I am looking for some advice or tips on preparing a receiver for bluing. I am building my first rifle and I am down to the medal finishing part. I have a buffer, Dremel set, and various grit sandpapers.

I know this is a very general question, but any help would be appreciated.

What do you polish the small corners with?

How good of finish do you need before bluing?

Buck,

If you use a buffer and sandpaper you are going to have problems with uneven places and gouged screw holes, etc.

Get some stones so you can keep things straight and true and only use the paper as the very final last touch up but make sure you glue to to something that is absolutely straight before you use it.

What kind of blueing are you planning?

With hot caustic blueing the polish you have on the bare metal is what you will see through the blue. Rust blueing will make more of a matte finish and there is no need to take it to a mirror finish and then rust blue it.

I don't know what you mean about a buffer. On a large buffer I'd use hard felt wheels and compound. You can do it with wet dry paper and a lot of time. ALWAYS USED A HARD BLOCK OF SOME TYPE BEHIND THE PAPER.
Couple of thoughts:
Start with the course grit(yep commone since) continue with it until all marks are removed.

Go to next finer and remove the previous marks. Don't jump or you will just cause more work for yourself.

Unlike wood angle each finer compound across the other. Ending up with the finest the direct you want the grain to run.

Always have your wheel or sanding block leave the edge(like running off a cliff) not approach the edge. This will keep the edge sharper.

Be careful with soft wheels. TheY will round things off.

Never use a soft wheel around a screw hole. You will end up with an egg shaped hole.

Rounded corners and egg shaped holes is what many call the over polished look. High shine but soft edges.

I will be using the hot caustic blueing.

How do you polish areas that are hard to get to such as the inside of the trigger guard, and the corner radius?

Buck,

Key thing on caustic is "what you see is what you get" The final product will look the same as before you blue. Just blue not bare.

Inside the guard I did with a small hard felt "bob" put some compound on the bob and polish. Works from a drill press as well. I've seen it done with a sanding "flap" wheel. JUst doesn't get as smooth.

Same as the radius. Key is to get as close to the raise in dia as possible. Smaller makes it much harder to make a smooth curve. You can also smooth an inside radius with a loose wheel if you are careful.

30 years ago when I got into the blueing business I started with "Gunsmith Kinks" http://www.brownells.com/aspx/NS/store/ProductDetail.as...itle=GUNSMITH+KINKS? II, III, IV didn't exist. It had a great section on polishing. $30 well spent. Great tricks on other issues as well. And the stores make great bathroom reading.

Last thought. A dremal in my opinion turns to fast and the wheels are too small in Dia.

ramrod give you good info - remember that the bluing job will only look as good as the polish job underneath. PATIENCE

Why would anyone want to blue a "medal"?

It depends on what the action is and condition. You can do a really good job on your first action IF you are willing to take a lot of time and find and use the correct tools and materials. Forget power except for the final polish. I like to use mold polishing stones, beginning with 320 grit and going to 600 or finer. But you must use the proper technique. Go in one direction with the first stone, 90 deg. with the next finer and so forth. It takes a lot of time to do a really nice job. The time will depend on the condition of the reciever, a military receiver will take a lot of time. Sporting rifles take a lot less time.
You could really benefit from hands on advise from someone that has done this before.
You will get to a point where you realize why so many gunsmiths recommend the "beadblast finish" before bluing. I hate it because I know it was a quick and dirty job.

Jim, I had all of my gold medals bronzed.

Thanks for all the Help.

Buck,