Ed's Red Bore Cleaner

[Lawdog Dago Dom]

Ran into an old acquaintance yesterday and CAS came up. Since we don't shoot jacketed bullets, he asked me if I used Ed's Red as a bore cleaner for cast bullet shooting. I thought I was being set up for a prank, so I said sure and I use it on grass stains, too. That got me a puzzled look. I told him I had never heard of it, so he told me, best he could, what was in it. Looked it up online, and there are a few formulas to make a batch of this stuff. Like any home made concoction, I have some questions for my fellow shooters. Mostly, does it work, and is it better than any cleaners I can buy now?   Better for smokeless, BP or subs?

 

Found this:

 

https://www.northwestfirearms.com/threads/eds-red-homemade-bore-cleaner.168412/

 

 

Thanks,

 

LDD

[Navy Davey]

I have been using Ed's Red on all my guns for a few years works on all my guns using both pc cast and jacketed. Cheap and it goes a long way.

[Choctaw Jack]

Dom,

Ed's Red is all I use now.The standard recipe of equal parts of Dextron II , mineral spirits  and kerosene works great,and if you add a small amount of acetone it cuts plastic wad residue like crazy.

Be careful using acetone as it will remove or soften stock finishes.

If you use the odorless mineral spirits and kerosene,the odor is greatly reduced,not that it was objectionable any way.

One more bonus is that you can make this stuff in large batches for very little money.

 

 

[Lawdog Dago Dom]

Guessing this would be stored in a glass jar?

[Boulder Canyon Bob# 32052L]

12 minutes ago, Lawdog Dago Dom said:

Guessing this would be stored in a glass jar?

I store mine in an empty clean paint can I get from Home Depot.

[War Grizzly]

I've recently started using this as I have a use for all the constituent ingredients already. It's cheap enough that I made a batch that fills a half gallon Pyrex container. I simply take the grips off and drop my pistols in. Then I will disassemble them completely and wipe off the extra. 

I have noticed that powder fouling comes out easier. As to lead, I still use mxt cowboy blend for heavily leaded bores.

[Choctaw Jack]

If you don't use the acetone plastic works fine

[Sedalia Dave]

12 hours ago, Lawdog Dago Dom said:

Guessing this would be stored in a glass jar?

 

Use a metal can.  Store in a cool dry place. Only use in a well ventilated area and remember it is flammable.

I have used it since I started CAS and love it.  Reason it works so well is that it is a binary solvent. 

 

Good explanation and a little history of Ed's Red

 

Note that the acetone is what makes it work really well but acetone readily evaporates. It will still work without the acetone but not a s fast.

Easy fix is to add the acetone to the mix when you are using it.

 

I keep it stored in a 1 gallon metal can minus the acetone.  When I get ready to use it I pour some into a paint can that is just large enough to hold the parts I want to soak. Cover the parts and seal the paint can. Let soak for an hour or so and then carefully open the can.  For general cleaning I keep some in one of those really small paint cans that samples come in..      

[Sedalia Dave]

As an experiment some time, wet a q-tip with a fresh 50/50 mix of acetone and ATF. Touch the Q-tip to a piece of clean flat steel under bright light, you can see it swirl and churn when it touches the surface. This action is what allows it to breakup carbon fouling, powder residue, primer residue and lead deposits.

 

This is why 50/50 mix of ATF and Acetone is one of the best penetrating fluids on the planet.  John Boy posted about his success using it on a rusted trailer hitch. 

 

[Dusty Devil Dale]

1 hour ago, War Grizzly said:

I've recently started using this as I have a use for all the constituent ingredients already. It's cheap enough that I made a batch that fills a half gallon Pyrex container. I simply take the grips off and drop my pistols in. Then I will disassemble them completely and wipe off the extra. 

I have noticed that powder fouling comes out easier. As to lead, I still use mxt cowboy blend for heavily leaded bores.

Any effects on blued guns (or the painted bluing on Ruger lower frames) ? 

[War Grizzly]

1 hour ago, Dusty Devil Dale said:

Any effects on blued guns (or the painted bluing on Ruger lower frames) ? 

None yet. My Rugers that see this treatment most often are stainless, but I've used it in my Uberti 1873 with no ill effect. I use acetone and or alcohol to degrease guns prior to touchup bluing all the time with good results and no harm to surrounding surfaces. I've not tried it on the painted alloy grip frames.

