Polishing Charging Handle - AK-47

[paradox]

okay guys, 2 hours with the dremel got all the Duracoat off. i want to get it to a mirror finish, any suggestions?

Dremel felt wheel and jeweler's rouge (you can get it at any hardware store).

[Diablo]

It will not look as shiny as if you had it chromed when using the dremmel tool.

[chiefcrash]

if you're using never dull, it takes a while to get things shiney (i've only used it on brass though). Just scrub the hell out of it with the never dull, buff with a rag, lather, rinse, repeat.

[JHC]

If you just polish a Romy bolt carrier you may still have lots of visible scratches in it , they are usually pretty rough. You're probably going to have to smooth it out a bit with some ginding stones on your dremil before polishing.

[Pulsar]

To get it to a mirror finish get your self some good 220 grit and 320 grit sand paper. First start out with the 220 and work any scratches out of the metal, when the scratches are worked out and you have an even finish move on to the 320. The trick to getting a nice finish here is to remember to sand in a direction that is 90 degrees or so to the direction you sanded with 220. Work all the scratches out from the 220 till you have an even finish. If you've got really deep scratches you may need to get them with a file. Make sure your file is sharp, and that you clean it often with a file card. Remember that files only cut on the push stroke and if you try to cut on the pull stroke your just going to dull the file (unless it's a doublecut, but that's most likely too aggressive for this kind of work).

Now your going to need to pick up some buffing/polishing compound. Get a compound in the 320 grit area, and use one of the felt pads on your dremel or just use a buffing wheel if you've got the set up. Work all the scratches out from your sanding, once again remembering to go 90 degrees to the direction you sanded in with the 320 sand paper. By this point you should start getting a fairly shiny finish. Now it's time to move on to a new buffing/polishing compound, this time one around 600 grit. Make sure you use a different wheel for the compound than the one you used for 320, you don't want them mixing or you will be fighting scratches the whole time also make sure that you clean the part thoroughly before starting with the new compound. Once again work the metal 90 degrees to the direction you did with the 320 compound. Work all the scratches out from the 320 compound. Get it to an even finish. By this point it should be a pretty good mirror finish, and you can go further if you want, but usually 600 grit compound gets you a pretty damn shiny finish. If you want to go further I'd go to a 1000 grit compound and just repeat the steps above.

Oh make sure the compound you get is meant for wheels, they usually come in solid blocks.

These are the steps I go through to get a mirror finish on guns before blueing, and a 600 grit buffing compound gives me a better finish than anything from a factory (excepting the guns in the multiple thousands of dollars range). And you may not think a 600 grit compound would get you a mirror finish, but it gives you a finish that you can easily see your self in.

[Q]

get it chromed it shouldn't cost that much at all.

[ts]

update: looking better...