A new way to clean baffles??!!

[JFCisme]

I was thinking the other day. I have built a brass tumbler that uses water, dawn dishwashing liquid, lemon shine--a detergent booster and stainless steel pins. I can clean one thousand 45 acp cases at a time. To prep the brass, I remove the expended primer with a universal de-capper. I fill the 2 ½ gallon drum half way with water, add a couple of tablespoons of Dawn, a spoon full of lemon shine, 5 pounds of SS pins and the dirty brass. I hit the programmed switch for 2 hours and go do something else.







Yes, I will get to the point in a minute, please read on. The brass come out shiny and oh so clean—inside and out. Now, when I get my Dillon 550 going, I’m not de-capping nasty primers. No more periodically blowing the machine off and sweeping the floor. The primer pockets are clean and ready for a new primer.



I have been soda blasting my aluminum 22lr baffles. It’s a chore. I have to drag a table and chair and the rest of that stuff out into the corner of the yard when the wind is blowing the right way. I still end up with sodium bicarb all over me and have to head straight to the shower to rinse off.

Why not just throw the baffles in with a load of brass??? Brass is pretty soft, maybe softer than the aluminum baffles. I’ll do it for an hour and see what happens!!!






The baffles aren’t spotless, but I don’t need them to be. This was after running for an hour and there was only a couple of hundred pieces of 44 mag and 45 acp brass.

Unless someone can tell me why this might be detrimental to my baffles I may stop soda blasting all together!!

Tell me your thoughts, good or bad.

For those that are interested in seeing how to make one of these tumblers go to You Tube and see the one MFRshooter made. He is a machinist and has the tools and knowledge. I vigorously copied his design. I have some videos under JFCisme.

[Bendersquint]

There are many threads about just this topic over the past few years.

Tumbling will damage the baffles, your TAC67/TAC65 baffles are not anodized so they are a bit softer than others.

It will round the edges and can cause some uncontrolled oxidization(which can be seen in your pictures).

You should be able to find them by looking around specifically in the silencersmithing section I recall seeing a few.

[eastern_hunter]

Have used the method for internals made of 17 PH 4 stainless and seems to work fine. Would not use it for aluminum baffles at all.

[JFCisme]

These are TAC65 baffles. Buying this suppressor was my first foray into the class three world. After your post I looked for posts about stainless steel pins and aluminum baffles. Some talk about tumbling overnight which is crazy with brass or baffles.

As with many things this was fast and easy--too easy. Somewhere down the line I will get a sparrow. I'm still thrilled with my tumbler!!!

[BlwnGazkit]

A little off topic, but what container are you using for your tumbler and where did you find it?

I'm using a piece of large diameter PVC but yours looks much nicer!

[Mr.Maim]

A little off topic, but what container are you using for your tumbler and where did you find it?

I'm using a piece of large diameter PVC but yours looks much nicer!

+1 that is a very nice drum!

...and while you're at it can you provide details on on the motor, gears, and bearing blocks? I'd like to build a setup just like yours.

[JFCisme]

A little off topic, but what container are you using for your tumbler and where did you find it?

I'm using a piece of large diameter PVC but yours looks much nicer!

http://www.candmtopline.com/tumbling_barrels.html

[JFCisme]

...and while you're at it can you provide details on on the motor, gears, and bearing blocks? I'd like to build a setup just like yours.

Go to You Tube and search for MFRshooter video. In the comment section he lists all the parts needed. I have several videos also under JFCisme.

You will need to do calculations for the pulley sizes. This is a good website http://culvermotor.com/Engineering-Form ... lator.html

Remember you have 2 sets of pulleys to calculate for. The motor to the drive rod is one and then the skateboard wheels to the drum is the second.

[Mr.Maim]

Excellent thank you very much!

[JasonNC]

Bendersquint are you saying that tumbling is bad for all baffles or just aluminum? I have a ultrasonic cleaner and I am not trilled with how it does. I was thinking about buying a tumbler to use with stainless steel media to wet tumble. I would be cleaning a Sparrow mono-core, Spectre II baffles and Octane 45 HD baffles. Also have Warlock II but I gather I wouldn't want to do it with that one or none at all?

Thanks
Jason

[fastfire]

Bendersquint are you saying that tumbling is bad for all baffles or just aluminum? I have a ultrasonic cleaner and I am not trilled with how it does. I was thinking about buying a tumbler to use with stainless steel media to wet tumble. I would be cleaning a Sparrow mono-core, Spectre II baffles and Octane 45 HD baffles. Also have Warlock II but I gather I wouldn't want to do it with that one or none at all?

Thanks
Jason

If you haven't used the (DIP) you may want to give that a try, I did and haven't found a better way for the ss baffles.