 

The main advantage to Ed's Red type concoctions in my experience is that it is cheap and makes submersion cleaning much more feasible. I do not advocate submersion without fully stripping the gun because this I think invites crude to accumulate in cavities.

[Lazy Eeyour]

Ed's Red: I store in a metal Kerosene can. I also put some in a 50 cal metal can to soak pistols. Be careful with time as it will lift blueing if you forget. Stainless, who cares. Take pistol out and swab barrel and cylinders, blow dry with compressed air, done. Works great for cleaning shotgun barrels! Soaking also lifts rust over a few weeks as in lost impact socket outside for a few weeks then soaked in Ed's Red for a month, good as new.

[J-BAR #18287]

I have had problems with acetone and ATF fluid separating, not mixing completely and forming two layers.  I have found that ATF fluid is a great lube and cleaner just by itself.

 

Any suggestions for getting the acetone and ATF fluid to be more friendly?

[Wolf Tracker]

Has anyone tried it in an ultrasonic cleaner or would it be to flammable for it?

[Ron "Ironhead" Smith]

14 hours ago, Lawdog Dago Dom said:

Ran into an old acquaintance yesterday and CAS came up. Since we don't shoot jacketed bullets, he asked me if I used Ed's Red as a bore cleaner for cast bullet shooting. I thought I was being set up for a prank, so I said sure and I use it on grass stains, too. That got me a puzzled look. I told him I had never heard of it, so he told me, best he could, what was in it. Looked it up online, and there are a few formulas to make a batch of this stuff. Like any home made concoction, I have some questions for my fellow shooters. Mostly, does it work, and is it better than any cleaners I can buy now?   Better for smokeless, BP or subs?

 

Found this:

 

https://www.northwestfirearms.com/threads/eds-red-homemade-bore-cleaner.168412/

 

 

Thanks,

 

LDD

Good stuff, been using it since Ed came up with it and I tested it.

" A historical note about Ed's Red. When Ed Harris first cooked it up, it exceeded the then current Mil Specs for bore cleaner and CLP. Ed and a cohort were able to test it at a defense contractor's quality lab after hours with chrome-moly and stainless samples provided by Kreiger Barrels. "

John Kreiger provided 4140 pucks and Boots Obermeyer provided 416 stainless pucks for testing. Three guesses who the "cohort" is. The only specs it failed were odor (which is subjective and not well defined in the spec) and flammability.
 

13 hours ago, David Richert said:

I have been using Ed's Red on all my guns for a few years works on all my guns using both pc cast and jacketed. Cheap and it goes a long way.

That is not Ed's Red, not even close. The original formula from Hatcher's Notebook was a Frankford Arsenal cleaner (the real arsenal not today's company). Equal parts sperm oil, Pratt's Astral Oil, turpentine and acetone with the allowable addition of lanolin. Sperm oil is replaced with Dextron II or higher ATF, Pratt's Astral Oil was nothing more than highly refined kerosene, aliphatic (odorless) mineral spirits replace the turpentine and the acetone doesn't change.
 

13 hours ago, Lawdog Dago Dom said:

Guessing this would be stored in a glass jar?

I use a brown glass gallon jug that originally held 2-propanol.
 

11 hours ago, Dusty Devil Dale said:

Any effects on blued guns (or the painted bluing on Ruger lower frames) ? 

No issue with real bluing, been using it almost 30 years. Not sure about painted frames like Ruger. Incidental dribbles on Rustoleum camouflaged ARs have had no effect if wiped of within a few minutes.
 

1 hour ago, Wolf Tracker said:

Has anyone tried it in an ultrasonic cleaner or would it be to flammable for it?

Unless you know what you're doing with flammable solvents in ultrasonics I would not recommend it.

[Dusty Devil Dale]

30 minutes ago, Ron "Ironhead" Smith said:

Good stuff, been using it since Ed came up with it and I tested it.

" A historical note about Ed's Red. When Ed Harris first cooked it up, it exceeded the then current Mil Specs for bore cleaner and CLP. Ed and a cohort were able to test it at a defense contractor's quality lab after hours with chrome-moly and stainless samples provided by Kreiger Barrels. "

John Kreiger provided 4140 pucks and Boots Obermeyer provided 416 stainless pucks for testing. Three guesses who the "cohort" is. The only specs it failed were odor (which is subjective and not well defined in the spec) and flammability.
 

