Polishing the Ram- How to...

[Jakesak]

Polishing the ram:
First take out the ram. (if you dont know, post so we can tell you). Clean it off, see if you can take off the hammer connected to the rod. If so take it off and take off the treaded end on the ram. Next the rod will fall out or you will need to take it out. Clean off every thing. Take polish and make it shine. NOTE: if you have a dremal, this should be easy, put a attachment on and polish everything, it might get messy so do it in a can or box of sort. For polishing the inside of the ram, take a qtip and attach it on the dremal and go at it. Now you can polish the inside of the body if you want. What I did was take a large shochacbob(wooden stick about 1 foot long) and put a cloth at the end and polish the inside. Make sure you get all the stuff out before puting the ram back in. Now that you have it nice slice and shiny, put RED (thanks Blue ) loctite on the rod that connects to the hammer, put the hammer on. NOTE: make sure the rod is INSIDE THE RAM when loctiting it. let it dry. Put lube on it and put it back in. It should be a nice and smooth action.

[fishy]

When polishing the ram shaft, I find I have better luck grabbing the threaded portion of the shaft with a cordless drill, then using 1500-2000 grit sandpaper on it, *then* applying polish while still in the cordless drill. just another suggestion.

[usagi_tetsu]

I recently picked up Doc's (http://www.docsmachine.com) Tribal Ram/LPR Tool, and I gotta tell you, it's worth the money if you're going to own a Tribal for any length of time. The tines are sturdy and the whole tool fits nicely in your hand, and perfectly down the rear board space at the rear of the marker.

[Edwin]

I do the same as Fishy I grab the threaded portion with my drill chuck and sand 1000, 1500, 2000 (wet) then Polish on the lathe with a 8" buffing wheel. I need to invest in a good polishing setup but just haven't spend the money that I don't have anyway.

[Have Blue]

I just go right to the buffing wheel and don't sand - I worry about varying the diameter along the length of the shaft from sanding.

When polishing out the inside of the ram body, I chuck the body in the lathe and use a shotgun swab doused on polishing compound (mothers mag polish is what I think I have in the bottle) to make the inside smooth and shiny.

[Edwin]

Hey Blue, that Mag polish works pretty good. I just polished the inside of a LPRC last night and it came out all nice and shiny!!!

I used the lathe, mag polish, and a .45 cal swab.

[CrazyLemurBoy]

Ugh, I wouldn't use a drill chuck, try a lathe circular chuck and using a live center...