Suppressor cleaning, what’s your secret?

[PiratePast40]

I tried the frog lube treatment and it didn't seem to make much difference but the silicone treatment works quite well for aluminum. Not perfect, but must of the crud wiped right off. I suspect you would need to clean and retreat after 4-500 rounds or so but don't know for sure since I've only done it once.

Heat the parts in the oven at 250 for 30 minutes then soak in DOT 5 brake fluid over night. Wipe down and then reassemble. I use never seize on the threads. You could use silicone oil if you wanted and if you can find it. Brake fluid must be DOT 5 since that's the one with silicone. I found it at Kenechts. Guys at Auto Zone had never heard of it.

 

[BlackdogGS]

When using the wet tumbler I do it along with my brass. I'll toss my baffles in with my 5.56 brass, run for three hours then do the same thing with the 45, 7.62, 9mm brass. 3 hours each time.

I will give the CLR a try. If it's safe for a coffee pot I won't mine using it.

 

[PiratePast40]

As an FYI, DOT 5 brake fluid does not remove paint, powder coat or anodizing.

 

[Camelfilter]

Would a sonicator and an appropriate metal safe solution be of benefit here?

No NFA experience, just tossing such out there to ponder.

The harbor freight sonicator version we have works a charm on handguns as well as AR BCG's using the purple simple green...

 

[A2theK]

If you tumble or sandblast what about all the lead dust? The dip
is mostly for rimfire can SS baffles. That isn't carbon. It is precipitated "lead fog" that is coating the baffles. Don't cut your ear of and eat it.

 

[PiratePast40]

Are aluminum baffles OK in a wet tumbler with SS media?

 

[BlackdogGS]

If you tumble or sandblast what about all the lead dust? The dip
is mostly for rimfire can SS baffles. That isn't carbon. It is precipitated "lead fog" that is coating the baffles. Don't cut your ear of and eat it.

No dust when you wet tumble.

 

[A2theK]

That is good to know hence the wet tumble. You are still left with lead liquid it's just elemental rather than soluble. Safer from an inhalation standpoint for sure and skin absorbtion.

 

[Alaskawack]

Any recommendations on a good cost to value ultrasonic cleaners?

harbor frieght 2.5l ultrasonic cleaner 84 bucks. then grab a jug of simple green and your set.

 

[Ben B.]

.22 cans are the only thing I clean. Rifle cans don't need it, and CF pistol cans don't seem to either. I don't have space for a blast cabinet and I wouldn't mess with "the dip" even if I had all SS cans. So I scrape and scrub enough to get the hard chunks off. It sucks.

A silicone brake grease product called Silaramic has been tested by a lot of silencer fans on NFATalk, and I joined in. I put the stuff on the baffles of three .22 cans, put the cans together and started shooting normally (not testing). At least 500 rds were shot through the first can, a jailbroken SRT Odessa, over a year or so. Mostly from a 10/22. I later took apart the Outback 2 and cleaned it as well. Similar experience for both:

It was a fairly disgusting mess, with lots of black crap caught in a sludge inside the baffle skirts. Everything pretty well just wiped off. No hard chunks, but a few edges had some buildup and a pick tool took care of that. Completely different experience from other .22 can cleanings I've done. But I wished I'd had a circulating parts cleaner and could just drop the baffles in moving solvent to clean the crap off.

Most of the stuff wiped off. I want to be clear that they were not spotless from the Silaramic, but kept hard buildup from accumulating on the baffles. It was good enough that once I wiped them off, it was as if maybe 50 rds had been fired on clean baffles. And K-baffles remain a PITA to wipe clean, with all the tight corners.

I'll be continuing with Silaramic.

 

[wired]

Fwiw the worst thing you can do is blast silencer baffles. Literally the worst thing you can do. It turns lead into airborne lead.

 

[Pahonix]

Has anyone ever tried lemishine? Just watched a video on someone highly suggesting it to clean compensators. Would it screw up aluminum?

 

[wired]

Has anyone ever tried lemishine? Just watched a video on someone highly suggesting it to clean compensators. Would it screw up aluminum?

