Curious to see how members here go about polishing the bolt raceways and basically slickening up the inside of your rough bolt actions (ie Mausers, Enfields, Springfields) as commercial actions usually are not a rough.

I've got my techniques, but I'm curious to hear how others do it, plus I'm pretty bored and I figure the forum could use a new thread.

-Spencer

Different sizes of wood blocks and dowels... 320, 400 & 600 grit emery cloth...hard Arkansas stones...and lots of elbow grease.

I also have some pieces of small diameter drill rod with the ends flattened out that I can bend to just about any angle/shape and I glue pieces of emery cloth to them. Welding rod works pretty well for this also.

Some of the wood working tool catalogs sell some great hard rubber polishing sticks that work really well for getting into small areas. They have the grit bonded right into them, and you can get them in different grits just like emery paper.

For the inside of bolt bodies I use a Flex-Hone on a drill motor at low speed and with lots of cutting oil...really cleans up the firing pin/spring area so nothing binds or hangs up in there. Even brand new bolts will normally have rough machining marks left in there that the spring can rub on.

I‘ve found that it helps allot, and saves you allot of unnecessary work, if you coat the inside of the receiver with Dykum and work the bolt a few times to see what you have to polish and what you don’t.

You just have to take care not to get carried away and start rounding off edges that are supposed to be sharp or changing any critical angles on camming and lug areas.

This may or may not really matter, but out of habit I always polish the the inside of the receiver prior to lapping the lugs and squaring the bolt face to the centerline of the raceways and the receiver threads, just so nothing changes after I have done those two steps.

Similar approach to what Rick0311 does. I have a bunch of pine strips that I ripped in a table saw, about 1/4" thick. I shape these on a 1X30 belt sander for the task and stick self adhesive sandpaper to them. When done they get tossed, I have enough half used stuff floating around and I don't need more.

quote:

Originally posted by Mark:
Similar approach to what Rick0311 does. I have a bunch of pine strips that I ripped in a table saw, about 1/4" thick. I shape these on a 1X30 belt sander for the task and stick self adhesive sandpaper to them. When done they get tossed, I have enough half used stuff floating around and I don't need more.

I’ve also used popsicle sticks, tongue depressors and wooden pencils in the past and they work pretty good also. Dipping the eraser on a wooden pencil in lapping compound works really well. Another handy gag is the wooden clay sculpting tools you can pick up at art supply stores. They come with lots of different tip shapes and they are made of really hard wood.

I like the idea of using welding rod to get into corners.
Do you use only adhesive backed cloth or do you have a special glue to stick it on.

I have experimented with the adhesive embedded rubber before, but only with a large wheel. Let me be one to say it sucks for trying to get an even finish such as on a barrel, or anything round.

I may have to pick up a few of those sticks, that sounds like just the ticket because they are a bit more forgiving than say a regular stone.

-Spencer

I don’t know how “special†my glue is since I just grab whatever happens to be handy on the work bench. I would assume that any type of glue that will stick to dissimilar materials would work just fine.

Somewhat off topic, but I just got a catalog from Bridge City Tools (http://www.bridgecitytools.com) and they are selling an adjustable sanding block that looks like it would be incredibly handy for stock work.

It’s hard to tell from the picture and the brief description but it appears that you loosen a screw and press the block down on your work piece and the surface conforms to that shape. Then tighten the screw, attach your sand paper and go to work. It looks something like those profile gauges that you press onto a work piece, but on this tool you can lock the profile in once it is formed.

I have entertained the idea of trying to make a tool like midway sells (wheeler eng. lug raceway tool) for said job on the lathe/mill. Looks like it would be simple enough to do and would beat the hell out of popcicle sticks.

quote:

Originally posted by Wstrnhuntr:
I have entertained the idea of trying to make a tool like midway sells (wheeler eng. lug raceway tool) for said job on the lathe/mill. Looks like it would be simple enough to do and would beat the hell out of popcicle sticks.

If you want to attach one of those tools (I own one) to a lathe or milling machine and run it into your receiver you go right ahead! They are HAND TOOLS that you wrap emery cloth around.

I think he means make the tool with his lathe and milling machine not use it....Rojelio

quote:

Originally posted by Rojelio:
I think he means make the tool with his lathe and milling machine not use it....Rojelio

I think you need to explain that one to me???? What, you put the tool in the lathe or milling machine and just use them to push and pull it in and out of the receiver? That’s utterly ridiculous and would work. To get that tool to work you have to press down on the top of it while you are sliding it in and out. Read the instructions that come with it...it is NOT a machine tool, its a HAND TOOL.

Sorry, Brother!

I misread your post. You seem to think he meant he was going to “make†the tool with a lathe and/or milling machine...but that ain’t what he said.

Sorry for the confusion guys. my meaning was to make the tool with said equipment, yes, it is a hand tool.

quote:

Originally posted by Wstrnhuntr:
Sorry for the confusion guys. my meaning was to make the tool with said equipment, yes, it is a hand tool.

