So, the Glock 21 long slide and other stuff came in today from Lone Wolf. I was thinking of something quick and simple for a finish like blueing. Anyone have any other ideas for an easy to apply finish? Also need to coat the compensator/brake.

You know the slide and barrel are stainless and don't need to be finished, right? If the slide gets scratched or scuffed, it's easy to erase the marks by bead blasting. The muzzle brake is plain steel though.

I don't think you can blue that stainless slide.

I think you have stainless as well.  In that case, if you want a "finish" that isn't shiny, I suggest Cerakote.

Degrease completely.  Sandblast lightly with 120 AO or coarser, but not finer.  Dunk in acetone, then boil for 15 minutes, then acetone again (extra,extra,extra sure no grease or oil).  Mix and spray with Cerakote according to directions.  Don't touch when it looks dry, cause it ain't.  Bake for 2 hours at 250 degrees F.  Very nice finish.

If is actually is steel:

Cheap/easy/aesthetic only
Cold blue is about as easy as it comes, but really provides 0 protection to the steel.

Less cheap/less easy/actual protection
Next easiest in my mind is parkerizing.  You need some acetone, parkerizing solution and two stock pots.  Thoroughly degrease the parts in the acetone, then boil them for 15 minutes in pot one in distilled water.  Then into pot two with parkerizing solution at 180-190 degrees F for 15 minutes.  Back to pot one to rinse well for a few minutes.  Hang to dry, then spray with WD-40, followed by the lube of your choice.  I like Johnson's Paste Wax for the final.  It isn't oily feeling, and really gets in the pores the parkerizing creates.

Some money/moderate difficulty/excellent protection
The ultimate.  Sandblast with 120 AO before the parkerizing tank. After the parkerizing solution and rinse, skip the WD-40 and final lube.  Instead, back to the acetone, then hang and spray with Cerakote and bake for 2 hours at 250 degrees F.  This assumes you are handy with an airbrush.

Quote from: sqlbullet on August 06 2012 03:05:51 PM MDT
I think you have stainless as well. 

The lone wolf slides and barrels are stainless. They don't make them from non-stainless steel.

EdMc, if you just want everything to match, you could leave the slide and barrel bare stainless, and coat the muzzle brake. You can get silver ceramic exhaust paint in an aerosol can from the auto parts store (I'll have to check what brand mine is) that is a fairly close match to bead blasted stainless. It's pretty tough stuff, once baked, and should last a long time even on a muzzle brake.

It is SS, but is 'different' from most stainless I've seen. A drab, dull sort of look........And no, I didn't know you couldn't 'blue' SS. Learn new things all the time.    A friend has a blast cabinet that I could use for bead blasting to see how that looks. I hadn't thought about that. I'll see if I can use it one day this week and see how it turns out. Let me know the color of the paint you mentioned for the comp. I need to keep it looking good for the half priced sale to you down the road. 

Also, I saw something about taking 0.020 off one pad of a 45 extractor to improve function with 10mm in a 21 slide. Anything to that?

Sqlbullet:
I'm interested in the Cerakote finish, but for a old P-38 I have. I've never seen mention of parkerizing before applying the Cerakote before? Seems like extra work and expense? I've mentioned before being somewhat lazy...and cheap.

The park pre cerakote isn't required.  But it does provide a harder and more porous surface for the cerakote to bind too.

It really only adds one step as well.  You still have to sand blast, thoroughly degrease spray and paint.  Parkerizing adds about 30 minutes of waiting time to the process.

Yeah, Ed, make sure you keep that thing looking good!  The exhaust paint is silver, but I'll try to remember to check the brand tonight. It's a real ceramic though; it will rub off on your hands before it's heat treated, afterwards it's tough as nails.

Lone Wolf probably used a pretty coarse abrasive blast that gave it a dull look. I use 80 grit glass beads in my bead blaster, that give stainless a semi-bright satin finish. One thing I've seen that looks good, is a bead blasted slide with ground or polished sides. After bead blasting, use a piece of 220 wet/dry paper on a piece of glass to give the sides of the slide a brushed or ground look. I use some laquer thinner on the paper for wet sanding. Or, you can do this before bead blasting, and mask off patterns on the polished surface. I've used this method to put flames on a stainless slide.

Edit: here's an example, I did this melt job and flames for a friend's carry gun, and refinished with bead blasting.

Not a big deal on the paint color. I looked at LW's site and the comp is Parkerized. I'll wait to see how the bead blasting turns out before I do anything to the comp. I used to have some stick of metal polishing stuff that I used with buffing wheel (bench grinder) to polish aluminum case covers on motorcycles. If I still have any I might try that on the sides of the slide or at least on the edges of the serration's.

Did you have an opinion of removing 0.020 off the 45 extractor pad?

Quote from: EdMc on August 07 2012 12:39:17 PM MDT
Did you have an opinion of removing 0.020 off the 45 extractor pad?

I guess I'd just shoot it first and see how it runs. I didn't modify the extrator in my 21 slide at all, and it functions 100% with 10mm.

Thanks, I'll leave it be. Nice work on the Kahr........did he have any trouble with breaking mag followers? I had to send my CM 40 back for the problem. And distorting recoil springs.

No, he hasn't had either of those issues. He and I both have CW40's; I chopped the grip on mine to take the PM40 mags, and it's been flawless from day 1, except with SWC target loads. His had an issue with rounds catching the slide stop with Golden Saber bullets, and it had some chrome plating flake off inside the barrel. Seems like the quality on these has gone downhill, mine is an older gun from 5-6 years ago and some parts are visibly different.

Quote from: EdMc on August 07 2012 07:33:19 PM MDT
Thanks, I'll leave it be. Nice work on the Kahr........did he have any trouble with breaking mag followers? I had to send my CM 40 back for the problem. And distorting recoil springs.

No doubt, on the mag followers (alignment stem breaks).  Call Kahr and they'll send you a couple (at a time), no questions.  The new followers I've seen don't appear to be improved, so get used to it.  Nice piece, but useless if you can't feed it.  I have enough single-shots.

Ed, just checked on that header paint, it is Duplicolor "High Heat with Ceramic, 1200*". Mine is "aluminum" color. I don't see it on their website anymore though, only the 500* stuff, don't know if it would work as well or not. I'd assumed they still make this stuff, but maybe someone else does now? The 500* stuff is listed as engine enamel, the stuff I have doesn't say, but really is header paint, not engine paint, and is tougher I think.

[quote author=DM1906 link=topic=326.msg4164#msg4164 date=1344399028

No doubt, on the mag followers (alignment stem breaks).  Call Kahr and they'll send you a couple (at a time), no questions.  The new followers I've seen don't appear to be improved, so get used to it.  Nice piece, but useless if you can't feed it.  I have enough single-shots.
[/quote]


I think it was caused by the feed ramp contacting the follower. Sent it back after breaking two.......seems they changed the radius on the bottom of the feed ramp. So far it hasn't broken any more of the followers. You're right that the replacements are of the same material.

A couple more dumb questions: Does the LW slide require the use of the Glock firing pin channel liner? 'Press fit' doesn't work well with plastic.

Which end does the fiber washer go on the SS rod? Under the screw or at the other end of the spring?