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Suppressors Removing lead, from aluminum 22lr suppressors?

Alderleet

NCOIC of Shitposts
Full Member
Minuteman
Feb 12, 2010
909
64
Downrange
Hey all, i spent the last week and some change running upwards of 5K rounds through my 22lr suppressor

anyway, i let my can sit for a few days, and I finally popped it open today.

It was absolutely disgusting. Aguila subsonic formed this clay paste shit all over the last 5 rows of baffles in my sparrow.

Anyway, it came apart with a little muscle (end cap was tight), but the half shells came apart easy

So, after cleaning the residual eley/aguila crap out of the end, the suppressor half shells still have thick pockets of lead. Its fairly hard, i tried scraping some with my gerber, and it just got shiny.


I read the other "suppressor cleaning" thread, but i was genuinely curious how to remove lead deposits from aluminum without F'ing it up (eg. The Dip)

Tips, Tricks, Anyone...?
 
Re: Removing lead, from aluminum 22lr suppressors?

just a theory, heat from a small propane torch?my cans dont come apart
 
Re: Removing lead, from aluminum 22lr suppressors?

I think you're stuck with mechanical means: scraping, blasting.
I hear soda blasting is da bomb.
 
Re: Removing lead, from aluminum 22lr suppressors?

Tag - just in case somebody comes up with a really good way to do this.

I've been using Gunzilla copper remover but I'm afraid to soak for more than an hour or so. It'll get it off with a lot of wire brush work and I haven't seen any indication that it's harmful to the aluminum but not a good enough chemist to be sure.
 
Re: Removing lead, from aluminum 22lr suppressors?

Not sure of an easy way with a non user serviceable can, plus aluminum - worst of both worlds man. IMO rimfire needs to be user serviceable.

No Dip and No ultrasonic on Aluminum you'll be really pissed because you destroyed your can. Your best option might be to check with Liberty suppressors and see if they will rebuild your can as a take a part with a monocore.

Have you checked with anyone over on SilencerTalk? The guys from Liberty are on there frequently as well.
 
Re: Removing lead, from aluminum 22lr suppressors?

No no, not Liberty. I went local with SilencerCo
Why would i pigeon-hole myself with a sealed can, thats just plain stupid, which is how i feel about liberty's 22 suppressor

Sparrow.jpg



I'm wondering if anyone's got a technique to remove this gunk. I know its just going to progressively add to itself. I'd like to remove at least some of this without FUBAR'iing the aluminum half shells.
 
Re: Removing lead, from aluminum 22lr suppressors?

I am tempted to hook my aluminum cans up to my Foul Out electrolytic cleaner. Not sure what the lead acetate will do to the aluminum though.

Ranb
 
Re: Removing lead, from aluminum 22lr suppressors?

You do Forms 1, so if you don't gunch the tube you're OK, but the ionic bath should be werry werry baaaad for aluminum.
 
Re: Removing lead, from aluminum 22lr suppressors?

Soda blast it. I have seen some home made remedies as simple as hooking up a line to a box of baking soda and the line into a airbrush.
 
Re: Removing lead, from aluminum 22lr suppressors?

steel brush and elbow greasy, or melt it slowly with a propane torch, aluminum melts at a much higher temp than lead.
 
Re: Removing lead, from aluminum 22lr suppressors?

..

The poster child of why Aguila Subs are to be avoided. A sealed can with 40,000 (forty thousand) rounds of copper plated, good quality powder, HV rounds would not have a fraction of that mess and what would be there would be distributed and formed very differently. Subs are expensive and filty and rarely if ever plated. The vast majority of the time you see folks using them is in hand guns were the bullet isn't even going supersonic anyway. Anything to drop the gas volume in their blast cans.

About five months ago I saw a sealed 7 year old integral Mark come back from Nicaragua from a solid source with an estimated 45,000 (forty five thousand) rounds of quality HV (integrals are made to make HV subsonic) and when the can was opened it was surprising clean. That which was there, was loaded in the rear of the can. This person had made a regiment of cleaning the can with a combination of hot water and dawn diswashing liquid, pour it in, add a little hot water, shake and leaving it overnight. What poured out in the morning was black as coal. The unit still sounded great and looked nothing like this. He had zero interest in having that shop do anything other than inspect it, go to the next gen baffles and replace the frame component wear parts. He had no interest in even having the exterior reshot.

