Figured out the best way to clean suppressor baffles

[DHernandez]

Once off of the NFA Registry, suppressors will become disposable items for civilians, like the military.

 

[ladder13]

Somewhat off topic. How do you like the Obsidian 45? I keep going back and forth between that and the Silencerco 46M.
I don’t have any large bore magnums other than a 44 mag lever gun, non threaded, and don’t plan on getting anything other than a PCC.

 

[LittleCooner]

How I "treat" my baffels with silicone - I have a 1/2 pint "fruit jar" that I labeled "Silicone" and keep it in my gun solvent section of the cabinet. I have about 10 oz of Dot 5 brake fluid in this jar. After I heat my baffels, I use a dental pick and pluck each one off the tray I used to heat them and drop them in the jar of silicone. Most of the time I let set over night, or at least a few hours, I then use the dental pick to reach inside and pull each baffel out and drop on a paper towel. After a few minutes of letting some of the silicone run off on the towel, thanks to the law of gravity, I use a clean paper towel, remove some of the product and put my suppressor back together. I have no idea if you can only do this once and forget, because to me it is such a simple and easy process to heat, drop in the jar for some time period and then reassembly. As I understand from research, the warm metal will absorb some small microscopic particles on silicone as it cools.

 

[tlawler]

Somewhat off topic. How do you like the Obsidian 45? I keep going back and forth between that and the Silencerco 46M.
I don’t have any large bore magnums other than a 44 mag lever gun, non threaded, and don’t plan on getting anything other than a PCC.

I really like it, but I don’t have anything similar to compare it to. It’s touted as the quietest on the market, a claim that may be true or just marketing hype. It was recommended to me at the shop I got it from and seems to be a very popular choice. The factory customer service is very good and it has a lifetime warranty. What I’ve heard from people that have damaged them, there’s no questions asked… they just fix the problem with a quick turnaround time. It was also on sale at the time and they gave me a veteran’s discount. Getting accessories is pretty easy, but not cheap, as there are two shops in my area that actually stock Rugged accessories. So far, I’ve added a piston to shoot 9mm, direct mount to run it on my PCC’s, and a multi-tool to assist in disassembly.

 

[tlawler]

I’m getting ready to reassemble both suppressors and downloaded the manuals for them. They talk about lightly lubing the inside of the shell and the outside diameter of the baffles with grease. But they don’t specify any certain type. I have moly grease, white lithium, Mobil polyrex (used on electric motor bearings), as well as silver, nickel, and food grade anti-seize, and probably some others I can’t recall at the moment.

What do you guys use?

 

[kwill1911]

How I "treat" my baffels with silicon - I have a 1/2 pint "fruit jar" that I labeled "Silicon" and keep it in my gun solvent section of the cabinet. I have about 10 oz of Dot 5 brake fluid in this jar. After I heat my baffels, I use a dental pick and pluck each one off the tray I used to heat them and drop them in the jar of silicon. Most of the time I let set over night, or at least a few hours, I then use the dental pick to reach inside and pull each baffel out and drop on a paper towel. After a few minutes of letting some of the silicon run off on the towel, thanks to the law of gravity, I use a clean paper towel, remove some of the product and put my suppressor back together. I have no idea if you can only do this once and forget, because to me it is such a simple and easy process to heat, drop in the jar for some time period and then reassembly. As I understand from research, the warm metal will absorb some small microscopic particles on silicon as it cools.

Sorry, but don't you mean silicone (with an "e"?)

 

[tlawler]

Sorry, but don't you mean silicone (with an "e"?)

I never thought about that before, but there is silicon and silicone. After some quick interweb research, I leaned that silicon is used to describe the elemental form and silicone describes the myriad polymeric compounds made with silicon. Kind of like nickel and nickle.

 

[wrhk33]

Question about the dip. once done with the cleaning. If you leave it out will it evaporate leaving the lead behind?

 

[tlawler]

All I have to say is WHEW!!

