Wonder why Rugged would say CLR is not good on the Oculus baffles? They’re Stainless Steel and CLR should be fine, I would think.

I'm assuming he ment to type mustang.

more than likely they don't recommend clr because it will remove the color of the heat treat from the baffles and people freak out thinking they damaged their baffles

It is removing material to do that.....

CLR is acid. It isn't safe on stainless either. Most stainless barrel manufacturers disclaim the use of CLR.

First time I’ve heard that. I’ve always heard CLR is good on SS. I’ve used on my SS baffles numerous times and don’t notice any degridation…

I sprayed my hydra al baffles. I'll check them tomorrow after work. They are aluminum and pretty caked up.

Ordered the 32 oz bottle off of Amazon and a bigger ultrasonic cleaner.  What the hell, might as well cover all the bases. Besides, it was marked down 30 bucks.

I've had no issues with ss.

it will eat the plating off a spring and pit the base metal.

The spring from a sico pistol booster cleaned up perfect with CLR.  The spring from a sico tri lug adapter, fail

You bastards costing me money.    Will have to look for this at Scheels next time.

CLR etches stainless. I don't want to ruin the surprise but if you use your favorite search engine you may find this topic has been discussed before.

https://clrbrands.com/Products/CLR-Household/CLR-Calcium-Lime-and-Rust-Remover

30 hour rimfire update:

The stuff did excellent on the carbon and copper caked AAC suppressor mount after only several hours.  I’m a bit disappointed in the rimfire performance.  This is about the worst case scenario though; neglected aluminum rimfire can shooting mostly uncoated lead CCI standard.  It’s hardly a scientific conclusion, but I think it works well on the carbon/copper of the centerfire mounts, but has a hard time handling increased amounts of lead in the rimfire can.

Or maybe the solution just got all used up… it was already used solution from the flash hider and this time was *completely* black when with maybe 1/8” of sludge resting on the bottom of the dish.  I’m going to put the 4 “bad” baffles into some fresh solution overnight again, but I’m skeptical they’ll look get much better.  





2 of the baffles are pretty clean, there’s still some caking on the face scallops. I’m pleased with these.



4 baffles are a little better overall but there’s still significant caking inside and outside. No idea why these didn't clean up as well.  Maybe they were more forward/backward in the stack and started with more fouling. If I had to guess, based on the caked thread end and the cleaner endcap, the hard caking was on the baffles closest to the muzzle.  It did seem to cut through and clean up the thinner sections of caking though.  Maybe the treatment would be good if done frequently before fouling really cakes up.

From MSDS

https://clrbrands.com/CLR/media/PDF/CLR-CalciumLimeRust-SDS-1-16-19.pdf


Main chemical is up to 18% Lactic Acid.

https://www.bayportvalve.com/pdffiles/Chemical%20Resistance%20Guide.pdf

Attached File



https://hoseflex.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Chemical-Compatibility-Table.pdf
Attached File



A = Excellent
B= Good. Minor Effect, slight corrosion or discoloration

I have had no issues using it on SS baffles.

Do we know if this is any different/better than CLR?

I’ve used CLR on sealed cans with really good results. Stuff eats carbon.

I may be wrong, but I think at least two different companies make CLR with somewhat different formulas. I wanna say this came up with Energetic Arm’s advice on cleaning, where they recommend a CLR from a specific manufacturer for their titanium cans.


@Kedminster

Am I remembering incorrectly?

Looking forward to the 30hr report. Could you use something non abrasive like a chop stick to see if the lead deposits come off easily? Thanks

that was the 30hr report.

I used a toothpick to poke at it.  It’s still fairly hard and doesn’t come off that easily, but not like super rock hard.  I could probably get another 25% off somewhat easily if I scraped at it with a dental pick or something… but I’m not wasting time scraping.

Those still look fantastic compared to what they used to look like.
Especially just sitting in the solution with no agitation.

Hmmm.. Run the solution in an ultrasonic cleaner?

Wonder if it does any better that purple power in an ultrasonic.
Dont want to use an ultrasonic with his warlock aluminum baffles.

Hmmmm. Tagscribed

Here's the thread

I have good luck with CLR.  It did change the colors of my Mask baffles a bit, but didn't seem to cause any issues. Only soaked them for an hour or so.

this is not my understanding from the research i did

Tag

You can put AL in an ultrasonic cleaner.  We do it all the time with warm water in cleaning solutions to prep small parts for chem-film coating and post cleaning for optic parts.  Cleaner, DI water rinse, alodine, then rinse and DI water again.  Larger parts get the full vapor degreaser treatment.

You just can't leave an aluminum in an US cleaner for a very long time in certain solutions or it could pit.

I can confirm that my ultrasonic cleaner running regular Simple Green at their general cleaning ratio caused putting on some aluminum baffles.  

