I have a Surefire X200 with over 2k rounds on it mounted to a Glock 19. There is a significant amount of soot on the lens, and i am leery of what to use to clean it as I don’t want something too caustic which might eat the plastic.
Any known solutions?
I’ve had exceptional results using a tiny dab of toothpaste on a Q-tip, cleaned off by another Q-tip or two and only marginal results using alcohol. I don’t think the toothpaste was abrasive enough to damage or scratch the tempered glass.
I’ve heard of putting a light coat of petroleum jelly on the glass to make removal of carbon easier, but I don’t know if it would do anything after the fact. I also remember something in the operators manual from surefire about not using petroleum jelly on the o-rings, whether or not it would have any effect from being on the bezel is beyond me.
I’d think some dishwashing soap and hot water would work. Could use some diluted Simple Green. Find a piece of hard clear plastic to experiment on if you have any doubts.
Toothpaste works very well.
I have seen people put a grease/oil on it to make it easier to clean but don’t know for sure what’s used.
WD-40 pen. On the range I just use a knife if it gets too thick.
Pencil Eraser has reportedly yielded jaw dropping results. I’ve never tried it, but people report that it works wonders.
For cleaning, if I forget to apply a thin layer of lube or Vaseline as a coating, plain rubbing alcohol using a cue tip. Also Chap stick. Kyle Lamb suggested it during his VTAC 1.5 Pistol course. Most folks carry it all the time. A little swipe on the lens and the carbon is easily removed with any cloth available. Plus the light is still usable.
We use Windex window cleaner out at the range for work with a softer small nylon brush. It seems to work rather well. However, best results are right after the current range session, a wait of a day or more and scrubbing it off is a pain. Our rangemaster recommended a light coat of Break-Free on the lens before shooting, did this at a night shoot this week and it seemed to work, easy cleaning. Gonna try the pencil eraser idea as well.
Pencil eraser is what they specify in the manual. I have tried it and it works.
Another vote for the pencil eraser. Just clean it on a piece of paper when it gets covered in carbon and I occasionaly square the end of the eraser with a razor to get to edges of the light bezel.
Pencil Eraser
The X300 on my 226 looks as good as new.
Knife works fine in a pinch.
I followed a tip from John_Wayne777, and applied a light coat of Meguiars car wax to the front of the lens, prior to shooting.
Clean up is really easy, even with WWB, UMC or the cheap Federal 9mm ball ammo from Wally World, and that’s pretty dirty stuff. The soot just wipes off.
Before that I used Windex and paper towels, but this takes a lot less elbow grease.
Yep, that and the toothpaste. Both abrasive enough to get rid of surface scut without damaging that kind of glass. The ones on #2 pencils also work very well if you ever need to clean light surface corrosion from battery leads inside a compartment.
Rain-X, Cat Crap (not actual feline poo, you sick jerks, this: http://www.campmor.com/cat-crap-anti-fog-lens-cleaner-1.shtml?source=GAN&cm_mmc=GAN-_-Google%20Product%20Listing%20Ads-_-Primary-_-), diluted diswashing detergent or other liquid soap…anything non-caustic that puts an extra floating layer over the glass.
I’ve used Cat Crap on goggles, will have to give it a try on the weapon light. Thanks for the info.
I use a microfiber with some alcohol on it, but I generally don’t let it wait more than a few hundred rounds. It is simple enough for me to get a corner of the cloth wet and wipe it down. For nasty build up, I will second the pencil eraser, works very well.
Second on the Flitz, I only need to reapply it every several range sessions.
Pink #2 Pencil Eraser and then 91% Isopropyl Alcohol and Rag.
I’ve used the stuff you get to clean eyeglasses, that works pretty well. Probably just fancy smelling windex though…