Useful lesson learned while rebuilding 273

Tried something while reassembling the heads on my 273 yesterday and it worked out great. I figure I would share. A bore snake for a .308 Winchester is the perfect size to clean out the valve guides. Just make sure it has copper scrubbers on it. I hosed it with brake cleaner to clean it out, then WD-40 and ran it through a couple of times, working back and forth once the scrubber was through. The scrubber is designed to go through one way so don't try to pull it back through. Leave some slack in the side you are not pulling on to keep the snake expanded in the guide. Now that the valves are installed, they move smooth as butter. I hope this is helpful to someone out there as I have received a ton of help and advice here.

For those not familiar with a bore snake, it looks like this. This is the amazon link for one. They can also be picked up at your local sporting goods store.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B079NTYJG6/?tag=fabo03-20

Cool idea!

Speaking of bore snakes....

I tried another use of my reloading stuff to help clean up more parts. This time I ran several of my brackets and accelerator/transmission linkages through the wet tumbler with stainless steel pins as the media. I normally use it for cleaning brass cases. It worked out pretty well for the parts that would fit. First pic has before pieces on the left and after pieces on the right. the second is the whole batch I ran through.

They look awesome. Kim