Remember me, I was the fella looking to have a rifle refinished at high speed.
I'm done with the rifle AND my rusty old Colt 1911.
I bought a Coleman PowerMate air sandblasting Kit, pretty reasonable price and works with a low(er) CFM air compressor ~ $30.00.
Found a place in New Jersey with white 120 grit Aluminum oxide, ~$80.00 for 50 pounds.
Ordered some 6oz. Gun-Kote paint from Brownells. ~ $30 per can (better get 2, 6oz cans to do a rifle, rings, bases, bottom metal.)
I have a small compressor for my nailgun and little household chores.
Small set of pin punches will be handy.
Dug around on the Internet to find the directions to completely disassemble a Colt 1911 and the Remington 700. No special tool required but the Remington bolt shroud removal will cause minor cussing and perhaps bleeding without a special tool. I did it with a piece of leather, a shop vise, 8" Cresent wrench, hammer, punch and some grunting.
All-in-all it was easy except to the aluminum oxide dust everywhere in the garage(I didn't buy a sand blasting enclosure).
Get EVERYTHING apart, have a little box handy for the spring, pins, balls and such. The real small stuff I didn't re-finish.
Once everything is apart, de-grease with Acetone and sandblast.
Clean up the parts to remove any dust from the sandblaster, some grit gets stuck in threads and small hole so clean these up too.
Warm the parts up a bit or place them in the sun so they are warm when painting the Gun-Kote onto the parts. The Gun-Kote dries fast, I used several thin coats (recommended) Also, its recommended to wait 30 minutes between coats.
WEAR rubber gloves and a mask when painting.
I painted the rifle barrel, rifle action and bolt with three coats. On the 1911 I painted the slide three times too. All other parts got 2 coats.
Let the parts dry....... we're drying here........ done.
Heat the oven up to 300 degrees F.
Place the small parts on a flat pan and put them in the oven... a 24" rifle barrel just fit in the oven (I have a barrel vise and removed the action from the barrel).
Bake the parts for at least 60 minutes (I used 65 minutes).
They're done.
Let them cool and stick the stuff together.
Looks good.
On the rifle I finished the safety lever, bolt stop, barrel, action, bolt shroud, bottom metal, recoil lug, bolt, action screws, Badger Ord. base and rings. I tapes over the barrel threads and taped the muzzle end of the barrel off (Clay Spencer special muzzle). I used an old Dewey cleaning rod as the holder for the barrel for painting, handy as I could then easily turn the barrel on the spinning cleaning rod.
If I ever do this again I'm going to find a piece of high density foam to stick the screws and pins into as they are a bit of a pain to paint individually.
Once done the final product looks real good, everything is finished and no runs or such.
I now have a freshly finished green gun for my spring bear hunt in Alberta.
I'm done with the rifle AND my rusty old Colt 1911.
I bought a Coleman PowerMate air sandblasting Kit, pretty reasonable price and works with a low(er) CFM air compressor ~ $30.00.
Found a place in New Jersey with white 120 grit Aluminum oxide, ~$80.00 for 50 pounds.
Ordered some 6oz. Gun-Kote paint from Brownells. ~ $30 per can (better get 2, 6oz cans to do a rifle, rings, bases, bottom metal.)
I have a small compressor for my nailgun and little household chores.
Small set of pin punches will be handy.
Dug around on the Internet to find the directions to completely disassemble a Colt 1911 and the Remington 700. No special tool required but the Remington bolt shroud removal will cause minor cussing and perhaps bleeding without a special tool. I did it with a piece of leather, a shop vise, 8" Cresent wrench, hammer, punch and some grunting.
All-in-all it was easy except to the aluminum oxide dust everywhere in the garage(I didn't buy a sand blasting enclosure).
Get EVERYTHING apart, have a little box handy for the spring, pins, balls and such. The real small stuff I didn't re-finish.
Once everything is apart, de-grease with Acetone and sandblast.
Clean up the parts to remove any dust from the sandblaster, some grit gets stuck in threads and small hole so clean these up too.
Warm the parts up a bit or place them in the sun so they are warm when painting the Gun-Kote onto the parts. The Gun-Kote dries fast, I used several thin coats (recommended) Also, its recommended to wait 30 minutes between coats.
WEAR rubber gloves and a mask when painting.
I painted the rifle barrel, rifle action and bolt with three coats. On the 1911 I painted the slide three times too. All other parts got 2 coats.
Let the parts dry....... we're drying here........ done.
Heat the oven up to 300 degrees F.
Place the small parts on a flat pan and put them in the oven... a 24" rifle barrel just fit in the oven (I have a barrel vise and removed the action from the barrel).
Bake the parts for at least 60 minutes (I used 65 minutes).
They're done.
Let them cool and stick the stuff together.
Looks good.
On the rifle I finished the safety lever, bolt stop, barrel, action, bolt shroud, bottom metal, recoil lug, bolt, action screws, Badger Ord. base and rings. I tapes over the barrel threads and taped the muzzle end of the barrel off (Clay Spencer special muzzle). I used an old Dewey cleaning rod as the holder for the barrel for painting, handy as I could then easily turn the barrel on the spinning cleaning rod.
If I ever do this again I'm going to find a piece of high density foam to stick the screws and pins into as they are a bit of a pain to paint individually.
Once done the final product looks real good, everything is finished and no runs or such.
I now have a freshly finished green gun for my spring bear hunt in Alberta.
