Any parkerizing solution recipies out there?
- Thread starter asphalt599
- Start date
blaser.306
CGN Regular
- Location
- Saskatoon , Sask
I can't seem to find it right now but if you look back , and I don't think it is that far back sombody had a link for directions and recipies for home park solutions . I found it on my favorites list but don't know how to paste it here , it's in gunsmithing using the search parkerising .
1 gallon of water, 3 ounces phosphoric acid, 2 ounces zinc oxide. Degrease
THOUROUGHLY and do not touch the part with your fingers. Do not use varsol. We use lacquer thinner. Distilled water is best. You must use a stainless steel tank ( an old pot works for small stuff) Heat to 185 degrees farenheit and keep it there. We suspend small parts on a wire. dunk for 10 minutes or so, dip in clean hot water and dunk in oil (10w30 works for us) Dry the oil off and it should be good. We did this for the first time a couple of weeks ago and it came out great. It was a perfect match for my ar 15. Some people say if you want it to be darker to drop in a pad of steel wool to the solution. We don't know how much differanc that makes. If the solution isn't too dirty you can re use it again. Buy the acid at a hydroponics store and the zinc oxide at a pottery supply store (google Pottery supply house) they are just outside of Toronto and they do mail order. We tried the manganese formula and found it didn't work as well and was really dirty to work with.
THOUROUGHLY and do not touch the part with your fingers. Do not use varsol. We use lacquer thinner. Distilled water is best. You must use a stainless steel tank ( an old pot works for small stuff) Heat to 185 degrees farenheit and keep it there. We suspend small parts on a wire. dunk for 10 minutes or so, dip in clean hot water and dunk in oil (10w30 works for us) Dry the oil off and it should be good. We did this for the first time a couple of weeks ago and it came out great. It was a perfect match for my ar 15. Some people say if you want it to be darker to drop in a pad of steel wool to the solution. We don't know how much differanc that makes. If the solution isn't too dirty you can re use it again. Buy the acid at a hydroponics store and the zinc oxide at a pottery supply store (google Pottery supply house) they are just outside of Toronto and they do mail order. We tried the manganese formula and found it didn't work as well and was really dirty to work with.
Thats perfect. Thank you very much. I will definately try that.
Right now i am working on stripping the gun down. so far just using scotch brite to remove whats left of the finish and the grunge. It is very old and is pretty grungy so it looks like it will be quite a lot of work.
I think it would look better blued but from what I understand parkerising is quite a bit easier to do and a lot more forgiving. Sounds like the gun has to be flawless or it will show through the blueing.
Any tips for stripping the metal portion of the gun? I thought about sandblasting but i want to keep the metal nice and smooth and i beleive sandblastng gives it a rougher look.
Right now i am working on stripping the gun down. so far just using scotch brite to remove whats left of the finish and the grunge. It is very old and is pretty grungy so it looks like it will be quite a lot of work.
I think it would look better blued but from what I understand parkerising is quite a bit easier to do and a lot more forgiving. Sounds like the gun has to be flawless or it will show through the blueing.
Any tips for stripping the metal portion of the gun? I thought about sandblasting but i want to keep the metal nice and smooth and i beleive sandblastng gives it a rougher look.
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I went out and bought a sandblasterand and phosphoric acid on the weekend. just ordered the zinc oxide today so it will be here soon. I have a stainless conainer to do small parts in. Going to check out some of the farm stores to see if I can find a longer tray.
I've seen it suggested to use rubbers stoppers (the black kind) and fill the bore with water (something to do with equalizing pressure?), don't know how well it works though.
Also heard of having the plugs with holes in the end so you run a piece of threaded rod and bolt it together so they don't come out, again, dont know how well it works. Saw one person online that used a fired case and some sealent for the breach end and wooden dowel and sealent for the other end. I don't know what type of sealent he used but depending on what you used it may or may not be a pita to get out when your done.
The two concerns with abs are a) if the phosphoric acid would eat away at it (either immedietly or over time) and b) how do you get the solution to 185F without melting the plastic.
Whether you sandblast or not, the parkerizing process is going to etch the steel. By sandblasting you get a uniform finish and it helps with creating a pourous finish that the oil will be able to 'adhere' to. I've seen people online that haven't done it and it worked ok, but I would suggest sandblasting.
Also heard of having the plugs with holes in the end so you run a piece of threaded rod and bolt it together so they don't come out, again, dont know how well it works. Saw one person online that used a fired case and some sealent for the breach end and wooden dowel and sealent for the other end. I don't know what type of sealent he used but depending on what you used it may or may not be a pita to get out when your done.
The two concerns with abs are a) if the phosphoric acid would eat away at it (either immedietly or over time) and b) how do you get the solution to 185F without melting the plastic.
