So I finally got my .22 can, Element II which has a titanium tube and stainless k baffles.  Best way to clean it?

What is this dip everyone talks about?

The best way to clean it is with stainless steel pins in a cheap Harbor Freight tumbler.  A little Dawn and citric acid and those stainless baffles can be brought back to shiny new condition.  A pound of stainless pins is enough.  The waste water isn't particularly hazardous as it's mostly suspended elemental lead and carbon.  You can let the water evaporate in a pie plate and just toss the dried mess as solid waste. I suspect most people pour it down drains (most treatment plants can remove low concentrations of metals to protect their digesters) or out onto ground (not a good idea if you use well or ground water).

The tube you can just brush out.  I'd recommend every 2-300 rounds taking it down, brushing the loose crap off the baffles and brushing the tube.  You might want to wear a dust mask and gloves, and always wash hands after handling lead.  If you pretreat the baffles with silicone oil you may not need to tumble for a thousand rounds. When the blast baffle has a pretty good enduring build up might as well tumble the stack. On cans where there is no specific blast baffle I rotate the stack and can go thousands of rounds before pin tumbling.

The dip is peroxyacetic acid, a 50/50 mix of vinegar and hydrogen peroxide. It dissolves lead into lead acetate which is toxic by even skin absorption. Heavy metal poisoning is no joke. If you use the dip wear splash goggles and long sleeves and rubber gloves. The left over hazardous material needs to be disposed of at a hazmat drop off.  Label it and keep in a sturdy sealed container in the interim.

You could also use a small ultrasonic cleaner in lieu of pin tumbling, but it takes longer and seems to be less thorough with the inexpensive ultrasonic cleaners.

Holy toxic sludge batman

What about soaking in something like carbon killer or similar?

Lol.  The dip creates lead acetate which is far more toxic than anything left after tumbling with stainless pins.

Carbon killer and Sea Foam are great for the carbon build up.  But rimfire will deposit lead over time and mixed with carbon it's fairly tenacious.  CLR is basically phosphoric acid and also works well for carbon and may get more lead off with the carbon.  But for condensed lead over a long time that almost solders itself to the baffles, either hand scraping, mechanical scouring with pins or ultra sonic, or dissolving in the dip are needed eventually.

If you haven't shot it yet, treating virgin stainless steel with silicone oil (DOT 5 brake fluid or buy pure silicone oil on Amazon) makes it harder for anything to stick.

Lead build up is why you want to prevent the buildup on the tube with a brief but frequent tear down.  Pushing the baffles out scrapes the tube out.  Lots of folks will open up a can while it's still warm at the range and dump into a ziploc bag for brief brushing at home. Ridges of buildup inside the tube make takedown harder and using dip or CLR or pins or ultrasonic on the tube won't hurt the metal but may degrade the paint/finish.

The mount rear cap of the Element is semi-permanently held on with thread locker, and with AAcs baffle pusher you probably don't need to open it up warm at the range.

Realize for years people shot thousands of rounds through sealed rimfire cans and never cleaned them.  You could go a few thousand rounds, plug the front cap with a stopper, carefully pour in the dip watching for air bubbles burping, set it for a day or two, carefully pour out and rinse, and take the spent waste acid to your municipal hazmat collection.  Lots of people use the dip, but just don't be casual about it. Compared to pin tumbling it's actually more work overall.

Maybe you could find some body to borrow a pin tumbler from every few thousand rounds. Or just scrape off the major crud and rock on.

The dip is highly poisonous but fortunately there is a very easy way to neutralize it.

Simply add zinc to the dip and the lead will form crystals in the solution.  Zinc plated nuts and bolts will be sufficient to get the reaction going.

Or just take the metal shell of a AAA, AAA, C, or D cell battery.  That's made of zinc.  (Wear gloves.)



Science is cool.

Years ago somebody had posted a different neutralization method. This one is prettier to watch.

I don't know anything about zinc acetate left in solution and potential traces of lead acetate might still be a concern.

Aren't pennies mostly zinc?

You can even forego the citric acid - just some dish soap and stainless pins will work fine. As I understand it, the Lemishine/citric acid is just an anti-spotting agent which makes brass look pretty while drying after stainless tumbling. 

I believe salt was used to get the lead to form together in the dip after use.

I will never use the dip.  I would just end up splashing it in my eye or something else equally catastrophic.