That is not Ed's Red, not even close. The original formula from Hatcher's Notebook was a Frankford Arsenal cleaner (the real arsenal not today's company). Equal parts sperm oil, Pratt's Astral Oil, turpentine and acetone with the allowable addition of lanolin. Sperm oil is replaced with Dextron II or higher ATF, Pratt's Astral Oil was nothing more than highly refined kerosene, aliphatic (odorless) mineral spirits replace the turpentine and the acetone doesn't change.
 

I use a brown glass gallon jug that originally held 2-propanol.
 

No issue with real bluing, been using it almost 30 years. Not sure about painted frames like Ruger. Incidental dribbles on Rustoleum camouflaged ARs have had no effect if wiped of within a few minutes.
 

Unless you know what you're doing with flammable solvents in ultrasonics I would not recommend it.

Wow!  THANK YOU! 

I've used powerful ultrasonic cleaning machines for decades in jewelry making, some with high heat incorporated.  I always used soapy cleaning agents, and fortunately never thought to try anything flammable.  Never before have I ever seen any warning about avoiding flammable solvents. 

 

Seeing your post, I did a bit of research, and it made me shudder. Apparently the ultrasonic cavitation creates much more disassociated gas from the solvents, with extreme flammability and explosion risk.   I could easily and dumbly have dumped in a flammable solvent and had a fireball on my hands in my upstairs jewelry lab.  Thank YOU again!  

[Eyesa Horg]

I made some of the original with acetone and didn't think it worked any better than "M-Pro Gun Cleaner" The smell didn't amuse the wife and M-Pro doesn't have any odor. I will have to try it again due to the likes for it above. Maybe I didn't give it enough of a chance. I did smell like I had been working on the car after using it however.

[Ron "Ironhead" Smith]

9 hours ago, Dusty Devil Dale said:

Wow!  THANK YOU! 

I've used powerful ultrasonic cleaning machines for decades in jewelry making, some with high heat incorporated.  I always used soapy cleaning agents, and fortunately never thought to try anything flammable.  Never before have I ever seen any warning about avoiding flammable solvents. 

 

Seeing your post, I did a bit of research, and it made me shudder. Apparently the ultrasonic cavitation creates much more disassociated gas from the solvents, with extreme flammability and explosion risk.   I could easily and dumbly have dumped in a flammable solvent and had a fireball on my hands in my upstairs jewelry lab.  Thank YOU again!  

There are safe ways to do it with some solvents but I do not know if any of these ingredients are safe to do it with.
 

7 minutes ago, Eyesa Horg said:

I made some of the original with acetone and didn't think it worked any better than "M-Pro Gun Cleaner" The smell didn't amuse the wife and M-Pro doesn't have any odor. I will have to try it again due to the likes for it above. Maybe I didn't give it enough of a chance. I did smell like I had been working on the car after using it however.

 

Nitrile gloves are your friends when dealing with solvents and more importantly lead residue when cleaning guns.

[John Boy]

Quote

I have had problems with acetone and ATF fluid separating, not mixing completely and forming two layers.

J-Bar, you just have to shake the can to put the acetone/ATF into a combined mixture.  The color will change to a light creamy mixture

I keep mine in 2 containers:  a spray bottle for wide applications and a Zippo can for drop by drop application

[Sedalia Dave]

11 hours ago, Dusty Devil Dale said:

Wow!  THANK YOU! 

I've used powerful ultrasonic cleaning machines for decades in jewelry making, some with high heat incorporated.  I always used soapy cleaning agents, and fortunately never thought to try anything flammable.  Never before have I ever seen any warning about avoiding flammable solvents. 

 

Seeing your post, I did a bit of research, and it made me shudder. Apparently the ultrasonic cavitation creates much more disassociated gas from the solvents, with extreme flammability and explosion risk.   I could easily and dumbly have dumped in a flammable solvent and had a fireball on my hands in my upstairs jewelry lab.  Thank YOU again!  

 

You need to reread the manuals for your ultrasonic cleaners. Unless your tanks predate OSHA, there is no way the manufacturer omitted the warnings about not using flammable cleaning solutions.

[Dusty Devil Dale]

30 minutes ago, Sedalia Dave said:

 

You need to reread the manuals for your ultrasonic cleaners. Unless your tanks predate OSHA, there is no way the manufacturer omitted the warnings about not using flammable cleaning solutions.

I did re-read the manuals and decals.  There is not a word for either machine - - only ads for the latter one pushing their own cleaning solutions.  I bought one of the units in 1980, the other in the 2000_2005 period.