[High Hat]

Not long ago a fellow posted he thought he had a problem with his new op rod spring guide. It turned out he had some burrs inside the op rod dragging on the spring. Has anyone else run into this and what tool did you use to polish the inside of the tube?
Thanks,
High Hat

 

[Ted Brown]

Burrs?

A little shooting and it will smooth right out.

 

[Sweeney]

If it were me I would run a ream down the hole. Short of that, an abrasive drum.

 

[BrokenVet]

I've used green Scots brite pads to polish chambers, that should work on the op rod as well. But the expert said to shot it, then shot it often.

 

[7.62bthp]

I run a 410 bore brush down mine during cleaning, and scrub the hades out of it. I gotta tell ya though, Ted is right and a few rounds down range will smooth it out.

I have polished them though, I put a long brass rod in a drill and made a quick pass with 600 grit rolled on it and then looked for any offending shine of the burrs. Finished with a felt tip and red rouge. The inside of the bore will look like a mirror with no or minimal loss of metal or dimensional changes. Make sure your spring is clean, and use a Sadlak guide and your rifle will feel like its packed with butter when you cycle it. Heak, the Sadlak guide does most of that.

 

[sirtirithon]

That would be me, who had the problem.

Trouble was, with the tighter tolerances of the round Sadlak guide, the op rod spring was catching on the machining marks and a burr that was left in the op rod from the factory. Imagine what a coat zipper sounds like everytime you worked the action.

First I cleaned the inside of the op rod with brake cleaner and a bore patch on a cleaning rod to remove all of the grease. Then I used some sheets of medium to fine sandpaper rolled up around a small dowel to lightly sand out the burr and polish the inside of the op rod. I finished with very fine emery cloth. A small bright flashlight is essential to make sure things look good inside as you go. Then I cleaned it again to remove any dust, sand paper residue, etc. before reassembling.

I like 7.62's idea of using a felt tip and red rouge to finish. I bet that really does the trick for a perfect finish.

Nonetheless, my action is smooth as silk now with the Sadlak guide, some Superlube grease, and polished op rod interior.

I can't imagine just leaving it and shooting it smooth can be good for the op rod spring? I would think you could only benefit from polishing the burrs out of the op rod.