Hot (nitre) bluing... With Drano???

V

vic130

Member
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Location
Province of Québec
Has anybody looked at the Drano's active ingredients? It is sodium hydroxide (lye, NaOH), potassium hydroxide (KOH), aluminium and sodium nitrate or potassium nitrate or both! The only problem I see is the aluminium ions that will float arround, but once the solution as stopped making bubbles (don't smoke nearby or you'll live Hedenberg the Zeppelin!) those aluminium ions should get inert. I think I'll give it a try on an old Stevens crackshot 26 on which I have restored the stock.

30-60% NaOH
30-60% NaNO3

With the high boiling temperature, should it be able to do a nitre bluing?

No need to degrease; grease will be eaten by the NaOH and the KOH!

So, what are your thoughts?
 
Last edited:
From what I have read on other boards, there is a brand like draino avalaible at walmart that works even better. If you google it you'll come up with that brand, I guess it works better.
 
Nitre bluing is something else. I have heard of a brand of drain cleaner that can be used for hot caustic bluing, but have never tried it.
 
vic; From what I see all the ingedients are there especially the nitrates, nitrates are what give you the colour. You could boil something in hydroxide all day long with no colour change - but it would be supper clean & oil free. I've used the NaOH to exactly this (oil+hydroxide=soap). FWIW --- John303. ***I think I'll give Drano a try jut for fun.***
 
Someone should try this ! if it works because you just cant get anyone to mail you blueing solutions.
So do you boil the draino whats the process ?
Anyone got a link to the info?
 
Actually, I don't know the whole process, but if I remember right, you put you pins, firing pin and other small stuff in a boiling (should boil at +/- 300 F) solution for 15 minutes then take them off, polish them with steel wool and oil them. Repeat if needed. Is anodizing used for aluminium? I wouldn't put aluminium stuff in a base stuffed water... Except if you got spare eyes...

Would be an stainless steel pan from Dollarama (1$ store) on a charcoal be contein the reaction with weird reactions?
 
It's not "Drain 'o'" but "Drain out" (Granules NOT LIQUID A summit product, Wally-mart down south, not sure about here) and, is mixed with water. (I think 2 cups/package) It's ok to add too much water and, monitor your temp...once it's evaporated enough water out the soloution can reach "optimum" temperatures.

Instead of mixing your your own Lye and, ###xNitrate (###x=sodium, potassium or, amonium.) this product has it pre-mixed. It's still "as dangerous" a soloution as a homebrew but, you do skip a "dangerous" step of mixing your ###xNitrate into hot lye.



I read about this about a week ago and, was considering giving it a go...will try to find the link. It had a picture of the bottle.

SERIOUSLY SERIOUSLY SERIOUSLY easy to cause harm to you and, anything around you!!!! poison gas, chemical burns, physical burns etc...not as "Home friendly" as cold rust blue but, certainly quicker.
 
dingus said:
Someone should try this ! if it works because you just cant get anyone to mail you blueing solutions.
So do you boil the draino whats the process ?
Anyone got a link to the info?
Click to expand...

Tried and it works

Steps

1. Dissolve Crystal Heat (Home Depo) in enough distilled water so it does not develop volatile chemical reaction. Dissolve it in 2 gallon spoon by spoon slowly. You will be able to eliminate aluminum chips this way.
2. Run all the liquid through sift to eliminate impurities.
3. Run all the liquid again through double coffee filter paper. Repeat this procedure 2 times.
4. Boil this until you end up with amount of water approximately around 0.5L
5. Now that you have 0.5Kg of Crystal Heat dissolved in 0.5L of distilled water you are ready for bluing. For best results you have to keep the temperature of this solution just bellow boiling point 95-98C by adding or removing water. When temperature is right you immerse your part in for 10-20 minutes.
Parts are boiled before immersion and right after immersion.
Found out about all safety measures you should follow before you even begin. It is serious safety/health hazard. Have fun.
 
Last edited:
Its interesting coincidence this thread came up the other day. A few weeks back we ordered some stuff from Caswell. Aluminum blackening jell, Stainless blackening jell and steel/iron black oxidizer. Well the aluminum stuff is just garbage. The finish even after their sealer cote has been applied is about as durable as soot from a lighter and im not exagerating. I re did the piece a dozen times, different grit finnishes, different cleaning procedures. Just junk.
The stainless jell is a little more durable but you have to cake the stuff on to get any real darkening, anything bigger than a quarter is gonna look blotchy.

