Want to sandblast -Need Guidance

[dumbell2]

I have decided to take the plunge and start messing with some of my entry level 1911s. I want to be able to refinish the guns myself. This waiting month after month for a gun to return from a GS is killing me. It is OK to wait on a prime example of the craft, but for a small mod or an entry level gun-it no longer make sense.

I want to be able to sandblast my stainless guns and prepare my carbon guns for either parkerizing or paint.

A little while ago MPrimo posted pics in the other forum of a DW he had blasted-and it looked amazing.

Any suggestions as to the tools/media etc I need would be much appreciated.

I want to set up a process whereby I can blast and paint (as required) guns.


Wish me luck.


Regards,
Alan

[MPrimo]

Alan ... send me a PM and I will give you my number to walk you through it. It really is pretty straight forward. You need a decent but not industrial quality air compressor, a shop vac and a relatively small blasting cabinet. Oh ... and media of course. The cabinet I have is about 18"x18"x24". The media goes in the bottom and is propelled by the compressed air. The shop vac sucks the dust and sediment out of the air so you can see clearly ... it is not necessary for small jobs. I use a medium grit glass bead at a pressure between 60 and 90 psi depending on the results I am looking for. The one thing to remember is to not mix stainless and carbon steel without completely cleaning out the cabinet and media as small carbon chips may imbed in the stainless finish and show up as tiny rust spots. Here's what you can expect ...

Before



After



Mike

[MPrimo]

Oh .. .and I am going to reblast my VBOB and Valor in the next few weeks too. They are going to look great!

[dumbell2]

Now that is what I am talking about!

[MajO]

Wow! Beautiful job. :stand:

[Grouse]

Originally Posted by dumbell2

I have decided to take the plunge and start messing with some of my entry level 1911s. I want to be able to refinish the guns myself. This waiting month after month for a gun to return from a GS is killing me. It is OK to wait on a prime example of the craft, but for a small mod or an entry level gun-it no longer make sense.

I want to be able to sandblast my stainless guns and prepare my carbon guns for either parkerizing or paint.

A little while ago MPrimo posted pics in the other forum of a DW he had blasted-and it looked amazing.

Any suggestions as to the tools/media etc I need would be much appreciated.

I want to set up a process whereby I can blast and paint (as required) guns.


Wish me luck.


Regards,
Alan

Oh, back in February and march i picked up a Isreali Browning Hipower surplus pistol. I had been jonesing for a hi power for years. I just did not want to spend 700-1000 bucks for one given the either you love them or hate them.

I took a chance an gambled on the $389 dollar armorer reworked pistol. Just something functional. Here is what it looked like when i got it. These are the add photo's but it is the same pistol



















As you can see there was a bit of pitting here, there, damn near everywhere. the worst was under the grips. I just was bad. Mostly on the left hand grip where it was snugged up against the side of the soldier during duty. I took it down to a shop i know that media blasts Porsche parts for restoration. I spent an hour going over it and here is what it looked like after i media blasted it. I got this idea from seeing Mprimo's pistol post above

[Grouse]

more photos
Here you can see the cleaned out pitting on the frame from the left grip. It is not super deep and for a 389 dollar pistol i could careless.


Here is what looks like horrible pitting on the right grip back strap. This had me concerned. It just looked massively deep.



After media blasting it looked very minor.









Right side of the frame, with almost no pitting in the grip area, apparently seldom carried by a leftie.


here is the left side, clearly carried by a righty.



Left frame together



Back strap together

[Grouse]

Right side frame together


The metal needed to be protected. I needed a finish, but what finish do you put on a 389 dollar truck pistol? I had it hot blued. Nothing fancy just simple hot blueing. Here is how it looked when i got it home.

[Grouse]

Here is how it looks now, 2 months and 2000 rounds of 9mm later. Yeah it shows some wear, some marks but overall it is not bad.





Here you begin to see the only major thing that i have a bit of concern for. There is some tiger striping in the finish that was not there prior to my move here. Currently the guns are locked up, wrapped in silicone cloths. My best guess is the silicone is causeing the the discoloration.



You can see that the grips are rubbing against the finish and taking it off the high spots.



Left side

More shots of the tiger striping

[titanse05]

Those are some really cool pictures MPRIMO. Thanks for sharing!

*wipes drool from keyboard from DW revolver*