Some time back here I did a piece on using a high pressure cleaning nozzle and iso-prop to keep a .22 can up (IMO, we do not clean centerfire). Doing that, or using wipe-out foam or slip, can help, but know this... When a can looks like THAT, well your well past the maintenance stuff.

In suppressors you truely only "get out" of them what you "put through" them. Quality ammo, always plated always a good powder and you will be rewarded with cleaner internals.

Let us know how you go about it, please. Hope it all goes well.
 
Re: Removing lead, from aluminum 22lr suppressors?

I'll keep you all posted. Im going to try a variety of things this weekend.

chemicals that dont react with aluminum, scrubbing, even a bit of physics.

By monday it will be clean, whether i find a cure-all, or resort to muscle.
 
Re: Removing lead, from aluminum 22lr suppressors?

Be careful with heat. A lot of the lead deposit are not just metallic lead, its a combination of compounds some of which won't melt at less than the melting point of aluminum. It will be layers and layers of lead, silica, powder and grease(or wax), carbon and carbides. Since aluminum is way down the food chain of electrolysis you can't really electro clean either. The aluminum will disappear first. Same with using the Hydrogen Peroxide/vinegar solution. Ally goes first.
Your best bet is the soda blasting as another noted and then chip and scrape a bit, blast again.

Good luck

Frank
 
Re: Removing lead, from aluminum 22lr suppressors?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Alderleet</div><div class="ubbcode-body">No no, not Liberty. I went local with SilencerCo
Why would i pigeon-hole myself with a sealed can, thats just plain stupid, which is how i feel about liberty's 22 suppressor

</div></div>

Liberty makes a number of different .22 suppressors. Only 2 of them are sealed,,,
 
Re: Removing lead, from aluminum 22lr suppressors?

..


Sealed or not is not the issue.
Design and <span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="text-decoration: underline">ammo</span></span> and maintenance is.
 
Re: Removing lead, from aluminum 22lr suppressors?

Mercury is what everyone used to use to remove lead from RF trainer barrels. Works like a dream.
 
Re: Removing lead, from aluminum 22lr suppressors?

Air compressor, baking soda, and a blasting gun. Quicker than lickity split without degradating the aluminum and no hazardous chemical mixtures left over.

Adendum to above statement, wear a good mask and old clothes and remember you are dealing with lead.
 
Re: Removing lead, from aluminum 22lr suppressors?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Alderleet</div><div class="ubbcode-body">No no, not Liberty. I went local with SilencerCo
Why would i pigeon-hole myself with a sealed can, thats just plain stupid, which is how i feel about liberty's 22 suppressor

Sparrow.jpg



I'm wondering if anyone's got a technique to remove this gunk. I know its just going to progressively add to itself. I'd like to remove at least some of this without FUBAR'iing the aluminum half shells. </div></div>

Please tell me that the ribs in the "Half Shell" sections are part of the design and not lead build up ? In either case,why do they have a half shell around the baffles and not just a baffle stack the slides into the tube ?
 
Re: Removing lead, from aluminum 22lr suppressors?

i believe the half shells do not have ribs and that is powder/lead residue.

i think the theory was no matter how much gunk you had in the baffles the outside of the half shells would remain clean and allow the stack to slide out of the tube with more ease. Can you imagine how much it would suck to get that stack out of the tube if it didnt have those shells? that buildup would be on the exterior tube and a mess.

looks like a cool design to me.
 
Re: Removing lead, from aluminum 22lr suppressors?

'Rat, if you had that much crap in a monocore without the half shells, you'd never be able to just "slide it out of the tube".
It would be pretty much locked in.
That's the whole point of the half shells.
Pretty good illustration of why take down cans are preferred to sealed for high volume shooters.
 
Re: Removing lead, from aluminum 22lr suppressors?

..

Whereas what the good doctor says is correct, for God's sake wear a mask and know that your clothes and wherever you are doing this is essentially a toxic waste dump.

