Have some rimfire suppressors in jail and thinking of buying a CGS Siren rimfire suppressor with carbon fibre tube and aluminum baffles. Which brings up the topic of cleaning carbon and lead residue off aluminum baffles.

What kind of cleaning techniques are popular with other folks on the forum? Does anyone use a soda blasting cabinet?

Have been looking at the soda blasting cabinet on Harbor Freight. Have a 2HP compressor in the garage already.

Any thoughts or feedback greatly appreciated.

My initial thought is, you're better off using a sonic cleaner instead of a tool that is made to remove material by forced impact.

I second the ultrasonic cleaner. Disassemble and drop in. Nylon brush for anything that isn't removed.

Could also use a stainless steel tumbler if you have one (only for the baffles) but isn't really needed. A cycle or two of the ultrasonic has always gotten it done for me.

Just make sure to thoroughly dry everything

I used a HF soda blaster to remove the old paint/barnacles/mussels from my boat's hull a few years back. The biggest thing I learned was that a soda blaster is VERY demanding of air. My hotdog compressor couldn't keep up, even with an extra tank hooked up in series with it I could only get about 3-4 minutes of blast time between another 5-6 minutes of letting it catch up. What I thought was going to take 2-3 weekends took more like 3 months and shitloads of media. Don't be tempted to use the cheaper media you can buy at Costco, it's too fine and will just plug up the works, and don't be tempted to try to mix media, just about as bad as the Costco stuff. Since you're going to be blasting something much-much smaller, the restraints that I ran into will be considerably lessened. The media is one shot only, and throw away, if you're planning on using it in a booth that recycles the media like a sand / grit blaster, you're going to be disappointed. All that said, soda blasting does a really nice job of leaving the substrate largely untouched (my hull had an egg shell finish instead of smooth fiberglass, but that just helped the paint stick better). Get the bigger blaster if you buy one from HF, and you're going to need some sort of funnel to load the media into the bottle. I found a large one somewhere that I was able to cut the tip off so it just went over the mouth of the bottle, but it was slow going filling it, a bigger one lets you get more per filling, so you're not always having to go through the process (big Crescent wrench to get the fittings removed).

I'd agree with Dana, an ultrasonic cleaner might be a better way to go. I use my HF model all the time for cleaning small parts. If you go this route, find a basket that fits it (search old threads, I know I've put in the link for it before) the little flat plate they give you in woefully inadequate for the job.

EDIT: Here's the basket: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HL ... UTF8&psc=1

This discussion thread says not to use ultrasonic cleaners for aluminum unless the cleaning solution is safe/intended for aluminum:
http://www.silencertalk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=77690

I've always been cautious with metals, and cleaner solution that came with mine, so I've never used it. I always just use Simple Green and heat.

For aluminum???

Simple Green and AL are no bueno

Indeed. pH is just high enough to etch......dilute maybe OK sometimes, depends on alloy and how dilute, but neat on most alloys, it will etch.

I got my first .22 suppressor in 2007 and have put a lot of rounds through them, so I've spent some time experimenting and looking for good cleaning methods.

Regardless of the solution, an ultrasonic cleaner doesn't work on my suppressor baffles. As in - it doesn't do diddly squat, nada, nothing. It's pretty much useless for anything except getting the solution dirty. I've got a decent US cleaner of my own, and have tried a couple industrial models as well.
Maybe if a guy wants to be super anal and clean the baffles after every range session it might be effective, but when you've got thick built up lead & carbon residue on the baffles, mechanical removal is necessary.
Also - US cleaners will remove some aluminum anodizing and other finishes, so be aware of that before dropping your whole suppressor in there.

I've chipped off fouling chunks and placed them in every type of chemical cleaner I could find - the only chemicals that did anything to it were not safe for use on aluminum.

I haven't tried soda blasting, but don't think it would work well either. If it did it'd probably take a very long time.

I use bead blasting at low pressure. A #8 Mil glass bead at ~40 psi works really well on baffle fouling, and doesn't remove any aluminum. It does slightly change the surface texture, but you can still see the machining marks. This is the most effective method I've found for cleaning aluminum baffles at home, by far.

If you have an all-steel can, you might try "the dip" although that has it's own chemical hazards.

Thanks all for the replies and feedback.

Did some more Google Fu. Ultrasonics look OK with cleaning solution appropriate for aluminum and I have two ultrasonic cleaners on hand.

Still very intrigued by soda and now possibly bead blasting as mentioned by Yondering. There's some concern in other online forums about blasting methods possibly removing anodizing from aluminum parts which echoes the feedback from Dana and others.

So I just fired off an email to CGS Group to ask what their recommended cleaning methods are and specifically asking about chemical/mechanical means vs blasting. Will post up their response soon as I hear back.

Has anyone tried tumbling their baffles?


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Guess I should have been more precise in my answer. I use a splash of Simple Green in the 2.5 liter volume when cleaning firearms, maybe an ounce-ish (it's a literal splash from the bottle). Didn't know that it was potentially detrimental to AL, so now I'll look for something else to use.

Received some more info from CGS Group

Here is excerpt from user manuals for Mod 9 and Siren suppressors (aluminum baffles):
MAINTENANCE
1. It is recommended that the suppressor be disassembled and cleaned at intervals of 500-1000 rounds depending on the ammunition being used.
2. With the suppressor removed from the firearm and completely disassembled, clean each component (with exception of the tube assembly as previously noted) with a hydrocarbon based solvent and nylon brush and wipe dry. For easier cleaning, a soda blaster is highly recommended.
3. Do not use a bore patch or jag to clean the suppressor.
4. After cleaning a light coat of oil should be applied the baffle stack before reassembly.

Also received an email from Josh at CGS. His response indicates:
The easiest way to clean the aluminum parts is with a soda blaster, that's what I'd recommend for sure. They don't need to be spotless, just blast off the large chunks and keep shooting. Alternatively they could be cleaned by hand with aluminum safe solvents.

He additionally mentioned there is no concern with removing anodizing as long as you are just using soda blaster to remove large chunks and not blasting everything down to bare metal.

No mention of use of plastic or glass bead media for cleaning. I suspect this really depends on the airflow and pressure used.

Anyone on the forum familiar with soda blasting cabinets or might have any equipment recommendations?

I've been eyeballing this unit at Harbor Freight:
https://www.harborfreight.com/benchtop-blast-cabinet-62454.html

Anyone aware of any concerns using a normal cabinet intended for plastic/glass bead blasting for soda?