need help polishing my mag

[selfdestruct]

I'm trying to polish my mag to match the valve. I used 220, 300, and 400 wet/dry then some 600 steel wool like metal polish. I have'nt put the finish on yet. What else should i use to make it as shiny as the valve? ive included a picture.

[personman]

get higher grade. get 800, 1000, and 2000,

[J]

I recommend starting over again, it looks like you didn't sand enough with your lower-sandpaper. I'd say sand it with your 220 more, till its really shiney(well not too much), then sand the grooves out with the higher stuff. I shined mine, and I stop with some finishing sandpaper and it was as shiney as the reg.

[selfdestruct]

how high of sandpaper did u use? also how hard should i apply this sandpaper?

[J]

I used 220 in the begining, then I wet-sanded it up to 520-600 I think. Most people I believe go higher, but thats as high as I could fine and it looked alright to me. Sand kinda light with your 220, make sure there is no gray left. If you sand too hard you'll just work harder later to get the grooves out, so it won't hurt if you do it too hard. Good luck.

[Thordic]

I've polished my body and KaiserBobs. Its pretty simple.

They got it right. I started at 320 and went up to 2000. Spend a good 5-10 minutes at each grit. 320, 600, 800, 1000, 2000 seems to work pretty well. Go to the autobody store for the high grit stuff, and get wet/dry paper. Sand the body in a basin of water. You don't need to keep it submerged, but keep drunkin it to keep it wet and clean.

When you are done with the 2000 grit, it should look nice and shiny. Then you want apply a polish. I use Mothers Mag Polish. Anything made to polish rims should work, autobody store has this stuff as well.

Every few months you can scrub the gun real good and re-polish it. If that doesn't work, you can give it a light re-sanding with 2000 grit to renew the shine.

It won't get to be the same color as the valve, the body will always be a little darker, but you can get it nice and shiny by this method.

Your arm will be really tired when you are done sanding though :)

Heres a tip - when you are doing the high-grit sanding, roll the sandpaper into a tube around the gun, and roll the gun against it so you sand it all at once around the body. You just kinda twist both hands against each other, turning the body and the paper. I hope you understand that :)

[personman]

I just ripped off a small piece big enough to go all away around the body, and cupped it in my hand, and just rubbed my hand everywhere.. as for the powertube, I used a small piece..

[athomas]

I polished my main body:

1. start with 320 grit
2. next with 600 grit
3. finish with chrome polish

My mag body is like a mirror. I wish I had a digital camera, I'd take a pic to show it off.

[personman]

I diddnt use the chrome stuff, so mine looks metallic.
This guide was real helpful to me:

http://home.houston.rr.com/paintballkingz/polishing101.htm

This is what mine looks like
http://www.angelfire.com/darkside/superfluffypancakes/DCP01133.JPG
dang flash

[Thordic]

Oh, and I'd skip the steel wool. All thats gonna do is scratch it up.

[selfdestruct]

thanks everyone! ill leave pictures of it as soon as i get the higher grade sandpaper.

[boss_automager]

Here you go step by step:

1.Go to Rite Aid
2.Buy their sand paper kit,I think it's 8 dollars.
3.Pick out the finest grain there and rub it down.

I did this with mine and it looks great!

[FatMan]

Sanding

The general rule of thumb when sanding ANYTHING is to continue to use a grit until further sanding produces no additional smoothness/shine.

Once you get the bead-blast finish of the standard mag you can see little concentric lines in the steel where the tubing was made. If you want GOOD shine, you need to get those OUT with the 220 grit, and that will take you MUCH more than 5 minutes. The 5 minute approach will get you a dullish, darkish shine. If you do it right, you can see yourself in the body like a mirror. I have spent several hours working on mine.

What I have done is first sanded the body lengthwise until the concentric marks are gone. Then sand around the body until the lengthwise marks are gone, then move to the next higher paper and repeat. I spent about 2 hours with the 220 - the higher grits didn't take as much time. In the end you will get the same finish as the valve OR BETTER!

I have seens quite a few polish jobs and there is a distinct difference between those who REALLY polished it out and those who just took off the old finish and shined it up. From the look of your photo, I'd say that is what's going on with you.

If you go ahead and polish up to the higher grits before you finish with the lower grits, you will get a very smooth surface and a nice shine, but the underlying color will be kind of dull and gray - and you can see the original manufacturing marks. Getting rid of that is done in the FIRST step - and it takes lots of work and several sheets of sandpaper.

Good luck!

FatMan

[pumpamatic]

I find that a wire wheel on a dremel speeds the process greatly. I still had to use sandpaper and polish to finish, but it helped a lot.

[FatMan]

Wire wheel

Actually, I didn't have very good results with a wire wheel. I found it tended to burnish the steel and leave a less than satisfying result. Worked great for getting the bead-blast finish off to start, but to get the finish I want took sandpaper.

Don't know about with a dremel tool. Maybe a finer brush or with a lower speed than my bench grinder.

FatMan