polishing underside of slide rail

[brian45acp]

I have been seeing posts about polishing the rail which drags along the top round of the mag. It was also suggested to break the edge near the breech face.

My question is how to do this and what I should use. I would assume the wet/dry paper should be wrapped on something that is flat so that rail is evenly polished. All I can think of is some sort of thin stick or using the non cutting surface of my triangle file to wrap the papper around.

Any tips how to do this?

[andrewtac]

I used wet dry and a paint stir stick for the flat edge.

[andrewtac]

Also jewelers file to break the edges.

[Quack]

I use stones

[burningsquirrels]

to polish i used jewelers rouge amd a soft bit on low rpm amd light pressure amd worked carefully and slowly. to break the edge i have some needle files i put 200/400 wetdry sandpaper around.

[brian45acp]

what grit wet/dry paper shoudl I use for this?

I dont want to screw anything up so is there any tricks I need to know about?

The edge on both my SP-01's has an odd looking chunk of metal missing. It looks like it was part of the cutting process of the slide but I am not sure why. I figured polishing would help soften and sharp edges. For breaking that edge I imagine just the same wet/dry paper would be good enough if I fold the paper and sort of drag it back and forth over the edge.

Just a polish wheel I dont see how you could possibly do this evenly across that long rail. It would have to be something the same width and work it front to backusing even strokes.

I do have some fine stones that came with a Spyderco knife sharpeneing kit. The white stone is nice and smooth for a finish edge on a knife.

Edited April 19, 2015 by brian45acp

[cnote]

Sound to me like the edge has already been worked over

[andrewtac]

The chunk missing is probably machining. Break the edges with a stone or small file. Then work up with the wet dry. I go 600, 1200, 2000 then polish if I can get the dremal in there. I use a plastic putty knife to hold the sandpaper also a paint stir stick. It will work well on the long flat piece.

[brian45acp]

The machine cuts are sort of like angle cuts in the forward part of that rail.

Worked fine I had 2 triangle stones one more course and he other fine. I used those to break the edge a bit more then the 1500 paper in my finger along the rail. At the ends of the rail I held a strip of paper and ran it back and forth to finish off.

It came out great and with the barrel out and the slide on I sort of worked the slide back and forth with a mag and some rounds in it. I was able to tell a significant difference before and after. Now the rounds don't move or very slightly so I should be good.

I also noticed on all my CZ the seat cage has an edge that when a mag is inserted the case rim hits the seat cage and bobbles the round. I did e same and broke that edge and polished it. Now the case rim hits but passes right by.

[brian45acp]

I have another question. These guns have me paranoid about damn taper pins. I measured the mag brake pin and it's not tapered so I didn't put it back in any particular way. I did notice though that this pin goes in by hand and the punch just pushes it right out. Basically the only thing keeping it from walking are the grips sandwiching the pin in the frame. Both my sp-01's are like this.

Is this supposed to be like that?

[Leadpilot]

Both of mine are that way too.

[brian45acp]

cool thanks.

I am always wanting to learn how to work on my guns and replace parts as needed etc. I may not understand how to upgrade them and modify but I at least want to be able to replace broken parts. I noticed little quirks about each of these sp-01s. One right handed safety went in at 90 deg then rotated down and seated just fine the other gun not so much. I had to sort of angle out the detent and then rotate the safety down and push detent into position before installing the sear cage. I imagine a burr on something is all but I seemed to find the trick.

The 1500 sand paper made me feel comfortable not having the risk of over doing anything. I still was too chicken to polish any of the other suggested areas, lol. I hit the underside of the slide rail a little but not much and the barrel throat/ramp lightly all by hand. I figured 1500 cant possibly get me into trouble by hand but maybe as I become more comfortable with the gun I will upgrade it. I sort of wanted to prove a point and ran it at the USPSA match just stock and had no issues. 6 inch steel at 20yrds in DA with a stock trigger wasnt an issue but I am sure it could always be nicer if worked over. My point is that playing with the gun on the bench you can feel all kinds of trigger nastiness but in actual use I didnt have an issue.

Funny 1 of these guns has a black barrel and the other isnt. Also there are different markings on the slide of each as well. Not sure what any of it means but they arent identical in that respect.

[JayDee]

There is a great post on the CZ forum about this issue: http://www.czfirearms.us/index.php?topic=22862.0