Who cleans BCGs in an ultrasonic cleaner?
- Thread starter Rob01
- Start date
I sold mine a while back... didnt really clean that well.. maybe it was the unit...
I grease my bcg's up pretty good on my non piston suppressed guns and just wipe them off when i clean them and re grease.
I grease my bcg's up pretty good on my non piston suppressed guns and just wipe them off when i clean them and re grease.
Looking forward to this. I have heard lots of folks talk about cleaning their suppressors in one. Keep wondering if I need to get one.
My oldest can in 3 years old, but ive never cleaned any of them except my rimfire cans.
I have 5 center fire and 3 rimfire cans.
I have a PCC BCG with something stupid like 10K+ rounds on it without cleaning, it’s disgusting (but still runs lol)… so one of these days I’m going to find out for myself how the ultrasonic fares…
I clean my brakes in my ultrasonic with a ~20/80 mix of Simple Green and water and it kicks ass.
I clean my brakes in my ultrasonic with a ~20/80 mix of Simple Green and water and it kicks ass.
Suppressors - Best way to clean heavily fouled TBAC can ?
Time + temperature + mechanical agitation are a bitch. Things get worse if there's any contamination remaining from machining operations (such as ferrous deposits that act as a site for initial corrosion). On the other hand, chemical passivation via exposure to strong acids post-machining can...
www.snipershide.com
I have before but my BCG's get wiped off everytime I shoot so rarely get crudded up.
When I have used my US for the BCG, I use hot water (and put the heater on) and a squirt of dawn. I do disassemble the BCG and will use a patch on a stiff nylon brush to get the normal carbon out of the bottom of the carrier. It does get the carrier clean. 5 minutes was how long I left them in.
If you have phosphate coated carriers/bolts, don't put any lemishine in the water unless you like a pinkish hue....
When I have used my US for the BCG, I use hot water (and put the heater on) and a squirt of dawn. I do disassemble the BCG and will use a patch on a stiff nylon brush to get the normal carbon out of the bottom of the carrier. It does get the carrier clean. 5 minutes was how long I left them in.
If you have phosphate coated carriers/bolts, don't put any lemishine in the water unless you like a pinkish hue....
I did once.....now I have a 2 tone BCG. Moving forward after that I just decided I'm not cleaning guns any more.
Well, I might be an exception here…
I do use my Hornady Magnum sonic cleaner (original stainless steel with dual transducers) quite often to clean both parts and brass, that includes bolts and BCGs. Trick is to use correct solution for the task (I stick with Hornady brand) AND I always use distilled water which I preheat in a microwave first, then put it in the chamber of the cleaner, add solution (1oz) and turn it on for 90min with heater cranked up to the max.
Drying (both parts and brass) is done by means of a bath of rubbing alcohol- evaporation is quick and does not leave water spots. For bolts, I completely disassemble and apply dry lube (more often Otis).
This works FOR ME.
My Ultrasonic cleaner does a wonderful job removing carbon/dirt/grime from parts and cleans brass thoroughly (I de-cap first, to expose primer pockets)…
I do use my Hornady Magnum sonic cleaner (original stainless steel with dual transducers) quite often to clean both parts and brass, that includes bolts and BCGs. Trick is to use correct solution for the task (I stick with Hornady brand) AND I always use distilled water which I preheat in a microwave first, then put it in the chamber of the cleaner, add solution (1oz) and turn it on for 90min with heater cranked up to the max.
Drying (both parts and brass) is done by means of a bath of rubbing alcohol- evaporation is quick and does not leave water spots. For bolts, I completely disassemble and apply dry lube (more often Otis).
This works FOR ME.
My Ultrasonic cleaner does a wonderful job removing carbon/dirt/grime from parts and cleans brass thoroughly (I de-cap first, to expose primer pockets)…
Years don't fill suppressors with carbon. Shooting does.
How does heat affect the process?
Heat has three main roles in the ultrasonic cleaning process:- Increasing the effectiveness of soaking: In general, warmer liquids are more effective at removing a wide variety of contaminants, leading to superior cleaning results.
- Gas removal: Dissolved air and other gasses inhibit cavitation; a warmer solution helps these gasses escape, increasing cleaning effectiveness.
