Engraving question... Help me fix this Colt lower

[masakarijoe]

Okay, so I'm wondering if there is any way that the engraving on my Colt lower can be fixed. There are two issues:

As you can see, the laser engraving really did not come out very well. Comments about getting my money back from the engraver aside, it looks kind of crappy and it would be nice to sharpen it up, especially if it could be re-anodized to not be silver.

Finally, to make matters worse, the city is incorrect. Again, comments about the original engraver aside, I'd like to get that changed as well.

Since the engraving is not very deep, I'm thinking that a shallow rectangle could be engraved, which would be deep enough to obscure the current engraving, but shallow enough to allow further engraving. I would then have my name and City re engraved properly. Is this possible? Any ideas of who can do this?
Thanks guys.

[GOYABEAN]

you could always try this method a little planning ahead might work or local gun shop or jewelry shop

[Nate7667]

-Clamp lower nice and level in vise on milling machine
-use appropriate end mill
-mill off shitty engraving (you will end up with rectangular pocket as you described that will be lower than the original surface)
-laser engrave correct info in said area
-send out for blasting and re-anodizing or Cerakote it

(or you could mill the entire magwell to the same dept to avoid the "pocket")

Cheap way out, Aluma-black from Birchwood Casey to blacken the existing engraving.
You will have to remove the oxide layer than has formed on the silver aluminum for the Aluma-Black to really work well.
Lightly hit with steel wool or scotch-bright pad and color it immediately and then follow the instructions on the bottle.
This will only make the shitty engraving black, which might dull it enough to not look as bad.


the electro etching above will not work on aluminum that has already been anodized.

[masakarijoe]

-Clamp lower nice and level in vise on milling machine
-use appropriate end mill
-mill off shitty engraving (you will end up with rectangular pocket as you described that will be lower than the original surface)
-laser engrave correct info in said area
-send out for blasting and re-anodizing or Cerakote it

(or you could mill the entire magwell to the same dept to avoid the "pocket")

Cheap way out, Aluma-black from Birchwood Casey to blacken the existing engraving.
You will have to remove the oxide layer than has formed on the silver aluminum for the Aluma-Black to really work well.
Lightly hit with steel wool or scotch-bright pad and color it immediately and then follow the instructions on the bottle.
This will only make the shitty engraving black, which might dull it enough to not look as bad.


the electro etching above will not work on aluminum that has already been anodized.

I am totally fine with having a rectangle milled out, but definitely don't have the equipment to do it, nor to refinish it after.

[Gunsnwater]

Are you sure that wasn’t an electric pen and stencil? Please tell us the shop so we don’t go there. Go to new engraver and have it done right but deeper by that mess’ depth, polish that off until it looks right, blast and cerakote.

[Nate7667]

I am totally fine with having a rectangle milled out, but definitely don't have the equipment to do it, nor to refinish it after.

Sent you a PM

[:-)]

I could have done better with a pocket knife. You should always do the engraving before you send for your tax stamp so there are no "accidents or misspellings". If you mess up you can buy a new lower and start over without having to pay for another $200 tax stamp and waiting for it. This guy did a better job DIY...

[GunLawyer001]

This is a legal grey area, bordering on prosecutable.

You can't remove or deface the markings required by law. I don't see an exception for removing markings that you placed there yourself.

Will you go to jail for this? Probably not. But it's a non-zero risk.

ATF doesn't like firearms that have had their marking messed with, and this is the agency that has repeatedly X-rayed firearms that were claimed to have been built from demilled parts sets, just to make sure that they were really cut up first and then later rewelded. Why would they do that, since an SOT can legally make a new sample gun from scratch, so what's the difference between that and the SOT just registering a bit of contraband that somebody found in grandpa's footlocker? In both cases, you end up with the same gun that ATF knows about.

ATF doesn't care about that, they care about what the statutes say.

[masakarijoe]

This is a legal grey area, bordering on prosecutable.

You can't remove or deface the markings required by law. I don't see an exception for removing markings that you placed there yourself.

Will you go to jail for this? Probably not. But it's a non-zero risk.

ATF doesn't like firearms that have had their marking messed with, and this is the agency that has repeatedly X-rayed firearms that were claimed to have been built from demilled parts sets, just to make sure that they were really cut up first and then later rewelded. Why would they do that, since an SOT can legally make a new sample gun from scratch, so what's the difference between that and the SOT just registering a bit of contraband that somebody found in grandpa's footlocker? In both cases, you end up with the same gun that ATF knows about.

ATF doesn't care about that, they care about what the statutes say.

I will not get into the legal status of this lower, but you are making certain legal assumptions that don't apply to my situation. Please don't derail my thread.

[:-)]

It doesn't look deep enough. Does it look and feel as deep as the factory engraving or is it just through the anodizing?