Getting the action parts

[Susan Kline]

At 05:56 PM 5/6/2002 -0400, you wrote:
>Hi Susan. What are the drawback that you might know of regarding blasting 
>an action with glass beads? I should point out that I would only 
>contemplate doing so with the action dissasembled.
>
>Terry Farrell

Hi, Terry

Well, as you're aware, if you blast the action assembled, the beads wedge 
EVERYWHERE.

If you dismantle the whole thing, you're already into a lot of work. Now, 
the beads
will do a lovely job on all the metal, like the backcheck wires -- but if 
you have
a Schwander action with tired little threads holding the hammer springs, 
the threads
may give up the ghost. Ditto old flaky bridle tapes, of course. And the 
blasting
will etch the wood. It'll be clean, but have little ridges, worse on 
softwood like
keys, of course. As I've mentioned, compressed air will tear the damper 
felt, and
of course, blasting with beads may not only tear it but fill it with beads 
as well.
Tired old spring punchings or anything moth-eaten may just fall out or 
disappear. Of
course, you'd want to replace these anyway, so that may be a benefit.

Also, the filthier parts are, the more junk gets mixed in with the beads, 
which
need more filtering and clog up the gun more.

And one must figure the time involved. How much is pretty and clean worth?

Not disabling problems, of course, and using a fairly low pressure helps.

Susan Kline