Polishing metal GBB Slides?

[MultipleParadox]

Thread Revival inbound!

So I wanted to strip the coating of my HiCapa Frame for a silver look and went away and sandblasted it

Of course it has now a pitted look
I am still debating if I keep that look (I kinda like it) and put a clear coat or something, or if I sand it for a more polished/brushed look; I will decide on that when I get my new slide

In the meantime, I do need to polish the rails and everywhere there's movement (hammer housing, trigger safety contact points, etc);

Anyone have suggestions about a course of action and tools/products that I should use for this?

Thanks!

[Trev140_0]

Wet sand the moving parts with 1000 grit paper to start and move to 2000 grit.

Soak the paper in a bucket of water for an hour prior.

Keep paper real wet and if you can sand this in the bucket of water even better.

With 2000 grit you can get it set up for a mirror finish with a quick buff using "rim polish" from Canadian Tire/Part Source

[Cinco Boy]

If you're going for a mirror finish, I just polished a TM 5-7 outer barrel to a mirror finish using a Dremel. It turned out really nice, just get the Dremel polishing kit from home depot. It comes with everything you will need (polishing wheels, polish, and sanding tools). Beats doing it by hand anyways, especially with something of that size.

[MultipleParadox]

Originally Posted by Cinco Boy

If you're going for a mirror finish, I just polished a TM 5-7 outer barrel to a mirror finish using a Dremel. It turned out really nice, just get the Dremel polishing kit from home depot. It comes with everything you will need (polishing wheels, polish, and sanding tools). Beats doing it by hand anyways, especially with something of that size.

I already have some polishing compound (green) and some soft coton-like wheels, I guess this is what you're referring to?

I gave it a (real) quick try and wasn't impressed with the results - I take it I need to sand the pieces a bit beforehand;

But a question using the Dremel to polish: A what speed do you use the polishing wheels? It didn't look like slow speed was doing anything and higher speeds were just disintegrating the wheels;

Maybe I can give it another try, or I'll just go with hand sanding as Trev suggested;

I might just do the "mechanical" parts (slide contact and what not) and leave the frame as is

Thanks

[Cinco Boy]

I have the basic Dremel that uses one speed. I had the same problem initially of the finish not being too impressive (kind of flat). Just keep polishing and it will begin to turn to a mirror finish, it takes more time than you think. The polish should start to turn black, this is how you know its working. You will need to look at it under good light after a few rounds of polishing to make sure you didn't miss any spots. Also make sure you change your cotton wheels periodically because they get dirty and don't work too well. Its definitely time consuming but it looks great when its all done.

[ARC-74]

If you do polish that frame, you will need a clear coat of some kind.
The TM pot metal, unlike aluminium, will tarnish to a darkish grey very quickly even after polishing Polishing from a sand blasted state will take a fair amount of work.
Slightly different metal, but for my P229 slide after sand blasting, I wet sanded by hand with 400, 600, 1000 & finally 2000 grit followed by Mother's Aluminium Polish. Still gets a little tarnished, but a small buff with some polish takes care of that.

Did the same process on my Franken capa slide.

[Cinco Boy]

Originally Posted by ARC-74

If you do polish that frame, you will need a clear coat of some kind.
The TM pot metal, unlike aluminium, will tarnish to a darkish grey very quickly even after polishing Polishing from a sand blasted state will take a fair amount of work.
Slightly different metal, but for my P229 slide after sand blasting, I wet sanded by hand with 400, 600, 1000 & finally 2000 grit followed by Mother's Aluminium Polish. Still gets a little tarnished, but a small buff with some polish takes care of that.

I just coated my barrel in 100% silicone oil, it hasn't shown any signs of tarnishing yet. I guess you wouldn't want to coat your slide in silicone oil though lol

[Danke]

Every pistol in the classifieds with a home polished slide is an abomination.

[ARC-74]

Originally Posted by Danke

Every pistol in the classifieds with a home polished slide is an abomination.

Probably because they only use 80-100 grit sandpaper dry LOL!