Bolt jewelling

[Sisco]

I want to give jewelling the bolt on my Ruger 10/22 a try. Ordered a set of brushes from Brownells, plan on using 400 grit valve grinding compound.
Right now I'm trying to figure out how to build an indexing jig to get the spacing even. Came up with a couple of ideas just haven't tried them yet.

Couple of questions;
How much presure does the brush need against the bolt? (using a drill press)

How much overlap should there be on the swirls on each row? Same amount of over lap between rows?

 

[Traveler]

I hate using a drill press for that job. Use a mill. That way you know that the distance you move in any direction (for overlap) is repeatable, every time.

The distance between each move should be no less than 1/2 the total diameter of each circle of polish. You will need to practice this to get down, and you should make sure your brush is broken in prior to doing the actual job. (If you don't you will find the circle diameter will start to vary during the job, which is not attractive).

Work the long direction of the piece, and make sure that you finish where the last point is not going to be visable when the part is exposed.

 

[Randy in Arizona]

Just use a piece of scrap steel to practice on to chose the amount of overlap, line spacing, length of time and pressure on the work piece.

From what I recall from jewelling the bolt of one of my 10-22s time per spot is only a second or two, much more time to move the workpiece.

IF you do not have some type of jig for the process, get a cheap compound motion vise from a tool supply. All you need is about 3" X&Y axis movement. The setup for round bolts is much more complex.

I found a cheap one at: http://www.toolscomplete.com/v/Vises/Cross_Slide_Vise_24401.htm

 

[Mike Irwin]

A guy I worked with at NRA build himself a jig for this. Simple affair.

For spacing he used...

Quarters.

They are extremely uniform in thickness, and gave him the spacing that he wanted.

 

[Sisco]

Mike
The idea of using quarters sounds interesting.
Since I'm on a tight budget maybe I'll use nickles though.