So I bought a blast cabinet and media, 40/70 and 80 grit glass beads.
I've got a couple m64's and a m65 that are finish challenged and need some attention. Before I jump in with both feet....
Any tips??
Thanks.

It's like how cut-out work is way more time consuming than broad areas in painting - you're going to want to spend way more time taping than blasting.

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And what would you tape?

If you are going for the S&W frosted finish you won't get it with those beads. You need 270 which are sold by Brownells. Those grits are ok for blasting rust off car parts but way too coarse for guns. I've doing it for over 15 years and have experimented with all sizes and types of media.

Don't contaminate your blast media by blasting carbon steel, then blasting your fine SS revolvers.

Best advice is to get some scrap steel and experiment with blast media and air pressure to figure out what look you want.
Appearance is determined by how aggressive the media is and how high or low the air pressure.
You most likely don't want an aggressive media since that will leave the metal way too rough and will wash out stamps and sharp edges.

Blast the frame with the side plate in place to prevent rounding plate or frame edges.

Also, as above, never blast stainless or aluminum in a blaster that's been used to blast carbon steel.
The pressure will embed carbon steel particles in the stainless or aluminum and it'll rust later.

Full disassembly is necessary, and so is deep cleaning later to get all the blast media out of every nook and crevice.
Needless to say, don't blast plated S&W hammers or triggers. Only the very early Model 60 and 66 had real stainless hammers and triggers. The later parts were flash hard chrome plated and blasting will strip the chrome off.

Seriously? Anything on what you're blasting that you don't want blasted or contaminated with blasting medium.

If this was a serious question, you sound as if you might be pretty inexperienced. If so, maybe you ought to watch a YouTube or something, or hang out with someone who's blasting for an hour or so.

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Make sure you wear the proper eye protection and a filter mask approved for the work you are doing and the media you are using. You don't want to inhale the very small particles of contaminants, metal and glass that will be airborne in and around the cabinet.....serious health and breathing problems can result.

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Ret. LE, FA Instr, S&W Armorer

I would pull the cylinder and all the guts. use earplugs to plug the barrel at each end. put the sideplate back in place and tape over the openings for the trigger, hammer, cylinder stop,firing pin, thumbpiece, and hand.Also where the mainspring goes up into the frame. Some of those larger openings I'd use newspaper balled up tight and jammed into place. Also mask off the yoke cut. Remove the cylinder assembly & mask both ends of the cylinder after removing the extractor. Plug both ends of the extractor hole in the yoke.
Whew-- makes me tired just thinking about it! Probably why I haven't followed through and done it, as I've been thinking about bead-blasting one of my model 36's and matte blueing it using oxpho. Already did the cylinder due to massive blue damage and it came out good. I've also thought about blasting my model 60 for a matte finish, but the bead-blasters I have access to have been used for steel parts so I'd have to buy new media and make sure there wasn't any of the old stuff in there. PITA so I haven't followed through on that either.
Lots easier to just think about it.

I would totally disassemble the revolvers and then fill the inside of the frame with heavy paper to keep the grit from bouncing around inside. Put the side plate and screws back on and make sure not to try and blast into the frame if you can. Disassemble the cylinder completely and don't bead blad the ratchet at all. Those surfaces are very important and need to be totally smooth. Use wood plugs that fit tight on both ends of the barrel. Don't blast the inside rotational areas of the crane either. Tape them off and plug the insides. Use the finer grit, 270 to 300 only. If you try your course grit and don't like it you will have just ruined the gun with no way to bring it back.

This picture is growing clearer by the minute, I thank you all for your comments. I'm perfectly comfortable inside a S&W revolver and will most likely have a go at it this weekend. Will keep you informed, probably should take some "before" pics too.

I always completely dissassemble any gun I am blasting and clean it in a ultrasonic cleaner first. That really gets out all the hidden gunk that will latch onto the media and give you fits trying to clean it out afterwards. As soon as I get the gun and parts out of the cabinet I spray them with brake clean and blast with compressed air. I still run a pipe cleaner thru all the small holes and will still get out a small amount of media. If you don't clean the gun first you will have a gritty feeling gun and more problems than you bargained for. What the other fellows said about isolating your media for stainless guns only is true. I have never plugged the barrel since the 270 beads are not very agressive and unless you spray directly down the barrel you are not going to do any damage. Also don't worry about keeping the sideplate on since again you don't need to direct the spray into the action and you won't round off any edges with the proper beads. Have fun with it, it's very satisfying to take a scratched gun and give it a new look.

Would 270 grit beads be the right size for S&W metal semi-autos as well as revolvers?

John?

John, the answer is yes the 270 beads work for both revolvers and semi-autos.

Thank you, terrancemc!

John

Got the test gun done today. I broke the gun down completely and then went to work on the bad scratches with 600 grit wet/dry paper. I see now that prep is everything. I taped off what I didn't want to blast but won't do that again. No need to.
@90psi and with the smallest nosle, a 13 I think, it didn't take too long. Maybe 30 minutes total blasting time.
Not perfect but I see now how to do the next one.

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Here's the other side.

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Looks superb in the snaps. Well done.

This tip might be a little late, but save some money and use white play sand for blasting. 3 to 4 dollars a bag and get the same finish!

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Stang1911

Oh, heck NO! Sand is nothing but very small ROCKS! Way to course and abrasive for a fine handgun finish. A good way to destroy the finish, especially if you get in near the forcing cone, muzzle, front or back of the cylinder and on and on.
canvsbk, you did a superb job on your Smith.

No sand for me either, unless I wanted a VERY coarse finish. I don't. I've used various media, but mostly the Brownells 270+ glass beads to get that very fine silvery finish. Even the Brownells "FINE" grade of aluminum oxide gives a much grayer flat matte finish to metal surfaces than the 270 glass beads. This Colt has not led a sheltered life and I have refinished it more than once. The 270+ glass beads at about 65 psi produced the finish shown...

Your revolver turned out very well.

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