Whether you sandblast or not, the parkerizing process is going to etch the steel. By sandblasting you get a uniform finish and it helps with creating a pourous finish that the oil will be able to 'adhere' to. I've seen people online that haven't done it and it worked ok, but I would suggest sandblasting.
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juanvaldez
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Sudbury, Ontario
I used a variant of the recipe mentioned above. i used manganese and the steel wool pad. I found zinc produced a lighter more grey finish while the manganese was more of a charcoal color. Careful with your phosphoric you can etch your gun badly...ask me how I know 
Instead of ss you can use pyrex pots, lots at yardsales for cheap
Instead of ss you can use pyrex pots, lots at yardsales for cheap
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juanvaldez
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Sudbury, Ontario
On plugging the bbl...anyone ever try ear plugs with bbl filled with water? I know the yellow kind will make a water tight seal, just not sure if it will stand up to the temps involved in parking
I have heard a difference method: just use bearing grease cheap easy to get should stay in place without dripping or anything.
Get a grease gun just start from one end and when it start coming out from the other end plug it and you should be good to go.
When the grease gets up to Temp it will go more liquid and wont stay in place. It would also be a mess to clean up.
I used a variant of the recipe mentioned above. i used manganese and the steel wool pad. I found zinc produced a lighter more grey finish while the manganese was more of a charcoal color. Careful with your phosphoric you can etch your gun badly...ask me how I know
Instead of ss you can use pyrex pots, lots at yardsales for cheap
Where can you find the manganese?
I would be interested to hear about your issue with the phosphoric acid and any other tips you have.
juanvaldez
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Sudbury, Ontario
stay with recipe on phosphoric more does not = better/faster Same place for manganese pottery supply store
Recipe I have used with great success below
Recipe I have used with great success below
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juanvaldez
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Sudbury, Ontario
INSTRUCTIONS FOR "HOME-BREW" PARKERIZIN
You need a number of things to do a "home-brew" "Parker-job", but only 4 ingredients.
1. Phosphoric Acid (the active ingredient in Naval Jelly) usually procured at a chemical supply house.
2. Powdered Manganese Dioxide (a very dense and heavy dark gray to black powder) also available at any chemical supply house.
3. Distilled water (I’ve used tap water, but the distilled stuff gives more consistent results.
4. A biscuit of steel wool (don’t use soap pads or Brillo pads!)
I used to do this on the kitchen stove (I wasn’t married in those days) in a one gallon Pyrex beaker (these little beasts are expensive, so be careful with them). Metal pots don’t work as well (if at all) I understand, but then I never used anything else but Pyrex.
Proceed as follows:
1. Use one whiskey jigger (yeah, this is really scientific, right?) of phosphoric acid added to the water. Remember your high school chemistry, ALWAYS add the acid to the water, and it is best done by pouring it down a glass rod!
2. Use one whiskey jigger of the (powdered) Manganese Dioxide in the solution.
3. Bring the solution to an extremely slooowwww rolling boil .
4. Now add your biscuit of steel wool.
I used wooden sticks placed across the top of the beaker and suspended the parts in the solution using steel or iron "machinist’s wire or some such. DON’T use painted coat hangers or any wire with grease on it! You can usually get this stuff from a machine shop or from Brownell’s.
The parts should be totally immersed in the solution, being careful that anywhere the wire touches the part won’t show on the finished part (usually easy to do – like in the firing pin hole of a bolt). The part(s) to be Parkerized should be totally "de-greased" and sand or bead blasted prior to finishing (depending on the texture you desire on the finished part). Once you have bead blasted the part, you should handle the part with gloves (never greasy hands) and store them wrapped in clean paper towels awaiting the Parker Bath. Any grease on the parts or wire will cause what can only be politely called a variation in color (the parts come out streaked and spotted like a "paint horse").
I usually let the part remain in the solution for a total of 20 minutes (less MAY work, but I was told 20 minutes so that’s what I used and it worked marvelously). When you withdraw the part, immediately rinse it in hot running water to get the solution off of it. Use extremely hot water, and the part will dry itself. Let it dry (and get cool enough to touch) on some clean paper towels, spray on some lubricant and viola’ you are done!
Rumor control said that if you immersed the freshly rinsed and still hot part in Cosmoline, it would give the sometimes sought after "gray-green" tint to it. I have never tried it. Cosmoline is still available from Brownells if you are adventurous!
The original formula called for iron filings vice steel wool, but since I didn’t have any floating around, and didn’t want to file on the cast iron stove, I found that the steel wool worked just fine. What you get is a chemical reaction that causes an iron phosphate to form on the metal (steel phosphate I suppose, using steel wool). I have found that the resultant finish is just as durable as the Arsenal finishes and has exactly the same appearance! – an attractive dark gray, almost black. Some say that adding more manganese dioxide causes a darker finish, but I’ve never tried it, as I was happy with what I got!
