Page 1 of 4 123 ... LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 31

Thread: How to paint sight with tritium insert?

  1. #1

    How to paint sight with tritium insert?

    I bought some Dawson Precision Tritium night sights for my CZ P-01, and I'm not too excited about them. The front has a thin white ring that is OK but really doesn't stand out unless the lighting is perfect. I've got some testors neon paint, but I can't figure out how to do so without covering the tritium.

    Option 1: try to cover the tritium with a tiny, perfectly round piece of tape. I'm not sure how well this will work because it's really tiny. And will it just peel off the surrounding paint when I try to remove it?

    Option 2: paint over the tritium, then try to scratch the paint off later just where the tritium is. Will that work, or will I damage the tritium before I get all the paint off?

    Option 3: ?????


    Name:  tritium_front_sight.jpg
Views: 1415
Size:  17.7 KB

  2. #2
    Carefully?

    When I was painting my front sights (Heinie Straight 8s), I used a toothpick (and nail polish).

  3. #3
    Site Supporter
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Location
    Midwest
    From the mothership archives so to speak:

    https://pistol-training.com/articles...ty-front-sight
    I am not your attorney. I am not giving legal advice. Any and all opinions expressed are personal and my own and are not those of any employer-past, present or future.

  4. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by Default.mp3 View Post
    Carefully?

    When I was painting my front sights (Heinie Straight 8s), I used a toothpick (and nail polish).
    Ha. Did you successfully avoid the tritium? Looking at a picture of those, it looks like they tritium is set in a bit more than on these.

    I'm now wondering about Option 3: put a tiny round dab of white out (or plasti-dip?) on the tritium, then paint, then scratch off the white out with a tooth pic.

  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by vcdgrips View Post
    From the mothership archives so to speak:

    https://pistol-training.com/articles...ty-front-sight
    Oh wow, thanks.

    The pics don't load for me though. Are they working for you?

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by matto View Post
    Ha. Did you successfully avoid the tritium? Looking at a picture of those, it looks like they tritium is set in a bit more than on these.

    I'm now wondering about Option 3: put a tiny round dab of white out (or plasti-dip?) on the tritium, then paint, then scratch off the white out with a tooth pic.
    I was able to do it without getting any paint on the tritium vial without much effort in terms of needing to be careful about the vial (though the overall process was a bit tedious).

  7. #7
    Site Supporter Elwin's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2020
    Location
    Midwest
    I’ve had decent luck painting around fiber optic rods (idea credit to @GJM) and would be tempted to try that with a Dawson night sight, leaving the white ring untouched and painting all the black around it. If I recall correctly the Dawson’s have both the ring and the vial under a clear protective layer so just painting the ring would be hard if not impossible.

    I’ve had good results using this paint, both for indented circles and for fiber optic and plain black sights. It’s held up well so far. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B007I...b_b_asin_title

  8. #8
    Site Supporter
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Location
    Midwest
    I was able to click on the images in the upper left and they would open. I was using the Google browser.
    I am not your attorney. I am not giving legal advice. Any and all opinions expressed are personal and my own and are not those of any employer-past, present or future.

  9. #9
    When Mr. Langdon was testing his sight choices on the Compact Carry, he had some take off's, that the paint had chipped. I asked him if I could have one of the take off's, and he sent two to me. This allowed me the opportunity to do several things, including learning to touch one up (one was missing the crystal on the vial). I went to Hobby Lobby and picked up some Tester's paint, and saw they had some microbrushes, that were cheap. They are effectively a very tiny tip (like a toothpick) with a miniature cotton ball on it. That worked very well for me. I tried on one without the crystal, and one with the crystal. I used the microbrush to remove paint from the crystal as well, as I wanted to know how it would work, if I painted with just a toothpick.
    Last edited by beenalongtime; 03-09-2021 at 11:23 AM.

  10. #10
    Member
    Join Date
    Sep 2015
    Location
    Southern AZ
    I did this on my 870 with a tritium front. Painted over the tube a bit and waited for the paint to dry a bit, took a toothpick and was able to easily rub the paint off of the areas that had been covered over the tritium tube. The paint didn’t stick to the glass/plastic the tube is made of very well making it pretty easy to get off.

User Tag List

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •