electro polishing stainless steel barrel inside and out

[apakesha]

Has anyone ever done electro polishing of a stainless steel barrel? I manufacture 303 stainless steel bleeder screws and have had them electro polished. They come back looking like they were chrome plated. We ended up polishing them by hand on an 18" buffing wheel using rouge because it wasn't cost effective considering the numbers that we manufacture.
The process is reverse plating. Instead of depositing plating it removes a minuscule amount of metal from the surface smoothing the surface to a chrome like finish. Anybody try it?

 

[jonbearman]

That sounds very interesting for gun parts but doing it to a barrel might ruin it or maybe it will improve it.If you had a donor barrel for say a 10-22 which is cheap,you could try it.

 

[Eddie Harren]

BlackStar Barrels.

 

[dmickey]

I don't think that a brightly polished barrel would be a good idea! In bright sunlight it would be blinding!

 

[butchlambert]

Eddie,
You are correct, Deathstar barrels. They didn't last long did they?

 

[apakesha]

I have a used 222 rem mag ss barrel that could be a good candidate for electropolishing. I'm going to contact the company below which is about 1 hr from where I live and see if they would give it a try. I'm particularly interested in doing the bore and chamber if it can be done. From looking at the samples that they have it looks promising.
I know it makes a difference on who does the electropolishing. The solution that they use is a combination of sulfuric acid with other chemicals. It is a proprietary mixture. I had one company supply me with a sample and the finished part was a mat finish. Then I had a sample from Able and it was like night and day. Looked like chrome.

http://www.ableelectropolishing.com/electropolishing.htm

If nobody tries something new where would we all be?

“Everything that can be invented has already been invented.”
- Director of the U.S. Patent Office, 1899

 

[Eddie Harren]

Butch, good one "Deathstar". I like that.

 

[necchi]

Somehow, removing a minuscule amount of metal from the surface of the rifling inside the bore doesn't sound like a good idea too me,

Just sayin,,

 

[lpreddick]

an extremely , highly polished rifle bore may not be a good thing. a very slight "roughness" to a bore may allow the bullet to slide and glide thru it with minimal drag. extreme contact between bullet and bore might create a lot of drag and worse...avulsion of copper from the jacket and copper fouling. many guns won't shoot until a few "fouling" shots...what's happening ? is that slignt bit of material left in the bore actually acting like microscopic ball bearings allowing the bullet to "roll" down the barrel? very simplistic, i know, but two extremely polished surfaces coming in contact with each other seem to cold bond. an observation..i onced highly polished some bullets and the inside necks of some cases. seated bullets(like going into butter). shot them and WOW! velocities all over the place and signs of pressure. saw on this site that "cold bonding" was the problem. did what was suggested...seat a bullet 5 or 10 thous and POP, a very noticeable breaking of the 'bond". i now very slightly brush the inside of necks, leaving a little stuff. an interesting concept.

 

[Larryh128]

Why do we have hand lapped barrels that go down to about 2500 grit smoothness?? We remove material from the grooves & lands during lapping & probably more than what he's talking about. I certainly would try it on a barrel of known accuracy & velocity so you can do a comparison. I SUSPECT that there are a couple companys that already use this method of polishing. The is a relatively inexpensive european import that has about the best high polish blueing (consistant). The interior of their barrels are also really nice so either they have 10 cent an hour labor or they are utilizing a chemical polish. The amount of polish that they will be doing, you couldn't measure with the normal calipers & mics.

 

[KevinThomas]

apakesha,

I used a couple of the Blackstar barrels back when they first hit the market, and was stunningly unimpressed with them. The whole micro-polishing process was their claim to fame. A couple of things to remember here; whatever warranty the iriginal barrel maker may have attached to that barrel goes right out the windo when you do something like this. Blackstar was getting their barrels from Ken Johnson (K&P Barrels, then in Raton, NM). Very nice singfle point cut rifled barrels, which were then given the Blackstar polishing treatment. In speaking with Ken, he once made the comment that "those aren't my barrels. They're my barrels when the leave the shop here, but as soon as they start altering things, they're now Blackstar barrels, not mine." I have one of Ken's barrels on a silhouette rifle, and it's an outstanding performer. as I said, I used a couple of the Blackstar barrels, and I wouldn't have spent my own money on them. They didn't live up to their claims, and certainly were no improvement on Ken's "as-issued" barrels, which were quite good.

There's also an issue of fouling involved here. If they do put a real mirror finish on the interior of the bore, I can almost guarantee you, the thing will foul like a nightmare. Others have already pointed this out, and I'm in full agreement with them. I don't think you're likely to gain anything from this, and there's some potentially serious downsides involved. I'd steer clear of this one.

 

[butchlambert]

Larry,
The majority of the upper tier barrel makers lap to 320 grit. A highly polished bore will copper foul.

 

[Larryh128]

Good to know.

 

[Ing. Michael W. Mayerl]

Has anyone ever done electro polishing of a stainless steel barrel? I manufacture 303 stainless steel bleeder screws and have had them electro polished. They come back looking like they were chrome plated. We ended up polishing them by hand on an 18" buffing wheel using rouge because it wasn't cost effective considering the numbers that we manufacture.
The process is reverse plating. Instead of depositing plating it removes a minuscule amount of metal from the surface smoothing the surface to a chrome like finish. Anybody try it?

Learning by doeing. Test it - it sounds interessting but I don`t know if it`s necessary because barrels have a very smooth surface inside.
The break in could be reduced.