At some point, somebody is going to blow all their good faith points (if they had any) and finally state the obvious. This design, this very design that we are looking at is absolute crap. The design is, by design, a complete and total joke. When monocore was first realized as a means to avoid making "relatively" expensive baffles to be loosly stacked in a tube, and ALLOT less exspensive than making superb baffles and welding them in a tube, well nobody thought that monocore meant total entrapment baffles. What we are all looking at here are a nice little row of the most primitive entrapment baffles possible. The kind of monocore that won't even slide out of its own envelope after 200 rounds without force. What to do? Shield the sides, thereby burning up even more precious internal volume. Add filthy, unplated subs and voila! To think that THIS is a reason to avoid forward purge baffles shooting quality ammo in a sealed can is ridiculous as well.

At some point somebody is going to lay it all out. Thank God that person won't be me.
 
Re: Removing lead, from aluminum 22lr suppressors?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: RollingThunder51</div><div class="ubbcode-body">..
At some point, somebody is going to blow all their good faith points (if they had any) and finally state the obvious. This design, this very design that we are looking at is absolute crap. The design is, by design, a complete and total joke. When monocore was first realized as a means to avoid making "relatively" expensive baffles to be loosly stacked in a tube, and ALLOT less exspensive than making superb baffles and welding them in a tube, well nobody thought that monocore meant total entrapment baffles. What we are all looking at here are a nice little row of the most primitive entrapment baffles possible. The kind of monocore that won't even slide out of its own envelope after 200 rounds without force. What to do? Shield the sides, thereby burning up even more precious internal volume. Add filthy, unplated subs and voila! To think that THIS is a reason to avoid forward purge baffles shooting quality ammo in a sealed can is ridiculous as well.</div></div>

Its far more expensive to machine it this way, than to lathe spin some steel k-baffles.
Sorry to blow you outta the water with that one.

The internal volume issue was fixed by increasing the length of the supressor. Its about a inch longer than a outback II.

The design works, and cleaning is vastly easier for me, since high-volume shooting is all I do.

Also, why should i remotely care about ammunition choice? Im just slapping it in magazines and firing away. If i want to use unplated subs, to get my gun laughably quiet, then my supressor should allow for it. Being forced to use *1* specific ammunition makes zero sense to me.
Its my supressor, and my 22lr firearms, so i will feed it whatever the hell i want.

This thing also isnt used for any sort of target work, its just slapped on a M&P 15-22 and run for fun.
 
Re: Removing lead, from aluminum 22lr suppressors?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: RollingThunder51</div><div class="ubbcode-body">..

Whereas what the good doctor says is correct, for God's sake wear a mask and know that your clothes and wherever you are doing this is essentially a toxic waste dump.

At some point, somebody is going to blow all their good faith points (if they had any) and finally state the obvious. This design, this very design that we are looking at is absolute crap. The design is, by design, a complete and total joke. When monocore was first realized as a means to avoid making "relatively" expensive baffles to be loosly stacked in a tube, and ALLOT less exspensive than making superb baffles and welding them in a tube, well nobody thought that monocore meant total entrapment baffles. What we are all looking at here are a nice little row of the most primitive entrapment baffles possible. The kind of monocore that won't even slide out of its own envelope after 200 rounds without force. What to do? Shield the sides, thereby burning up even more precious internal volume. Add filthy, unplated subs and voila! To think that THIS is a reason to avoid forward purge baffles shooting quality ammo in a sealed can is ridiculous as well.

At some point somebody is going to lay it all out. Thank God that person won't be me. </div></div>

You are calling silencerco's design absolute crap?

What would you suggest as an alternative? I'd be curious to see what you think is a superior design that combines sound suppression with ease of cleaning.

The sparrow may not be the absolute quietest can on the market, but it is very close (I have heard it side by side with an AAC element, SWR spectre, AAC Pilot FYI). I have about 7,000 rounds of a combination of federal bulk pack and wolf match target through it and it still is easy breezy to take apart.

I do agree with you about treating the lead cleanup with respect. I wear thick plastic gloves whenever I clean it out and I am careful to wash my hands right after I do it.
 
Re: Removing lead, from aluminum 22lr suppressors?

Maybe a dumb question, but I cleaned my spectre with a blast cabinet turned down very low. Baffles come out as clean as the day I got it. Now I go several hundred rounds more between cleans, and don't have to worry about the mess of solvents. Would this work on any .22 take apart can?
 
