Suppressors Stainless steel media for cleaning baffles.

[Jimmym40a2]

After getting brass(stainless will work) media to clean my cartridges.The bright idea came to me to clean the baffles on my tac 65. I had about 500 round thru it and had to hammer pretty hard to get the baffles out. They were pretty dirty. The worst was the first. Well I thru them in the tumbler for 2 hours. I thought they would be clean like my brass. They were "cleaner" but not squeaky clean. 3 more hours and this time I thru in some lem-shine. ( just used dawn before.) Much better.

I also bought some stainless steel media and it works great also. I have had several others use it as well on their cans with the same results.These are aluminum baffles so you wont need the "dip" to clean them. Make sure you wash your hands well after cleaning them.

(I'm using an RCBS tumbler.)

 

[clmayfield]

Re: Stainless steel media for cleaning baffles.

Your stainless looks brass colored. Is that an optical illusion, or a biproduct of the process?

 

[PLeighton]

Re: Stainless steel media for cleaning baffles.

He said in his first sentence that he used brass media first.

 

[clmayfield]

Re: Stainless steel media for cleaning baffles.

Oops... I read quickly over that and thought he was saying stainless media for his brass not brass media which can be stainless.

 

[Jimmym40a2]

Re: Stainless steel media for cleaning baffles.

Here are some pictures from silencertalk.com of a guy who saw my post and used stainless on his AAC element 22 can

http://www.silencertalk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=71295&start=25

before:

after:

 

[GreatGonzo]

Re: Stainless steel media for cleaning baffles.

I would think that stainless media would be pretty hard on aluminum baffles.

 

[Jimmym40a2]

Re: Stainless steel media for cleaning baffles.

Doesn't seem to hurt them at all.

 

[Lawmaker]

Re: Stainless steel media for cleaning baffles.

Yea that is what I am wondering. I have stainless. I think the brass would have a lighter touch.

 

[pwc001]

Re: Stainless steel media for cleaning baffles.

This is great, I was wondering if SS media would work to clean baffles. Now I am just waiting on my can.

 

[RTL]

Re: Stainless steel media for cleaning baffles.

Tag

 

[bohem]

Re: Stainless steel media for cleaning baffles.

I found out that if you put AL in with Dawn and LemiShine the brass comes out a rosy pink color. I suspect that there's a chemical reaction pulling some of the copper out of the Aluminum alloy by the LemiShine. Never saw it before without the 'Shine.

I had an AL washer fall into the tumbler and didn't realize it until afterward.

The washer wasn't pitted visually, and the SS media didn't appear to hurt it.

 

[2ndPanzer]

Re: Stainless steel media for cleaning baffles.

What about a can that does not have removeable baffles? Seems like some would get stuck in there but it wouldn't be hard to see if they were with a borescope....

 

[ryanjay11]

Re: Stainless steel media for cleaning baffles.

That sounds like a bad idea. I think it would be very hard to get them out.

 

[2ndPanzer]

Re: Stainless steel media for cleaning baffles.

yeah determining they are still there would be easy, getting them out would be tough to do. I guess it would all depend on the internals of the can. Probably would work on some without issue, some, not so much...

 

[johngfoster]

Re: Stainless steel media for cleaning baffles.

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: ryanjay11</div><div class="ubbcode-body">That sounds like a bad idea. I think it would be very hard to get them out. </div></div>

Yeah, don't do this with a centerfire can. No way to be sure you got all the media out except a borescope with an angled lens. And if you shot it with any media left inside, it could ruin your can (think bafflestrikes with SS media--NOT GOOD!!!)

 

[Jimmym40a2]

Re: Stainless steel media for cleaning baffles.

It has always been a pain cleaning the booster in my trident so I thought I would try it out on the spring and booster. They were very dirty. ( caked on crud)its hard to get in all the nooks and crannies.

4 hours later

Didnt hurt the threads and went right on my gun. Lubed it up and it was good to go!

 

[bohem]

Re: Stainless steel media for cleaning baffles.

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: johngfoster</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: ryanjay11</div><div class="ubbcode-body">That sounds like a bad idea. I think it would be very hard to get them out. </div></div>

Yeah, don't do this with a centerfire can. No way to be sure you got all the media out except a borescope with an angled lens. And if you shot it with any media left inside, it could ruin your can (think bafflestrikes with SS media--NOT GOOD!!!) </div></div>

Actually, I have inadvertently done it. The pieces of media rattled around in the suppressor but they never built up the speed to do any damage. Shaking the can got the errant pieces out after a couple tries. I shot it for appx 300 rounds one weekend with a couple pieces in there.

I wouldn't suggest it as a general practice, but the suppressor doesn't self destruct.