The steel/iron blackening oxide seems to work great but I havent tries a large piece. My tester is a rich satin black ad quite durable.
 
How does the drano-blueing hold up compared to powder coating?

Im looking at getting some work done to an old rifle, and can get powder coatind done for pretty cheap. Also, other than inside the barrel, is there any where you dont really want powder coating (its a franken-mk4/5 .303)
 
SIGP2101 said:
Tried and it works

Steps

1. Dissolve Crystal Heat (Home Depo) in enough distilled water so it does not develop volatile chemical reaction. Dissolve it in 2 gallon spoon by spoon slowly. You will be able to eliminate aluminum chips this way.
2. Run all the liquid through sift to eliminate impurities.
3. Run all the liquid again through double coffee filter paper. Repeat this procedure 2 times.
4. Boil this until you end up with amount of water approximately around 0.5L
5. Now that you have 0.5Kg of Crystal Heat dissolved in 0.5L of distilled water you are ready for bluing. For best results you have to keep the temperature of this solution just bellow boiling point 95-98C by adding or removing water. When temperature is right you immerse your part in for 10-20 minutes.
Parts are boiled before immersion and right after immersion.
Found out about all safety measures you should follow before you even begin. It is serious safety/health hazard. Have fun.
Click to expand...

I asume Crystal heat is the Product your useing here?

Will it do a nice deep Dark blue ?
 
Last edited:
cody c said:
How does the drano-blueing hold up compared to powder coating?

Im looking at getting some work done to an old rifle, and can get powder coatind done for pretty cheap. Also, other than inside the barrel, is there any where you dont really want powder coating (its a franken-mk4/5 .303)
Click to expand...

Yeah. other than the barrel, the rest of the rifle would be good to avoid with powder coating.

Have you ever dealt with the stuff? I have, on motorcycle parts. Tough as anything. Sheer ####ing misery to remove from places it got, but shouldn't have.

I wouldn't use the stuff anywhere that a heavy brushed on coat of porch paint wouldn't be acceptable.

Your call, though.

Cheers
Trev
 
Well that doesnt sound positive Trev, I have used powder coating as well, Just had a coleman stove re-coated. I dont know where the problems with overspray comes from, but I already have it dissasembled into individual pieces. I would do the action separately and I dont know if the bolt should be done or not, the .303 bolts arent typically the tightest. I would interested in something like the graphite paints for that as they coat and are decent for friction, but may also gum the thing up. I really would like to get the entire thing done (other than bolt and action threads of course!

How about the lower trigger guard? I wouldnt throw porch paint on that, but I think I would consider that for PC?

Actually if Cerakote is a spray on bake on process and seems to be popular, how is it different?

Thanks.
 
dingus said:
I asume Crystal heat is the Product your useing here?
Click to expand...
Yes

dingus said:
Will it do a nice deep Dark blue ?
Click to expand...
It will if you do your part.

Lets consider variables that outcome depends on it.

Steel grade, lets assume we have 10 most common.

Metal surface prep, lets assume we have 5 grades only.

Media used for surface prep, lets assume we have another 5

Metal pickling, lets assume we have 2 most common methods strong acids or strong bases.

Bluing solution temperature infinite # of possibilities
Duration time infinite # of possibilities
Bluing solution concentration (strength, purity) infinite # of possibilities

Salts neutralizing temp and exposure after blueing.

All these variables in combination with each others will give you infinite # of possibilities for different shades and hue. Now when you start adding other chemicals to bluing tanks in order to achieve let us say plum hue or dark blue by adding copper salts sky is limit. Experimenting is what gunsmiths do, once they find right formula the stick to it and it becomes their trade mark.
You will get dark black durable finish like is done on most tools if you do your part. Metal surface must not be shiny but consistent dull.
You can also chemically straw metal to the desired color before bluing in order to get that second under laying color.

Chemical strawing

Selenic acid H2SeO4 10 parts
Copper (II) sulfate CuSO4 10 parts
Distilled water 1000 parts

After a good pickling of the metal part put the part in the solution described above.
Part will start changing the color from the yellow to the dark blue depending on how long you keep the part in the solution. Just take the part at the desired color and wash it in the distilled water. Worm up and apply olive oil.

There you go, I just revealed more than 300 years old recipe on the net.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom