Does it disassemble?

ETA: looked it up. It does.

It appears to be all steel construction, so you can probably get away with any number of nasty chemicals. I still don't recommend dipping an expensive, registered suppressor in anything real harsh, mainly because I'm terrified of finding my can in solution in the dip.

I use an M-Pro7 solution (about 1:6 with water) in an ultrasonic cleaner for my .22 can. It doesn't get all the fouling off, and I still have to scrape it by hand with wooden scrapers. Big thing it does is loosen up all the crap.

My wife bought me a small blast cabinet from Harbor Freight for Christmas.  It was under a hundred dollars and the media will last for a very long time.  I can clean 6 aluminum baffles in under 20 minutes and they will look like new...and rimfire ammo is the nastiest, dirtiest, crudiest stuff out there.  You'll also find a ton of other uses for a blast cabinet.  I can clean regular firearm parts, automotive parts and all kinds of other household stuff and it only takes minutes.

I picked up the Chicago unit from Harbor Freight for $75. I've never used Break Free or Kroil. I used it once with WD-40, and I'll never make that mistake again. Whatever you use gets in every nook and cranny. I didn't use it on the can, but I used it on my P22. The idea is to use a solvent (I use M-Pro7) which will strip EVERY bit of oil, grease, anything off the metal (the finish is safe, with that particular cleaner) and then replace a base layer of protective oil with a second bath in some kind of oil. WD-40 leaves a nasty film and a nasty smell.

I got a gallon of Brownell's ultrasonic lube, which is great.

After I wipe the excess oil off, I hit the moving parts with Slipstream. The whole gun still smelled like WD-40, until I covered it up with a nastier smelling lube (GM gear oil or some such thing. The gun wasn't running at the range one day and the gun shop swears by it. It smells terrible)

Ultrasonic is a two-step process- solvent, followed by protective oil. Then lube as normal for a gun. For a can, just the 2-step.

I am in the process of trying a nitro solvent soak followed by a WD 40 soak. We'll see how that works. I may look at getting an ultrasonic cleaner to speed this process up some.

I can tell you that doesn't work.  Melted lead is very difficult to remove.  The absolute quickest and CLEANEST way to clean a baffle is with a blast cabinet.

I'm not sure I'd put as much effort in as is being suggested. 

Put the baffles in a jar of your favorite CLP, soak for, say 20 minutes, remove and wipe off one at a time with CLP-dampened rag.

There may still be a tiny bit of hard-to-remove soot left behind, but so what?  You don't have to eat off them.    Just make sure the bullet path is clear and call it good.


-T.

What the problem is a few things.  The first noticable thing is extra weight.  My rimfire can weighs around 3 ounces and sealed cans can weigh over a pound just from lead vapor after about 10,000 rounds from no cleaning.  Now with excessive build up it will also decrease the internal volume which will decrease performance.  As far as cleaning, as I said before it takes about 20 minutes to completely clean 6 baffles with my blast cabinet...it's like using an eraser.  It takes longer for me to clean a handgun than it does to service my suppressor.  It's best to clean the baffles before the lead builds up too much as it will take much longer to get the lead off.  A little bit isn't that bad to get off, but a lot of lead is a real PITA...not only that but a foulded can is much more difficult to take apart than one that is moderately dirty.  It is beneficial to clean a can for both weight and performance.  Hope that gives you a good answer to the hoopla of a servicable suppressor.

I think you're missing my point though, which is... so what? 

To piggyback on Mattitude's post, it makes re-assembly harder, too. My Silencerco .22Sparrow is designed to be easy to disassemble, but if you don't get it squeaky clean every time you disassemble it, it's a bear to get back into firing condition.

Got a link? I tried searching for "the dip" and turned up squat.

Ask and ye shall receive...

The Dip w/ Pics

Also, Silencerco has stated that their Sparrow's are "dip" friendly.

Thanks. Unfortunately, Silencerco's FAQ states that my Sparrow is NOT "dip friendly." I have the first gen which is all aluminum.

Ahhh... yeah, sorry about that.  I was referencing the new one.  My bad. 

I did an experiment with the "dip", where I put a known weight of aluminum foil and lead foil in "dip", vinegar, hydrogen peroxide and pure water (as a control).  There was no discernible effect on the lead in any of the solutions, and the aluminum was only affected by the vinegar after days of exposure.


Maybe there is an electrolytic reaction when there is lead deposited on the aluminum, or maybe something in gsr acts as a catalyst.

So really: how much effort do y'all put into cleaning your cans? It seems Thern is of the belief of "eh, looks clean enough" and some of you are of the belief that it should be borderline sterile (which is hyperbole I know). What's the best answer?

I agree with Thernlund but here are my steps for cleaning my suppressor:

1) spray with carb cleaner, shake it out and while still wet...
2) punch it out with a rod and brush 2 or 3x
3) spray again with carb cleaner
4) punch it out with a patch wetted with carb cleaner
5) punch it out with a dry patch
6) blow it out with compressed or canned air
7) eyeball it to make sure the bullet path is clear
8) Go ride my KLX

Every so often I will use copper solvent

Generally speaking... clean it until you're satisfied.   


-T.

Great! A response I can honestly accept! Thanks!

(no sarcasm)