Home made raceway polishing tool ?
- Thread starter broadhead67
- Start date
- Location
- Western Manitoba
I made and used one from piece of oak - a saw cut to allow fine emory cloth to be wrapped around.
Tips - consider what you are doing - too much polishing is not necessarily good - two rough surfaces generally do not like to slide - a rough and glass smooth one tend to slide nicely - two glass smooth surfaces sometimes want to "stick". So, if you feel the need to polish a race-way, also consider the part that slides within that race-way. When polishing, you likely only want to reduce the high spots - so often a blued piece is left with some bluing still here and there. You can only remove material when you polish - so can get carried away and create a lot of slop with the part that is supposed to slide along that race-way - is not a theory - speaking from experience there!!!
I have a 1909 Argentine Mauser - very "slick" to cycle - a "snick" sound when it goes. Like some No. 1 SMLE that I have used. Sort of have to feel that to appreciate it. I think is mostly from good, straight machining in first place, appropriate heat treating for hardness, and then likely a million cycles after that - "worn in", not "polished in".
Tips - consider what you are doing - too much polishing is not necessarily good - two rough surfaces generally do not like to slide - a rough and glass smooth one tend to slide nicely - two glass smooth surfaces sometimes want to "stick". So, if you feel the need to polish a race-way, also consider the part that slides within that race-way. When polishing, you likely only want to reduce the high spots - so often a blued piece is left with some bluing still here and there. You can only remove material when you polish - so can get carried away and create a lot of slop with the part that is supposed to slide along that race-way - is not a theory - speaking from experience there!!!
I have a 1909 Argentine Mauser - very "slick" to cycle - a "snick" sound when it goes. Like some No. 1 SMLE that I have used. Sort of have to feel that to appreciate it. I think is mostly from good, straight machining in first place, appropriate heat treating for hardness, and then likely a million cycles after that - "worn in", not "polished in".
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I hear ya , sometimes less is more . I’ve watched some videos and did some reading but they were all negligent on the actual tool . Likely a litigation issue and I get that . I do get it’s easier to take it off than put it back !
Appreciate the feed back , regards .
Appreciate the feed back , regards .
- Location
- Western Manitoba
Thinking some more about how I messed this up - You will want to consider how you are going to keep the hand held tool going dead straight back and forth as you polish - if you make the hand tool with small contact area for the emory, is very easy to make "waves" in the race-way - that is not helping. Some believe that cycling a bolt straight back and straight forward is difficult - without user induced wobble up and down, especially at the rear end - is actually a "piece of cake" compared to setting up and polishing a raceway dead straight. Need to plan for similar cutting / polishing pressure, all the way - same at start as at the finish of the stroke. Can do it "in a rush" like I did, and that is basically second or third class results from that.
I think if I was to try again, I would do like trying to scrape out a barrel channel - use a transfer marker, soot, or whatever, and try to find the "binding spots" and just work to polish or scrape there. As mentioned, smooth or "rough" feel of a bolt in it's raceway can be partially on the user's technique. Can also be really poor quality machining, poor heat treat, and so on. Also to be expected that the "rough" feel might not be within the raceway at all - could be in the bolt shroud contact, on edge of an external extractor, or other place - so I would think the "test" would be to start with a completely stripped bolt body first. Then add back one piece at a time to find where is the drag actually occurring?
I think if I was to try again, I would do like trying to scrape out a barrel channel - use a transfer marker, soot, or whatever, and try to find the "binding spots" and just work to polish or scrape there. As mentioned, smooth or "rough" feel of a bolt in it's raceway can be partially on the user's technique. Can also be really poor quality machining, poor heat treat, and so on. Also to be expected that the "rough" feel might not be within the raceway at all - could be in the bolt shroud contact, on edge of an external extractor, or other place - so I would think the "test" would be to start with a completely stripped bolt body first. Then add back one piece at a time to find where is the drag actually occurring?
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There are composite honing sticks, that are CHEAP.
They come in different grits.
To the touch, they feel like pencil erasers with grit embedded.
They're a couple of dollars each, cheaper than putting them together yourself.
They're come in just about every Grit, width, length, shape you can imagine
Craytex is one of the makers and there are several others.
These abrasive sticks wear very well and one each of coarse/medium/fine/extra fine will do a couple of dozen rifles.
You can go the more expensive route and purchase carborundum abrasive sticks but unless you're looking for something to last a lifetime and doing several rifles or even pistol rails, the composite sticks are the route to go
I use both, but only because I have them on hand. Most were given to me or came out of estates.
The composite sticks can easily be ground for specific shapes or sharp edges.
Both KBM Tools and Princess Auto carry these abrasive sticks.
They come in different grits.
To the touch, they feel like pencil erasers with grit embedded.
They're a couple of dollars each, cheaper than putting them together yourself.
They're come in just about every Grit, width, length, shape you can imagine
Craytex is one of the makers and there are several others.
These abrasive sticks wear very well and one each of coarse/medium/fine/extra fine will do a couple of dozen rifles.
You can go the more expensive route and purchase carborundum abrasive sticks but unless you're looking for something to last a lifetime and doing several rifles or even pistol rails, the composite sticks are the route to go
I use both, but only because I have them on hand. Most were given to me or came out of estates.
The composite sticks can easily be ground for specific shapes or sharp edges.
Both KBM Tools and Princess Auto carry these abrasive sticks.
No, you don't have to worry about it that much.
It's amazing how little effort it takes to remove the coarse surfaces so that the bolt slips easily over them. Unless a person is really ham fisted and not paying attention, not much can go wrong.
It's only when people use homemade rigs that don't have proper angles that they end up rounding off edges or removing to much material.
The tooling needs to be appropriate for the job.
Abrasive tools are very similar to screwdrivers for do it yourselfers.
Improper abrasive tools for the job, are akin to using screwdrivers that don't fit the slots or whatever shape they're supposed to combine tightly with.
An excuse to go to Princess Auto ! Awesome and a clever idea .
