Really nice work! Now with this stuff you are able to use wood working tools?
Yep.
- Table saw, Chop Saw, drill press, belt sander, etc..
Delrin is pretty easy to work with. It's really hard so you have to go slowly if you are ripping it on a table saw. It's seems to me about as hard as Maple, Beech, etc. but not quite as hard as Ebony. I used a standard combination blade on my table saw and chop saw. Using a finer tooth blade would just melt the stuff I think. Also it will melt if your drill speed is too fast.
I used a belt sander to shape the radius areas on my first couple of prototypes. The last one I made, I used a radius router bit for my Dremel and it worked really well.
The Delrin sands and files really well also. Same idea behind sanding wood, start out rough, progressively get finer.
The Delrin takes to sandblasting well also. If you don't have access to a sand blaster / air compressor, no worries. I got an aerosol sand blaster from a local Michael's craft store. It's basically a replaceable air can, and a plastic attachment that holds the blasting media. The kit costs ~$45. It will work in a pinch for small jobs. Obviously it's not something appropriate for mass production. A higher pressure, real sand blaster and an appropriate stencil could be used to approximate the ridges stamped into the surface of a real AR dust cover. By applying a stencil to the face of the cover and blasting away areas that are not the 'ridges' you will be left with an approximation - if you get my drift. I've used this technique on 1911 pistol grips to add logos and grip textures not possible by checkering.
I know you didn't ask about my magnet, but I ordered mine at
http://www.kjmagnetics.com/. They sell tons of different sizes, shapes, colors (i.e. black).
Hope this info helps in your endeavor.
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