I have been painting a lot of my guns lately. I use Duracoat, and the results have been nothing short of spectacular. Extremely pleased with this product.

Painted a few AR's, a full bolt action, including bolt, a 10-22 in a A3 style knockoff, etc.

I strip them completely down and paint only the frame. Now I can disassemble pretty much any gun, but I need some help with the sights. I don't really want to buy a sight tool for a Glock and one for other guns etc.

Does anyone rent out sight tools? Would anyone here like to rent me a tool. I need to do a couple 1911's, a glock, Springfield XD-40.

Or should I just pony up and buy a sight tool?

You'll end up with more than one.

On a different bent, good luck with the XD sights. I,ve seen many so tight that they have to be cut out. I don't know how Springfield installs them, but they are tight.

So I have heard. I think I'll tape them off instead of pulling them off.

For the most part commercially made sight tools are a waste of money. They never seem to fit more than one slide well. A set of punches ground for the job, a brass hammer and a solidly mounted vise are the best tools for the job. A Kurt vise bolted to a Bridgeport is best. Occasionally I use the quill as an arbor press to move truculent sights.

For those really tight sights in a dovetail, I have had really good luck with a small air hammer. Grind a chisel or drift to fit the dovetail. You don't have to pound the crap out of the sight, it will come with ease.

quote:

Originally posted by Wendell Reich:
So I have heard. I think I'll tape them off instead of pulling them off.

That is the easiest plus you would have to tape off the dovetails any way or you would fill them with coating

I personally dislike any kind of spray and bake finish on guns, but that aside...

The 'tape it off' method has never produced good results in my opinion. I've never seen one that didn't look sloppy. I'm sure from a functional standpoint, it's fine, but it always looks poor to me.

I don't use a special tool myself. Just a sold vise and a good punch ground to make good contact.

I have more than a few sight press tools acquired over the years. Last year, I saw one on ebay that piqued my interest. It works great on Glocks, and others. My first complaint is that I had to make shims in several thicknesses to position the slide properly to get full sight-to-tool engagement. My second issue with it is the time required to change over from straight to angled press tool. Other than those two items, I am very pleased with it.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Handgu...7:g:w8wAAOxyUfFTk6xt

I have to agree with John (Toomanytools)

a good set of punches never failed to remove the sights from any slide. brass and delrin work great on sights you desire to preserve the finish on.. a little oil and a tooth brush removes any marks from the brass.