Anyone polished bead blasted stainless frame?

[ilikegunspdx]

Looking for techniques that worked for you. I'm thinking of using 800 grit sandpaper followed by a couple compounding steps with foam pad on drill.

Only YouTube vids I have seen everyone uses metal polish by hand for many days. I will NOT be doing that ha ha. I like to use machines and progressive steps to polish stuff.

Interested to hear what has worked for others. Thx

Here is the texture. Similar to most matte stainless guns.

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[taroman]

I have polished a number of SS guns in various conditions, some quite beat up.
For what you show, 800 is probably a reasonable beginning.
After that, go to 1000, then 1200, 1500, and 2000 grit.
I use the wet or dry auto body sandpaper-dry.
For flat surfaces, use a sanding block. I made mine from 1/8" aluminum.
As you work finer, you will quickly learn that it's essential to sand out all traces of the previous scratches before going to the next finer grit.
After 2000, hand polish with Mother's to desired brightness.
This is an especially battered 624 I polished using the above process:

 

[ilikegunspdx]

I have polished a number of SS guns in various conditions, some quite beat up.
For what you show, 800 is probably a reasonable beginning.
After that, go to 1000, then 1200, 1500, and 200 grit.
I use the wet or dry auto body sandpaper-dry.
For flat surfaces, use a sanding block. I made mine from 1/8" aluminum.
As you work finer, you will quickly learn that it's essential to sand out all traces of the previous scratches before going to the next finer grit.
After 2000, hand polish with Mother's to desired brightness.
This is an especially battered 624 I polished using the above process:

View attachment 1933053

That looks awesome!

 

[P7M13]

I've worked on many machines that were bead blasted and then chemically polished. It produces a beautiful shiny surface that, because of the bead blasting, doesn't act like a mirror.
There used to be a two companies on 72nd in Tigard that did this.

 

[ilikegunspdx]

I've worked on many machines that were bead blasted and then chemically polished. It produces a beautiful shiny surface that, because of the bead blasting, doesn't act like a mirror.
There used to be a two companies on 72nd in Tigard that did this.

That's another approach that might work. Could start with aggressive compound and foam pad and skip the sanding. That woudl probably leave a shiny "satin" look (I would guess) rather than a mirror shine (cuz it's not a flat surface if not sanded). Worth a shot to try it on bottom of mag well and see how shiny it is. That would bring the process down to minutes rather than hours I would think as it's just compounding with power tool. I have a mini air sander that might work for that. Can't remember but I think it has wool pads. Drill would work also just slower.

 

[kmk1012]

How do you spell "Made in Turkey"? Might be hard to sand out those extra letters

 

[ilikegunspdx]

How do you spell "Made in Turkey"? Might be hard to sand out those extra letters

Definitely got to do that. Cuz then I can claim it's "custom". Man if I see the word "custom" anymore in an ad title, I don't even open it. Or a Glock ad for $1500 or more cuz it's "upgraded".

 

[nammac]

Following, want to see how the polish of the unwanted satin finish goes, you've piqued my curiosity….

 

[ilikegunspdx]

Technique to produce results I want found! I used Mr clean magic eraser (which itself is a mild abrasive) and mothers metal polish. Results are hard to show in pics but perhaps you can see the polished (top of slide) vs unpolished (little section of bottom front slide). Takes just a few min to do entire slide (polished portion I mean). Hard to see in pics but the "shiny" satin in contrast with the matte is very noticeable in real life. It's also extremely helpful to "breakdown" (take off the high spots of the head blast) the finish prior to using magic eraser. Sandpaper, scotch brite pad, valve grinding compound with polisher can all do this.



Tried but didn't like due to too much work and/or look: Various sandpapers, scotch brite pad, steel wool by hand. With small polisher I tried: diamond cut compound, bullet fire lapping compound in 220, 320, 600 grit, valve grinding compound, polish by itself. The method above creates a shiny but same texture surface with very very little work. The magic eraser component is critical imo.

As taroman said, if want a mirror finish the only way is sequential steps with sandpaper then polish. I'm not gonna put in 1/100 of the time to do that cuz not worth it to me. But on another gun it may well be worth it especially if it turns out like taroman's revolver.

 

[kmk1012]

I may try this on a stainless revolver that is already somewhat shiny now to see if I can get it to polish to a higher sheen. Thanks for the report @ilikegunspdx

 

[P7M13]

Looks great!

 

[ilikegunspdx]

One thing to add is the little dremel polisher with foam pad really speeds up the process and gives slightly higher shine.




Polisher is here fwiw

Amazon.com

 

[ilikegunspdx]

Playing around on frame under the grip just to see what different textures would look like. Brushed look is easy of course just sand paper. Tried dremel with coarse grit sandpaper going from different directions. If you do it from different directions it can creates flashy "facets".

Mild "facets", more of a texture really

More aggressive "facets"

IMG_9160.mov

• ilikegunspdx
• Aug 25, 2024

I've done this kind of look before on brass knife scales. Takes a long time but I kinda like the look.
Before

After

A similar effect can be created with a grinding wheel from different directions. Pic from internet:

 

[TTSX]

And here I am thinking about doing the opposite to some of my guns. I do not like shiny and especially shiny stainless. In fact, a shiny finish has been the deciding factor for me to not purchase a gun on more than one occasion.


Different strokes, as they say. Cool that you found out a way to get what you like

 

[ilikegunspdx]

And here I am thinking about doing the opposite to some of my guns. I do not like shiny and especially shiny stainless. In fact, a shiny finish has been the deciding factor for me to not purchase a gun on more than one occasion.


Different strokes, as they say. Cool that you found out a way to get what you like

I don't mind matte finish stainless at all but been trying to find or make some sort of bling gun just for fun and mainly because I don't have anything blingy. I love s&w shiny revolvers and colt SAA nickel but both too expensive. Found an inexpensive chrome 1911 at Atlantic but hasn't come in stock in over 6 months so that's not an option.

This gun only $345($365? Cant recall) and bought with express purpose to see if could make it shiny. I wish I still had photoshop i would paint that "facet" hammer type finish over the whole frame (outside flat surface not the curved inner part) to see what it woudl look like. Could look great or could look ghastly. Probably gonna have to download the free gimp photoshop thing to do that.

 

[ilikegunspdx]

Looks like I found a finish for the outside portion of the frame that I like. And I can't say that it's not "bling" I'm thinking I'll do the outside portion of frame and if it's too Liberace then it's easy to sand off to make a "brushed" stainless finish.

IMG_9313.mov

• ilikegunspdx
• Aug 28, 2024

To cut the little facets I cut the end off a standard dremel semi soft polishing bit (to make a sharp edge) and cut "facets". Then rotate and repeat. "Cuts" are not deep and surface is smooth. The cuts I did earlier shown in an above post were with sandpaper on dremel. Those were deeper and left a non-smooth finish. The green semi soft tip just polishes really not cut into metal.

 

[ilikegunspdx]

Here is how frame turned out. Takes about 10 min to do frame (one side) cuz you just tap multiple places with dremel, turn gun and repeat sort of rapid fire.

 

[ilikegunspdx]

Was looking online for a pic of Taurus bead blasted revolver with only the cylinder polished and saw this photo. Certainly makes the gun look more interesting and unique.

I was thinking maybe Polish cylinder only and leave cylinder flutes matte.