[Mr.Maim]

Bendersquint are you saying that tumbling is bad for all baffles or just aluminum? I have a ultrasonic cleaner and I am not trilled with how it does. I was thinking about buying a tumbler to use with stainless steel media to wet tumble. I would be cleaning a Sparrow mono-core, Spectre II baffles and Octane 45 HD baffles. Also have Warlock II but I gather I wouldn't want to do it with that one or none at all?

Thanks
Jason

If you haven't used the (DIP) you may want to give that a try, I did and haven't found a better way for the ss baffles.

Agreed. Totally works.

Now that you've mentioned the Dip, it's like turning on the NANNY ALERT. Every thread about it devolves into a bunch of mother hens wagging their fingers about the horrors of lead poisoning and toxic waste disposal. Let's see how long it takes...

[JFCisme]

[/quote] Now that you've mentioned the Dip, it's like turning on the NANNY ALERT. Every thread about it devolves into a bunch of mother hens wagging their fingers about the horrors of lead poisoning and toxic waste disposal. Let's see how long it takes...[/quote]

I live in Brevard County Florida. We have a waste dump available for residents. I'm sure lots of other areas have them also.

[Bendersquint]

Bendersquint are you saying that tumbling is bad for all baffles or just aluminum? I have a ultrasonic cleaner and I am not trilled with how it does. I was thinking about buying a tumbler to use with stainless steel media to wet tumble. I would be cleaning a Sparrow mono-core, Spectre II baffles and Octane 45 HD baffles. Also have Warlock II but I gather I wouldn't want to do it with that one or none at all?

Thanks
Jason

Tumbling is bad juju for aluminum, good but not great for titanium and awesome for SS.

Ultrasonic shouldn't be used on aluminum as it will definitely damage the aluminum due to cavitation.

A tumbler would be fine for the Sparrow, Spectre and Octane. Warlock needs to be manually cleaned.

[mpallett]

Bendersquint are you saying that tumbling is bad for all baffles or just aluminum? I have a ultrasonic cleaner and I am not trilled with how it does. I was thinking about buying a tumbler to use with stainless steel media to wet tumble. I would be cleaning a Sparrow mono-core, Spectre II baffles and Octane 45 HD baffles. Also have Warlock II but I gather I wouldn't want to do it with that one or none at all?

Thanks
Jason

Tumbling is bad juju for aluminum, good but not great for titanium and awesome for SS.

Ultrasonic shouldn't be used on aluminum as it will definitely damage the aluminum due to cavitation.

A tumbler would be fine for the Sparrow, Spectre and Octane. Warlock needs to be manually cleaned.

Not the Octane tube. I do the piston and the spring.

I wouldn't do the Spectre capes either.

[emrisg]

I have left my Spectre baffles in my tumbler overnight and they came out spotless. I had been using it on a m16 with a 22 kit and had not cleaned it in a year so it was nasty.

[tootall]

I use plain walnut shell media (no polishing compound) in an air sand-blast cabinet (this is a full size one). I run the air pressure at about 50psi and it works fantastic for all baffles (any type/material).

The walnut media does not even scratch the metal but works well on carbon.

I also run glass beads and aluminum oxide but these are changed out with dump at bottom of cabinet (each media is separately stored)..

Just my approach.. (I weld and machine parts, so having the cabinet is multi-purpose... aluminum oxide for welding prep/post and glass beads for post machining deburring).

[hkbeltfed]

Is there a tumbling media safe for aluminum baffles?

[DKDravis]

You definitely need to stay away from anything alkaline/basic, high pH solutions or media .. Aluminum is both soft and porous, so gets attacked by both the mechanical action and the chemical action of cleaners and solvents.

The only chemical agent that really takes carbon away is high pH, alkaline solutions, but they attack both aluminum and titanium. And they attack aluminum at the microscopic porous level ... = Not good ...

[este]

Dummies still trying to clean things until they're spottless huh? Glad I grew out of that nonsense.

[quiettime]

Bendersquint are you saying that tumbling is bad for all baffles or just aluminum? I have a ultrasonic cleaner and I am not trilled with how it does. I was thinking about buying a tumbler to use with stainless steel media to wet tumble. I would be cleaning a Sparrow mono-core, Spectre II baffles and Octane 45 HD baffles. Also have Warlock II but I gather I wouldn't want to do it with that one or none at all?

Thanks
Jason

If you haven't used the (DIP) you may want to give that a try, I did and haven't found a better way for the ss baffles.

Agreed. Totally works.

Now that you've mentioned the Dip, it's like turning on the NANNY ALERT. Every thread about it devolves into a bunch of mother hens wagging their fingers about the horrors of lead poisoning and toxic waste disposal. Let's see how long it takes...

No nanny alert here but I do want to point out (since the OP was about aluminum baffles) that The Dip is not to be used with aluminum at all, just trying to save someone a bad day