First hot bluing attempt (update: more projects)
- Thread starter ssapach
- Start date
Pretty much, lots of elbow grease and emery cloth or sand paper. Automotive or body work type of sandpaper though. I started with simply filing off any sharp edges from any dings or gouges, then started with course sanding working my way up step by step. I think I started with 120 grit, then 240, 320, 500, 800 and ended with 1000 grit. The barrel, tube mag and receiver were mostly polished in the lathe. The receiver was a bit tricky. there are pieces sticking out that prevent you from polishing it completely in the lathe, and I was also trying not to polish out the lettering stamped into it. The tube mag was also a little finicky because it's not a solid tube, but a tube made from rolling flat steel. So it's not perfectly flat and not all parts of it would polish evenly in the lathe. Other parts like the butt plate and trigger guard simply got polished by hand.
Like I said, lots of elbow grease.....patience too I suppose.
Thanks!
Funny though, I was worried there was something wrong with my solution because the Ross bolt and receiver didn't seem to be taking the colouring and quickly as the Cooey parts. The Cooey parts went through the bath after the Ross though, so once I saw the Cooey parts coming out nicely coloured, I figured it must just be the metal the Ross was made out of. The Ross took the bluing, but it took longer, and without polishing, ended up a little darker looking. Still cleans up nice and looks good when it's oiled though.
There are so many machined surfaces on the Ross bolt, I really didn't want to start getting into trying to polish them all by hand. So many steps in the metal surface.... That and the receiver wasn't going to get polished anyways, as I didn't want to degrade the lettering any more than it was.
Somewhere in Midway-USA's how-to series there was something on prepping guns for bluing without affecting the markings. I believe they covered all the markings then only did light prep over them with an emery cloth and blended the transitions. I could be forgetting something though.
I've also see a method for reinforcing existing stamps using electro etching where you roll over a surface with a resist but leave the low points of the stamping uncoated. Too much etching looks terrible, but it can be useful where stampings are a little too light as it'll just deepen them enough to make them visible, but not corrode the edges or make them look rough. Really, less is more with this method though.
How do you store the chemical mix if you aren't planning to blue for awhile? I've a very small tank, but haven't done any bluing yet - I always just sent it out. But my hot bluer quit bluing - so I may need to give it a try.
I was thinking I would just pour the mix into a big jar.... Since my tank doesn't have a lid.
I was thinking I would just pour the mix into a big jar.... Since my tank doesn't have a lid.
When your'e polishing, do you wet your sandpaper, or use it dry??
dirtycurty
CGN Regular
- Location
- Central Alberta
Awesome! Following
I've just been leaving it in the tank so far. Cover with a piece of plywood, not sealed though. The tank turns into kind of a gross mess with crystallization all over, the solution thickens up when it cools off and becomes a mush of water and crystals. I'm going to just transfer it to a bucket with a good sealing lid when I want to store it for a while. I read somewhere, not to store sodium hydroxide solutions in glass, as it can etch the glass.....maybe weaken it too. It's harmless to steel and most plastics from what I gather though.
Did the first Cooey barrel with some wet 800 and 1000. Never used any wet paper since then, and the Ross barrel actually polished up super shiny without wet sanding. Easier to polish it dry, I find anyways.
You should try belt sander grease. It produces a much better finish for the same effort with no real reduction in cutting rate of the paper... You need to use cloth backed paper though. Also, it makes the paper last much longer...
Well, with ssapach's help I got an antique Webley blued up - process is quite straight forward. If you're willing to pay attention to what you're doing and make sure you do thorough prep, you will get nice results. As has been said before, biggest part of the process is VERY thorough prep. You will see and get exactly what you put into the prep, but it will be a different color. I personally really like how the bluing looks when thoroughly polished to a mirror, or near mirror finish. Even at 1000 grit it looks darn good, but more is better in my opinion.
Whether you want to go through the effort and cost to set up and do it yourself or have someone else do it is your choice, but the info in this thread is all that is needed to do a nice job bluing a gun.
Whether you want to go through the effort and cost to set up and do it yourself or have someone else do it is your choice, but the info in this thread is all that is needed to do a nice job bluing a gun.
