Bead Blasting Stainless? What size bead?

[GrimmDay]

Hey all, anyone have any pics of their bead blasted stainless gun (Marlin or otherwise) and what size media you used? Going to attempt to do this myself.

[Tomray]

Hey all, anyone have any pics of their bead blasted stainless gun (Marlin or otherwise) and what size media you used? Going to attempt to do this myself.

I can't tell you the correct grain size/weight, but I'd suggest you start with a small size designed to produce a FINE finish. What you want, is a Vapor Honed finish.........NOT a Sand Blast finish.
You can always go to a larger grit for a rougher finish, but Ya' can't go to a fine finish from a rough one, easily.

Tom

Tom

[GrimmDay]

Yeah I was going to go with super fine, and see what that looks like...I may take some pactice tuns on the wifes cookware first, prob change to fresh media as well.

I've seen sand, interesting just too ruff for me...

[John E Davies]

I may take some pactice tuns on the wifes cookware first, prob change to fresh media as well.

And how does she feel about that?

Fresh media is a great idea before any important (expensive) project.... I've been considering blasting my Ruger Super Redhawk, but I am a little concerned about the details (masking the chambers and bore, for example - rubber corks?) , and about getting trapped media and debris out of all the nooks and crannies. You do NOT (!!!!) want to leave any silica grit in the pores of the metal! Simply blasting with brake cleaner and compressed air is not good enough. Any remaining grit will slowly leach out and mix with lubricants, forming a very effective valve grinding compound.

Though I do have a large sonic cleaner and I suppose two or three runs in that with a change of solvent each time would do the trick.

Are you set up to do a "surgical cleanup" afterwards? If not, I strongly suggest that you take all the finished parts (loose) to a shop that can sonically clean them. It takes a heck of a tank for a rifle barrel and action. Handguns are easy....

Please post some pics and tell us how things went.... do you have any good How To links you can share?

EDIT: I have been poking around and ran across this important tidbit:

"Other than disassembly and masking, the only real "watch out" is, you MUST use CLEAN, NEW media that's NEVER used for anything else BUT stainless.

Most garages, machine shops, and other blasters have been used to blast rusty metal and carbon steels.
This will contaminate the surface of the stainless, and it will rust later."

http://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=168170

So I would have to add that if you plan to use a cabinet instead of a hand held gun, you should probably plan on draining the old media out, and vacuuming the interior, before loading the new beads.... Then drain and store the new beads for use again - and lable the bottle.

John Davies
Spokane WA