Let's see those polished barrels? Inside and out?

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Jld1969

Jld1969

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Mar 6, 2018
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New York / Arizona, United States
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As an airgun guy I love keeping my airguns and Equipment clean. But lately I read a lot about polishing the insides of your barrels from guys like Ernest Rowe and Ken Hicks. It is something I started doing after having it done by Ken Hicks a few times and i still an not at the level they are because they have the equipment and they are professionals. But I do see it makes a difference in fps and accuracy. I also have been polishing the outside as well. So if you polish your barrels let's see them and let me know what you use and what polishing cloths you use for the inside. This is my LCS sk-19 25cal barrial I only hand polish and for the inside I use 3M 4000 6000 8000. Cloths. Thanks guys 
 
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Funny you write this thread, as I just polished the inside of my barrel. I don't have a way to take a photo of the inside but believe me it's super clean!

First, I cleaned the barrel using Balistol on a patch with brass brush rotating wet and dry until clean. Second, I used some JB bore paste mixed with Kroil oil with one of those caliber sized cotton thingies you screw onto a rod for 20 passes. 

Lastly, I finished off the barrel using dry patches to remove the excess paste from the barrel and running a damp Balistol patch to leave a light sheen behind. Works like magic and cuts down on the next cleaning.


 
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I won't go into polishing the bore , But as for the outside , proper technics are so important too ! One can fudge a good barrel if done wrong (warp by uneven heating). There are three methods that are acceptable .

Using a barrel spinner and belt sanding with high grit belts in sucsession . Reccommended .

By hand and sanding in line with the bore . This is called "carding" . Also takes much more work .

Lastly is with a buffer machine , but is not to be taken lightly and can be very dangerous if done wrong . It must be fed linear while rotating at the same time . Professionals only ....

Steve



To be clear ; I am talking about the Outside , not the inside .
 
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3M makes jewelry cloths Ernest Rowe did a video on it you can find it on YouTube. I would not recommend equipment to do the polishing unless you are a professional what I am talking about is cleaning and polishing nothing heavy duty all hand work. Am sure the will be lots have opinions on if it really works or technique accuracy issues all the above in my experience from having a done professionally it makes a huge difference using the soft jewelry cloths makes a big difference and it's very simple if you don't want it done professionally.
 
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I won't go into polishing the bore , But as for the outside , proper technics are so important too ! One can fudge a good barrel if done wrong (warp by uneven heating). There are three methods that are acceptable .

Using a barrel spinner and belt sanding with high grit belts in sucsession . Reccommended .

By hand and sanding in line with the bore . This is called "carding" . Also takes much more work .

Lastly is with a buffer machine , but is not to be taken lightly and can be very dangerous if done wrong . It must be fed linear while rotating at the same time . Professionals only ....

Steve
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Airgun barrels do not need heavy machinery and should never be used inside a airgun barrel for a cleaning or polish!! Also, why? These aren't burnt powders being embedded in the barrel only soft lead residue! One can F-up something really bad once you start to go over the top. 
 
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Polishing the outside to improve harmonic . I would have to whole heartedly say "no" . Save your money , get more trigger time .

Harmonics is more about vibration traveling down the barrel . The proper harmonic tune is having the vibration "node" passing through the barrel at the muzzle .
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I misread your comment and I apologize for the wrong response to your comment!
 
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Airgun barrels do not need heavy machinery and should never be used inside a airgun barrel for a cleaning or polish!! Also, why? These aren't burnt powders being embedded in the barrel only soft lead residue! One can F-up something really bad once you start to go over the top.
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Click to expand...

He said he likes his stuff shiny , it's fine for stainless steel . Or it could be bead blasted for a mat finish . If he wanted a shiny steel barrel it could be clear coated to protect it from oxidizing . Again we're talking about the outside ; not the inside . 

Steve
 
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For the bore - you can start with JBB if needed, and then these on mop - https://kentsupplies.com/beading-and-jewelry-tools/polishing-paste/oil-based-lapping-paste/13-pieces-set-of-20-gram-diamond-lapping-paste-polishing-compound-grits-0.25-to-40-microns.html

I like using the Dewey rods when polishing on my lathe. Using 17 cal rods for 22 cal, and larger for my 30 cal barrels.

You can push some pellets through to find rough patches (if you don't have a good borescope / endoscope) to figure out where to spend some extra time for polishing. 

Just be careful with the muzzle crown, and be prepared to clean it up afterwards.
 
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sonny and nervoustrig That's a good photos of the inside of the barrels looks awesome good job. I lime the look of a polished barrel on the outside on the LCS is exposed so you can see most of it and it just makes the look more expensive and clean. But other barrels lime the inpact and all Fx is not visible and I understand why some guys don't want to polish them but for me I like the smooth clean shiny look it makes it easier to index and take in and out. But that's just my opinion thank you to all who joined in on this topic. 
 
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I have an idea for an experiment . " Fire lapping " . With powder burners fire lapping is done with pretreated bullets coated with various grits of compound impregnated to the bullet . Another way is to put the compound on a metal plate then the bullet and another plate on top , gently roll the bullet between the plates to cover the bullet with the compound . Then fire the coated bullets .

I'm wondering if this same technic would work with felt cleaning pellets ..... I have some spare barrels I could use for testing . The hard part will be to photograph the progression through the bore scope , but should be possible . I think slugs would work better , I could do both for comparision . Maybe a combination of both ; slugs for the lower grit compound to smooth out imperfections followed by the felt cleaning pellets with the finer grit abrasive for the polished finish .

I'll start a new thread for this if there is enough interest . I could do chrony data of before and after as well .

Opinions and Ideas for testing parameters.



Update : Check out this guy's idea .... But use Cerrosafe instead of lead . The Cerrosafe will actually shrink alittle after cooling . It should smooth out the imperfections in the lands without enlarging the groove diameter .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6EYk-oZEsc

Cerrosafe can be purchased from Brownells.com

https://www.brownells.com/gunsmith-tools-supplies/barrel-tools/barrel-chamfering-accessories/1-2-lb-cerrosafe-sku080027050-384-1743.aspx

Here is the video from Ernest Rowe on bore polishing .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gkg_2v2X3Ac
 
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