LoneGunman
Well-known member
Started this project tonight. It's for a buddy of mine, he picked it up cheap and it's going to be for his wife. The gun was cheap because the previous owner scribed their social security number in the side plate and the attempt at bobbing the hammer looks hideous.
Being that this is going to a buddies wife I want this gun to obviously work flawlessly but I also want it to look good also. I'm not sure what I am going to do in the terms of plating, I am thinking about anodizing the frame in a dark blue and using electroless nickel on the rest of the gun. The biggest problem is I do not want to remove the barrel, S&W will not rebarrel these guns as the aluminum frame is very prone to twisting while attempting to remove the barrel. If S&W doesn't feel comfortable with it I'm not going to attempt it.
The problem is the aluminum frame and steel barrel will need to be plated as one piece, steel does not anodize. I need to mask the barrel with a brush on masking agent, anodize the piece, remove the masking agent and then plate with electroless nickel. I don't know how anodizing will be effected in the nickel bath so I'll need to do a test piece first.
First thing I did is to totally disassemble the gun, as you can see in pic number one I use a ziplock baggy when I remove a part under spring pressure, I have probably lost a month of my life looking for springs and pins that head off to parts unknown. I also use a baggy disassembling a new to me gun.
To remove the scribing from the side plate I will use 180 grit sandpaper. I keep a piece of thick glass around for jobs like this. If I remove the scribing with my buffer odd are I'll have a wavy surface when I'm done. The only problem with my technique is if you have a piece that is very far from being flat, you'd need to remove too much material, all the high spots, to remove whatever it is you are attempting to remove.
As you can see in the pic I taped the sandpaper to the glass and used water mixed with dishwashing detergent. Then I just move the piece in circles, using more water as needed to clean the sandpaper and to replace what has gotten all over my bench.
Now I need to strip the anodizing and bluing. Anodizing can be stripped with Sodium Hydroxide (lye). Lye is getting harder to find apparently because it is a key ingredient in the manufacturing of meth. It's easy to order online but I'm anxious to get started, my previous lye and water mixture is used up. Home Depot and Lowes may not carry Lye labeled as such anymore but they do carry drain openers that have Sodium Hydroxide as the main ingredient. I found a one pound can of granulated Draino that lists Sodium Hydroxide.
I mixed the Draino into 3 gallons of water. The frame and side plate were only submerged for two minutes which removed most of the anodizing. The rest of the anodizing was removed with the Lye mixture and an old tooth brush, really stubborn parts were removed with a brass wire wheel mounted in my Foredom.
You can check to see if the anodizing is gone with a multimeter set on the ohms setting. Anodizing is not conductive so if the part is still anodized you will not get continuity between your probes when placed on various parts of the piece. You cannot go by color as anodizing is clear, it's a dye that gives anodizing it's colors.
The bluing was removed from the barrel using Brownells bluing removal gel.
Being that this is going to a buddies wife I want this gun to obviously work flawlessly but I also want it to look good also. I'm not sure what I am going to do in the terms of plating, I am thinking about anodizing the frame in a dark blue and using electroless nickel on the rest of the gun. The biggest problem is I do not want to remove the barrel, S&W will not rebarrel these guns as the aluminum frame is very prone to twisting while attempting to remove the barrel. If S&W doesn't feel comfortable with it I'm not going to attempt it.
The problem is the aluminum frame and steel barrel will need to be plated as one piece, steel does not anodize. I need to mask the barrel with a brush on masking agent, anodize the piece, remove the masking agent and then plate with electroless nickel. I don't know how anodizing will be effected in the nickel bath so I'll need to do a test piece first.
First thing I did is to totally disassemble the gun, as you can see in pic number one I use a ziplock baggy when I remove a part under spring pressure, I have probably lost a month of my life looking for springs and pins that head off to parts unknown. I also use a baggy disassembling a new to me gun.
To remove the scribing from the side plate I will use 180 grit sandpaper. I keep a piece of thick glass around for jobs like this. If I remove the scribing with my buffer odd are I'll have a wavy surface when I'm done. The only problem with my technique is if you have a piece that is very far from being flat, you'd need to remove too much material, all the high spots, to remove whatever it is you are attempting to remove.
As you can see in the pic I taped the sandpaper to the glass and used water mixed with dishwashing detergent. Then I just move the piece in circles, using more water as needed to clean the sandpaper and to replace what has gotten all over my bench.
Now I need to strip the anodizing and bluing. Anodizing can be stripped with Sodium Hydroxide (lye). Lye is getting harder to find apparently because it is a key ingredient in the manufacturing of meth. It's easy to order online but I'm anxious to get started, my previous lye and water mixture is used up. Home Depot and Lowes may not carry Lye labeled as such anymore but they do carry drain openers that have Sodium Hydroxide as the main ingredient. I found a one pound can of granulated Draino that lists Sodium Hydroxide.
I mixed the Draino into 3 gallons of water. The frame and side plate were only submerged for two minutes which removed most of the anodizing. The rest of the anodizing was removed with the Lye mixture and an old tooth brush, really stubborn parts were removed with a brass wire wheel mounted in my Foredom.
You can check to see if the anodizing is gone with a multimeter set on the ohms setting. Anodizing is not conductive so if the part is still anodized you will not get continuity between your probes when placed on various parts of the piece. You cannot go by color as anodizing is clear, it's a dye that gives anodizing it's colors.
The bluing was removed from the barrel using Brownells bluing removal gel.
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