Re: Removing lead, from aluminum 22lr suppressors?

Still floating...

Monoblock is the cheapest solution. You can start out with a piece of solid, or cast it. Its quite simple. Out of aluminum? cheap, cheap, cheap. Milling? Two ops or three ops max. 7 axis? set it up and let it roll, in aluminum, cheap.

It isn't just that you get a better flowing baffle with a seperate, its the fixin' them in the can.

You can't get a superior conical/dome/radius cut/concave gas feature on a monoblock stack. That is why they all look like they do. You can bend, you can bore. Essentially angled flats and a hole. If you are going to shape a baffle and make additional directional radial gas cuts at various angles, you have to go in a different and more expensive direction. Welding? The most expensive labor on the floor is the welder, the most expensive work at hand? His welding. Most time consumming too. But with the baffle cut to allow for gas to still move forward both at the bore and at the base and to use every bit of available capacity by attaching those baffles to a well supported (thick) quality tube means crap doesn't get trapped to the same degree.

An alternative to that picture, the loaded up can? Well clearly they knew thay had to do something, hence new design. Knowledgeable eyes see that they also realized that far to much volume was being taken up by the armature. I wonder if it is still aluminum? Aluminum has erosion issues, I wonder how this one will be. They are not bad, they just are not the best. Looks cool, but thus far, not as quiet, without larger internal volume and not without coming apart.

I only shoot plated .22s.

 
Re: Removing lead, from aluminum 22lr suppressors?

FWIW new ones are advertised as stainless.

i have no dog in the fight but i do think the idea is cool since most subsonic 22 is not plated. i shoot aguila, CCI subs, couple others through my sealed can. i'm fairly certain it is a lot heavier than it used to be. still works well though. until that stops i'm not gonna worry about it. when it does, well... probably have a local class II slice it open and build me a serviceable one.

my opinion as a shooter - make them work as well as you can while still being cleanable, cause its a 22 and i'm shooting whatever my rifle likes best through it.

for now i'm trying to build a mini-soda blaster to send through the bore and clean some of the crap out. if you try it, listen to these guys - wear equipment, goggles, crappy clothes, and try and keep it contained as much as possible - cause its gonna be awful stuff floating around.
 
Re: Removing lead, from aluminum 22lr suppressors?

This is exactly why I will never buy another sealed .22 can, or one containing aluminum parts. My AAC Pilot is fucked beyond repair by being filled with lead(AAC's response: It's disposable. We'll replace it for you for $300. Ptthhht.) and not cleanable with anything that will actually remove lead deposits.

Meanwhile, my AWC Archangel III spends the weekend in peroxide/vinegar every fall, and comes out sparkling clean.
 
Re: Removing lead, from aluminum 22lr suppressors?

..


Let me see if I got this right...

You have a 3.3 ounce 100% titanium (whoops thats the "T" model) still, its 360 welded, 5.7" sealed .22 and it comes out "sparkling clean" after a benign dip of peroxide and vinegar? How the hell can that be?

Might be the baffles....those crazy forward purging, dual ported, counter cross path jetted, baffles....Must mean minimal lead?

I own that can, friggin masterpiece.

Good news for those that shoot Winchester bulk box, unplated and just about all subsonics...

spelmuch.jpg


Just kiddin' folks....just kiddin...
smile.gif


..
 
Re: Removing lead, from aluminum 22lr suppressors?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Alderleet</div><div class="ubbcode-body">No no, not Liberty. I went local with SilencerCo
Why would i pigeon-hole myself with a sealed can, thats just plain stupid, which is how i feel about liberty's 22 suppressor

Sparrow.jpg



I'm wondering if anyone's got a technique to remove this gunk. I know its just going to progressively add to itself. I'd like to remove at least some of this without FUBAR'iing the aluminum half shells. </div></div>

Just an FYI but most of Liberty's 22LR suppressors are user serviceable cans made of Stainless, Titanium, or a combination of the two. My Liberty Kodiak TL is a combo, titanium tube and stainless core and end cap. Only sealed Liberty is a Sparrow and I'm fairly sure they don't sell many anymore.

