XD Talk

**ajamesp51** · 07-04-2012, 01:17 AM

I get a lot of cool stuff that comes through the shop, and got a couple boxes of "fresh" Aimpoint and EOTech`s from parts unknown. I had to go through them and give them a good cleaning lots of dirt and grime beat into these. I personally liked the way they looked these were honest to goodness used optics that served their time. Everyone of them were pieced back together, refinished and given a second life.

If only these guys could talk, some came from SF Units and I am sure they have tales to tell.

For the Aimpoints, I first had to piece together all of the caps and knobs. The trick to refinishing these were to abrasive blast (sand blast) the whole unit to start to clean most of the defects and refresh the aluminum bodies. I use 80 grit Aluminum Oxide at 120psi. When refinishing any optics you have to protect the glass, this is my trick that I came up with. Playdoh! Instead of trying to tape off the optics use children's Playdoh to protect and cover the glass. The moist clay allowed my to blast the Aimpoints and spray them without destroying the glass.

With Aluminum the metal is anodized you want to blast the metal enough to give it a slight tooth and remove defects. You do not want to blast down to bare metal. The anodizing is what gives the soft aluminum its protection, think of it as the hard shell on an M&M candy. Here you see one that is half sprayed with Gun Kote Matte Black Air Cure version. Normal KG has to be baked at 325 for at least on hour this is not an option for optics. Look at the blasted back end, it has only been abrasive blasted to remove major defects and give it a tooth for the coat to hang on to. The Anodizing has not been completely removed and neither has the thin Laser etching logo.

After the Air Cure Matte Black has dried overnight the Playdoh has also dried and shrunk slightly allowing you to remove it from the optics. Using an optic safe glass cleaner this unit is ready for a second life. From a couple feet away these almost look brand new.

loonybin · 08-01-2012, 08:03 PM

Very impressive! What do you do with them afterwards?

CVMA_Dutch · 08-01-2012, 08:06 PM

Wow, very impressive work!

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Bonehead · 08-01-2012, 08:15 PM

so are you selling those refinished optics?

**ajamesp51** · 08-01-2012, 10:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bonehead

so are you selling those refinished optics?

They have been sold long ago.

vaderdaman · 08-02-2012, 10:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ajamesp51

They have been sold long ago.

That is just cruel and unusual punishment. Showing us all a possible cheap Aimpoint and then saying they are sold.

Cold man, Cold.

Just kidding. Pretty cool tutorial.
And I'd like to know if you get any more like this. Don't know if I'd have the money to spare, but might juggle a few things for one of those.
Thanks for the Pics.