Have any of you guys tried to sand and polish the optics cover plate?

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The coating on the optics cover on the PSA Dagger slide is the toughest finish I've ever seen. Trying to sand it with quality 180 grit sand paper, that only polishes it. It's not Cerakote, not KG Gunkote, not anodized nor any other finish I know of. I have no idea what the coating is on this cover. but would love to know.
It's stronger than the aluminum under it.
I can cut through the coating on the cover plate with a sanding drum bit on a dremel, but sanding with a dremel isn't ideal for polishing after.

I'll get the coating off the cover, even I have to use a belt sander, but does anyone know what this coating is?

The below picture is what I'm doing. The slide sanded as expected.. The optics cover has a super finish - I sanded the side edges of the optics cover plate with a sanding drum on a dremel.

psa.jpg
 
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JDean said:
The coating on the optics cover on the PSA Dagger slide is the toughest finish I've ever seen. Trying to sand it with quality 180 grit sand paper, that only polishes it. It's not Cerakote, not KG Gunkote, not anodized nor any other finish I know of. I have no idea what the coating is on this cover. but would love to know.
It's stronger than the aluminum under it.
I can cut through the coating on the cover plate with a sanding drum bit on a dremel, but sanding with a dremel isn't ideal for polishing after.

I'll get the coating off the cover, even I have to use a belt sander, but does anyone know what this coating is?

The below picture is what I'm doing. The slide sanded as expected.. The optics cover has a super finish - I sanded the side edges of the optics cover plate with a sanding drum on a dremel.

View attachment 17368
Click to expand...


I’d guess it to be black nitride. It’s applied using a thermal process. We got a slide from brownells with black nitride had to sand blast the coating off to polish it. That stuff is “stuck” on there really good.
 
I'd say glass-bead or powder blast it off? The Al underneath will polish to a different "color" than the SS the slide is made of, I'm guessing...

Why didn't you polish a non-optics slide, instead? :unsure:
 
Michele said:
I’d guess it to be black nitride. It’s applied using a thermal process. We got a slide from brownells with black nitride had to sand blast the coating off to polish it. That stuff is “stuck” on there really good.
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It might be black nitride.
It's the toughest stuff I've ever seen though.

Guys with dagger slides sand the underside of your optics cover/the hidden side with sand paper, to see what I mean. Don't worry, you won't even scratch it. 😮
 
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Bobster said:
I'd say glass-bead or powder blast it off? The Al underneath will polish to a different "color" than the SS the slide is made of, I'm guessing...
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I was thinking of belt sanding it, but probably will blast it. I have some other stuff to blast anyway, when this stupid rain goes away -my blasting cabinet's outside.
 
If its aluminum, blast it. Aluminum polishes up easy, if it's steal. sand it or chemical strip.
 
Nitride finish changes the chemical structure of the metal by forcing nitrogen into it. It is not easy to remove because it is incorporated into the surface increasing hardness, wear resistance, and corrosion resistance; the reason why steel is nitrided in the first place. It will not strip using chemical methods nor will it sand off easily, as the OP stated. Sand blasting is the optimal method because it removes the thin layer of the base metal which the nitride has been thermally attached to.
 
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I tried blasting today with aluminum oxide, and with enough time, could've removed the finish, but after several minutes of blasting, when I was doing the edges of the flat area it was distorting/rounding the aluminum, because the aluminum's softer than the coating, and it would be no use to me all deformed.
So I decided to try a different dagger optics cover plate and the black coating on this one came off in 15secs. It doesn't make sense why 2 plates from the same company would have such different finishes, but...

I'm going to keep this plate and have friends try to sand it. Maybe make some money, handing them 100 grit sand paper and betting them they can't hit aluminum in 1 min of sanding. 😆
plate1.jpg
 
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Michele said:
Nitride finish changes the chemical structure of the metal by forcing nitrogen into it. It is not easy to remove because it is incorporated into the surface increasing hardness, wear resistance, and corrosion resistance; the reason why steel is nitrided in the first place. It will not strip using chemical methods nor will it sand off easily, as the OP stated. Sand blasting is the optimal method because it removes the thin layer of the base metal which the nitride has been thermally attached to.
Click to expand...
The cover plate's aluminum.
I did a little searching, and it might be hard coat anodized. That's what google says is the hardest finish for aluminum.
 

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