Dissolving lead

[comdvr]

After being a long time lurker and using the search feature to answer various questions I have had, I have come upon a situation I have not seen covered in the Forums.

I have a registered .22 cal. suppressor that can be a real pain in the ass to clean after a few thousand rounds have been put through it. The cleaning process involves an over night soak in cleaning solvent, (to loosen the carbon) followed by several hours of scraping to remove the lead.

I have seen in other forums where the use of a 50/50 mixture of household white vinegar and hydrogen peroxide are used as a soaking agent to dissolve the lead. My question is this, will this mixture cause any damage to the 304 stainless steel the baffles are constructed of?

I have also contacted the manufacturer of the suppressor with this question, and he does not seem to know how the metal will react.

Thank you in advance, please don't ban me, and if any further information is needed, just ask.

[ex tech]

In the processes of amateur gold refining, the solution used to dissolve the base metals away from the gold is equal parts (by volume) 30% HCl, and 3% H2O2. This solution is capable of dissolving almost any metal. When heated it is also capable of dissolving gold. That said, I would think twice about putting any type of ferrous alloy into an acid peroxide solution.

[Hirudinea]

Just a thought, if you can get a piece of 304 stainless steel, you could just let it sit in the above mixture and see what it does to the steel, that should tell you what you want to know.

[joffe]

I'm afraid you're going to waste your time with those recepies. There are only two ways of removing lead from a suppressor; by using a wire brush or by glass bead blasting. I've (legally) owned quite a few suppressors over the years and I've tried a number of "miracle cures" but only the wire brush and the bead blasting work. That something you just have to live with, I'm afraid.

[comdvr]

After some thought, I ended up going to Harbor Freight and picking up a cheap, gravity fed blaster that really did a good job on the baffles. Also, I threw two of them in a case cleaner with some fine crushed walnut tumbling media, and after about 4 hours, they were as clean as new.

Prior to reassembly, I put a thin coat of Nev-r-seez on all interior surfaces, and proceeded to put a thousand rounds down range (both wet and dry). When I disassembled for inspection, I found that most of the Nev-r-seez was gone, but after degreasing, the lead was easily removed with a dental pick.

The only draw back to this is a good amount of smoke for the first say 30 rounds, and it seems no mater how careful you are, it is a mess to apply.

Thanks for the replies.

[Bacon46]

Once you have the suppressor clean you may want to try spraying it with the mold release used for casting lead bullets. It is designed to prevent lead from sticking to other metals and is available anywhere that sells reloading supplies.

The stuff I use is graphite based.