Dip works extremely well on stainless/titanium silencers but I second the warnings about the hazards of lead (II) acetate. The replacement reaction with zinc, mentioned previously, is a good idea for reducing the toxicity of the spent material. Another option, for those with the proper capabilities, is the addition of sulfuric acid to the spent dip. This precipitates insoluble lead (II) sulfate. Insoluble, solid forms of lead are generally safer to handle and dispose of than soluble compounds. Whatever you do it cannot be stressed enough to wear the proper PPE when performing any of these reactions and dispose of the waste properly. NEVER use dip for any aluminum components; it will destroy them.

Pennies made after 1982 are zinc with a thin copper plating.

The sulfuric acid method of rendering the dip non-toxic (or less toxic, anyway, or at least changing its hazard properties) results in lead sulfate which is what the mineral Galena is.  Galena is one of three lead containing minerals which can be economically refined for lead.   (Just melt it.  Sulfur dioxide gas is released in air.)

The zinc replacement reaction yields pure lead.  You can just rinse off the crystals and throw them in your lead smelting pot.    To do this with the sulfate it requires higher temperatures.

Thanks. Gonna buy a cheap tumbler and pins.

The citric acid increases solubility of lead and makes it easier for the pins to do their work.  I only add a pinch to every batch.  It does wonders on brass cleaning, too, so I don't have to change my process.

Also a note on lead buildup  The vast majority of FMJ factory ammo has an exposed lead base.  Even pistol calibers will flash vaporize some lead.  Lead deposition doesn't all come from lead bullets.

Anyone have another cleaning solution for lead fouling?

What more do you want?

1) Pin Tumbler method
2) The Dip
3) Scrape and keep shooting
4) Ultrasonic
5) Silicone Oil to PREVENT the fouling from sticking
6) Just shoot cleaner ammo
7) Only Democrats clean their suppressors.  Shoot them full, then buy another, silly.

Well, I suppose you could soda blast them, but that would rank just below #7.

I have an element II.  I do the Pin Tumbler method with great results.  Lemon soap water.  I have used a blow torch if there is lead pretty bad on the baffle.  Obviously I dont hold it there too long.  It works.

I tried the "dip" once.   Worked great but now I have a jelly jar full of a substance I need to eventually figure out what to do with.  The city I believe has a hazmat collection site somewhere, I need to call about that.  It should be disposed of properly if you try the dip so plan accordingly what your going to do with the liquid afterwards. Going forward I'll either use the tumbler method or just some good old fashion elbow grease and scrape it off when its really dirty.  For now to knock the bulk of the crud off I found a pipe fitting brush works great for a quick cleanout.  You don't have to get everything squeaky shiny clean either.  Just knock the majority of it off.  A slightly dirty can sounds a bit quieter anyway.

Updated list in order of my recommendations:

1) Pin Tumbler method
2) Silicone Oil to PREVENT the fouling from sticking
3) Scrape and keep shooting
4) Only Democrats clean their suppressors. Shoot them full, then buy another, silly.
5) Ultrasonic
6) Just shoot cleaner ammo
7) Send it back to the manufacturer for THEM to clean it.
...
98) The Dip
99) Soda Blasting

Carbon killer isn’t the dip.

I know.  The dip is 50/50 acetic acid and hydrogen peroxide.

Carbon killer hasn't done much for lead fouling on .22 cans for me though.

The dip is very easy. Where I work we have places to dispose of hazardous materials so I just did at work.

I’d try stainless steel pins or soda blasting if you don’t want to do the dip.

Silicon oil (brake fluid dot 5) putting on new cans. This don't harm anything? Do you sunk it in the oil or just try to run a lot through them and roll the can so it spreads around? I got a bunch of new cans coming besides the two new cans I already got. I also bought a used can I like to try to clean it some. Its a non break down can so like to try a method not sure what to try.

There's a whole thread on this.

It seems now many are saying keep "the dip" away from Ti, years before it was thought to be okay. I have a solid Ti rimfire can so it is a bit of an issue for me. I should just jailbreak it and clean it that way.

You shouldn't be using the dip... PERIOD... in my opinion.  That said, Titanium is particularly susceptible to hydrogen embrittlement.  Being that the dip generates hydrogen, it seems to me to be a SERIOUSLY bad idea.  Not that I am pretending to be a metallurgist or anything, but if your can is full you might not have any other option than to either jailbreak it or just risk the dip.  Frankly, I don't and wouldn't own a sealed can, but if you have a legacy product, it's yours and you don't get a refund on your tax stamp.  At .22 LR pressures, I doubt that even embrittled titanium is going to burst.  If it does, send it back to the manufacturer and have them solve your problem for you?