Dremel question for polising slide

if you want to polish big flat surfaces

pay to have it done if this is a one shot thing.

if you want to do some pieces or want to say you did it then I suggest:

go to mscdirect.com

buy a cheap surface plate, import ok, but bigger width and length than your parts. Thickness isn't an issue, thin is ok, thick just costs more.
(might find one on craigslist too) or a perfectly flat piece of steel works to but it must be surface ground and known to be flat.

buy some 1000, 1500 and 2000 grit paper.

with a clean surface plate, lay the grit paper, face up.

place your metal part on the paper and work it in a figure 8 motion.

It is is going very slowly, go down in grit. It all depends on what the finish is you are starting with. Start with 1000 and look to see is it is getting better or worse.

Realize you are removing the peaks of the metal and working down to the valleys. If you have deep spots you may have to go down to 500 paper to get it flat before the polishing begins.

If 2000 grit paper is still not the desired finish, go back to mscdirect and get small small tubes of diamond polish. Green is coarse, yellow then white. mix some oil or wd 40 with the paste so it is slippery enough to continue the figure 8. (the working motion of the figure 8 is critical in keeping it flat.)

As you work thru this process you will find that polishing will reveal deep scratches, so you may have to work back and forth, getting enough grit to work out the deep scratches and back thru the polishing steps.

Most importantly, you must be clean between steps. If your metal or work area has grit from the last step, it will damage your work. So clean your metal between steps, clean the plate, the area and especially your hands.

If you work towards the diamond polish, you can accomplish a mirror finsh without scratches.


you can shop at graingers or other industrial suppliers, I have no connection to msc, just used them for many years with good service and price.
 
dremel use

if you want a mirror finish on your ramp and want to dremel things like this,

get the felt bullet shaped tips for the dremel.

smear some diamond polish listed above that is premixed with a little oil, starting with coarse, dark colors, thoroughly clean between colors.. Use a different felt pad for each color as the diamond chips will be engrained in the felt and you will not see change.

It won't take but a few minutes and you will have mirror finish.

Again, as you begin to see a mirror effect, deep scratches become apparent.
Drop back to a coarse paste and make sure those scratches are gone before moving back up to white.

good luck.
 
There has been much discussion now and in the past concerning the polishing of the feed ramp on the 1911 pistol. I'm not trying to flame the poster above, but simply trying to prevent the OP from making a potentially costly mistake.

First, as I mentioned before, polishing is metal removal. If you see a mark in the feed ramp and polish it out, congratulations--you have just altered the geometry of the feed ramp. It is a crap shoot at that point.

Even worse, I have seen people actually polish out what they thought were worthless "bumps" located on each side of the feed ramp. These are properly called "bullet guides" and they hold the cartridge in alignment with the axis of the centerline of the chamber as it is stripped out of the magazine.

A mirror bright feed ramp sure looks good--but that high polish disappears after the first few rounds. It gets all sooted up and looks just the same as if you hadn't polished the ramp at all.

Here's a hint--if the receiver is made from the proper steel, and the ramp is configured properly, the act of feeding a round from the magazine should NEVER damage the ramp. Lead bullets darned sure won't do it. Remember, that configuration is designed to feed 230 grain jacketed ammunition.

Still, some folks just LOVE that shiny ramp If you simply MUST do it, then use a felt tip with Simichrome polish ONLY. This will give you mirror brightness in a hurry--and will leave the metal alone.

For general polishing, a 3/8th speed VSR drill can be used with excellent results. It's top speed is around 3000 rpm--the same as a buffing wheel. As for polish, I use and highly recommend the Polish-O-Ray polishes, available from Brownells. It is designed specifically for polishing gun steel.

Make sure the work is secure, and WILL NOT TIP OR SHIFT. Load the drill-mounted muslin wheel with polish. Now, GENTLY move the running wheel over the work. Don't lay into it--let the wheel do the work. This is better done with a dedicated polish wheel, by the way.

Start with a medium grit on work with a good surface. I start with 320 grit myself. NEVER attempt to polish out a pit or a deep ding--learn metal contouring with a fine file and the way to properly use a draw file first. Give yourself a good, clear surface to start on.

Make sure that you move the work (or the mounted wheel) in one direction and one axis ONLY. Now, after you have completed the first "pass", change wheels for the next finest grit. Make your next cut at a 45 degree angle, and polish out all the wheel marks from the last grit.

Here's my method: As mentioned before, I start with 320 for good clean metal. 240 grit gets the nod on lightly scratched surfaces--there is also a 140 grit. Be careful! These coarser grits WILL remove roll marks and round edges, and dish out metal if you're not careful. I'll progress to 400 then 500 grit Polish O Ray.

Now, here's the secret to that mirror bright bluing job--555 polish, also from Brownells, done on soft, then hard felt wheels. 555 black goes first; then 555 gray, and finally 555 white. When done properly, after the 555 white that metal looks like the smooth surface of an ice cube--it actually looks wet, and has a true deep gleam--you can stand a ruler on it and see up to 6 to 8 inches.

Of course, there's the rust prevention measures, and then the bluing itself--but that's for another post. ;)
 
don't do it!

Truthfully don't know the op or his appititude.
Using diamond paste isn't extremely aggressive.




If he truly wants to learn some skills and without someone at his side, then he has a right to learn if he wants to.

This method of trial and error may give undesired results but isn't that how we all learned to some degree? The worst that can happen is a lesson learned and a part replaced. The op may find he is a natural and has great talent or he may find that this isn't for them. Either way, they followed their passions.

If we tell everyone not to do something they have never done before, then our sport of guns is going to shrink pretty fast.
 
For a slide, I would hand polish. Depending on the scratches, I would use 320 or 400 grit paper that is backed by a file. Draw file it across. As it cleans up then it may be taken to a big buffer wheel (and lightly buffed).

If used judiciously, dremels are good for small parts.
 
I do most of my polishing by hand but do use the Dremel on small areas like barrel hoods and feed ramps if you can get it in there. Fair warning, the red rogue polish that comes with the Dremel is pretty abrasive and I tossed it. Tested it on a piece of steel and after only a minute or two it left a shallow gouge in it. Stick to Mothers Mag polish or Flitz, gives a much higher shine too. Also you need to be wary of the screw that protrudes from the dremel bit that holds the cotton wheels, if you told it at the right angle you can scratch the hell out of your gun.

Deeper scratches I work with 800 grit wet-dry and some gun oil, then I move up to 1000, and finish with 1200. The 1200 is not entirely necessary but the sheets of wet-dry cost nothing. Wrap the wet dry in accordingly sized wood blocks to work the surface evenly, if its flat that is.

With enough practice in restoring and refinishing metal it really pays off. I can take the most beat up scratched S&W revolver and have that thing looking better than when it came off the line.
 
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A Dremel is a little too fast for this, unless the cloth polishing wheel is around 1" in diameter or less. The reason why is the surface speed in inches or feet per minute of the wheel.

The larger flex-shaft models, though, can be used with larger polishing wheels, and polish, as they turn much slower, and you can easily control the speed with a foot pedal.

If you want to just brighten up, or "color" the finish, you can use a fine grit scotch-brite wheel, using around 400 grit or finer on stainless.
 
"My question is,..."
And mine would be:just exactly what are you fixin' to polish and why?
As a greek philosopher of antiquity said:" A Dremel is a motorized hammer and chisel"
 
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