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heat up and bend Stainless steel slide racker?


Shmella

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Ive seen slide rackers bent up to clear fingers/thumbs but ive only seen it with aluminum ones. Can a Brazos Zig racker be bent up without really messing it up in the process? I have a zig racker on my open gun and I occasionally clip my thumb nail. Could I just heat this thing up with a torch and put it in a vice and bend it a little? I dont want to Heat stain this thing I dont really know what to expect if I hit it with a torch. I know from past experience that trying to cut stainless with a torch doesnt really work like regular steel.

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Make sure you clamp the dovetail in the vise so you don't put any bend or radius in the flat of the dovetail or you'll have to spend a lot of time refitting or flattening that back out.  Though if the the racker is loose at all this would tighten it up again.

 

it will go black or yellow, blue, etc depending on how much carbon is in the heat your using and how quickly you can get that heat into the part.  It can all be sanded, blasted, or polished out without issue.  At some point that metal was red hot in its creation and formed, you'd just need to redo it

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1 hour ago, drewbeck said:

Make sure you clamp the dovetail in the vise so you don't put any bend or radius in the flat of the dovetail or you'll have to spend a lot of time refitting or flattening that back out.  Though if the the racker is loose at all this would tighten it up again.

 

it will go black or yellow, blue, etc depending on how much carbon is in the heat your using and how quickly you can get that heat into the part.  It can all be sanded, blasted, or polished out without issue.  At some point that metal was red hot in its creation and formed, you'd just need to redo it

ok thanks. I planned on clamping down the dovetail part for the reason described. Im gonna give it a go after work. I have an acetylene torch at my work place along with a vice, I'll bring a plastic or brass hammer and give it a few taps. Wish me luck.

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the plastic (probably melt) and brass hammer will need to be a heavier one or you'll have to beat it pretty good and it won't be very controlled movement.  I use a ball pein (which will dent it) to flattend or make tight bends but found that a descent size crescent wrench works well for this type of bending.  

 

Tighten it so its snug against whatever portion you're bending and you'll be able to get torque on it without marring anything.  You can also twist the racker as needed just use it like a wrench.  Any other visegrip type pliers would work but may mar it pretty good.

 

You won't need acetylene if you just have a plumbers torch, propane, map gas, etc it will be fine.  It'll be easy to overheat it with oxy/acetlyene so don't go overboard.  Also, I wouldn't quench it in water to cool it, let it cool slowly so you accidentally harden it too much and make it too brittle.  

 

Bottom line, is that if it's hot and you can get a decent grip on it, it won't take much effort to bend it how you want it

 

 

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