How do you clean your supressor?

[fastfire]

I have a TS .22 suppressor and have been using 50% vinegar and 50% Hydrogen peroxide and soaking over nite with good results.
Recently a gunsmith said to use Harbor Freight's Super Heavy Duty Degreaser 50% with water in a ultrasonic cleaner, WOW four 4 minute cycles and it's done. Rinse well with water and blow dry, Done.
Fastfire

[Ray Barnes]

I clean my silencers the same way I regularly clean my car muffler.....Rarely.

I will soak my silencers in a mixture of paint thinner (mineral spirits) , automatic transmission fluid and lanolin.

I often leave them soaking for several weeks in my Snap-on parts washer occasionaly letting the brass tipped nozzle of this unit to point into the muzzle end of the silencer. This works nicely on all calibers including .22lr. I use compressed air to blow dry the interiors after the soaking and "flowing" treatment

On silencers that come completey apart, after letting them soak for a week or two, I take a rag and soak it lightly in GM top engine cleaner and wipe down the baffles with it. This is the only substance that I have found that actually dissolves caked on carbon.

I do not use ultrasonic cleaning even though I do own one because of the potentail of metal erosion through the cavitaion phenomenam inherent in the ultrasonic process.

I also do not use simple green because it is way too alkaline and is dangerous to use on aluminum.

I have been searching for the Holy Grail of silencer cleaning methods and subsatnces fo almost twenty years. I tried Kroil and it's a great penetrationg oil and I have recently been made aware that it has some benefit in rifle and pistol barrel bore cleaning but it does not dissolve carbon. Has great smell however.

I am beginning to conclude, with the exception of .22LR silencers, it is best to not clean them at all.

[oef24]

Ray, what percent mixture of the 3 ingredients are you using to soak your suppressors? Out of the three ingredients in your mixture, which one do you think is doing the best work on the built up carbon?

O

[Ray Barnes]

Ray, what percent mixture of the 3 ingredients are you using to soak your suppressors? Out of the three ingredients in your mixture, which one do you think is doing the best work on the built up carbon?

O

5 parts mineral spirits to 1 part ATF, 1lb. pharmaceutical lanolin to a every couple of gallons of the mineral spirits ATF mixture.

I believe the mineral spirits slightly softens the less caked on/ hardened carbon but does not completely remove all the carbon.