Is sandblasting ok?

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Winchester30-30

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Hey guys, so i just ripped apart a mk2 i bought bubba by far not going to be anything special but i want to clean it up, so my question is, my neighbor has a sandblaster, is it safe and ok to sandblast everything? metal, wood? i dont have much experiance but want to make it looks somewhat decent also anybody done a at home bluing? just something simple and easy any suggestions?

Thanks
Winchester30-30
 
Do NOT sandblast wood. Wood is not composed of even layers, but rather soft and hard layers. This is called "Grain." If you sandblast it, then the pressure and grit of the sand will cut into the softer parts of the wood, and you will get ridges.

Sandblasting on metal, then bluing it, will give a dull "parkerized" effect to the metal. If the rifle has been "Bubbaed", is not in the best shape for a return to original, has been cut or modified, and most important of all, is not a scarce or rare example or model, then it is quite possible to make an acceptable sporter out of a ragged rifle.
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ok so no to the wood, didnt think so but thought id ask, the barrel has been cut, and at some point somebody tried to paint it, looks horrible, not rare or nothing just your regular run of the mill mk2, theres no chance of taking this back to original, but id like to make it look "nicer" use it as a practice for when i decide to re do my other rifles, like my p14, or my no4mk1 thats full wood, or my LSA No1MK3 that i want to take back to military configs, any suggestion on bluing? ive never done it before
 
Like Buffdog said, blasting the metal will give it a very different finish. Perfectly fine for a sporter. I had a Savage that someone had painted silver. Part of the rebuild was to wire wheel the barrel and action. It removed the paint and left a nice clean surface.
 
points said:
Like Buffdog said, blasting the metal will give it a very different finish. Perfectly fine for a sporter. I had a Savage that someone had painted silver. Part of the rebuild was to wire wheel the barrel and action. It removed the paint and left a nice clean surface.
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the wire wheel does a good job

the way i see it sandblasting should be left to things like vehicles and stuff thats to be painted
 
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so i did take my drill and wire wheel to it and it destroyed the paint that was on there, now my second issue..... the bolt? and ideas?
 
If you are going to blast it, use soda blasting. Instead of sand it is baking soda. It's used for antique cars and can clean everything up without etching that tradition sandblasting does. It is even safe on rubber and glass.
 
can you use it in just regualr sand blasting machines? i cleaned up the barrel and reciever as much as i could, all the small pieces i have soaking in a solution of "camp morton rust remover" local chemist made it and it cleans everything nicely its eating the paint right off of everything and not touching the bluing. so i put some screws in there and springs and such, does anybody know if you can remove the trigger? or is that pin pressed in? i would like to take the bolt apart, is there anything special when it comes to taking it down?
 
yes, all the pins in the trigger and mechanism can be removed with the proper pin punches. If you have any more questions PM me and i can help you out.
 
That paint was gross. Glad to hear you're making progress. I think chemical stripping is best for an item like this, but I don't see the hate for sandblasting a sporterized rifle. As others have said, it is extremely effective. Wire wheeling or better yet, a 3M paint stripping wheel after sand/sodablasting will give you a gorgeous rust free and semi-polished finish.
Keep up the good work! Any ideas what you'll do for a stock?
 
i want to go dark with the wood, but if i cant find something to work, maybe try and find another set of sported wood as the butt stock has been butchered, maybe go with a synthetic, ive seen it done looks interesting, im chemical stripping everything except the barrel and reciever untill i can find something big enough to let it soak in, this is also my practice gun as i want to restore more of them, the bubba who desrtoyed this thing did a good job on it, destroying it that is..... ground down all the markings left the serial number goint to try ande smooth out the grind marks, that paint was hideous my fault for not looking closer when i bought it, going to let everything sit over night and see how it looks in the morning, the stuff im using is amazing but bad for plastic. I think after all is stripped ill give it a nice polish then blu it, see what i can find for a sported stock set
 
buffdog said:
Do NOT sandblast wood. Wood is not composed of even layers, but rather soft and hard layers. This is called "Grain." If you sandblast it, then the pressure and grit of the sand will cut into the softer parts of the wood, and you will get ridges.

Sandblasting on metal, then bluing it, will give a dull "parkerized" effect to the metal. If the rifle has been "Bubbaed", is not in the best shape for a return to original, has been cut or modified, and most important of all, is not a scarce or rare example or model, then it is quite possible to make an acceptable sporter out of a ragged rifle.
.
Click to expand...

not entirely true... I sand blasted a wood stock to get the old clear coat off "because I got tired of hand sanding forever". All I did was turn the pressure way down till it was at the point where it was just taking the coat off then gave it a quick hand sand and re stained and clear coated it! turned out great, then armor coated it flat black!
 
By any chance did you remove all the yucky Suncorite finish off of your rifle?Oh well, There goes another piece of history.It will look much better after a quick cold blue.When will people leave well enough alone!You just maybe took a wartime expediant rifle(ground off all the markings but left the serial #?)When we needed these rifles there was no nice finish,no nice blueing,just a roughly machined receiver with a quick splash of black suncorite paint.Oh yeah and a serial #.Leave all the rough machining marks it is probably part of its history.(unless Bubba did get his hands on this)
 
The Eastwood Company has a Youtube channel with lots of car-related restoration videos, they sell Soda Blasting equipment too.
See http://www.youtube.com/user/eastwoodco and search videos. Sandblasting would be very bad to get in the workings of the rifle (and would be very hard NOT getting sand in there, it gets everywhere). Soda Blasting is easily removed and non-abrasive if you get it inside the many nooks and crannies. Would you do your own bluing or do you have a reliable gunsmith that will do it?
 
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