polished barrel: home job

[g29cc]

Originally Posted by caducus

I'm going to start in on my XD barrel pretty soon. I love the look of that bit of polished steel poking through the ejection port. Which got me thinking. I've seen plenty of chromed AR15 bolt carriers (mine is not), and that's a great look as well.

Can the AR15 bolt carriers be polished in the same way as a barrel? Or are there side effects I'm missing like tighter tolerances or something?

I am going to say stay away from polishing that yourself. You can get away with polishing some items, but bolt carriers and things of that nature , unless you know what you are doing, your most likely going to ruin it or make it inaccurate. With the methods described with the heavy metal on the barrel your pretty safe. But using a dremel on something like the internal parts of an AR , your asking for trouble most likely. I cant give out all my secrets on how I do parts, as they are hard earned experience of years of practice. But I will say I use very different wheels and polishes to achieve polish surfaces on areas like that. You CANT remove metal at all in these areas and that can be an issue if you use the wrong wheels and compounds.

Please be careful!!!

Originally Posted by Glock Killer

Alright G29cc you are killing me with that receiver, sending PM soon.

You havent seen anything yet !!! LOL

[FireintheWhole]

Man, there's some nice work in here!

[Bill in San Jose]

Originally Posted by Reno82

Man.... I put in 2-3 hrs of polishing... not going to far.

Anyone have any other suggestions? Where can I get the right polishing compounds?? I'm using a dremel with a pad.... What else can I do?

I started too fine, spend an enjoyable hour without much to show.

Try a small, brass brush in the dremel to remove the remaining black.

I went to the E5 buffing compound at the ACE hardware, which too a lot of buffing to get it silvery/ shiny. E5 (emory) was what was the coarsest buffing compound for ferrous materials. Then I used Metal Magic for the final buffing.

The 'lines' are artifacts from the milling when manufacturered, that was not the direction the brass brush was spinning on the metal, nor is it on the opposite side of the barrel. In normal light, your eye does not see them, the camera and flash do.

Here's what mine came out as. I've seen better on xdtalk, but I'm happy in part because I did it. I could have polished the round portion of the barrel more, but said it's good enough for one night's work.

Has anybody seen the 2 levers on the left side of the frame, and the exposed trigger metal polished? Any reason not to? Will polishing the 'contact points' in the trigger mechanism 'help' at all w/o doing a trigger job?

The Brownell's Gold lacquer stick gives pretty poor results, and then wears off rapidly, I'll be removing it on the next major cleaning.

[g29cc]

I know these arent XD controls. But just a couple ideas. Maybe it will help you visually see the idea better.

Polished 100%


And Brushed Polished Controls. I ll have a better picture of the brushed controls soon I hope.




There are numerous ways to achieve different results, whether buffing, polishing, brushing or media blasting. Of course I cant give out all my years of secrets. But if you have a general question about something I ll point you in the right direction.

Here is a engraving I just did. Turned out really good with a new expensive cutter I was trying out. Its always awesome when a new tool works. And always a bummer when you spend $45 on a small tool to have it not work or break. So this one worked and looks great.

Here is GT member Jeff W.'s G19 Slide engraving and Barrel polish with engraving!!!


PS I must be getting a little better with the Camera, I can see dust bunnies on the parts I cant see with my own eyes !!

I also have a side note. I have a customer John H. ( also a XD member ) that is having some medical problems. John is a great person to work with and extremely friendly. I would just ask that if you guys could give a passing thought or prayer for him I would greatly appreciate it , and I am sure he ll know too !!!!

Thanks again everyone.
Todd

[Glock Killer]

Very nice work! I like the engraving!

And prayers sent for John.

[Bill in San Jose]

Very nice work, and thanks for the pictures. Prayers sent for John H's recovery.

[caducus]

In polishing the barrel and guide rod-- how do I get to the actual guide rod? You know, separate it from the springs?

I'm running a compact .40.

[g29cc]

Originally Posted by Glock Killer

Very nice work! I like the engraving!

And prayers sent for John.

Originally Posted by Bill in San Jose

Very nice work, and thanks for the pictures. Prayers sent for John H's recovery.

Thanks everyone. I am going to give him an email later today or tomorrow and see how he is doing.

I thought I would share a Glock slide with you guys, that I just finished.

Someone needs to send a XD slide to me Hmmm..... maybe its time for a Karma give away.........

[dreydin]

yeowzas! i cant wait to send in my barrel/guide rod

[g29cc]

Originally Posted by caducus

In polishing the barrel and guide rod-- how do I get to the actual guide rod? You know, separate it from the springs?

I'm running a compact .40.

1 Hack saw and a welder

Ok I had to edit this.


There is no way to take it apart without breaking it. Its welded together at the factory, kinda like a spot weld. I have done a few, and they are a major pain in the ass to work with. You have compress the spring and hold it while you polish one end, and then vice versa on the other.

There are the greatest of pictures, but it can be done. Just be prepared to snap your finger a few times and swear a few more!!!

Thanks
Todd