Its just citric acid. Dont use it on aluminum

 

[Camelfilter]

Has anyone ever tried lemishine? Just watched a video on someone highly suggesting it to clean compensators. Would it screw up aluminum?

Simple green PURPLE (Pro HD) is supposedly aluminum safe.

That's the stuff I use in my ultrasonic bath, dilute - HOWEVER I DO NOT HAVE ANY SUPPRESSORS -

 

[Lazyfaire]

Has anyone ever tried lemishine? Just watched a video on someone highly suggesting it to clean compensators. Would it screw up aluminum?

The following is off of the Area 419 website. References brakes etc cleaning. NOTE the Lemonshine comments

Maintenance

Maintenance on any muzzle brake is essential. Just like your barrel, muzzle brakes need cleaned. Over time carbon will build up in the ports, mainly the last port as the first two are semi-self cleaning from the muzzle blast. When this carbon builds up, it will eventually get to the point that bullets can actually strike it. Depending on your shooting regimen you may not notice this, you might just call it a flier. But in a competition when you need every round to impact, this is critical. Carbon bullet strikes are a worst case scenario, but the buildup can also cause accuracy or POI issues just due to airflow changes in the brake ports.

NOTE: The use of Lemishine (or any citric-acid cleaner) or CLR to clean your brake will likely discolor the black nitride, and will void the lifetime warranty of your product. Don't do this. Seriously. It'll turn pink and you'll feel like an idiot.

• The best cleaning method for any muzzle brake is PREVENTATIVE MAINTENANCE. If you clean the brake every time you clean the barrel (200-400 round intervals, shorter for 6mm rounds) it will make your life much much easier. With that being said, just soak the brake in a carbon cleaner like Boretech C4 and all the carbon should come right out, especially if you have a Black Nitride brake. Raw stainless brakes can be more challenging to clean because the surface is more porous. If necessary, you can use any kind of cleaning brush to aid in the removal of carbon from the ports. Black Nitride is harder than any material they attach to a brush, so you will not scratch the surface. Raw stainless may scratch if you use a stainless or other harder bristle brush.

• If you decide to wait until 1000 rounds or more, you will have a lot of carbon buildup in the 2nd and 3rd port which will take some effort to remove. Best method here is probably to soak for a day or two in C4 and use a pick to get the big chunks out. Then follow the above method to get the remainder off.

• You should also clean your Universal Adapter with the same care. Every time you clean your barrel, let the carbon cleaner from patching the barrel soak on the muzzle for a few minutes and use a q-tip to wipe any carbon from the barrel crown and inside the end of the adapter. Soak a patch in carbon cleaner and wipe the taper surface of the adapter off. If there is persistent carbon on the surface, use steel wool to remove, it will not damage the surface.
• Brakes should not be placed in a wet tumbler, specifically not one with pins or media of any sort. The small pins can work their way into the collar/retaining ring area, and this is likely to compromise the integrity of the retention device in the brake. Foreign material here can result in the brake becoming a projectile. This is not safe, and will void the product warranty.

 

[PORSCHE928S4]

Before and after CLR

View attachment 848020 View attachment 848021 View attachment 848022

Dayzaaaaaaaaammmmm ! That's what I'm talking about just picked up a jug .

 

[Nosferatu]

Thanks to this thread, I now have a list of 55 people to not divulge any secrets to!

 

[v0lcom13sn0w]

i just shoot through mine more

 

[Pahonix]

I did do the "soak it in rand carbon cleaner" method for a night and it was much easier to clean.

Thanks for the lemishine info, that's actually kinda funny

 

[Trunkmonkey]

Clr did change the color of my gold baffles to more silver, but not pink. I'm not going to clean things every 200 rounds though. Don't have time for that, and shoot more than that in one session. I don't care about what things look like as long as they function well, and the clr melted the carbon off more easily than anything I've used. Will probably do that every 5k rounds. Every 1k rounds I just knock off chunks with regular cleaning methods quickly.