We often used this technique when finishing .45s built on early Essex frames that needed a lot of fitting, thus often requiring the removal of offending metal. I used to checker the front straps (also violating the finish in a rather spectacular fashion) and the resultant finish worked great and showed little or no wear even with extensive use – much like the official GI finish. I’m still using a wadcutter gun I performed the magic on back in the ‘70s and it still looks new.
A couple of cautions:
1. Always be careful of any sort of acid, even such an innocuous acid as phosphoric. I certainly would never deliberately inhale the fumes (although there is no great odor to the process that I could tell, but then I smoke cigars). I started doing this back in the early to mid ‘70s and still have no "twitch" that I can directly attribute to Parkerizing on the kitchen stove. Just use common sense, WEAR GLOVES AND EYE PROTECTION ANYTIME YOU ARE PLAYING AROUND WITH BOILING SOLUTIONS (with or without acids being involved).
2. Be very careful not to cause any splashes with the boiling solution (of course the same can be said of boiling corn).
3. Prepare your area and your parts before hand, don’t try to do this on the spur of the moment.
4. Send your wife to see "Gone With the Wind" or "Titanic" or some other movie that whiles away a number of hours. If you ever want to do this again, make sure the kitchen is spiffy when she returns! In Gloria’s case, she would be attaching the parts, but then I’m just lucky in that respect...
5. Once you have allowed the solution to cool, you are DONE! Re-heating it don’t cut it, It simply doesn’t work (I’ve tried it on several occasions). Have everything that you want to Parkerize ready to go when you fire up the solution. You can keep Parkerizing as long as the solution is hot, but allowing it to get cold kills it – you’ve gotta’ brew up a new solution and start from scratch.
6. Do not name me in any divorce proceedings!
Good luck!
You need a number of things to do a "home-brew" "Parker-job", but only 4 ingredients.
1. Phosphoric Acid (the active ingredient in Naval Jelly) usually procured at a chemical supply house.
2. Powdered Manganese Dioxide (a very dense and heavy dark gray to black powder) also available at any chemical supply house.
3. Distilled water (I’ve used tap water, but the distilled stuff gives more consistent results.
4. A biscuit of steel wool (don’t use soap pads or Brillo pads!)
I used to do this on the kitchen stove (I wasn’t married in those days) in a one gallon Pyrex beaker (these little beasts are expensive, so be careful with them). Metal pots don’t work as well (if at all) I understand, but then I never used anything else but Pyrex.
Proceed as follows:
1. Use one whiskey jigger (yeah, this is really scientific, right?) of phosphoric acid added to the water. Remember your high school chemistry, ALWAYS add the acid to the water, and it is best done by pouring it down a glass rod!
2. Use one whiskey jigger of the (powdered) Manganese Dioxide in the solution.
3. Bring the solution to an extremely slooowwww rolling boil .
4. Now add your biscuit of steel wool.
I used wooden sticks placed across the top of the beaker and suspended the parts in the solution using steel or iron "machinist’s wire or some such. DON’T use painted coat hangers or any wire with grease on it! You can usually get this stuff from a machine shop or from Brownell’s.
The parts should be totally immersed in the solution, being careful that anywhere the wire touches the part won’t show on the finished part (usually easy to do – like in the firing pin hole of a bolt). The part(s) to be Parkerized should be totally "de-greased" and sand or bead blasted prior to finishing (depending on the texture you desire on the finished part). Once you have bead blasted the part, you should handle the part with gloves (never greasy hands) and store them wrapped in clean paper towels awaiting the Parker Bath. Any grease on the parts or wire will cause what can only be politely called a variation in color (the parts come out streaked and spotted like a "paint horse").
I usually let the part remain in the solution for a total of 20 minutes (less MAY work, but I was told 20 minutes so that’s what I used and it worked marvelously). When you withdraw the part, immediately rinse it in hot running water to get the solution off of it. Use extremely hot water, and the part will dry itself. Let it dry (and get cool enough to touch) on some clean paper towels, spray on some lubricant and viola’ you are done!
Rumor control said that if you immersed the freshly rinsed and still hot part in Cosmoline, it would give the sometimes sought after "gray-green" tint to it. I have never tried it. Cosmoline is still available from Brownells if you are adventurous!
The original formula called for iron filings vice steel wool, but since I didn’t have any floating around, and didn’t want to file on the cast iron stove, I found that the steel wool worked just fine. What you get is a chemical reaction that causes an iron phosphate to form on the metal (steel phosphate I suppose, using steel wool). I have found that the resultant finish is just as durable as the Arsenal finishes and has exactly the same appearance! – an attractive dark gray, almost black. Some say that adding more manganese dioxide causes a darker finish, but I’ve never tried it, as I was happy with what I got!
