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clean baffles!!... with white vinegar and water

10K views 22 replies 14 participants last post by  handlebar 
#1 · (Edited)
The Dot 5 brake fluid will remove the black anodized finish on aluminum baffles. Not recommended to use. After two days of shooting my Ruger Mk lll 22/45 wiith Warlock ll..... Removed the baffles and end caps and boiled them in distilled white vinegar and water for 10 minutes. Let them cool and then gently rub the cone side of each baffle with a bronze bristle brush. Use a 12 ga. bronze bristle brush on inside of baffle and muzzle blast end cap. Then, wipe off entire baffle and inside with paper towel; and all of the crud easily wipes off. No damage to anodizing. RECOMMENDED!!
 
#3 ·
Don`t get a silencer with aluminum baffles. Get one with stainless baffles, because it`s easier to clean.
Titanium baffles are OK, too. I have a TacSol Axiom and its titanium innards put up with anything the stainless inner sleeve can stand. BTW, I have settled on cleaning with The Dip, 1:1 mix of peroxide and white vinegar. For pretreatment, MPro7 teflon gun lube is the absolute best I have tried, and I have tried every pretreatment I could find on this forum.
 
#4 ·
Catbird I have an Axiom suppressor as well and use Zep industrial purple cleaner and degreaser you're telling me you've tried that and it did not completely clean your baffles and stainless steel insert .Am I missing something or do you fire thousands of rounds through it before cleaning it just curious.
 
#5 · (Edited)
I usually shoot circa 300 rounds between cleanings. The purple Zep is a close 2nd for cleaning, but peroxide and vinegar loosens the "concrete" a bit better. The fine difference for me is being able to drop the treated/soaked parts into the ultrasonic to complete the process. The Zep works OK, but I still have to brush and wipe to get the final residue completely off the parts after the ultrasonic step. The Dip relieves me of that final manual effort. The ultrasonic is able to completely loosen all the crud so I can just rinse the guts under running water.
 
#7 ·
The Dot 5 brake fluid will remove the black anodized finish on aluminum baffles. Not recommended to use.
Did you mean DOT 5.1? Two radically different compounds: don't get DOT 5 near anything using DOT 3, -4, or -5.1, since you'll end up w/ goo clogging your brake system when the silicone-based DOT 5 reacts with the alcohol?-based traditional chemistry DOT fluids...
 
#12 ·
"The Dot 5 brake fluid will remove the black anodized finish on aluminum baffles. Not recommended to use." <---My statement in my first post is INCORRECT. My apology. The DOT 5 fluid (not 5.1) and scrubbing with a bronze bristle brush DID NOT remove any black anodizing off the Warlock ll baffles. I thought the bright shiny spots were exposed aluminum; Are actually some of the crud that I missed while cleaning the baffles.:eek: I just removed all of it with the small end of a bronze bristle "toothbrush" and happy with it. :)
 
#13 ·
I have a Warlock II with aluminum baffles. I only wipe them with a rag and WD40 because I prep them before assembly. After I clean the baffles I liberally coat them both inside and outside with gold anti-seize grease. It does two things; first it acts as an ablative medium, making the suppressor slightly quieter, and it captures all of the carbon and lead vapors. When you take it apart, spray it with WD40 and simply wipe it clean. No trouble with the anodizing at all.
 
#21 ·
This is interesting, WD40? I recently started spraying it into and/or pretreating my sparrow with WD40.

After use all I have had to do is disassemble and wipe clean reassemble and use. So far all the crud just wipes off.

Now I haven't tried to clean all the nooks and crannies. I have about 500 rounds and two cleanings through it with no build up yet.

"The biggest communication problem is we don't listen to understand, we listen to reply"
 
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