Anybody pretreating your Aluminum baffles to make them easier to clean? I have heard of people using Anti-spatter MIG Welding Spray. Is it safe on Aluminum? Also heard of people using FIRECLean anti-fouling oil.
Thanks
Thanks
Suppressors Pre-treatment of aluminum baffles for .22lr
- Thread starter NavyshooterM40
- Start date
I'm using anti-spatter as a pre-treatment. Not on aluminum though. I don't know of any negative side effects, but you might e-mail or call the mfr. Here's what I use;
- Nov 3, 2010
- 8,645
- 17,544
That stuff is water based, I don’t see why it would t work for aluminum
That's what I'm inclined to think.
My guess is that it's mostly water, some silicon and some jello for a little gooeyness. It sure does make cleanup easy.
I have used Froglube and Seal1. I've also tried brake fluid. I don't recommend the brake fluid but the other two are good.
If you just forego the pre treatment and buy a big bottle of either Rimfire Blend or C4 from Boretech and just coat the dirty baffles most of the stuff will just melt away. Some of the more stubborn ones you might have to soak a little bit longer.
What will make your life a little bit more difficult though is waiting a long time in between cleaning. For example if you shoot 100 rounds in a day then come back two weeks later and shoot another hundred and so on and so forth by the time it's time to clean (per the round count) it might be a month or two.
In instances like that the carbon will set up like concrete and will require more work and time to get clean.
If you just forego the pre treatment and buy a big bottle of either Rimfire Blend or C4 from Boretech and just coat the dirty baffles most of the stuff will just melt away. Some of the more stubborn ones you might have to soak a little bit longer.
What will make your life a little bit more difficult though is waiting a long time in between cleaning. For example if you shoot 100 rounds in a day then come back two weeks later and shoot another hundred and so on and so forth by the time it's time to clean (per the round count) it might be a month or two.
In instances like that the carbon will set up like concrete and will require more work and time to get clean.
All the more a reason to use a pre-treatment.
I've got nothing against it by any means.
That said I don't own aluminum baffles by choice. I can throw mine in a tumbler and be done with it. Even then though I still have to soak mine to get them clean, at least some of them.
Maybe it's just me and my regiment (or lack of one). Even pre treatment doesn't help that much so essentially I quit doing it.
If someone is really good about cleaning their can after every range trip then pre treatment will definitely help. I don't do that though. I do clean but it's sporadic at best or "when it needs it". I have so many other guns to shoot that I might shoot a few hundred rounds of rimfire and then shoot it again a month later. By the time I go through 500 to 700 rounds it might be several months in between cleanings.
In that kind of situation I have found that pre treatment doesn't have as big of a benefit. And since I use stainless baffles in everything rimfire I can just put the dirty baffles in a coffee cup and soak them while I sleep and then just put them in a tumbler the next day. It's less work and less time consuming for me and my system to do it that way.
I've read about good results with the brake fluid. Although, I have also read that it's particular about its application, which will lead to the bad smell and poofs of smoke for a few.
I'm in the SS camp, so I don't have first hand knowledge. Only what I've read of others doing
I'm in the SS camp, so I don't have first hand knowledge. Only what I've read of others doing
Brake fluid does work in a technical sense of the word. I just found it cumbersome to use, especially when you can use Frog lube or something similar and get as good or better results without all the downsides of brake fluid.
I don't have aluminum baffles but this method in the video below should work on thme.
I gave all of my rimfire baffles and handgun suppressor baffles the silicone treatment. Before that, however, I made sure that every speck of lead was gone from the metal surfaces.
Instead of DOT 5 brake fluid, I used pure silicone oil.
After about 300 rounds of use, there will still be a lot of carbon deposit and residue on the treated rimfire baffles. I could wipe everything off with paper towels, cleaning patches and q-tips for the tight spots. If there was any carbon deposits remaining that the cloth and q-tips could not wipe away, I used a metal pick to flick them away.
Keep in mind that there is none, absolutely none of the caked on lead as before.
After each cleaning session as described above, I would put liberal amount of CLP on the baffles and inside the can itself. Some people may disagree with how much I put on the rimfire baffles but running these things really wet, combined with the silicone treatment, seems to help with cleaning afterwards.
I gave all of my rimfire baffles and handgun suppressor baffles the silicone treatment. Before that, however, I made sure that every speck of lead was gone from the metal surfaces.
Instead of DOT 5 brake fluid, I used pure silicone oil.
After about 300 rounds of use, there will still be a lot of carbon deposit and residue on the treated rimfire baffles. I could wipe everything off with paper towels, cleaning patches and q-tips for the tight spots. If there was any carbon deposits remaining that the cloth and q-tips could not wipe away, I used a metal pick to flick them away.
Keep in mind that there is none, absolutely none of the caked on lead as before.
After each cleaning session as described above, I would put liberal amount of CLP on the baffles and inside the can itself. Some people may disagree with how much I put on the rimfire baffles but running these things really wet, combined with the silicone treatment, seems to help with cleaning afterwards.
Which Brand do you use? Have you tried a Silicone spray?
I've tried various potions and lotions. No longer mess with any of them. Soda blast the baffles every brick or so. Easy peasy. I love the Rugged Mustang.
pee on it , works for jelly fish stings and dogs that mark there territory ,why not to treat your aluminum baffle .
IME "plated" vs gray lead 22 LR doesn't make a lick of difference in fouling a .22 can; that "plating" is just a micro-thin copper wash and not anywhere close to being thick enough to prevent leading the can. That's easy enough to see if you recover some of the fired bullets; there's exposed lead where they contact the rifling. That's why they still have to be wax lubed. The coated stuff should cut down on fouling, but I haven't used enough in .22 LR to comment.
Some guys on the NFATalk forum tested different coatings a few years ago, and determined that Silaramic automotive brake grease gave the best results. IIRC they were applying it to baffles and then heating them for a little while, but I'd have to find the thread and read the details again.
Edit: found it, here - https://nfatalk.org/forum/index.php?threads/keeping-baffles-clean-ongoing-experiment.10344/page-8 Sounds like they were just wiping it on, not heating.
I use a couple of .22 cans with aluminum baffles; haven't seen it to be any big deal for cleaning and I much prefer the light weight, don't need a .22 can to weigh as much as a 9mm can. I just finished cleaning my old Outback II tonight actually; those little aluminum K baffles were so caked up the faces of the first few were nearly flat. I use a bead blast cabinet (with actual glass bead, not that ground glass crap Harbor Freight claims is bead) for cleaning after scraping the heavy chunks off; it leaves the surface of aluminum baffles with a frosted look but doesn't damage them.
Some guys on the NFATalk forum tested different coatings a few years ago, and determined that Silaramic automotive brake grease gave the best results. IIRC they were applying it to baffles and then heating them for a little while, but I'd have to find the thread and read the details again.
Edit: found it, here - https://nfatalk.org/forum/index.php?threads/keeping-baffles-clean-ongoing-experiment.10344/page-8 Sounds like they were just wiping it on, not heating.
I use a couple of .22 cans with aluminum baffles; haven't seen it to be any big deal for cleaning and I much prefer the light weight, don't need a .22 can to weigh as much as a 9mm can. I just finished cleaning my old Outback II tonight actually; those little aluminum K baffles were so caked up the faces of the first few were nearly flat. I use a bead blast cabinet (with actual glass bead, not that ground glass crap Harbor Freight claims is bead) for cleaning after scraping the heavy chunks off; it leaves the surface of aluminum baffles with a frosted look but doesn't damage them.
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