Before operating your torch, read all instructions so you know how to handle it safely. wikiHow marks an article as reader-approved once it receives enough positive feedback. After three coats, washing and drying, the finish was not too bad, considering I was (and am) a rank amateur. 4. Once you get the colour you want, go outside to your oil container and fully quench your object into the oil!Note: I know a plastic container is ", https://mgs.edu/making-chisels-skips-newsletter/, http://www.technologystudent.com/equip1/heat1.htm. - Ballachy", "Bluing of Steel by Heat Treatment: Why and How it Happens? Use it to try out great new products and services nationwide without paying full pricewine, food delivery, clothing and more. In fact most guides no matter their material cast iron to bronze and often bearing races are installed the same way. Youll have a hot caustic degreaser tank (about 10 minutes), then a cold rinse tank, then into the hot salts for, oh, 15 to 20 minutes, then out into the hot rinse, then into a cold running rinse tank, then into a water displacing oil tank for 20 minutes or so. This signifies that the steel is tempered. Think big scars. 2mm wire has a circumference of ~0.25in. http://www.lowes.com/pd_188198-316-HG-66420_0__?productId=4764059 this article statement Drift the sights back in from the right side of the barrel. An ideal temperature is 180 degrees Fahrenheit but it also depends on the manual. Free shipping for many products! Heres instructions from Mark Lee Supplies on using their Express Blue #1. I have cut and polished 4 pieces of mild steel to demonstrate different colour stages. It is hazardous. It is one smoooooth profile, from one end to the other. But since this was my first project, with an inexpensive kit as a learning tool, and as I intend to do this again with a much more expensive kit, my trials and errors and your voice of experience will be very useful the next time around. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Im asking because theres a guy on YouTube recommending Brown Express first, then several layers of Blue over that. I can keep a Krylon can always handy for touch-ups. 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The head is fixtured and and an arm holding the valve seat moves the the proper location. "https://www.pinterest.com/theshootingmystery/", The cabinet is then sealed. What is your opinion of the 2 to 1 lye and potassium nitrate bluing solution? High temperatures and dangerous chemicals mean that a moment of carelessness can make you pay a heavy price. Its oiled in production to keep it from rusting on store shelves. You can then u. se a soft brush to gently remove all the residue of the cleaning solution on the components. I dont have that much blueing to do in my shop, so I dont use hot salts. The part you want to place in the receiving part is cold often just placed in a freezer for a few hours. For this reason, it is considered not to add any appreciable thickness to precisely-machined gun parts. For the final step, we let the components cool down in water displacing oil. 2 years ago The blueing salt bath will be at about 286 to 292F, and as it is bubbling away, it is losing water, and the boiling point of the solution keeps climbing. One of the reasons I hand-polish up to 600 and buff only above that is that when you see one of my barrels (by holding it up to a light source, and sighting down the barrel from the muzzle at your eye to the breech out at arms length), you see no dips, waves, ripples, etc. Red rust is Fe2O3, and is incomplete rust it will continue allowing the surface to corrode over time hence the oil or wax. This article was very, "I've been working with steel since I was a child, and reviewing these proper methods and skills makes my projects, "It surely educated me on several points. If you tempered the steel with a blow torch, set the metal on an anvil or another large steel surface to conduct the heat. Hot bluing is the current standard[6] in gun bluing, as both it and rust bluing provide the most permanent degree of rust-resistance and cosmetic protection of exposed gun metal, and hot bluing takes less time than rust bluing. At 700, you start losing your blues and the steel starts becoming a wispy silvery-blue, not a dark brilliant blue. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. For the color change to be uniform you have to remove the grease, oil, paint etc or it looks blotchy. I didnt drop outta my mommas womb being able to do this stuff. Brownells has a product that will strip blueing and rust (Fe3O4 and Fe3O2, respectively) and not corrode the underlying steel.Remove the barrel & action from the stock. The potassium nitrate will liquefy at around this temperature and blue your items at a relatively quick speed. Bluing is a process usually used by gun owners and firearms manufacturers to improve the aesthetic value of their weapons. The mixture is heated to 310 to 321C (590 to 610F) and the parts are suspended in this solution with wire. Use a smaller toaster oven if your piece of steel fits inside. Do NOT wipe/touch your metal with anything after degreasing as the whole purpose of cleaning was then for nothing. All blued parts still require oiling to prevent rust. [ Thoroughly degrease the area to be reblued with acetone. this produces better, less turbulant gas flow, which will reduce heat traces. However, due to the unique qualities of stainless steel, you cant simply blue the material however way you like. Contemporary heat-treatable steels did not exist or were in their infancy. Frequent TTAG commenter Dyspeptic Gunsmith saw the gun above in our postA Garden Gun Cultivates a