Suggestions? Gil?

Duracoating a S&W 5906 for a guy at work. The slide had some light pitting ahead of the ejection port, and surrounding the cutout for the safety on the right side of the gun.

Filled it in with JB Weld, sanded it painstakingly smooth, and sandblasted it. I was afraid this would happen... JB Weld is way too soft.

Long before I got an even texture across the slide that will look uniform when airbrushed, the JB Weld has been completely removed from the pockmarks by the blast media. So I'm back to square one.

What can I use to fill in a series of small pores in the steel, that's hard enough to look uniform when blasted? Epoxy is clearly way too soft. Some sort of metal filler meant for autobody work?

How deep is the pitting? can it not be sanded out with some fine sand paper or possibly steel wool?

Blast it, apply filler, run side of slide across a piece of sandpaper on a piece of glass so its nice and flat. You'll end up with 2 textures, the blasted top and any recessed pieces and the straight lines of the sand paper on the flat sides.

I have some putty from www.newpig.com that is awesome. hard enough to drill and tap for threads, sets underwater, etc, but it still wont be hard enough to blast without removing it.

For sandpaper, I'd start fine and if you dont like it use a slightly coarser grit, repeat as necessary to get the finnish you like.

Never done duracoat, but messed with just a lil bit of metal in my day, its how I would do it.

edit: Page 101 in the online catalog. They mention free samples, gonna have to get me some. Even if it doesn't work for your needs, get some samples, I've used this stuff all kinds of places, even stuck a quarter to a metal grate in front of a construction trailer to watch people try to pick it up, the quarter was there when we moved the trailer away, lol.

I'll try and find my putty (the boat is a wreck right now with stuff stashed everywhere due to blasting the exterior) and bring it to the range tuesday for ya.

I use Devcon titanium putty a lot at work. That stuff is super hard and strong. If you need something stronger, they make a ceramic putty too. Grainger carries it.

-Joel

Its not something that can be spot welded and reshaped?

I would be tempted to tig it and sand smooth/shape.

How deep is the pitting? can it not be sanded out with some fine sand paper or possibly steel wool?
No chance. Some of it is just too deep.

Blast it, apply filler, run side of slide across a piece of sandpaper on a piece of glass so its nice and flat. You'll end up with 2 textures, the blasted top and any recessed pieces and the straight lines of the sand paper on the flat sides.
I need a rough, uniform texture over the whole slide. Needs a lot of tooth, or the duracoat simply won't adhere. Super-smooth sanded surface won't cut it. Mabybe stopping after 120-grit scrubbed in circles might, though.

I'll try and find my putty (the boat is a wreck right now with stuff stashed everywhere due to blasting the exterior) and bring it to the range tuesday for ya.
I'd appreciate that. :beer:

I'll bring the slide so you can take a look at what I've got.
I use Devcon titanium putty a lot at work. That stuff is super hard and strong. If you need something stronger, they make a ceramic putty too. Grainger carries it.
I'll go that route unless Ken can find what he's got. I won't need much. A dob of epoxy

Its not something that can be spot welded and reshaped?

I would be tempted to tig it and sand smooth/shape.
Me too, if I were an exceptional TIG welder. I'm a hack with a MIG. I'll pass.

blast and THEN fill :D

or get some durafill. I used it on my milled yugo and that shit will seriously fill some imperfections.

Shit, why didn't I think of that. Let me see it tuesday and I can just take it in and tig it up for ya. I'll make sure they got my power hooked up right on monday, last time they had it running too low and I kept blowing their breaker till I melted it down while tiggin some al stuff.

I'll bring the putty just for grins, but throwing some metal in there would be the way to go. Just so long as I'm not filling next to any engraving or anything.

I'm going to order some Durafil. Got some pitting surrounding the spot where the safety rides/pivots in the slide. I don't want a HAZ anywhere near that area.

Time for order #3 from Lauer this week.

Doc, I *was* going to blast and then fill, but figured it would be tough to get a uniform texture over the damaged area like that. Worried it would be smoother.

Shit, why didn't I think of that. Let me see it tuesday and I can just take it in and tig it up for ya.
:stirthepot:
He doesn't trust your welding abilities.

TTT

Did you have any luck with this? I have a 1911 with bad pitting that I would like to do the same thing to.

Thanks
ROB

How much would a new slide cost you?

Filled the pitting in with epoxy. Sanded smooth. Duracoated.

Basically:
media blast
fill pits in with epoxy (let it cure for several days)
sand smooth
sand entire slide so the surface texture is a perfect match to the sanded areas.
prep, mask, and paint

Looks terrific. I'll post some pics in about a week if you'd like... but I didn't take any 'before' pictures.

Filled the pitting in with epoxy. Sanded smooth. Duracoated.


Sounds good. Did you use JB or something harder?

JB worked great

Hows the JB Weld holding up?

I am thinking of using it for the same reasons.

I can't really say - The guy I duracoated the gun for still hasn't shot it.

I put 50 rounds through it before cleaning it and returning it to him, but since then it's been sitting in a drawer somewhere.