Rubbing compound dry fire polish

[JCN]

So I had an idea to help the self-polishing of parts during dry fire with rubbing compound.

Found someone online who has been doing it, so maybe not unreasonable of an idea.

Anyone with first hand experience?

This may sound crazy, but one of my favourite ways of polishing internal parts on a revolver is to melt some polishing compound in a spoon and dilute it with a little oil. I then cover all of the internal parts well with this and put the gun back together. Without firing it, I just work the action many times. The more the action is worked the better the polishing job. A quick squirt of spray lubricant helps spread the polishing compound around and makes sure that every moving part is covered. Every point of metal is assured a good polish and there is less of a chance of removing too much metal, as can happen with a power tool. I used this technique on several of my guns including a double action auto and it has never failed. Just be sure not to fire the weapon until it has been thoroughly cleaned. I use hot soapy water first then a bowl of rubbing alcohol, which I dip the parts in. Cotton swabs will help to get into the frame. Double action revolvers really respond well to this treatment.

[03RN]

I don't want to polish the sear

[OlongJohnson]

I abhor the idea of blindly using gun parts as the primary metal removal tool for other gun parts. I get in there with a 10x magnifying loupe and stones and unkitten things properly, carefully observing, thinking about every detail, and applying directed problem solving. Don't be lazy, physically or intellectually. Own the results.

[JCN]

Hehe. It’s for the Taurus 380 revolver I have coming.

I think lazy might be okay for that gun.

For the competition guns, I sent them out to get smithed.

[Super77]

I tried it in a j frame a long time ago. It didn’t work very well and was a lot of work to clean out all the compound.

[OlongJohnson]

Hehe. It’s for the Taurus 380 revolver I have coming.

I think lazy might be okay for that gun.

For the competition guns, I sent them out to get smithed.

All the more reason to own it.

The results you get from an "ignorant* and blind" method like you're asking about are a literal roll of the dice. If you believe the gun may already be questionable, why wouldn't you take control? Unless you're willing to cut the parts in half and throw them in the trash if it doesn't work out.

Unlike an S&W, where I can at least get replacement parts from S&W, Midway, Brownell's, etc., I don't know how to buy parts for Tauruses.

*By "ignorant," I mean that someone who does it is ignorant of the condition of the parts when they started and what is happening to them as things progress.

[JRB]

I'm reminded of an ancient internet thread on an Audi/VW forum. In that thread, the owner of a 20v 1.8T powered Audi tried to 'port & polish' his cylinder head by removing the air filter and running the intake into a bag of playground sand and revving the engine a whole bunch.

Needless to say, he got very poor (engine destroying) results and endless pages of seriously vicious flaming that only the early-2000's internet could summon.

[jh9]

Taurus m380 is aluminum frame right? Packing the guts full of abrasives sounds like a good way to remove the protective layer of anodizing on the frame. The steel-on-bare-aluminum contact from the trigger/hammer/rebound will probably damage the frame in relatively short order.

Or so I understand. I don't do aluminum frames.

[RevolverRob]

I'm reminded of an ancient internet thread on an Audi/VW forum. In that thread, the owner of a 20v 1.8T powered Audi tried to 'port & polish' his cylinder head by removing the air filter and running the intake into a bag of playground sand and revving the engine a whole bunch.

Well DUH it didn't work...you have to force the sand in there for a polishing effect.

This is what sand blasters were made for! You crank the engine, remove a spark plug, and push the sand blaster nozzle in there and let 'er rip. I've heard you should use baking soda and about 2000psi for best results, can you comment on that one?

My take on polishing revolver internals. It's best done when you have a sense of how the action works properly. And what the tolerances are supposed to be. I've done a lot of 'blind' filing on gun parts, but it's always with non-critical parts. For instance, to get a light mount to fit on Saturday, I Dremel'ed the living fuck out of it, like I was the junior gunsmith at Bubba's Gun Fixin' Emporium. But this is a non-critical part with plenty of meat available for me to grind on and I don't care what it looks like at the end.

The one thing I've really taken to heart as I've gotten older, I've realized just how important sets of micrometers and calipers are. I aspire to have as many tools to measure as I do to make and destroy.

[JCN]

Great posts here, thanks!