Annodizing...BARRELS

[Kevmaster]

Ok...hers the deal

I have an Xmag and I have four black barrels for it. Id LOVE if they were red matching it....BUT from what Colin at Lapco tells me, annoing the barrel will do two things:
1) screw up the bore size (make it smaller)
2) create pits in the bore of the barrel and render it terrible

any thoughts?

[Load SM5]

I don't know about the pitting but it will change the bore on single piece barrels. 2 piece barrels will be fine if you strip and re-anno the end and leave the control bore alone

[pbguy888]

Kev , I know you love your lapco's. But when Iget my gun annoed Im gonna put a multi bore system with inserts on it. So I can have the barrel matched , but no the bore is fine...

[Smokee_2_7]

Kev,

It's do-able. Additionally, if it's done right, it won't miss anything up. Yes, the internal bore size will be changed slightly- - - but at a very insignificant level. Not enough to change the barrels performance.

As far as pitting goes, it does not occur unless you really screw the part up. It would also occur all over the barrel (not just the inside) so, if anodizing a barrel messed it up, then every colored barrel out there in the paintball world is effectivly a worthless ruined peice of junk.

I have sucessfully anodized several of my own personal barrels, with no adverse side effects. Actually, one of these re-ano'd barrels was on my marker when I let a guy borrow it b/c his orracle was broken when he took it out of the box. One of his comments was somthing like "man, that gun shoots sooo accurate and has some of the best distance i've ever seen - - "

. . . maybe the secret to that whole 'cocker distance elves thing is simply re-anoing you're barrel?? lol. .


Hope this helps,

Carl

[AcemanPB]

I was told that on a two piece barrel, it's ok to anoodize the front because it is way larger than the paint anyways. Also I remeber reading somewhere that anno takes off rougly .003... so a .687 becomes a .691 (i'm sure this isn't very consistent though)

In short I would leave one piece barrels alone

[Smokee_2_7]

AcemanPB,

Don't get me wrong, I would prefer to only do front peices or 2 peice designs, but you CAN do one peice barrels without messing them up. The inner bore is changed, but im almost positive thats its no where near as much as youre talking about. I'll see if i can't get some better numbers for us.


Carl

[Ultimator]

Shouldn't be too hard to test at XPB. Next time we anno a barrel of some sort, whip out the calipers and measure it before anno, when stripped, and after anno.

[AcemanPB]

Originally posted by Smokee_2_7
AcemanPB,

Don't get me wrong, I would prefer to only do front peices or 2 peice designs, but you CAN do one peice barrels without messing them up. The inner bore is changed, but im almost positive thats its no where near as much as youre talking about. I'll see if i can't get some better numbers for us.


Carl

Yeah I'm just going from what I've heard, I thought it seemed like a little much too. Although most places that annoed that I've seen will not anno one piece barrels, but I'm still sure it could be done.

[Jðhñ]

When I anodized one of my barrels, I didn't have the means to polish the bore back to the way it was. So, I took a piece of delrin and used a lathe and took it down to .001 smaller than the bore of the barrel. I then froze the delrin the slipped it in the barrel and when it warmed up it fit VERY tightly in the barrel therefore keeping out the anodizing stripping solution and the anodizing bath acid. Neither chemical affected the delrin one bit. The bore of my barrel was just as it was and the outside is anodized a different color (inside is still black). I know this isn't the most preferable option but it worked for me.

[Kevmaster]

so you would be confident annoing four one piece barrels??

as long as you are confident and you think you can do it, ill trust you guys when you get my barrels....as long as the bore doesnt change by +/-.001...i'll be cool

[VanGogo]

Kev no guarantee on the .001 You have to know, that first it is stripped, which takes off 2-5 mil depending on the anodize layer. Hard (industrial) coat is thicker than decorative. Then it is reanodized which adds about 2mil thickness, unless you want silver then it it probably less than 1mil. All of this means very little to no change in size of the barrel bore. However, because of variations in aluminum, previous ano, etc I will not guarantee a specific change.
Also remember, paintballs vary in size and shape in the same batch, and they don't care what the caliper reads as long as it's a good match.

[Kevmaster]

oh, i know....i didnt think you would garontee it...

and if anything, they are going to get bigger?.... would it be possible to do it so, they get smaller if anything?