when I really needed an inch and a half. I’m a firm believer in polymer recoil buffers in autoloading firearms. Elimination of metal-to-metal impact slows wear and speeds target reacquisition. So, I thought I’d put one in my wife’s Ruger 10/22. Various places on the web sell buffers which are all polymer replacements for the steel boltstop pin. They sell for anywhere from $9.95 to $20. Some are urethane, some are delrin, some are made from unidentified polymer. Well, I’m smart and cheap too, so I just measured the steel pin. .25 inch diameter. A quick check to a plastic product website I’ve dealt with showed 8 feet of .25 inch delrin rod for about $4. Yesterday, I cut a piece to length, tapped out the metal pin, tapped in the delrin (a snug fit) and headed to the range. Function was perfect. Ejection seems a bit more consistent. The crosshairs don’t jump quite as high in each shot.
But I have 7 feet, 11.5 inches left. Figure I’ll need about 7 or so inches for a lifetime’s worth of replacements. That leaves a lot of delrin rod. Any of you gun Dopers who have a 10/22 and are interested can contact me. Send me a prepaid mailer and I’ll send you enough rod to make a buffer for free.
Delrin is an acetal plastic. It’s essentially highly plymerized formaldehyde with styronger end loops than hydroxides and much longer chains than natural para-formaldehyde. It’s tough and water-resistant and structurally solid. They use it for those white hubs in can openers and for those K’nex construction toys and lots of other things. It’s heavy and tough and easy to machine. I’m sure you can find plenty of other uses besides recoil buffers.
Just don’t try mixing it with alkali metal dispersions. It’s one of the few things that can make it depolymerize into formaldehyde again. We speaks from experience here.
“alkali metal dispersions”
Out of curiosity an example of this would be…?
Alkali metal (sodium, potassium, Rubidium…) made into really teensy bits and suspended in a liquid that it won’t react with, gebnerally some sort of oil, with maybe a surfactant added to keep it from condensing into alkali metal mud in the bottom. You can buy it from some chemical companies.
Highly reactive chemical with a huge surface area. Do not mix with water, or damned near anything else.
There was a good reason for me adding it to the Delrin, under controlled circumstances. It reacted with the normally inert Delrin pretty impressively.
Don;t try this at home, kids.
I was taking a break from work (OK, slacking off). I was just ordering… delrin rod. 3/8" delrin to be exact. 64 feet, to be exact.
Damn, and you’d think I could get away from work.
You weren’t ordering from TAP Plastics, by any chance? I got the quarter inch rod from them. I’ve purchased other stuff, 1 inch o.d. lexan tubing for example, from them in the past and always been satisfied with quality, price, and promptness of shipping.
Anyway, the offer of free delrin rod for 10/22 owners still stands, 'til I run out. Contact me by email and I’ll tell you where to send your postage-paid self-addressed mailer.
That’s a lot of rod!
I’ve used delrin to learn how to use my mill. It’s GREAT for that purpose as it’s machineable like aluminum, but the shavings aren’t sharp.
I have a local supplier that handles all my delrin, lexan, ABS and plastic needs. I might check into the link you sent and price shop.
**Regallag_The_Axe ** why thank you sir. That’s what most the ladies say.
Hey - I just discovered I get half priced rod. I’m not sure if that makes me feel good or not.
I have to ask, what was the good reason?
I needed to get pockets of alkali metal into a relatively unreacting material for a science/engineering application. We kinda hoped Delrin would work (we melted it first). It didn’t.