Smoothing Out Edges of Shooting Line Hole?

[popgun pete]

Originally Posted by TriggerNJ

I just bought a bunch shafts so I have quite few to do. The majority of what I got has a large enough hole for chaffing tube and is well buffed out in comparison to some of the larger brand name shafts I have so that's nice.

I picked up some abrasive cord, grinding paste etc. and tested it out on few to see what was easiest. The abrasive cord works phenomenal. It's well worth the couple extra bucks. Very quick and easy to get a great smooth finish when you just have to get the hard edges off.

I got the 51 120grit @ .055''....little thicker may be even better but this worked fantastic.

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Mitchell+Abrasives

Great stuff, this should be a sticky for future reference.

[Mikel_24]

I have been doing this for ages. I leave all areas that might get in contact with the line, briddles, etc. mirror polished. This is what I do:

1.- Hold the shaft in a bench vice or something similar

2.- Use thin strips of worn out / broken abrasive belts from my belt grinder threaded through the holes and over the sharkfins. When the abrasive wears out, rip a new strip from the belt. Belts are better than sandpaper plies because the backing is textile instead of paper. Paper breaks too easy.

3.- Use a piece of dyneema embebed in polishing compound (the one I use for my knife sharpening strip). I tried once the valve polishing compound but the abrasives are too big and do not stay well in the cord. The polishing compound is wax based and it has the consistency of a crayon.

To polish the convex side of the sharkfins (the area faicing forward) I sometimes use the shop buffer with compound... but you need to be carefull as this tool has the tendency of grabbing the item being polished and launching it at Match 3 across the shop...

I rarely have to change briddles or shooting line because of being eroded by the shaft.

I hope this helps!

Mikel