Cleaning up difficult areas on the under rib

[Dave B]

I know this is nothing new to some of you but to take what some one says about how they do some thing and turn around and apply that idea in a slightly different manor some time can yeld some good results. cleaning up the under rib around the ram rod pipes is a pain in the buttox. Two people had talked about using lead to lap with abrasive compounds the fine moldings on locks. John Bivins was one and our Jerry Huddleston the other but he liked to use a stone called tamashanter. It is soft enough to conform to the lock molding and allow it to polish out the chisel marks. We I went and put steroids to the idea. I have this old project that has been a thorn in my flesh and some I confess is a deep seated dislike for finishing out things using abrasives. It all ways shows your imperfections as you go. The Idea is to use the Stone that you find in the cleaning section of your grocery market. You use it to scrub out sinks and toilets that have mineral stains. If you use it on the under rib it will level out the machine marks and over flow solder, hard solder and general hard to get at spots. The more you work it the deeper it goes into the crevices. Here is what I am talking about. They are only a couple bucks and  so far it seems to do a good job. You have to be careful it also removes rod pipe wedding bands if not careful.









The stone wears down very quickly to form perfectly to the shape you are cleaning.  I was trying to use small sections of wood to back my 220 wet and dry to clean up the under rib and is was not working well then I got Jerry's words about cleaning up the moldings on a pisto lock he was working on. It will take the whole stone to do this one ribb but it made my job a lot easier. It does make a very big mess on your floor.

[FALout]

I just used 120 grip sandpaper then worked up from there.  I'll admit that getting that last bit of solder right at the joint can be difficult.  From the pic, it looked like a lot of scratches, did they clean up ?

[Dave B]

It cleaned up pretty easily.  Pumice dust is every where on the bench. It has its application but you still have to go back over the area to touch up the scour marks from the stone. I guess I like the fact that the whole surface his now textured the same, crevices and all in only a couple passes. I like any thing that speeds up the sanding process. I hate having to sand any thing.

[greybeard]

I have done a few bouble guns and a few rifles in my time and after I think it is done \\i use a qtip with cold blue and go over all the seams. If cold blue does not take is because some solder is present. Shows you where a bit more removeng of solder has to be done.
    Easier to do it now than to find the streaks show when you are 30% into the browning job.
I know this works. How do I Know?
        Bob

[flehto]

When doing Hawkens, I use a small scraper made out of Xacto blades....gets in the seam nicely......Fred

[P.W.Berkuta]

Dave B -- It's worth a try 

[shortbarrel]

I use a piece of  hard .0625 sheet brass about 1 inch wide and 4 inches long, with one long side filed pointed.  You will have one end rectangular and the other end rectangular, but with a V on it, Use the rectangle end to  take off most of the solder, the V end to get down in the crevis. File the ends often to keep sharp corners. Cold blue it and take off what solder remains. I usually use a soft wire wheel to make sure I got all the solder.

[Dave B]

Shortbarrel, I am not sure if I understand what your v incompasses. Is the  V referring to the Knife edge along the rectangle end 1" or the 4" edge? Could you post a picture?

[Acer Saccharum]

you can take the stone to a belt sander, thin it down so it doesn't hit the rr pipe.

[Dave B]

Exactly, I was going to try cutting the bar into sticks so I could focus the area to be cleaned. One of the Journal of historical Gunmaking had a translation from the German about how things were done. The text describes the process of using a stick charged with abbrasive that used a foot strap to multiply the force of the action of the charged stick. The leavings of the pumice could be put to use in this manor I should think. Sounds like an interesting experiment.

[shortbarrel]

Dave, the V is filed on one of the 4 inch sides. You can use both ends for scraping, just turn it around when one gets dull and use the other.  Keep the ends filed square and sharp.

[Dave B]

Thanks Shortbarrel,
Years ago I was shown how the bras scraper could be used to get rust of a blued surface and not mar the blue. I have used a small one for just that purpose but for cleaning up the solder is a great idea.

[shortbarrel]

Greybeard and Bob know the blueing trick too. I would like to ad to this trick. Some cold blues will turn solder a deep grey, almost black. Shine up the solder you are going to use and blue it, if it turns grey, try another cold blue.  cheers DICK