Harbor Freight rock tumbler - fill 1/2 with stainless steel pins, place stainless steel baffles in, tumble x 24 hours.
I will pre clean with Carbon Cutter- soak x 15 minutes. Then into rock tumbler.
You will be impressed how clean the baffles come out.

Do you do this wet or dry?

Tumble with stainless steel pins dry.
Not fancy but works.
Stainless steel pins were purchased on Amazon.
Don’t tumble aluminum .

quote:

Originally posted by SIGfourme:
1) clean baffles
2) wash with mineral spirits
3) heat baffles in toaster oven
4) immerse in pure silicon oil (Amazon)
5) put baffles into fine strainer to remove excess silicon oil
6) let dry for 24 hrs
7) reassemble, all threads get a coating of anti seize

Do you have a source for this or is this your recipe?

On 1st page- NHracecraft posted the archived article.

I tried the soak in 50/50 water and simple green thing that the YHM customer support guy recommended. I left the baffles in there for a few days and it did soften it up some. It still took some work, but I was able to get most of it off with a wire brush and a pick.

I think the effectiveness of the silicon oil is very dependent upon temperature. To date, I'd taken the MkIV on every range session, and with the short barrel and higher rate of fire the can would get good and hot. Every time I tried to clean it, the crud was baked on solid. Today, I just took the CZ 457 to the range. I put about 100 rounds through it, but with the longer barrel and slow rate of fire, it never got hot. When I got home, the crud looked like it was suspended in the silicon oil film, and it all wiped right off with a cotton cloth. Compared to the other times, it was like magic!

ETA: I also picked up a cheap sandblasting gun off of amazon to try soda blasting. Next time I get some caked on crud I'm going to give that a try. I need to get some steel pins, too.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: 92fstech,

A couple of days ago, I made the plunge and ordered pure silicon oil from Amazon. I ordered 100 centistoke instead of 350 in the hopes it may penetrate the surface a little better. It is going to be a bit before I get it treated and go to the range but will report back how well it works for me. This will be used on my Mask.

Another update on this:

After my last cleaning, I dunked the baffles and blast chamber back into the brake fluid, then re-installed them into the can. I did not heat them.

Took the suppressor out yesterday and shot it with my daughter. We used it on the 16" dedicated .22LR AR. I figured this would keep the longer barrel, but provide a higher rate of fire than the bolt-action, so I we could see how much it heated up and how caked on the fouling would get.

We shot 10-15 round strings, about as fast as I could hit 6" plates at 25 yards. We probably fired somewhere between 150 and 200 rounds total. The can got warmer than it did on the bolt action, but not too hot to hold, and stayed quite a bit colder than it does on the MKIV. When I got home, I was able to clean the baffles to basically like new condition with Hoppes and a nylon brush, then wiped them out with a rag. No scraping or elbow grease required.

The baffles have been through the brake fluid process 4 or 5 times now. I'm planning to try it with the MkIV again next and see if it does any better. If not, it'll be a good test for the soda blaster.

FWIW, I've also been religious about putting a drop of anti-size on the end-cap threads, and so far I've had no trouble whatsoever getting it apart.

Got my Lobos Industries mount in today, so I installed it, mounted a 407C, and took the MkIV to the range. My son and I put about 200 rounds through it, mostly rapid-fire after we got the dot zeroed, and got the can good and hot.



Sure enough, when I took it apart to clean it the lead was caked on there. No simply wiping it off like I could do with the rifles. Heat clearly has an effect and can overcome the ability of the silicon oil to prevent buildup.

This gave me a chance to try out my soda-blaster setup. I gotta say, it works like a charm, even though I'm doing exactly what they say not to do. I'm using a cheap $30 blasting gun with my old HF comrpessor that isn't rated to the CFM the gun calls for, and I'm using regular baking soda instead of the special blasting media, also because it's cheap. Regardless, a few minutes with that thing left the baffles looking like new. Almost effortless.

That said, it does make a mess. It's water soluable so it washes off, but it goes EVERYWHERE. A dust mask would be a good idea, and next time I'm going to move my wife's car before I start, but this was by far the most effective and immediately rewarding solution I've tried yet. The best thing to do would probably be to invest in a small blasting cabinet...or maybe I could build one.