Toothpaste action/trigger job

[jsoukup]

I watched a show a few months ago about a SASS shooter who put a toothpaste action job on his Ruger Vaquero. Essentially, he smeared the internals with toothpaste, and sat on the couch watching TV working the action about a thousand times.

Anyone hear of this? I can understand working the action to smooth it out, but toothpaste? Could it be helpful or harmful?

[~Ace~]

Varies by brand, but it's a mild abrassive, and makes a fine Polishing compound. ~Ace~

[Lloyd Smale]

seems like less work to just pull apart the gun and polish the parts right. I would think that jamming a gun full of a grit would tend to not only take metal off places you want it removed from but also wear on things that dont need it or shouldnt have it done.

[Savage]

I agree with Lloyd. I don't like the idea of introducing an abrasive paste to the internals of a gun. Hopefully, he disassembled and did a through cleaning afterward. I have used lapping compound to lap the slide to the frame on pistols with good success. Of course I use it on a stripped gun and clean and lube thoroughly afterward.
Savage

[corbanzo]

Toothpaste is a really good polishing compound.  Same as above, don't know if I would want it all over inside my guns, but it makes sense to me. 

We use toothpaste and a sponge to make old lures shine like they used to.

[rockbilly]

I have used toothpaste, as well as a very fine automotive polishing compound for years to smooth out a gun.  Applied to the mating parts, and not all over the internal parts, it will smooth out surfaces and make the action smooth as silk.  When I was shooting competitively, I sat in my recliner for hours with a 1911 pulling the hammer back and releasing it, being careful not to dry fire.  After a while the actions "mates", and provides a much better let off.  I have also used it to smooth out a bolt action rifle.

You won't do your gun any harm with the toothpaste, just keep it to the mated surfaces you wish to alter.

[leverfan]

Yes, he cleaned out all the toothpaste from his Rugers after he was done.

Yes, he's won several major championships with those guns since then.

Not what I'd do, but it certainly worked for him, and his Vaqueros are still in fine shape.

[odoh]

Still, toothpaste is primarily sodium chloride?

Dunno but sounds like 'salt' to me ~ but then again, call me old fashioned.

[hemiram]

I've used toothpaste for years to polish things up, not guns, but other mechanical items, it works great for hinges that are "sticky", and Gleem toothpaste is great for taking scratches off of watch crystals, or radio displays. A tiny bit of water and your finger, along with a little dab of toothpaste can make a small scratch disappear, and a big one ignorable.

I also have used it to remove rust from radio knobs and rust from stainless trim on old electronic gear. In 30+ years of using it, the only negative is the minty smell it leaves behind...forever!

[Mikey]

OK, I can understand that toothpaste is a mild abrasive but in each instance mentioned, the shooter had worked the action significantly to smooth it out - i.e., sit in front of the tv and work the action for hours on end, sit on the couch and cock and release the hammer on my 1911, and so on.

Years ago, like about 40 or so, I was told that the graphite lubricant in the tubes that came in the rifle and pistol cleaning kits was supposed to do just that, and that if you applied it to the action or moving parts and worked the action back and forth for a couple of hours it would smooth things right out.  Of course it will, you're working metal against metal and eventually things will smooth out.  I wonder if it might work better using something like Crest Extra Whitening formula..........

I used to do this with my M19s, or at least those that needed 'smoothin'.  Now I do the same with molybidum or molybendum, er whatever it is and it works the same. 

Actually, I think it's a hoot to paste a piece but don't use Pepsodent and a Shoot'n'See target 'cause ya'll might wonder where the yellow went.............................. Mikey..................................

[odoh]

I'm old enuff to remember when graphite in lubricants was in vogue. Later, the Mil-STD OPRs for lubes (US Army as I recall) sent its engrs around to all the DoD depots to purge the stuff from the system and explain why. The why was it was erosive to some cast iron formulations. The stuff was disposed of and hit the surplus market which happily accepted it. In fact Mobil 1 was still being marketed w/graphite at this time. The general population didn't have a clue re a possible conflict. I wouldn't have known about it either had I not been involve in the resultant purging from inventory. 

In another forum a couple of yrs ago, someone was relating an experience of changing out the oil filter ~ said it was extremely heavy indicating (in his mind at least) that the wgt was accumulated graphite not making it thru the filter when actually it was probably a goodly portion of his Pontiac's block eroding away. We see what we see and draw our own conclusion/assessment whether right/wrong.

Another example was w/moly based lubes. Use on aircraft generator drive splines ~ it seemed a good idea despite the high failure/wear rate as seen on units coming back to the depot. Looked horrible ~ scaled rust/corrosion etc. But the engrs said it was the best. After too many yrs, our physical science lab figured out that moisture from flying in clouds/wx combined w/moly disulfide to create sulphuric acid ! Then some yrs later a shooting segment wanted us to put it in/on our guns??

Recall when the 220 Swift was king? ~ BUT it ate up the bores it was said. Culprit was described as the speed of the cartridge was hard on the barrels. It was so fast that it was felt that a graphite ball needed to be seated just at the base of the bullet (factory loads). 40 ~ 50yrs later, it was suggested that perhaps it was the erosive effect of the graphite. Too late, its label of a barrel burner stuck.

[BlkHawk73]

  I used toothpaste on my SP101 and it worked very nicely.  smoothed out the action great.

[Flash]

Recall when the 220 Swift was king? ~ BUT it ate up the bores it was said. Culprit was described as the speed of the cartridge was hard on the barrels. It was so fast that it was felt that a graphite ball needed to be seated just at the base of the bullet (factory loads). 40 ~ 50yrs later, it was suggested that perhaps it was the erosive effect of the graphite. Too late, its label of a barrel burner stuck.

The Swift barrel erosion was due to flame cutting down a .224 bore. There was literally too much powder to blow down a small tube and the flame cutting caused an extensive amount of "Free Bore". The bullet would never enter the lands the same way twice after the erosion and as a result, accuracy would suffer dramatically so in reality, the barrel did get burnt out. This flame cuting is quite similar to the 357 Maximum cartridge cuting the top strap in the Ruger Blackhawk. All large capacity cases will do the same thing.
I believe the active ingredient in tooth paste is hydrated silica, not sodium chloride so the tooth paste will work fine if one wants to use it. What will also work is agricultural lime or spackling with motor oil mixed into a slurry. Flush by submerging in Kerosene and blow clean with compressed air.