smoothen out slide rails?

marlin1895gs

marlin1895gs

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well i just got my ranger II back from roger and his hard chrome shop, i must say it sure looks nice! when i first got it my slide rails were so tight i could barely pull the slide out of battery. i went out and shot a hundred rounds through it and its a lot better, but still super tight.. i took the barrel and recoilmaster out of it and worked it lots by hand but right around battery it seems to be real tight still.. like if your working it back and forth then you give it a little less effort it will actual stop right at battery each time. it is quite smooth, just real tight, and the 'soft' recoilmaster makes it worse.. any ideas?
 
If you can positively identify the spot that is rubbing then a fine slip stone could be used for honing out the tightness. To confirm the tight areas a trick is to darken the slide rails on both sides with a felt pen then engage them and work the slide a few times. The shiniest spots are the ones that are binding and that you can use a fine india or preferably arkansa slip stone on the bright points. Or if you can get the water slip stones from Lee Valley then you can use those using water as a "lubricant" instead of oil.

We're talking about an amount of work that will take a little time to do with these hand techniques. Maybe up to an hour of colouring, fitting, stoning and recolouring and fitting until the felt pen darkening doesn't scuff off but the reward will be a perfect fit. This is not something you want to use a Dremel or other power tool on.

Similarly I'd rather do something like this with a stone than use a paste compound. The paste compound will obviously cut more where it is tightest but it WILL cut in the other areas as well where it is not really needed. This is where a slip stone can shine since you can really concentrate the stone action on the one area at a time.

The stones come in a heap of shapes and it's just a case of finding the right one(s). After you're done some good rubbing alchohal or automotive brake cleaner will flush away the felt pen "blueing".

Good luck with the fitting.
 
A puff or two of powered graphite in each rail channel would both polish and provide quite a bit of extra lubrication, the only problem with that is its very messy stuff and you'll want to clean your gun very thoroughly once its done its job.
 
its one of them recoil masters... i wish i could run a stiffer spring in it to begin with, from day one.... i had it 'broke in' alright, but now she's startin from scratch. i'd consider swapping over to a regular setup, but not quite sure exactly what i need
 
oh ya, i colored the rails on the frame with marker, and it rubs off on the outer sides.. which is good i guess because it'd be the easiest place to remove material cleanly, my little needle file set didn't do ####, i'll have to look for a stone, or some compound this mornin'
 
That's the idea of the marking pen. It rubs off indicating where the hard contact points are.

Industrial hard chrome plating (the sort that you had done I'm assuming) is extremely hard stuff. That's why I suggested the slip stone treatment as the tool of choice. Hopefully you didn't use that needle file for long or it's totally ruined now.

In looking around quickly I'm not finding the old style india or arkansas slip stones. But there is an alternative. You can lap the spots using a compound and a softer metal "shoe". If you make up an aluminium tool that fits into the slide recesses and use the flat for external points you can then use this as a charged carrier for lapping compound and in effect make your own slip stone. You do this by just putting the compound onto the aluminium and then work it into the spot you're trying to lap out. The pressure pushes the grit into the softer aluminium and turns the tool into an abrasive lapping tool in this manner. The chrome will be cut far more than the aluminium will be cut and you can work out the tight spots in this manner.

All this is certainly more trouble than just sticking some polishing compound into the slides and working it back and forth but in doing this detailed process you'll be working down only the tight spots instead of wearing down the places that are already fitting nicely. And isn't the idea here to maintain the nice slick feel with no noticable play?

A source of fine lapping compound is as close as your local automotive supply. They sell two types of paint abrasives. One is typically called rubbing compound for removing heavy oxidation and the other is polishing compound. For this job you want the rubbing compound. The red rust brown colour of it is the giveaway that it is jeweler's rouge mixed in a carrier. I'd go with this as your lapping compound.

Also as you found the felt pen marking wears quickly. Ideally mark it and wait a couple of minutes for it to dry. THEN slide the parts togeter and cycle one time only and then slip them apart. The marking will be less worn except at the tight spots and you can work those down more effectively.

Working the slide fit in this manner may take you a few hours of careful marking, stoning/lapping, cleaning and re-marking and repeating until it fits but in the end it'll be the fit that you are looking for. It's also a fit that you can sneak up on with more control than pretty much any other method and that puts the cutting action squarely onto the points that need it instead of just wearing away the overall slide that you just had built up to remove the play in the first place.
 
OK, I just remembed a power tool option that would work for this. Cratex or similar rubberized abrasives used in a Dremel or similar at medium speed could be used to gently and quite accurately spot lap the high points. It would still need to be done in connection with the felt marking and many re-checks to measure up the progress but it is an option.

The rubberized abrasives cut with a slower and finer action than actual grinding or sanding options but the cut is still quite aggresive so just touch the wheel with gentle pressure for a second or two and then do a trial fit. You need to develop a feel for how it cuts. Also watch for new high spots that occur as the old ones are cut down. Remember that in total you're looking to only remove maybe .001 inches to achieve the sort of fit you're after.
 
Good day,
I just rectified the identical problem by putting a small amount of a product called Autosol. It was sold at Canadian Tire for polishing chrome wheels. We used it for polishing dies. It is great stuff. It will polish off the slide and frame without removing any appreciable amount of material.

The best method is to put some along the frame grooves and reassemble the pistol. Operate the slide for a few times until you can start to feel a difference in the slide to frame fit. Only do a little at a time because the paste takes up some of the space and when you remove and clean up the slide and frame it will feel looser than when the paste was in place. Make sure you use brake cleaner or something to remove all the paste. Watch out for you rubber or plastic grips.

By this method you only remove the metal that is actually touching and you will still have a good slide to frame fit when you get it running.

I hope that helped.

jake2
 
well i played around with it all morning, with some compound, and a stone, and saw progress, but i ended up taking a highspeed tool, with fiine paper to it, just to speed it up, and it seems a ton better, just running it through the ultrasonic cleaner now, still is definitely tighter around lockup, like just before, kinda sucks because that extra bit of jam could be used to chamber a ####ty round.. well she's back together and covered in breakfree clp. and she's back to normal! slides awesome while together, i'll be testing it out right away
 
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