- Reduced viscosity: Warmer liquids are less viscous, and lower viscosity means more effective cavitation.
In my experience, especially if you're starting with tap water from the sink, the faucet tends to aerate the liquid. Nuking it in the microwave generally reverses that effect. Distilled from a bottle tends to be pretty 'flat' to start with, but it still helps some. Less dissolved gas in the liquid means less energy wasted compressing those gasses, and more energy used constructively to create the cavitation desired for cleaning.
Because it won’t take 20-25min to heat up in the cleaner, so you starting a full proper cleaning right away. Basically I just give it a head start. Just a preference through trial and error over the years.
Whatever cleaner you do get, make sure you get one with a heater - HUGE difference in end results
I see, just wondering if there was something I was missing. I can't say I have timed it but I want to say mine takes about 10 minutes to come up to temp. Which is kind of irrelevant to me anyway I guess becuase I run it until clean. It takes lots of cycles taking ounces of carbon out of a suppressor.
I've used an ultrasonic for the last decade at work, lots of AR parts as well as pistol parts, with the right temp and solution it's been a great tool.
I use my ultrasonic to clean bcg’s. I run about 30-40% purple power and tap water and run it about 30ish minutes at 120ish degrees. Bcg’s come out 99% clean and I usually just have to pick a little carbon from the corners of bolt tail area in the bcg. Most of my bcg’s are black nitride and I haven’t had issues. Fresh out if the ultrasonic i hot the parts with brake clean.
Well, no shit Captain obvious. I don’t shoot every day, but I do a lot more shooting than the average guy and haven’t needed to clean my suppressors that the manufacturer also said didn’t need to be cleaned.
We use Simple Green Crystal diluted with water at my work in the big Branson sonic cleaner. I have done brass and BCG with no issues along with other parts. I haven't had the need to do any heavy cleaning with those parts. It was more of an experiment and to save me a little time once in a while.
No color changes or ill effects with the solution mix we use. We clean a lot of anodized aluminum parts, stainless, brass, etc and this was the best low cost option we found. We change the solution every 3 days but they run for 12 hours a day with constant use. the sonic has 6 transducers and is heated. Capacity is about 6 gallons. Ratio is about 4 ounces of SG and the rest is water.
No color changes or ill effects with the solution mix we use. We clean a lot of anodized aluminum parts, stainless, brass, etc and this was the best low cost option we found. We change the solution every 3 days but they run for 12 hours a day with constant use. the sonic has 6 transducers and is heated. Capacity is about 6 gallons. Ratio is about 4 ounces of SG and the rest is water.
This is the problem with most home ultrasonic applications, getting the mix, temp and frequency just right for the material/job.
I tried ultrasonic on baffles and some other parts but never a BCG. Eventually the machine I had agitated a hole in the bottom of the tank right above the transducer and killed both the machine and my interest in them. I had mine in a plastic tub so at least the bench and the garage was spared the mess. I recommend running home machines in a tub for this reason.
Baffles in my 22 suppressors are stainless and used to go in a tumbler with steel pins which did a fantastic job of cleaning. Not recommended for softer baffles or anodized parts. I started treating the baffles with high temp silicone oil type products between cleanings and shootings and the gunk literally wipes off with a paper towel.
My BCGs don't build up enough gunk to warrant much more than disassembly, scrub with a brush and regreasing but I'm not shooting hundreds of rounds between trips to the safe.
Take a look at the link I posted above. No trial and error, I just dropped three silencers and a BCG in Breakthrough solution for two hours. My ultra sonic cleaner is fairly large so I used a glass pan submerged in water to reduce the solution volume needed. The BCG probably only needed 30 minutes. My cleaner has a 600w heating element so it gets pretty hot, despite being set to a lower temperature. Breakthrough is 10% DMSO in water. You can make your own using 99% DMSO from Amazon. The BCG in the pictures was spotless afterward. I soaked it in 50:50 ATF and gear oil afterward.
I don't think I have ever cleaned one like we did in the military. I have a Sr15 with about 15k rounds of wolf and tula and other than wiping it off and adding lube havent taken it apart. A properly built Small frame AR will pretty much run the life of the bolt or barrel with lube.
They work great for BCG's. I put simple green in a baggie and then drop the disassembled BCG in the bag and close it up. Then I drop the bag in the cleaner filled with water and let her rip about 20 minutes.
