Figured out the best way to clean suppressor baffles

[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.

 

[Minshooter]

I am new to this "silicone treatment." Would some of you elaborate on how it is done and what it accomplishes please.

My .22 silencer is a Liberty Essence, all titanium except for a stainless blast baffle. As everyone else has noted, cleaning a .22 silencer is quite a pain, but essential.

Your suggestions will be appreciated!

Curly

Really wondering -how you got the M41 barrel threaded? Looks great.

 

[CptCurl]

I had a thread adaptor installed by TrosUSA. Link Here.

Here's an inelegant view of the muzzle:

I highly recommend that company's services.

One comment I will make is that if you have something like this done, you have to be careful of lead residue buildup in the bore of the adaptor. It will eventually interfere with passage of the bullet. To remedy that problem I bought a properly sized reamer, which I use in the muzzle adaptor periodically (powered by hand only). It removes lead but no steel!

I also have a Trijicon RMR red dot reflex sight on my M41 which is not shown in the earlier photo. Here is a very poor photo of the full rig:

It really is a fabulous setup.

I use the same Liberty silencer on a custom Winchester Model 52C.

The muzzle work on that rifle was beautifully done by the folks at Liberty Suppressors.

Recently I had that nice stock completed with an appropriate checkering job.

Cheers,
Curly

 

[tlawler]

I had a thread adaptor installed by TrosUSA. Link Here.

Here's an inelegant view of the muzzle:

I highly recommend that company's services.

One comment I will make is that if you have something like this done, you have to be careful of lead residue buildup in the bore of the adaptor. It will eventually interfere with passage of the bullet. To remedy that problem I bought a properly sized reamer, which I use in the muzzle adaptor periodically (powered by hand only). It removes lead but no steel!

I also have a Trijicon RMR red dot reflex sight on my M41 which is not shown in the earlier photo. Here is a very poor photo of the full rig:

It really is a fabulous setup.

I use the same Liberty silencer on a custom Winchester Model 52C.

The muzzle work on that rifle was beautifully done by the folks at Liberty Suppressors.

Recently I had that nice stock completed with an appropriate checkering job.

Cheers,
Curly

How do they do it? Cut female threads in the I.D. of the M41 barrel, then thread the adapter with 1/2x28 male threads into it? Looking on the website, all I see is adapters to change from one thread to another. I'd love to get my M41 threaded.

 

[CptCurl]

I'm not a machinist, but it looks to me like they drilled out the end of the barrel, re-crowned the muzzle, threaded the inside of the cavity, and installed an adaptor.

It works great.

Here are some photos I just snapped to give a more detailed view. For this viewing, I took off the thread protector.

As I mentioned, the only concern to monitor is the build-up of lead inside the adaptor. I keep mine clean using the reamer I mentioned. It is a slip-fit in the adaptor, so it only removes the lead.

I hope this helps!

Curly

 

[CptCurl]

While I have it out of the safe, I decided to get a somewhat better photo of the whole rig.

I like my quiet M41!

Curly

 

[yelojaket]

While I have it out of the safe, I decided to get a somewhat better photo of the whole rig.

I like my quiet M41!

Curly

Very nice, Curly! If you don't mind my asking, what was the total cost of having the adapter installed? I shoot pretty much on the daily in my backyard shooting range but limit it to subsonic suppressed almost exclusively and would love to add my M41 to the fun.

 

[CptCurl]

Very nice, Curly! If you don't mind my asking, what was the total cost of having the adapter installed? I shoot pretty much on the daily in my backyard shooting range but limit it to subsonic suppressed almost exclusively and would love to add my M41 to the fun.

The work was done quite a while back - 10+ years ago. I do not remember what the cost was, but I do recall that it was reasonable. You can contact TROS and get an exact quote. Don't wait around. If they quit doing this service, who will you get to do it?

Curly

 

[shunka]

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

They already "can be " ( see the pun? )
Witness the actually legal "disposable fuel filter " attached to the threaded device… and the "thread adapter" is the "supressor", not the disposable filter. but your milage may vary lol