I need your guys' take on this M1 Carbine. Barrel looks pretty nasty but new ones are like $300. Rust hasn't actually gotten inside yet but frick it looks deep into the surface. Would it be too compromised to even attempt WD-40 and some steel wool?
I need your guys' take on this M1 Carbine. Barrel looks pretty nasty but new ones are like $300.
It looks pretty superficial. Just lightly take it off with steel wool and 0000 steel wool. You can always re blue it through rust blue or cold bluing
>It looks pretty superficial
Thats what I needed to hear, thanks brother, I'll give it a shot
btw, be sure to do it by hand. Dont use a dremel or wire wheel
Got it, thanks for the advice brother
>Dont use a dremel or wire wheel
Don't use anything abrasive with a dremel, or by hand. Brass + dremel
can't do any damage. But, even by hand, you don't want to use steel wool or a steel brush, yet.
If you want to do it by hand, then do so. It's more work, but safer. You can get brass brushes for hand work at a Walmart for something like $3 in the automotive section for body work. I recently picked up a set with nylon, brass, and steel for cleaning my guns. I just don't use the steel except in very limited capacity on very specific sections.
You can buy several brushes and custom cut some of them into pieces for different parts & applications.
You're gonna have to post a much better photo set. Make sure you're zoomed in with razor sharp focus on (at least) three of the worst spots.
After you've documented it in its current state, use a dremel and a brass brush, not steel, with a decent oil. Wipe the oil off periodically, maybe four times for each section you do, and rinse the brass brush out (with oil). Maybe do about one to two inches at a time. When one section is complete, examine it carefully before starting the next. Wipe it as dry as you can with a soft cotton cloth, take some pix.
In general, I think you can "restore" this. It will have visible battle scars, but nobody can tell for certain about its function from pictures at this point.
If it passes "inspection" here on /k/, you will certainly want a qualified gunsmith to look it over with real hands-on and real tools. At that point, depending on his advice, you might move on to steel brushes & wool to improve the cosmetics.
Why use a dremel? Steel wool will work just as good and its far less invasive. You might frick up the surface with a dremel
BRASS, motherfricker. BRASS.
Steel, of course can frick the hell out of it, even 0000 steel wool by hand.
AFTER a full cleaning and inspection, THEN it's time to consider if anything steel is appropriate.
I'm very sorry. My reading comprehension is bad
It sounds like I have a good shot at getting at this. Its out of the stock at the moment and down in the garage so you wont be getting closer pics at the moment. I promise you that what you see in the OP is basically the worst of it. Under the handguard its rust free and the reciever/trigger assembly/bolt assembly is mostly aluminum so thats all fine too. I think eventually I'll try and save up for a stainless steel barrel and synthetic stock but for now I think I can make this work. My biggest concern was how much rust is too much before it becomes unsafe to put .30 carbine through it
That sight block looks rusted to frick, good luck with your windage lmao
Check out some of Mark Novak's videos on youtube on how to remove rust without causing damage. Typically he boils barrels in a section of rain gutter heated by propane burners and then uses a carding wheel to take off the rust. Carding wheel is super gentle and will leave the metal intact. Sometimes even the original bluing will stay intact as well.
Found a couple good one for you actually:
Carding wheel usage:
Boiling rig and process starts around 34:50
Don't use a lot of pressure with your #0000 steel wool or whatever you use. You can go slow and remove more, but "putting the bluing back" is a hell of a process. Might want to boil it before scrubbing the rust to convert the rust back to bluing just in case. has a good video; mark does a lot rust bluing.
take a wire brush to it then see how bad it is
If that’s one of those Universal builds then clean it up and sell it to some dumb zoomer. Those things are notoriously shitty
A maroon scotchbrite pad, the style wholsalers carry
Give this a shot. It’s called Big 45 Frontier Metal Cleaner. It works so well. Apparently it’s harder than rust and softer than blueing.
That doesn't even look like an original M1 Carbine. Any details?
OP here
Its not original, its an old Iver Johnson model from the '70s.
use a sponge and some soapy water in the sink
the have cerakote and brownells moly resin that imitates colt royal bluing as well.
Update
I looked around for some other solutions and someone suggested I just scrape the rust off with a penny. I soaked the barrel in some Hoppes Gun Cleaner and just started scraping away and lo and behold the shit looks brand new. I was kinda shocked that the bluing was all well and good underneath
Wow! I've heard of the penny method but never actually tried it for more than a couple of minutes; I always went to the copper scrubber pad, some fine wire wheels (dremel) or brushes, or straight to the #0000 steel wool. What year was the penny? If made in 1982 or before, they contained more copper (95% copper/5% zinc) whereas modern ones have way more zinc.
I have noticed some odd things, though, where bluing forms naturally under rust. Found rusty items innawoods sometimes clean up to a stupidly pretty shiny blue despite the large amount of rain and humidity in the area. And this is with moron-tier "put a piece of shit coarse steel wire brush on a drill and have at it" cleaning up.
I made sure it was a pre-1982 penny, didn't want to take any chances, real copper or nothing
The real copper pennies are 1972 and earlier. There was a big zinc content changeover in 1973. Although, it's possible the zinc content was boosted even higher later on like 1982 or something.
For future reference, keep in mind that you can go to any hardware store and buy 2 feet of 10 gauge or even 8 gauge electrical wire for about $2 or $3. You will effectively have a solid "bar" of 99.9% pure copper to use on all your blued steel for the rest of your life. Or buy a foot of solid copper pipe in the plumbing section. Lots of solid copper fittings of various sizes and thickness.
There is also grounding stock, which is heavy rods of pure copper (a bit expensive, ut really heavy). If you ever find an old telephone pole, like one that's been thrown in a ditch after a car took it out & it got replaced, sometimes you find very heavy pure copper wire stapled to them to ground lightning strikes. Shit's the equivalent of about 4 gauge. I've got a 20 feet length I salvaged a decade ago and keep it in my shop for various tinkering needs. It can be hammered to thickness & filed/sanded to sharpness, etc.
Given this method, I would expect solid brass casings would work (which can be cut & hammered into specific shapes), or heavy brass wire stock in a hardware store, like 1/8" or thicker. Also can find chunks of brass pipe & fittings in the plumbing section. Make sure you pick up brass rather than bronze, although bronze may work just as well.
Are their mags as bad as their reputation?
Someone I know is selling one (ww2, overall in good shape) but its nearly impossible to find mags for it in my country. Is it realistic to only use the original one?
They do wear out and give feeding issues.