Some of it. The other pieces are ignorance and boredom. A completely clean gun is less reliable than one baked with some carbon. More wear , tear and abuse is put on military weapons from over cleaning than actually using them. When you don't have shit for people to do, instead of sending them home they will have you clean weapons for hours and hours, even if it's not needed. Like society the majority of people in the military are functional retards. You can't fix low IQ without a drastically smaller and more expensive to train and retain force.
I have had one sitting in the drawer for 3 years and haven't cleaned it yet.
It was the same on the drilling rig I was on. Finally get some slow days when our hitch would get there are they were almost to target depth. Drilling like 20ft an hour though sand at 12k to 12.8k. Gonna be bust ass laying down the string Ina couple days. Na can't be idle. Get a bucket and scrub the rig you scrubbed yesterday. Get a bucket and pick up trash. Never mind we lay down the string in a 12 hour shift when most were taking 24+. Won't be long we all be snuck off some where throwing rocks at each other or someother stupid shit. Maybe I get it. Gots ta keep the childrenz occupied.
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Lol i don’t molest my guns anywhere near like the armorer’s used to require.
I dont clean any of my BCG's in a US machine. Only because i dont find them that difficult to clean. I have used it to clean my suppressor. Its the only thing capable of cleaning a suppressor IMO. I use a few ounces of CLR in water. The hotter it is the better it works. The CLR softens the carbon and the ultrasonic action loosens it. After every cycle I flushed out the carbon with hot water. It took about a full day before no more carbon washed out. I got my US machine from Amazon and it holds 5 gallons.
I hate cleaning BCG's. The one I linked to was the first time I've ever done more than a basic wipe down. It was more of a proof of concept with Breakthrough. That stuff works really well on carbon steel parts that would normally react to acidic cleaners like CLR.
BCG's with more advanced finishes like chrome, DLC, NiB, or various nitrides is probably easier than dealing with the US cleaner.
BCG's with more advanced finishes like chrome, DLC, NiB, or various nitrides is probably easier than dealing with the US cleaner.
I was going to make a joke about the blotter report inverse law to weapons cleaning and late night arms room turn-in + early morning PT, but I’ve since learned that the reason they had us white-glove the weapons was so armorer gauges could be used properly to gauge them.
The armorers certainly weren’t going to clean a Squad’s worth of weapons, let alone Platoons’ or the Company.
We had solvent tanks for a short while when I was in 25th ID, and they allowed weapons cleaning to happen so fast. For unexplained reasons, we weren’t allowed to use them.
I was an armorer and the ONLY time they ever gauged our weapons was at the mob station before going to Iraq. They didn't even fix or replace them there. Once we got into Iraq the level 3 depot did all the work. They had the giant cleaning tanks....guns would come out wet and hot as hell... If you didn't dry them and get them douces In clp with a quickness, they started to rust.
I got a buddy who I met in the guard. He ended up going active duty Air Force and was an armorer. They didn't assign weapons and only fired like once every 3 years . The armorers cleaned all the weapons. Not that anyone in the Air Force outside of Socom or Security forces would even know how to anyway.
We did the tank cleaning at the end of our deployment and then they sealed them in plastic , stuck then in a connex and shipped them back. When we got them like 3 months later they were covered in rust. Luckily most were m16a2 and they were just replacing our unit with m4s. Going from a rattle trap m16a2 with iron sights to new M4 with acog or aimpoint was like when the car replaced the horse.
I got a buddy who I met in the guard. He ended up going active duty Air Force and was an armorer. They didn't assign weapons and only fired like once every 3 years . The armorers cleaned all the weapons. Not that anyone in the Air Force outside of Socom or Security forces would even know how to anyway.
We did the tank cleaning at the end of our deployment and then they sealed them in plastic , stuck then in a connex and shipped them back. When we got them like 3 months later they were covered in rust. Luckily most were m16a2 and they were just replacing our unit with m4s. Going from a rattle trap m16a2 with iron sights to new M4 with acog or aimpoint was like when the car replaced the horse.
When you ran your cans in it, did it do anything to the finish? What liquid did you run them in? I put one of my old monocore .22 cans in mine a few years ago and it cause some spotty discoloration on the outer sleave's finish.
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