Newfound Fascinationand answered reader questions about blueing/reblueing a gun thusly: If the rust is very fine and there is still substantial blueing left on the gun, you might want to strip the blueing. Many older browning and bluing formulas are based on corrosive solutions (necessary to cause metal to rust), and often contain cyanide or mercury salts solutions that are especially toxic to humans. So, you start with a clean gun, in the white, you play a propane torch over the gun to get it to the point where the blueing solution just will readily steam, but barely sizzle, and then you brush on the blueing compound. Put all the components into the tank and wait for 5 15 minutes. You should keep guns in a safe, if you can. There is something really rewarding about this technique. When youre using hot blueing salts, youd better be on top of your game, or you can seriously injure yourself. My apologies for the background noise in the first half of the video We had compressors running where I Wear disposable nitrile gloves, work in adequate ventilation, bag and dispose of all rags/towels used in the process in their own bags, and quickly. 6 years ago. "description": "If you want to find out how to blue stainless steel, then you've come to the right place. WD-40, as mentioned earlier, is a water-displacing oil compound not a penetrating lube, and for preventing rust, WD-40 actually works pretty well, but it doesnt last like cosmoline or waxy oils used for long-term rust prevention. At least one of the cold bluing solutions contains selenium dioxide. I have always wondered about storage in gun soft cases or the foamed Hard cases, and humid or dry, heat and cold. February 20, 2016 at 16:12. The ideal setup is a pair of long sleeve gloves along with splash goggles and a face mask. You have a degreased gun, and now you need to get the metal hot enough that the reaction will oxidize the steel as much as possible. When the first patch gets really funky, then drop that in your plastic garbage container (remember, these patches have been soaked in acid solutions! You can not do this method with Aluminium because it won't reach the temperatures required for bluing, it will just melt. The mixed fumes of the acids produce a uniform rust on the surface of the parts (inside and out) in about 12 hours. I like parkerization on some of my milsurps. Submerge in water and scrape edge. Cold blues will react with steel at room temperature, but you get more aggressive reactions when you heat the gun to, oh, 150 to 200F. 4.3 out of 5 stars 242 ratings-30% $12.99 $ 12. Historically, razor blades were often blued steel. The torch comes in when you first apply the Express Blue. -A heat source. 4 years ago Safety is the number one priority so protect your body as much as possible. It turns out I have. Seriously, this is interesting and thank you for posting it, but I hope to never be in a position where I need to use either of these techniques! When youre done, attach the thermometer to the tank and fire up the burner. You are a fantastic resource for all of us here. In my case I drilled/threaded the metal piece and made a holder with a threaded end. Repeat 3 times. you could also heat this size tank with anything from a hibatchi up to a Weber charcoal grill or you could put it on top of a wood-burning stove or even a kitchen stove. By the time I was done it looked like it was a beat up 5 year old gun rather than a 1930s bolt .22 that came from a scrap yard. Its the corrosive gift that just keeps on giving. Browning a gun gives you a nice, even brown patina finish of red rust on a gun. Just remove the blue/rust, degrease, dry, then blue/card/boil-out/oil/drain. A non-linear resistance property of the blued steel of razor blades, foreshadowing the same property later discovered in semiconductor diode junctions, along with the ready availability of blued steel razor blades, led to the use of razor blades as a detector in crystal set AM radios that were built by servicemen (as foxhole radios) or by prisoners of war during World War II.[8]. This works well for me. Heat the gun parts. You'll probably be fine following these instructions - you'll probably be OK driving home a little drunk, too. 1. polish it very well 2. clean very well 3. quick dip in dilute FeCl (4:1) is what I use 4. rinse in cold running water and pat It had been thoroughly degreased before my first attempt, but in trying to repair a poor result, I apparently contaminated it a bit. Larger flames produce less heat while smaller flames produce a higher heat. You can blue heat-treated parts with no ill effects. BUT like so many power tools on guns, it is possible to create expensive screw-ups to fix on guns with power tools, and buffing wheels are no exception. WebHeat the blade for 15 to 20 minutes in an oven set on 325 Fahrenheit if the handle is metal. This article received 28 testimonials and 92% of readers who voted found it helpful, earning it our reader-approved status. It is always essential to remove all oils from metals you want to blue, even if the cold blueing solution claims you dont need to do so. By using our site, you agree to our. Hot. Can a softly tempered piece be re-tempered harder without going through the hardening procedure again? Hot NaOH is so alkaline it is great as dissolving organic materials. I think DGs method is a lot safer than mine. Heat the area you'd like to drill just until it starts to glow red, then allow it to cool slowly. Have proper ventilation and use proper modern safety gear! 3. Now you can start.Apply heat to your object and heat up gently and equally. As I'm bluing round pieces I slowly and evenly rotate the piece over