Sanding the tubes

[avbill]

Cant find the thread that was talking about sanding the brass tubes. Well today i painted the barrels and the brass tubes were tight so I put the tube on the lath and sanded them down to fit the diameter of the painted barrel!

That's one good reason to sand there tubes George!

 

[Gary Beasley]

Reverse painting the blanks? My son tells me rifle cleaning brushes on the inside before the painting is far superior, removes drill marks and enlarges the hole a bit to compensate for the paint thickness.

 

[Ted iin Michigan]

Another way (that I use) is to wrap an appropriately sized rod with 220 grit sandpaper and use that to "ream" the tube. I use disassembly rods (transfer punches) from a PSI set, but you can pick them up other places as well. This also removes gunk from the inside of the blank which then doesn't mar the paint job.

 

[sbell111]

I prepare my tubes using a tiny sanding drum on a foredom tool. If the hole is too tight for painted tools, I take a sanded tube and run it through the hole in the blank. The sanded tube acts as a perfectly sized file easily opening up the drilled hole the tiny bit necessary.

 

[JD Combs Sr]

I have a full set of drill bits(fractional, letter, number, and metric) If I think I will need to paint a tube or blank I got to the next larger drill size and everything fits fine after painting both the tube and the blank.