I reassembled my Dead Air Mask and for the life of me, no matter what I did, the stack came up short and would slide back and forth inside the tube. Even with the exploded view in the manual showing the re-assembly sequence it was the same…I had the proper number of components. Then I blew up the picture and looked closer. It shows the blast baffle and the first standard baffle nested together and inside the blast shroud which is inside the the back cap, which makes it look like two, instead of three components. Mystery solved, so then it was just a matter of searching for the missing baffle. I cleaned off my workbench and swept the garage to no avail. The only other place I could think of at first was the windshield washer gallon jug that I dumped the remnants of the dip I used and took to work. Then I remembered my Lyman Cyclone wet tumbler I used to finish the cleaning. I normally have to pick the last few pieces of brass out of the ends of it due to the way it is made, but didn’t expect it to trap something as big as a baffle. But there it was! Happy Day! I’m back to shooting. I don’t get my silicone oil until Wednesday now, so I’m not going to wait. I’ll just have to clean it again, but it won’t be nearly as bad as before. I just got my final three 15 round mags, so now I can load and shoot 100 rounds without filling mags again.

 

[tlawler]

Question about the dip. once done with the cleaning. If you leave it out will it evaporate leaving the lead behind?

I had it sitting on my workbench for a couple of days and didn’t notice any appreciable evaporation. The components are not volatile like acetone or mineral spirits and probably wouldn’t evaporate any faster than water.

 

[Faulkner]

Once off of the NFA Registry, suppressors will become disposable items for civilians, like the military.

I agree. Once you take the stamp away and production skyrockets the cost of suppressors will likely come down significantly. I would not be surprised to see .22 LR cans at $50 to $75.

 

[JiminMaine]

How I "treat" my baffels with silicone - I have a 1/2 pint "fruit jar" that I labeled "Silicone" and keep it in my gun solvent section of the cabinet. I have about 10 oz of Dot 5 brake fluid in this jar. After I heat my baffels, I use a dental pick and pluck each one off the tray I used to heat them and drop them in the jar of silicone. Most of the time I let set over night, or at least a few hours, I then use the dental pick to reach inside and pull each baffel out and drop on a paper towel. After a few minutes of letting some of the silicone run off on the towel, thanks to the law of gravity, I use a clean paper towel, remove some of the product and put my suppressor back together. I have no idea if you can only do this once and forget, because to me it is such a simple and easy process to heat, drop in the jar for some time period and then reassembly. As I understand from research, the warm metal will absorb some small microscopic particles on silicone as it cools.

Not to "Nit PIck" but how do you have 10 oz. of brake fluid in a "1/2 pint (8 0z.) jar?

 

[VincentW]

At this point, I’ve put almost 2K rounds of .22 LR through my dead air mask .22 suppressor and several hundred, but probably less than 1K through my rugged obsidian .45. I had been noticing a degradation in suppression and mrs tlawler even mentioned that the mask wasn’t as quiet as it was when new and I first started shooting in my garage range.

I watched a couple of youtube videos on disassembly and was able to get the baffles out of the tubes with a little persuasion with appropriately sized wooden dowels and a rubber mallet. I was amazed at how dirty the .22 suppressor was, and the .45, while pretty dirty, wasn’t anywhere near as bad as the .22. It literally had lead plated out on the baffles that would not come off with basic wire brushing.

I did a search for methods of lead removal and found out about something called “the dip”. It’s a simple mixture of hydrogen peroxide and white vinegar that reacts with the lead to turn it into lead acetate in liquid form, so proper PPE and approved disposal methods are essential.

It still took several dips, with a lot of wire brushing and scraping with a pick between dips to get everything off. I then ran the baffles through my Lyman wet tumbler with pins for 2 hours.

All of my baffles are now squeaky clean and ready to reassemble. I also discovered another process that I’m going to do that involves heating the baffles to 300 degrees and quenching in silicone oil that will make them less susceptible to lead plating. I’ll report how that goes after amazon delivers my silicon oil early next week.

I’d like to get the thoughts of others that have more experience with suppressors and cleaning them to see what you think of my methods. Have you tried them? Do you have other methods? I am hoping that with the silicone oil treatment and more frequent cleaning (never going 2K rounds between cleanings!), I’ll be able to use the ultrasonic cleaner and simple green method.

I didn’t take a before picture ( I wish I had), but here is a picture of my results.View attachment 762299

The ultrasonic cleaner with Simple Green works exceptionally well, though it's definitely more potent than many expect. Simple Green can and will strip bluing off a firearm, making them harsher than they seem at first glance. I prefer a mix of mineral oil and a bit of gun oil in my ultrasonic cleaner. To maintain peak performance, I recommend cleaning your suppressor every 500–1,000 rounds, depending on the caliber and frequency of use.