Wasn't SilencerCo offering a deal to upgrade the Aluminum versions to the stainless version using your original tube? Not sure but I thought I read that somewhere. With the SilencerCo design, the tube shouldn't get lead deposits so no biggie that it wouldn't be stainless.

-David
Edgewood, NM
 
Re: Removing lead, from aluminum 22lr suppressors?

Jeez, lots of fuss. I have a TAC-65, shoot anything I want through it. I like it, knew I would be taking it apart to clean from time to time, no biggie, I sort of enjoy messing with it. Best $185 (including tax) I ever spent. Trying out the soda sand blast right now actually...
 
Re: Removing lead, from aluminum 22lr suppressors?

Well, i got it clean.. er..

sparrowcleaner.jpg


I resorted to muscle. I tried dawn+hot water, lighter fluid, freezing it in a block of ice (thermal expansion is different between Pb and Al)

All in all, I went with some metal sandpaper, water, and a little bit of elbow grease. I didnt want to get down to bare Al, so i left a thin layer on there.

Next time i'll try soda blasting.
 
Re: Removing lead, from aluminum 22lr suppressors?

Soda blasting is messy but works great! Used 3 large boxes ($1.12 each) and took about an hour. Baffles look like new. You could get those half shells looking great real easy, and with no harm to the finish.
 
Re: Removing lead, from aluminum 22lr suppressors?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: RollingThunder51</div><div class="ubbcode-body">..


Let me see if I got this right...

You have a 3.3 ounce 100% titanium (whoops thats the "T" model) still, its 360 welded, 5.7" sealed .22 and it comes out "sparkling clean" after a benign dip of peroxide and vinegar? How the hell can that be?

Might be the baffles....those crazy forward purging, dual ported, counter cross path jetted, baffles....Must mean minimal lead?

I own that can, friggin masterpiece.

Good news for those that shoot Winchester bulk box, unplated and just about all subsonics...

spelmuch.jpg


Just kiddin' folks....just kiddin...
smile.gif


.. </div></div>

Are you kidding? 50/50 peroxide and white vinegar is pretty far from benign. I do the dip in a nalgene bottle, and the funk that gets eaten out of the can is pretty thick. I change the solution every day until the can doesn't bubble any more - this is a sign that all the lead is dissolved.

(For those of you in the cheap seats- this reaction makes lead acetate, which is pretty toxic and considered HAZMAT by most jurisdictions.)

Also...it's not self-cleaning. This is actually my 2nd A3, the first one filled up with lead beyond even factory repair and was destroyed and replaced by AWC back when that was legal. I don't let the residue build up in this one, since you can't do that anymore.
 
Re: Removing lead, from aluminum 22lr suppressors?

..

No I'm not kidding you. Compared to blasting real lead build up until its airborn, what your doing is benign. Because your can isnt aluminum you have options. That "funk" you are drawing out is not mostly lead, it is all the residual particulate and spent powder. Your smart to maintain it as it will last for a long, long time. There is always lead present, but never filled to the brim like what we are seeing here. It has to do with cavity structure, and in that can, the lead that remains does so in a "roll" structure. Your III, if it wasn't the orignal streamliner internals, can go for a good 10,0000 rounds without any issues. Upgraded yes, tossed for leading? Nope. I upgraded too.

Shoot good quality .22s.

..
 
Re: Removing lead, from aluminum 22lr suppressors?

I shoot RWS Subsonic and Eley through it, mounted on a rifle, almost exclusively. IF there were a copper-coated match-grade subsonic, I'd use it, but to my knowledge no such animal exists.
 
Re: Removing lead, from aluminum 22lr suppressors?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Alderleet</div><div class="ubbcode-body">No no, not Liberty. I went local with SilencerCo
Why would i pigeon-hole myself with a sealed can, thats just plain stupid, which is how i feel about liberty's 22 suppressor

Sparrow.jpg



I'm wondering if anyone's got a technique to remove this gunk. I know its just going to progressively add to itself. I'd like to remove at least some of this without FUBAR'iing the aluminum half shells. </div></div>

50/50 mineral spirits and automatic transmission fluid let it soak at least a day then just brush the crap off, use compressed are to blow the baffles out but leave some of the atf on their the next cleaning will be a lot easier.

i soaked my evos piston and spring in this after trying other things like carbon killer and various other things and this really rocks and its safe for aluminum