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A few weeks ago at a location I wish not to disclosed, there was a "gunsmith" cleaning a pistol in the front lobby area. He was using a dremel with what it appears to be a stainless wire wheel to clean the entire gun. I wonder how much damage he did to that 1911.

I would think you would want to disclose the location as a warning to the rest of us.

Dan

Maybe he was doing some custom polishing!

You would be surprised to see what gunsmith's do to guns.....notwithstanding that they look great when finished!

It's best that most gunsmith's shop areas are outside the public's view.

dremels have a bad reputation...

believe it or not a felt wheel and a wire wheel on a dremel make quick work of cleaning and polishing...

in the wrong hands that combination = ruined finish and bad fit
dremels are great (when you know what you're doing)

I use felt wheels and brass wire wheels to routinely clean my .45 and my wife's 9mm. Really more the wire wheel than anything. In fact my dremel has actually buffed out scratches put in by my holster and normal wear. The wire brush is especially useful for getting those pesky buildups around the opening of the barrel near the feed ramp. I seem to get a lot of gunk there after a range run.

That being said, my guns are all stainless steel finish. I'm not sure i would trust a wire brush on another finish.

Using a dremel has cut my gun cleaning time in 1/2 :)

I used to work for a jeweler, and there is a finess to using a power polisher and wire wheel. I have seen him use a really fine wire wheel to polish expensive jewelry. A lot depends on the speed of the wheel, type of bristles, the metal they are polishing and mostly the skill of the person doing the work.

There are also nylon bristle brushes for Dremels that kinda look like a wire brush, but do not scratch very much. They will break through crud pretty well. They may leave some really small brush marks in a stainless finish, but a good hand rubdown with Flitz and they are gone.

Keith B wrote:I used to work for a jeweler, and there is a finess to using a power polisher and wire wheel. I have seen him use a really fine wire wheel to polish expensive jewelry. A lot depends on the speed of the wheel, type of bristles, the metal they are polishing and mostly the skill of the person doing the work.

There are also nylon bristle brushes for Dremels that kinda look like a wire brush, but do not scratch very much. They will break through crud pretty well. They may leave some really small brush marks in a stainless finish, but a good hand rubdown with Flitz and they are gone.

Yep, that is very true. There is a certain amount of skill involved but i think it's mostly about using the right wheel. I've never seen those nylon brushes but those would work very well on delicate gun work.

LedJedi wrote: I've never seen those nylon brushes but those would work very well on delicate gun work.

Here is the link to Dremel and their polishing brushes
It does a great job for the next to last step in polishing feed ramps (last step, Flitz on a felt polishing wheel!!!!)

george wrote:Well,

as long as it's just a 1911 or a Glock, no harm done.

Well, George, what guns WOULDN'T you clean with it? Enquiering minds want to know!

george wrote:But, wouldn't let you close to my Pythons with a Dremel.

Python ... Dremel? Them's fightin' words.

george wrote:
But, wouldn't let you close to my Pythons with a Dremel.

OK, you may have a point there!

I don't claim to be anything like a skilled gunsmith, but I have used my Dremel(s) on just about every gun I have ever owned, including polishing the CVA flintlock Kentucky Pistol kit that my kids gave me a bunch of years ago. I did ALL of the polishing on that kit with the Dremel, and let me tell you the barrel was covered in tool marks, and by the time I was done it was mirror smooth. I used an old old bluing recipe that I found in a turn of the 20th Century high school chemistry text and got an amazingly deep, nearly black, finish with no blemishes.