Not saying all ultrasonic cleaners will do this as I think it's frequency dependent.

Simple green will etch aluminum without ultrasonic.

Simple green extreme is the aluminum safe version.

I was looking at getting some of the Extreme version for some aluminum parts, but haven't seen much feedback on it. Any idea if it actually does anything for suppressors?

@Millennial
I should of worded my post different and clarified, I ment with a non adjustable frequency ultrasonic cleaner.
I don't know the threshold, but I think most ultrasonic cleaners frequency will pit aluminum.
I would be happy to be wrong though.
I have a mustang inbound with aluminum  baffles and i would be pleased to use it in an ultrasonic cleaner.
Do you know the ultrasonic cleaner frequency that is safe for aluminum?

That still looks well worth the cost and effort for just throwing it a solution overnight and no work at all.

I'd bet this stuff works much better as a PM maybe once every 500-1000 rds rather than waiting until it is completely caked.  (It's often easier to prevent a big mess than it is to clean up a big mess)   As a PM it would be super easy. Drop in the solution, wait 24 hours, rinse under hot water, dry, grease the piston or 3-lug if applicable, reassemble. Easier than cleaning the host gun, which some of us do every time we shoot.

Heck, if the solution is reusable (probably could strain it through cheesecloth), maybe just do this every time you shoot a rimfire suppressor.

Excellent, thank you for the test and for the results. This is about what I expected. Seems the solution is an excellent carbon cleaner but does nothing to lead. Which makes sense, as the only thing that dissolves lead is The Dip and that’s nasty shit.

So it seems like the only way to easily remove lead remains to be The Dip or physical methods like hand scrape or wet tumble with SS pins.

That makes a lot of sense.

From the OP of the thread:


As a total newbie to using this stuff to clean suppressors...what is the proper way to dispose of the solution?

Thanks for doing this test. This might be the thing I'm looking for to clean my Odessa, with all the threadable segments. I use it strictly for 380/9mm, and what I've been using (Slip2000's Carbon Killer) doesn't really attack caked on carbon as aggressively as I'd like.

I know a few people that have ruined the finish on aluminum parts on motorcycles, including the frame with simple green. So I'm not surprised there.

Final update (maybe):

So to test if the solution just got all used up and needed refreshed, I replaced the old black solution yesterday with fresh stuff and I also put it in a mason jar this time so I could swirl/agitate it frequently.  Remember, the first baffle soaking was with solution I'd already used on the AAC blackout mount.  So it wasn't quite fresh.  Furthermore, the steel centerfire suppressor mount caking would be primarily carbon and copper fouling due to FMJ rounds whereas the (very neglected) aluminum rimfire baffle fouling is primarily carbon and lead because the ammo used was mostly CCI Standard uncoated lead. So different base material and different fouling composition and much heavier caking on the baffles.  Plus the cloudy black solution had a different "feel" and smell to it; it felt "drier" and less "surfactanty" (shutup... I get to make words up if I want)... which is what leads me to question whether that solution might just be all used up and no longer effective.

> So after the suppressor mount, the cleaning solution had attained a lightly cloudy but mostly clear blueish green tint (indicative of primarily cupric/cuprous salts in solution) and had carbon precipitate on the bottom of the dish (carbon is pretty much insoluble in most any solvents due to being very nonpolar with stable covalent bonding; so it's not surprising the carbon precipitate settled out and the copper turned the solution blue.  I suspect the cloudiness was from a bit of lead).

>> And after the first baffle soaking some baffles were darn near clean and the severely caked baffles had less caking on them, but still not clean and action appears to have halted.  So there was a reduction of lead deposits.  And the solution was opaque black... furthermore the black solution was not easily cleared pouring through filter paper, this tells us it's not likely just suspended carbon precipitate but maybe extremely fine lead(II) sulfide in suspension (??).  Most lead compound are usually clear, sometimes yellow, I can't think of a black lead solution and I don't think the lead removal is making lead acetate (ie: "the dip") both because of the color and the PH of the new and used solution are both >8 (alkaline).  I didn't have the balls to taste it for sweetness and no longer have access to an FTIR or HPLC equipment.  Anyways, I digress... all this to say I think it absolutely "works on lead" in addition to the carbon and copper.

So I refreshed the solution, put the 3 worst baffles and the thread mount back in solution, and gave it another ~24 hours overnight (swirling/shaking it somewhat regularly, this time).  And the solution is black again today.  I pulled out all the baffles and wiped them off - just paper towel wiping, no scraping or hard work.  There is noticeable deposit reduction again - I can see most of the interior walls and deposits are mostly just remaining in the nooks and crannies.  Much improvement.   I think this confirms that the lack of complete performance on the baffles previously was due to the solution getting all used up.  These were the 3 worst baffles and now look pretty decent inside and out.