We often used this technique when finishing .45s built on early Essex frames that needed a lot of fitting, thus often requiring the removal of offending metal. I used to checker the front straps (also violating the finish in a rather spectacular fashion) and the resultant finish worked great and showed little or no wear even with extensive use – much like the official GI finish. I’m still using a wadcutter gun I performed the magic on back in the ‘70s and it still looks new.
A couple of cautions:
1. Always be careful of any sort of acid, even such an innocuous acid as phosphoric. I certainly would never deliberately inhale the fumes (although there is no great odor to the process that I could tell, but then I smoke cigars). I started doing this back in the early to mid ‘70s and still have no "twitch" that I can directly attribute to Parkerizing on the kitchen stove. Just use common sense, WEAR GLOVES AND EYE PROTECTION ANYTIME YOU ARE PLAYING AROUND WITH BOILING SOLUTIONS (with or without acids being involved).
2. Be very careful not to cause any splashes with the boiling solution (of course the same can be said of boiling corn).
3. Prepare your area and your parts before hand, don’t try to do this on the spur of the moment.
4. Send your wife to see "Gone With the Wind" or "Titanic" or some other movie that whiles away a number of hours. If you ever want to do this again, make sure the kitchen is spiffy when she returns! In Gloria’s case, she would be attaching the parts, but then I’m just lucky in that respect...
5. Once you have allowed the solution to cool, you are DONE! Re-heating it don’t cut it, It simply doesn’t work (I’ve tried it on several occasions). Have everything that you want to Parkerize ready to go when you fire up the solution. You can keep Parkerizing as long as the solution is hot, but allowing it to get cold kills it – you’ve gotta’ brew up a new solution and start from scratch.
6. Do not name me in any divorce proceedings!
Good luck!
You can get the manganese at the same place as the zinc. The pottery supply house. We found it to be very dirty to work with and didn't give as good a result as the sinc. As you can see with the picture of the muzzle brake it's almost the a perfect match for my ar 15. You have to watch if you use pyrex, it is good if you use indirect heat (like in an oven) but over direct flame or on a stove element it could shatter. They have warnings about that right on the labels if you were to buy a new one.
be careful leaving ikt in for 20 minutes. Where you might be fine, this process chemically etches the steel......in therory when it done being coated, it wil stop etching.........it practice, you could end up etching your parts to a point where you will remove enough material to effect the fit of the parts (parts fit loose).
Never had any problems using metal tanks/pots, just make sure they're stainless. If they are regular steel, you'll end up etching the metal and turning it grey/black.
If you have luck with manganese, good on ya. We tried it and where the parts did turn black, it was splotchy and the black rubbed off easily. Not to mention VERY dirty. I have heard that the recipe for manganese is very touchy and that's why most people use zinc. In fact, manganese was the first method used for parkerizing when they invented it. They started usuing zinc because it was a cheaper and easier process.
Earplugs might work.......maybe try it on a scrap piece of tubing first. I've seen people say that they didn't bother masking the bore and that the first couple of shots smoothed the bore right out after...........but that sounds a little hinky to me and it's probably NOT a good idea. Chrome bores IN THEORY aren't affected by the etching, but again.......
DO NOT DO THIS IN YOUR KITCHEN!!! While everything might go fine, you ARE heating phosphoric acid and for saftey's sake you should probably do this outside or in you garage. Glasses and gloves are a good idea too.
Never had any problems using metal tanks/pots, just make sure they're stainless. If they are regular steel, you'll end up etching the metal and turning it grey/black.
If you have luck with manganese, good on ya. We tried it and where the parts did turn black, it was splotchy and the black rubbed off easily. Not to mention VERY dirty. I have heard that the recipe for manganese is very touchy and that's why most people use zinc. In fact, manganese was the first method used for parkerizing when they invented it. They started usuing zinc because it was a cheaper and easier process.
Earplugs might work.......maybe try it on a scrap piece of tubing first. I've seen people say that they didn't bother masking the bore and that the first couple of shots smoothed the bore right out after...........but that sounds a little hinky to me and it's probably NOT a good idea. Chrome bores IN THEORY aren't affected by the etching, but again.......
DO NOT DO THIS IN YOUR KITCHEN!!! While everything might go fine, you ARE heating phosphoric acid and for saftey's sake you should probably do this outside or in you garage. Glasses and gloves are a good idea too.
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I will give it a try with the zinc and see how it goes. I already have it ordered so i may as weel stick with that for this time. I would like to try the maganese eventually though.
I am planning on doing it in my back yard on a camp stove. I figure that is the safest way of doing it.
I called around to all the local farm stores and none had anything for a suitable container. That might be the hardest part getting a reasoably priced container. I might try some of the smaller parts first in a smaller container.
I am planning on doing it in my back yard on a camp stove. I figure that is the safest way of doing it.
I called around to all the local farm stores and none had anything for a suitable container. That might be the hardest part getting a reasoably priced container. I might try some of the smaller parts first in a smaller container.
