Heating barrels ?

powdergun

powdergun

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I've read about a few finishes that require that the metal part or barrel be heated in an oven up to 400 degrees or about an hour. Other finishes less.

Does this heating effect the temper of the steel thus affecting the safety of the barrel? Or possibly any of the solders ?
 
Heating to 400 degrees will no have adverse affect on the barrel steel it would take temps much higher then that to change the temper.
I have used gunkote on several guns with no problems.
 
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Barrels are not hardened, so prolonged even heat is no problem, until it gets hot enough to start corroding (scale formation).

The heat treatment that barrels do get, if any, is usually to stress relieve them, to relax the stresses that were put on the barrel during the rifling process. This is usually a fairly long period at high temperature, in an inert atmosphere, followed by a slow cooling.
This is done to prevent the barrel from slowly changing shape as the stresses work themselves out.

If you look at hot tank bluing, and the amount of time that the parts sit in the melted salts, 400 degrees in an oven is not a big deal at all.

Cheers
Trev
 
Barrels are pre-hardened (about 28-36RC depending on application), they need to be hard enough not to erode inside ...but not so hard as they might shatter.
If you made it turn red.....you have a problem, but putting it in your household oven to cure paint is like you taking a warm shower.
 
If you dig into the material specs, they come out as being at the hardness of the stock that is supplied.

Lilja Barrels is said to use a lot of 4142, and if you look up the specs of 4142 pre-hard, it comes out bang on the range specified.

Harder than dead soft, but not by much, just enough to make it a fair bit tougher. Still easy to machine.

Cheers
Trev
 
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