copper problems) I wonder why anyone would use something so strong for cleaning a hand lapped barrel that had been broken in. I find that for 133 at top pressure Butch's with patches and a brush does a fine job.
Click to expand...

and see what the patches look like in 5 minutes or less. A while ago I read, and I think on here, that the copper is more the result of vapor than it is from being scrubbed off by the barrel roughness. I know that most of my barrels will retain copper and they are all from Brand Name makers. I find that sometimes when barrels are new, they don't retain much copper but as they are shot, they begin to erode thus creating voids for copper to collect in and as I said before, I don't know how much it matters but I do the once per week thing and satisfy myself. I once had a barrel on a 308 HBR rifle that coppered badly all the time I had it but it shot the very best with so much copper in it it was un-nerving to look at.


P. S.

For a number of years I used Speedy's method for breaking in barrels. After thinking about it recently I have joined the camp of those who do nothing to break a barrel in. I now believe that the barrel is going to withstand the same stress and fire rather or not it is shot and cleaned after each shot in the beginning. The break-in is to essentially smothen out the tool marks from the chambering process. How can cleaning after every shot possibly make any difference?
 
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I am guessing you guys and gals know that significant exposure to ammonia fumes can cause permanent lung tissue damage.
 
Strong Ammonia

Absolutely do not splash any in your eyes either!!!

STBE
 
Come on Francis

FBecigneul said:
You were an M48 tank commander? Those came out way after your time. Moving around under an armadillo is not commanding an M48.
We used that old GI soap solution to wash just about anything.
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Jerry is not that short. I know. He camped next to Ritchie Freibert's vendor shoppe:confused: where Ritchie and I loaded at Fayette, Ala.
 
Ammonia-tough To Breathe

Back in the day, I was working inside a B-52 on the flight line. The crew-chief apparently forgot I was inside & let a missle crew refuel the Air to Ground missiles(agm) hanging on the wings. The wind was just right to fill up the fuselage with the vapor of the ammonia based fuel. Suddenly I couldn't breathe or see. I made it out only because I was very familiar with the plane. If I'd felt better when I got to the crew chief-shack I'd had done enough harm to him to earn the Leavenworth retirement plan. Too this day I think of that when I use an ammonia based bore-cleaner. Lung damage.could be?
 
Back when you could still get the high concentration amonia we used to put it into a squirt gun and whilst riding our Bikes we would squirt the Dogs that would liker to bite us, (no they would not repeat the chase) they were done!

Shooting the Palma Game, some shooters have reduced the amount of cleaning to every 175 to 200 rounds with not much accuracy loss and cut barrels and then use amonia (sweets)

Clarence
 
28% ammonia

JerrySharrett said:
I am guessing you guys and gals know that significant exposure to ammonia fumes can cause permanent lung tissue damage.
Click to expand...

You guys messing around with 28% ammonia better pay attention to what Jerry said. Years ago I worked around ammonia based refrigeration and that stuff is deadly. A couple of good whiffs of it and you will wish for some new lungs. PLEASE. don't use the pure stuff......Donald
 
From my experience with it

It will give one plenty of warning not to get very close. I quit using it and still have most of the gallon I purchased. The Eliminator seems harmless. I don't apply it to my breakfast toast but I am not concerned about handeling it.

I shoot coated bullets and only clean after the match at home. I to have not found any deteriation in accuracy and think the residue saves the barrels to some extent.
 
Well, I did a whiff-test of some of that Montana Extreme stuff, and after I got through screaming like a little girl...
 
i've mixed xanthum gum with 10% ammonia to make a gell for cleaning heavily copper fouled milsurps. powdered xanthum gum is availible in the hippie health food area of most supermarkets. just mix it a little at a time untill you get it to nice gooey state
 
Ammonia in the presents of air turns to an oil, that goo that people describe is oil thickened ammonia. Some may remember that at one time the U.S. military experimented with ammonia as a fuel for tanks? The reasoning being that one of the products of ammonia combustion is water. The idea, to supply the ground forces supporting the tank.

Save the ammonia for the best sting ease for insect bites, works better for bites from the skeeters than anything I know. Instant relief.
 
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