Polishing your slide yourself?

[meyersgold]

Oh please, get a polishing kit from Sears, a 8-9" cloth wheel and the right polish and it is a breeze. Stainless polish or some ebony and it will look great. Just keep it moving as not to burn it.

 

[IndyGunworks]

sanding sticks would be the only way to go... a polishing wheel would be hard to keep it from rounding off corners and getting it into where you want it... and a dremel will do nothing but dish out the metal and make it that much harder for somone like nash gunwerx ( Welcome to Nash Gunwerx) or myself to polish the slide later.... i think the way i would tackle this is a large piece of slate with varying grits of sandpaper and run the slide accross it... this will help keep nice crisp clean edges and wont dish anything out... then i would move to my hand made sanding sticks for the areas that are already dished out.. the hard part will be getting the color out of the stampings, which some sort of very very harsh chemical would probably have to be used.... feel free to pm me if you have anymore questions about this.

 

[redneckmedic]

I think you all are going about this all wrong, for get about the polish, glass bead blast it and then DuraCoat it $65ish. I would go with a titanium look, like this glock slide.

Firearm Finishes

 

[antdog/zook]

You just need to spend more time on it.

I cant tell from those pictures what you've done so far.

You'll probably need to start over again with a lower grit sandpaper, and work your way up to 2000 or so. THEN you can polish with the dremel.

+1

 

[Bigum1969]

Oh please, get a polishing kit from Sears, a 8-9" cloth wheel and the right polish and it is a breeze. Stainless polish or some ebony and it will look great. Just keep it moving as not to burn it.

Sorry... I will now attempt to get my head out of the gutter.

 

[ar15junkie]

What effect are you looking for on the slide? Shiny or just a different color?

 

[MACHINEGUN]

 

[Roadie]

Thanks everyone for the great responses and advice...

I think I will just leave well enough alone at this point and have it refinished when I can afford it...

What effect are you looking for on the slide? Shiny or just a different color?

I was going for a shiny look, against the black, kinda like this Sig Equinox:

 

[ar15junkie]

In your shoes I would use a piece of 1500 grit wet sand paper on a flat surface. Keep it wet and use a little soap and make sure you're holding the slide flat against the paper. Once you take a couple of passes with the sand paper you can decide to either go up to 2000 or down to 1000 depending on how rough the surface is. What is most important is that you keep the slide flat against the paper. You don't want to round any edges. I would work my way up through the grades of sandpaper and finish with 2000 then some polishing compound on a rag. Its impossible to get a nice even finish with a dremel polishing wheel.

 

[Sasquatchhunter]

i really dont think it looks that bad, your just not quite done with it. I would say to wet sand as well, with very fine grit stuff. I think your almost there!

 

[Bigum1969]

Thanks everyone for the great responses and advice...

I think I will just leave well enough alone at this point and have it refinished when I can afford it...



I was going for a shiny look, against the black, kinda like this Sig Equinox:

Ooooh... A great opportunity to show off my 226 Equinox...

 

[LEaSH]

Ooooh... A great opportunity to show off my 226 Equinox...

That's so pretty I'm tempted to start sanding away on my Witness or something else. And for grips, sheesh. Yours is too good looking to compete with.

 

[ISHOOTHST'S]

Trying to make ure bersa look like a sig....

 

[mavisky]

Been there and done that. Did mine with a dremel as well. Turned out too good almost as I could barely see the sights in bright sunlight. Luckily the buyer I sold it to loved it. Next time around I bought the bi-tone.

 

[Roadie]

Trying to make ure bersa look like a sig....

It wouldn't really look like a Sig, the slides are too different. I just didn't want the whole slide lighter colored, because I wanted a more two tone look

I have seen a couple 1911s like that as well.

 

[Roadie]

Been there and done that. Did mine with a dremel as well. Turned out too good almost as I could barely see the sights in bright sunlight. Luckily the buyer I sold it to loved it. Next time around I bought the bi-tone.

The bolded above is why I wanted the top to stay black.

Thanks for the pics, you have given me a little hope, lol.

 

[Glock Lover]

I read the title of this thread and thought it was something completely different. Very disappointed.

 

[762minigun]

In your shoes I would use a piece of 1500 grit wet sand paper on a flat surface. Keep it wet and use a little soap and make sure you're holding the slide flat against the paper. Once you take a couple of passes with the sand paper you can decide to either go up to 2000 or down to 1000 depending on how rough the surface is. What is most important is that you keep the slide flat against the paper. You don't want to round any edges. I would work my way up through the grades of sandpaper and finish with 2000 then some polishing compound on a rag. Its impossible to get a nice even finish with a dremel polishing wheel.

This is exactly how it is done. and exactly why you dont want to use a sanding sponge.

 

[Roadie]

In your shoes I would use a piece of 1500 grit wet sand paper on a flat surface. Keep it wet and use a little soap and make sure you're holding the slide flat against the paper. Once you take a couple of passes with the sand paper you can decide to either go up to 2000 or down to 1000 depending on how rough the surface is. What is most important is that you keep the slide flat against the paper. You don't want to round any edges. I would work my way up through the grades of sandpaper and finish with 2000 then some polishing compound on a rag. Its impossible to get a nice even finish with a dremel polishing wheel.

OK, say I get the guts to do this..lol

I know I want to go in one direction, but do you run the slide in just one direction ONLY, ie: forward, lift, forward, lift, forward etc? or do you do it in one direction, but back and forth?

Does that make sense?

 

[buzzard pickins]

Start with a DRAW FILE to remove finish and remove any pitts,you can get them from BROWNELLS. Next find a piece of PLATE glass, spread on thinned compound and work the sides around the glass. This is how we restore and true-up old stanley wood planes with metal frames.
When glass is made it always self levels. Just be sure its plate glass.

SELF polishing will not make you blind.However after 30mins your 45 may turn in to a 45-110.