I'm  not going to keep soaking and wiping these to complete cleanliness seeing as I've already used ~9oz of my 16oz bottle.  Although also keep in mind this was a quite neglected 15 year old rimfire silencer with two rebuilds on it that I don't bother cleaning (when it fills up I just pay for a rebuild, LOL).  Conclusion:  This product works, is low effort, and works on aluminum!  At this point I am completely confident that, given enough simple soak/swirl/wipe cycles and using enough volume of solution to handle the level of fouling, that the baffles would eventually get completely clean.  And likely much much faster with something more volumes (that could handle lots of fouling before being used up) like a heated ultrasonic cleaner.  Moreover, if one were to do this treatment to rimfire baffles regularly and not let mounts/baffles get too caked up, it would seem to be pretty effortless.  After all, it had the blackout mount nearly spotless in just a few hours.  HOWEVER I DO NOT THINK that simply spraying a few squirts on rimfire baffles will affect much change because it heavier fouling does appear to "use up" and neutralize a fair bit of product.  But I'll bet you can get away with cleaning centerfire suppressors parts or mounts using  significantly less solution; maybe even just spraying it on and shooting it clean like they say (although that makes me cringe because whatever this shit is and it's lead/copper byproducts are is going to end up all over your face and in your lungs... I think I'll just rinse them clean and let them dry before shooting, LOL).

I picked up a 32 oz bottle.

Seems like this product will work well for 9mm cans that use aluminum baffles (GSL Phoenix, and CGS Mod9 for me) - as long as you’re not shooting cast lead bullets.

It seems like its still best to use a variety of methods for cleaning cans.  For me I will probably approach cleaning like so with my cans:

Breakthrough suppressor cleaner - GSL Phoenix and CGS Mod9

SS Wet Tumbler - DA Mask, Rugged Obsidian, and HB Vidar 22

Jelmar CLR - EA Nyx Mod 1

Screw cleaning sealed cans!

this is interesting. have been wondering if this stuff was worth the $$ or it was snake voodoo. may have to give it a try next cleaning session.

i tried to find on amazon but they didn’t have it and the pay for shipping directly from them really turned me off….im stingy

the oxidation heat color on stainless and titanium parts is millionths of an inch thick... that's like 20-30 angstroms...  a dozen atoms or so thick.   You would need a scanning electron microscope to observe the "removed material".  

Todd from dead air also said its common for that heat treatment to come off

Good shit my man, thanks for bringing this attention, testing it out, and reporting your findings.

I stand corrected on this not attacking lead like I originally thought.

I’ll likely still simply SS pin tumble rimfire but may pick up a bottle of this to squirt into my PCC 9mm sealed can and 30 cal can. Like you said, squirt it in and let it attack the simple carbon and copper build up. Rimfire lead can simply be beaten into submission in a rock tumbler lol.

I wouldn't even use that squirt bottle.  Grab a rubber stopper to plug one of the ends, pour it in until its full, let it sit overnight, drain it into a jar, and reuse the juice until it stops working.  Rinse with hot water and let it dry.  

Tumbler and stainless pins media, soda blasters, and ultrasonic cleaners present an initial investment hurdle if people aren't already equipped.  A $15 bottle of cleaner is a very small price and this seems to work well on steel,  stainless, titanium, aluminum, centerfire and rimfire... so overall a good product.  I only used up about $9 worth of solution getting a neglected caked on rimfire can like 90% clean with no scrubbing and only a moderate chance I poisoned or gave myself cancer.

EDIT: I've got an AAC TiRant I've never cleaned either (i think you'll notice a pattern here)... I'm can to seal one end and just fill it up with solution and let it sit overnight, drain it, examine the fluid, and then take it apart to see how good of a job it did just filling it and dumping it out.

@Millennial Don't forget to weigh the can before and after cleaning like you thought about before.

Is there any concern about soaking dissimilar metals in the same electrolytic solution? Seems like that could be a recipe for galvanic corrosion, but I'm no chemist. Some suppressors have aluminum, titanium, and SS all in the same unit.

Bottle showed up from Amazon about 10 minutes ago.  One of the Sparrows is soaking as we speak.  I'll see what happens in a few hours. I'm also going to try it on a sealed Gemtech Predator as well.

I think I'm going to give this stuff a try, mainly to keep weight down... I didn't realize just how much weight the cans were gaining until I started weighing everything carefully as part of my AAC upgrade.

Question; does anyone have an opinion on whether this stuff would break a hub mount loose?
I see some folks rely on the adapter carbon locking in; it would seem like a good idea to remove the adapter, clean/dry, and reinstall.

For those that use Rocksett.. any idea if this stuff would dissolve that?

Sigh. This place costs me money yet again… I’m going to dunk my .22 can baffles when I get it and see what happens.