My apologies to you my friend! I guess what we have proven is that if you and I put ourselves together that we would make a complete and total functional “illiterate“... since you can’t write and I can’t read!

And as an afterthought...if you decide to make one of those tools “on your lathe and mill, for said job of polishing,†you might consider using either brass, Delrin, or even wood, instead of steel.

I have one of those tools and it isn’t all that hard to accidentally slip and ding the inside of the receiver, if you are not real careful.

quote:

Originally posted by Rick 0311:
And as an afterthought...if you decide to make one of those tools “on your lathe and mill, for said job of polishing,†you might consider using either brass, Delrin, or even wood, instead of steel.

I have one of those tools and it isn’t all that hard to accidentally slip and ding the inside of the receiver, if you are not real careful.

I had considered that. So you have one of the hand tools and prefer to use wood pieces to do your polishing? What if the metal had a layer of poly or fiberglass coating to guard against gouging the action?

I think Ill make one from hardwood or delrin. Thanks for the input.

Just working the action hundreds of times will smooth most of them right out unless it's really bad.

I mention this for just the gun owners and not the smiths who have to get it over with and ship it out.

I use an extreme pressure lube with moly. The result is that only the very highest spots get smoothed over and none of the rest of it gauls at all.

I tried this on a very rough MRC M1999 and it was starting to work but the action and bolt still looked rough on the low spots. That one was beyond my patience.

Jack Belk has a site that shows action polishing tools. Perhaps someone will post the link.

The more I think about it, the more I think one of my old derelict gunsmiths, whose tool chest I took as collateral for all the stuff he stole, has one of those polishing tool thingys in it.

I have an old can of GI Moly grease and it works great to smooth things up, especially if I mix just a little cutting oil and fine lapping compound in it. Really works into the metal well.

-Spencer

quote:

Originally posted by Wstrnhuntr:

quote:

Originally posted by Rick 0311:
And as an afterthought...if you decide to make one of those tools “on your lathe and mill, for said job of polishing,†you might consider using either brass, Delrin, or even wood, instead of steel.

I have one of those tools and it isn’t all that hard to accidentally slip and ding the inside of the receiver, if you are not real careful.

I had considered that. So you have one of the hand tools and prefer to use wood pieces to do your polishing? What if the metal had a layer of poly or fiberglass coating to guard against gouging the action?

I think Ill make one from hardwood or delrin. Thanks for the input.

Yeah, I bought one years ago and they work fine, maybe I’m just clumsy! I will admit to banging the inside of a receiver with it once and I cringed when it happened. That experience caused me to make a wooden one out of hard maple, but I think Delrin would be the ideal material to use.

I mostly use the wood blocks and dowels to get at the spots that are missed by the rail polishing tool. Those tools get the side radius areas in the receiver ways but don’t touch the tops and bottoms, the square recess for the safety lug on 1903’s, the inside of the clip slots, the feeding ramp, etc, etc.

quote:

Originally posted by ShopCartRacing:
The more I think about it, the more I think one of my old derelict gunsmiths, whose tool chest I took as collateral for all the stuff he stole, has one of those polishing tool thingys in it.

I have an old can of GI Moly grease and it works great to smooth things up, especially if I mix just a little cutting oil and fine lapping compound in it. Really works into the metal well.

-Spencer

Spencer,

What you observed with the lapping compound is exactly what you have to be really careful with if you use it in the receiver. Most lapping compounds use silicon abrasives that can embed into the steel. Garnet is the best for a non-embedding compound, and something like JB Bore cleaning compound runs a close second.

The silicon compounds can be very tough to scrub out, even with strong solvents, and if left in there they will just keep right on cutting away every time you cycle the bolt.

quote:

plus I'm pretty bored and I figure the forum could use a new thread.

OK, I just gotta ask. The link says you have 18,650 different parts accesories for sale. How in the blazes can you carry that many different parts, and have time to be bored? Don't you have inventory to order, orders to fill, stuff to unbox and put on the shelf, customers and vendors to call, and all the other stuff that needs to get done to handle that much inventory? Please, let me know how you do it.

John

The hours have been cut back to only 4 days a week.
Ironically, the store does the same amount of business being open 4 days, than being open 5 or 6.

So, being off Sunday and Monday (Gotta go in Tuesdays to ship), that leaves enough time to play with these ideas in my head and share them on the forums.

As far as handling all the inventory etc. being handled, that is where computers come in. Tells me what to order etc. and which vendors stock it.

Stopped replacing most inventory in October, but unfortunately the tonnage has not gone down as much as was hoped for.
Plan on moving to Cedar City, Utah in the springtime, so that means less to worry about replacing things.

-Spencer

I did find that Wheeler raceway polishing tool.

It is a pretty simple affair, but with 2 or 3 wraps of emory around it, it polishes all over.

I did some 100 grit and 240 grit, and after that the action was pretty darn slick.

One thing I thought could be improved was the size of the actual head. I figue a little more of a backing for the emory wouldn't be a bad thing.

-Spencer