[45Shooter]

I've ordered some teflon/moly black spray on from Brownells to refinish my stainless Springfield 1911 - has anyone else ever tried it? Do I need to do anything except degrease before using it? I assume that I don't have to get it abrasive blasted since it's stainless and thence has to finish to blast off. Will the teflon help the lubricity?

 

[proximo]

If the stainless is polished, you may want to sandblast it with fine sand to give the moly finish a better grip.

I've not actually used the Brownell's finish but I've used something similar (Norell's Moly-Resin) to refinish several pistols and one rifle. It helps a lot if you pre-heat the metal parts to 150F or so before spraying. This causes the solvent in the finish to flash off almost immediately on contact minimizing the chances of runs and fingerprints from handling. If you get any finish on a part you didn't want it on, you can typically wipe it off with acetone, or some other strong solvent, even if its dry to the touch. After baking it, of course, its on to stay so do any cleanup before baking.

You might want to practice on a steel bolt or something just to get the process down before spraying it on your pistol. Of course, if you screw it up, just sandblast it off and do it again.

When you refinish the pistol, particularly if tolerances were tight to begin with, you may find it a bit tighter than before. If you work the action back and forth, you'll wear down any excess finish at the contact points (e.g. the slide rails) and it will feel normal again. Even though the finish is worn off, its still imbedded into the metal and should be helping lubricate it.

 

[jm10mm]

Don't sandblast the gun. Glassbeading is ok. Sand is too aggressive on metal. Teflon moly works good but I would glassbead it lightly first to aid with adhesion. I used it on a wilson slide it worked well. Heat up the slide and can of paint, spray and bake.

 

[Hilton Yam]

Is the Norell product available as an aerosol can? What's a good home setup for heating the parts? I have an old toaster oven, but the temp control is an unknown quantity. I refuse to bake gun parts in my kitchen oven where food goes.

 

[Shane1911]

On 2001-05-01 20:24, Hilton Yam wrote:
I refuse to bake gun parts in my kitchen oven where food goes.

TRANSLATION - Mrs. Yam would beat Hilton over the head with the frying pan if he ever tried this.

Sure Hilton, let everyone think it's YOUR choice not to use the oven - good one!!! :smile:

 

[proximo]

I've sandblasted every pistol and long rifle I've refinished using a very fine sand and I just end up with a fine matt surface when I'm done. I don't think it is anywhere near as agressive a method as jm10mm describes. I guess if you stood there for an hour blasting one spot you'd cause some serious wear but we aren't talking about that. Just blast it, again with fine sand, and move the nozzel around until you get a consistent matt finish. I challenge anyone to demonstrate that doing that removes more than a microscopic amount of metal.

Hilton, the Moly-Resin is sold in pint, quart and gallon (I guess) plastic bottles. A pint is easily enough to do 5-10 pistols. I use a cheap $20 Badger airbrush and apply it straight out of the bottle without thinning. An airbrush is probably much better than an aerosol can because you can easily control the amount of finish being applied. When you refinish using one of these spray-and-bake finishes, you are putting on a very thin coat... just enough to cover the metal but not enough to run, obviously.

Here's some info on how to order and use Moly-Resin: http://www.flash.net/~gavin1/refinish.htm . It also describes how to make an "oven" specifically for doing guns from a toaster oven. Personally, I used my kitchen oven. I think if you pre-heat the metal parts, the very great majority of the solvents flash off and the finish is dry to the touch within seconds. I always have the kitchen window open and a fan pulling air out the window. I also put all the parts on an old cookie sheet to keep any of the parts from contacting the oven walls or racks. For small parts that are awkward to hang, like screws and pins, preheat them on the cookie sheet and spray them right there. Remember, if preheated the finish will dry almost immediately so spray, wait a second, then roll them over and spray again. Its amazing but this gives you a very consistent coating without runs but only if you preheat the parts. This technique works also with bigger parts like slides and frames but those are generally easy to hang while spraying.

