Cleaning solvent bottles....

[Selmer]

Ok, maybe I'm a cheapskate, but I hate is when I have to dip my patches in the Butch's Boreshine and Hoppe's No. 9 bottles and completely soake the patch, only to have it squeezed out when I run it down my bore guide and it drips all over.  I've looked at buying solvent bottles, but they're $3 a piece and I had a brilliant thought last night.  I wear contacts and go through the solution bottles constantly.  Most are 2-8 oz. bottles, perfect for cleaning solvents, right?  So would the gun solvents eat the plastic in my used solution bottles or would they work perfectly?  If I used them, I'd have a tip on it so I can put the solvent exactly where I want it and control the amount that goes on the patch without wasting it, they are sealed so it won't evaporate out, and I've already paid for them.  Am I crazy or brilliant, what do you think?
Selmer

[Graybeard]

I don't wear contacts so have no experience with those but I'm sure the plastic is the same as what I do have experience with. I use the smaller one ounce or so bottles that eye drops come in for that purpose and have done so for many years with no ill effects.

Jist make dang shore ya done put dat stuff in yore eyes.  :eek:

GB

[Selmer]

Dang, I thought I had an original idea there for a while, then Graybeard had to burst my bubble.  I'm glad to hear that they work for you, I was concerned about the ammonia possibly "eating" the plastic.  I'll start filling and marking when I get home from teaching today.  One more thing to do at my new reloading bench, ah.....
Selmer

[John Traveler]

Hey, Selmer, you Old Cheapskate!

I too recycle used plastic bottles for holding gun cleaning oils and solvents when in the field, truck, shooting range, etc.  My favorites are the little complementary shampoo bottles that you get free from hotels.

HOWEVER, and this is a big "IF", I've had to learn the hard way that not all plastics are the same!

Many, if not most, plastic container products are made in China nowadays, and while this is not an indictment of low quality control, it IS a statement of their limited chemical industry and sophistication.  

China used and sold corrosive small arms primers in their military and commercial ammunition throughout the 1980's and into the 1990's.  Why?  Because of an "it was always done that way" attitude, and because there was no pressure to transistion to modern non-corrosive primers until American shooters demanded it.

I've stored Breakfree CLP, Hoppes, and various other solvents and lubricants in several dozens of types of small plastic containers for the last several years.  Many of them become swollen, soft, and leak like crazy at the cap area.

I asked the materials engineer at work and he stated that the most common ingredient that would do that (soften plastic bottles) is diesel and aircraft fuels, and other kerosene-type hydrocarbons.  And YES, gun cleaning solvents are almost universal in their use of hydrocarbon solvents.

Apparently not all plastics are suitable for this use.  I would test batches and containers periodically to avoid problems.

[Dand]

Shoot I buy shooter's choice and Hoppes 9 in the pint bottles and have saved some of the little 1 or 2 oz glass bottles for actual cleaning use. I pour off a little from the big bottles into a little one for the actual work. That way I avoid spilling a big bottle or contaminating a whole big bottle.  I stick with glas bottles. I figure if Shooter's Choice is supposed to soften plastic wadding fouling it will eat plastic bottles too.

[CJ]

Dont know if they still make em, but I have been using glass eyedroppers for years. Fill em up and drop right on the patch. I imagine they may be plastic too these days, even so the solvent doesnt sit in them for very long.