CRATEX Products for Gunsmiths - CRATEX Abrasives
This article is part of CRATEX Gunsmithing Tools series.
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CRATEX rubber bonded abrasives are made of high-quality silicon carbide and are perfect for operations like: removing rust from old firearms, removing trigger serrations, removing stretches, rounding edges, cleaning up worn or damaged pistol and rifle markings and engravings, polishing flash pan, bolts and feed ramps, smoothing surface and getting almost mirror finish, jeweling a rifle bolt or pistol barrel, etc.
CRATEX abrasives come in four standard grit textures which differ in color: Course (green), Medium (dark brown), Fine (reddish brown) and Extra Fine (grey green). However, there is also the possibility to modify standard shapes and grits and get a modified abrasive tool that fits your needs much better.
Below you’ll find some of the CRATEX products widely used as gunsmith tools and equipment.
CRATEX is by far the very best. I say this because CRATEX offers a vast variety of abrasive grits, types, and shapes to match my projects. The quality of the CRATEX products affords me the opportunity to provide my customers with the best quality product. Without the CRATEX products our work would be so much more labor intensive.
1. CRATEX Small Wheels
2. MX Abrasives
CRATEX MX abrasives are cotton-fiber aluminum-oxide laminate-bond products, which are much more aggressive than CRATEX rubber-bond abrasives. Their most prominent characteristics are the ability to hold shape and cutting action, so they are used for more aggressive prep work. MX abrasives are perfect for removing tooling marks left on parts from milling.
Recommendation: Use MX cone-shaped abrasives to remove marks and then use a fine rubber-cone for a smooth finish.
MX is perfect for removing tooling marks left on parts from milling. Feed ramps on pistols that have machine gouges on the ramps cause jamming. Use MX cone shape to remove marks and then polish with the fine rubber cone or hard felt with the right compound.
3. CRATEX Points & Cones
CRATEX abrasive points & cones are shaped and ready to use for polishing even hard-to-reach delicate firearm parts and angles. Easily carved, they are perfect to get into corners and rails. They can be used on a grinding tools for creating an even surface after metal removal jobs, like removing a revolver hammer spur, for working on the receiver to make the new bolt handle fit properly, for removing trigger serrations, for feed ramp work, for flare/fair ejection port work, throating the barrel, etc.
@tacticalchipmunk Once again it's @cratexsandiego products to the rescue. This #glock had all kinds of #damage where a previous coating had been scraped off. Well, with the help of a file, a knife, and a few #cratex points, it was smoothed out and prepared for #cerakote
Recommended: CRATEX Kit No. 777 – Small wheels, points and mandrels
This kit contains a total of 80 different tapered edge and straight wheels, and bullet and cylinder points plus two wheels and 2 point mandrels, separated in four compartments by each grit texture for easy selection. This way, you can have all the tools you need for polishing, smoothing, grinding and deburring work on your firearm in one place.
Recommended: CRATEX Kit No. 227 – Cones and mandrels
This kit contains 18 CRATEX Cones (tapered, cylinder, pointed and bullet cones) in two grits (coarse and fine) and two No. 1341 cone mandrels. Excellent kit for grinding and polishing work on pistol or rifle when you need to reach some hard-to-reach surfaces or spaces.
I have been using Cratex in my shop for over 15 years. It is the best I have found at putting a final finish on metal. It removes tooling marks and scratches and leaves a smooth professional finish. I use Cratex because my business depends on perfection.
4. CRATEX Abrasive Rods
CRATEX rods have various purposes in gunsmith work. One of the popular usages is jeweling a rifle bolt. The rifle bolt is mounted on machines like Jeweling Indexer or Wheeler Engineering Bolt Jeweling Fixture. The jeweling swirls are made by abrasive rods, which are placed in Drill Press Quill tubes. The bolt is then placed below the press, and rods are gently lowered down to touch the rifle bolt for a couple of seconds to create a jewel. The process is repeated for as many times needed to cover the entire surface of the rifle bolt.
@cratexsandiego in the shop! #gunsmith #whatisonthebench
Centerless CRATEX rods can also be used with Menck Damascening Tool that supports the whole length of the rod. Thanks to the extended design, this tool will allow jeweling around parts like firearm bolt handles or locking lugs. The abrasive rod has a close size control, a feature that will make the "swirls" always equal.
5. CRATEX Abrasive Blocks/Sticks
Abrasive blocks are an item that every gunsmith should own. Coarse grit silicon carbide blocks and sticks are great for removing material or sharpening tools, fast work when the fineness of the cutting edge is not so important. A beginner gunsmith should probably keep a distance from coarse grits and stick to medium or fine stones, which remove material smoothly and softly without digging into the surface. The extra fine grit can be used for putting a finish on firearm parts that are made from metal. Depending on the work, a gun smith can start with the coarse grit and work his way through the grits to the extra fine finish.
CRATEX also offers dressing blocks, which are important if you own a Grinder. Dressing blocks will keep the grinding wheel surface clean and square.
6. CRATEX Large Wheels
For every serious gunsmith, Grinder is one of the top must-have power tools, and CRATEX 6” large grinding wheels can make a perfect package in cases when you are doing cleaning, surfacing, polishing or grinding work. You’ll use this power tool and wheels every time you need to re-shape parts (like recoil pads), sharpen or modify your tools, shorten springs and screws, take off the rust.
Belt Sander is another power tool which is a money well spent. Besides the belt, the machine has a sanding wheel on the side, which is excellent for operations like sanding the rifle stock to fit recoil pads or for shaping them. Of course, a wide sander belt can also be used for stock sanding.
7. CRATEX Moto-Tool and Rotary Handpiece Attachments
Moto-tools are quite handy in a gunsmith workshop for doing a wide variety of small chores, and CRATEX tools are a perfect fit for Foredom or Dremel rotary machines. These tools allow you to mount a variety of different size of attachments suitable for engraving and polishing, mounting grinding stones, cut-off bits, etc.
As a gunsmith, you will certainly also need a small hand-held rotary tool. CRATEX offers a lightweight, stainless steel, high-quality and precision air tool called CRATEX Rotary Handpiece, which in combination with CRATEX abrasive and cut-off wheels, points and cones are used for precision grinding, cutting, finishing and polishing operations on firearms. The small power tool can be used for shaping stocks, modifying parts, cutting slots in screws, polishing internal parts, cutting off metal pieces and cutting holes in your firearms, etc.
CARTEX tools can also be mounted on rotary pieces of different manufacturers, like Dremel, Craftsman, Foredom, etc. in case that’s what you currently have in your workshop. But, if not, CRATEX Rotary Handpiece is a tool to invest in.
8. SPEDECUT Cut-Off Wheels
Spedecut resin-bonded abrasives are double-reinforced cut-off wheels with high tensile strength fiberglass layers on both sides that can be mounted on a hand grinder and used for grinding or cutting off firearm metal parts. For example, Spedecut can be used for making cuts in the receiver while working on de-milling of the trigger guard, cutting off hammer spur, cutting off existing bolt handle to later install a new one, or cut off inadequate factory bolt knobs to replace them with the ones that can provide faster operation.