I've used both Norell's Grayish Black and the Semi-gloss Black. I think the Grayish Black looks most like a parkerized finish, particularly after bead or sand blasting.



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: proximo on 2001-05-18 14:04 ]</font>

 

[recondoc]

45,
Take a look a Alex Hamilton's site for 10ring precision. He has a link there that takes you step by step in using bake on finishes. He has helped to pioneer Gunkote which is one of the toughest (and hardest to use by the way) on the market. You can find it at http://www.tenring.com
Best

 

[Hilton Yam]

proximo:
that link for the Norrell info and oven apparently expired. Do you have an updated one?

recondoc:
thanks, the 10-ring site is very informative. The oven diagram gave me some good ideas, though I don't think I'll need anything bigger than a toaster oven to do a 1911.

 

[proximo]

Hilton, the link is good but the BBS software included the period at the end of the sentence into the link. I've edited the post and put a space after the .htm so it should work fine now.

By the way, the coating instructions on tenring.com are excellent.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: proximo on 2001-05-18 14:04 ]</font>

 

[mike357]

did you guys see the part about DO NOT GLASS BEAD BLAST, in ten rings instructions? i wonder if this was for his stuff only or does this apply to brownells stuff too? i have some that stuff on the way and this is a big question.

 

[recondoc]

Mag,
I have used both finishes, as does Alex. He swears that you will get longer wear and better adhesion with a non-glass bead abrassive. Personally, I have used the glass beads with both finishes as well. The results for the Brownells Teflon/Moly were great and held up to a soft, low speed wire brush buffing after. I do this to give it an almost bluing effect. With the GunKote you get a stronger finish but should follow the instructions given. I had to reblast the pistol I tried to do with glass beads because the finish didn't wear very well chipping after about a month.

 

[railroader]

The brownell's spray on finish works fine after bead blasting. Gunkote doesn't. The surface needs to be alittle rougher for gun kote to adhere properly. Here's a web address for norrel finishes. http://www.bedford.net/users/djv/norrell-moly.txt


[url corrected]

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Desert Dog on 2001-05-23 05:07 ]</font>

 

[Arnistador]

After experimenting with Brownell's Teflon/Moly, I have discovered (the hard way) that 95% of the coating process is the prep work. After coating a couple of folding knives as a test, it is clear that these coatings do not adhere well to anything but a bead or sandblasted surface. I coated my Emerson Commander trainer, and the coating would flake off with any serious abrasion (as compared to Black T which would only show a small scratch.)

Anyone know where I can get a small sandblast cabinet cheap?

Tim

 

[proximo]

I don't know what you consider cheap, but I bought mine for $230 or so from Northern Tool. Check out http://www.northerntool.com.

 

[Steve Morrison]

Tim, try harbor freight tools.

 

[Hilton Yam]

Grizzly has some reasonably priced cabinets under $200, but they advised that I'd need a 7hp compressor ($500) to run it b/c of airflow rate/volume demands. Anyone have thoughts on the cheapest possible setup for home smithing uses?

 

[proximo]

I used a 5hp Sears compressor I paid somewhere around $200 for on sale. I also used it to run an HVLP conversion spray gun and while it wasn't rated for either use, it was adequate. The compressor ran all the time, though, to keep up and cheap, "lubrication free", compressors are LOUD. If you can spend a bit extra, Sam's Club has an 80gal, 9hp (?), oil lubricated compressor for less than $400 which does fit the bill.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: proximo on 2001-05-25 08:05 ]</font>

 

[John Harrison]

45Shooter,
I first tried Brownells stuff a couple of years ago and was not satisfied with the texture of the coating. The material may be fine, but the aerosol delivery system lacks the proper atomization. The finished surface loked like a spray painted surface as opposed to using Norrell's product through a decent air brush. The air brushed products (once you've figured out the prep work, the pre-heating, spraying techniques) should lay down flat & look like a coating (like Black-T). Good Luck!
John

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: John Harrison on 2001-06-01 17:30 ]</font>