glass bead blasting a stainless rifle

Salty

Salty

CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Rating - 100%
19   0   0
Location
East Fraser Valley BC
I've got one of the new Ruger m77s in stainless and synthetic. As others have noted on the board they're pretty shinny alright...

So anyways there's no commercial outfits out here that do bead blasting, but a buddy has a bead blasting cabinet set up :cool: I've used it quite a bit on a truck project a few years back. Invaluable tool for detailing parts!. So I'm thinking I might just bead blast my rifle and try and knock the shine off a bit.

Anyone have any advice on this? I'm thinking I'll remove the bolt and not worry about it, seal off the inside of the receiver and the muzzle as best I can with electrical tape and have at er.. I'm thinking going slow would be the best, say a good 10" away with the nozzel and lightly blast it in even strokes..? Any other considerations?? Cheers.
 
Another way to help seal the barrel is earplugs under the tape even if you have to put two or three together to seal the chamber. That and I wouldn't use much more than 70-80 psi at first and see how it looks. You can always increase the pressure if you need.
Dave
 
Ear plugs are a good idea Dave!

Turning the pressure down isn't an option on his set up. He built the cabinet and it runs off of an air system plummed throughout his shop powered by a big compressor and tank - its set up at around 120 psi IIRC. Pretty slick though, there's outlets all over for paint guns, air tools etc.

Even at this pressure though I've blasted real rusy 'tin' parts up close and hard and it doesn't remove metal very fast. I guess the pressure relief is done just by moving the nozzel back ;)
 
There is tape made for protecting surfaces you don't want blasted, it is about 1/16" thick. I would think that foam ear plugs might not do too well against 120 PSI propelled glass beads. If you try it can you post some before and after pics?
 
I put the earplugs under the tape to give the tape support and act as a back up. Where the air supply goes into the cabinet could you not put an adjustable pressure valve there? Mind you we are talking about Stainless so its not like you will dig holes in it.
Dave
 
What about keeping the shiny barrel and just covering it up with a gun sock or something like that, I have a nice new shiny barrel waiting for me to make up my mind on whether to bead blast it's shine a way or to add a pattern on to it or to just leave it shiny.
I sure do like the looks of it shining away, but that's like flashing a mirror around when out hunting. So I was thinking why not build myself a nice camo Gore-Tex or W.H.Y. sleeve that hides/protects the barrel when out hunting, (I'm pretty good with a sewing Machine), just use some stick on vel-cro around the muzzle end and the breech end to hold the sleeve in place.
I'm still debating the idea as I finish calculating the contour of the barrel in a circumference measure to design a pattern that will wrap around the barrel (vinyl) and then bead blast the barrel, once blasted remove the vinyl design and I'll have a two tone relief pattern on the barrel.
I'll just :bangHead: for a little while longer on this. decisions decisions.

I find that when a barrel is blasted it's appearance looks brighter but not shiny (of course) as non-blasted barrels look darker (gun metal grey) than blasted ones, is there a way to keep this darker appearance and still lose the shine? uhm?

If your worried about the pressure, try adding an inline air regulator before the sand blasting unit, you can always use an inline reg in other areas of the shop from time to time, plug it in to the intake hose. Or just make one out of an old valve, just remember that if you do that, the first pull on the trigger will be at full 120psi, then it will peter off as the air in the line from the home made reg will be less than in front of it, but every time you stop using the air it will build back up until released.(it's a quick fix the old guy showed me, very adjustable.)

I vote ear plugs and tape on sealing the insides for a quick fix, just be careful around those areas that's all.
 
Last edited:
My stainless Ruger MKII is at the gunsmith to be beadblasted as we speak. Here's some pictures I got from another board of a beadblasted Ruger if anybody wants to know what the result will look like.

eaa02126.jpg


eaa02120.jpg


eaa02119.jpg


eaa02110.jpg


eaa020e7.jpg
 
Thanks for all the input guys.

About buddy's air system there is just one pressure relief valve and switch unit right at the tank. Its a big mo fo and expensive and not really meant to be adjustable. The old adjustable switch let go and he's kept it simple (and strong). I don't want to #### around with it as he's got the system just how he wants it now.

Ya, if I do this I will take some before and after pictures. And thanks for your pics bcsteve, that's a good reference. Looks a lot smoother than what I would of expected. Probably done with quite fine bead. i like..

back to 'Ruddick; I've seen some cheapo cling on trimmable cammo fabric to do what your talking about. Mind you it sounds like you could make something nicer. :)
 
If you want to lower the air pressure, just unplug the compressor and bleed off enough air to bring it down to what you want. If it's a big compressor, you can likely do your blasting without even having to pump it up again.
 
I blast everything with our cabinet at the shop at 80psi...we have our 120psi main tank regulated to 80psi into the lines...works very well....I don't worry about the inside of the receiver. just dont blast in there if you don't want to...a foam earplug in the muzzle and one in the chamber and your ready to go. I don't blast directly on the muzzle anyway. You should strip the trigger and bolt release off though, you'll have to take them off to clean the beads out anyway. You could do the bolt by pulling firing pin assembly and popping the extractor off...or just tape it up and do the handle. I use plain old electrical tape.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom