Long term metal protection experiment follow up

D

dirtybarry

CGN Ultra frequent flyer
EE Expired
Location
Calgary
So, first thing, why is this being posted in Ammosupply.ca's subforum? Because Kate and I were talking a while ago about Ballistol and this experiment came up so she said I could. With that out of the way let's continue...

The other thread got locked because it went sideways but the short version is I became curious as to what is the best commonly available anti-corrosion coating that could be applied to gun metal for long term harsh condition storage. And this is the text that I posted back then:

Thanks to all this, I went out and bought a vacuum sealer last night. Seal-a-Meal brand on sale at Canadian Tire. $70 with 2 bonus rolls of bag material.
The reasons for buying this particular unit were, very highly rated on the one website that I looked at, they have 2 widths of bags (8" and 11") readily available and the bags can be up to 10' long for the 8" or 9' for the 11", it was $70 and it can still be used for storing food.

So, experiment time....

Pieces of 18ga bare mild steel approximately 9" long and 1" wide will be identified by being stamped with A,B,C, etc. then bent into a J shape in order to provide an internal cavity.
Pieces deburred to prevent packaging damage, buffed with a coarse surface conditioning disc, cleaned and degreased with Loctite parts cleaner. (contains some acetone, was too lazy to find the pure stuff)
"A" left bare as cleaned
"B" sprayed with regular WD40
"C" sprayed with Remington gun oil (Remoil)
"D" sprayed with Wurth HHS2000
"E" hand applied coating of Vaseline. Cosmoline would be nice but I have no clue where to get it.
"F" sprayed with Kleenflo Engine-Stor

The pieces are sealed into the supplied 8" bag material after allowing the sprayed on coatings to flash off for the amount of time it took to prepare the bags. Approximately 4 minutes.
Care was taken to prevent contamination of the sealing area by the coating material.
Without any further preparation the bags will be inserted into the lower portion of an open compost pile to be left undisturbed over the winter.
The bags will be recovered, opened and the contents inspected for corrosion or other damage.

I've got a bunch of these scrap strips so if there is some other type of preservative coating that anyone would like to suggest, let me know and I'll add it if I've got it or can get it easily.

And the picture:

29urukm.jpg





Now the follow up. After digging in the compost pile for about an hour, it seems to have gotten a lot bigger and these ended up a lot lower than I thought they would be, the 6 packages were found and rinsed off with rain water from my garden supply and then left on the deck for 4 days while I did some other things. Given the weather in Calgary lately, they got rained on about 83 times and maybe even hailed on 34 times give or take.

Today I brought them inside, washed them off and then left them to dry thoroughly under a fan to avoid any water contamination.

As removed and after sitting exposed for 4 days;

2l9i4u9.jpg



The packages were cut open and examined:
ao3ef.jpg



And the results are:

"A" bare metal untreated control - corrosion deeply pitted into metal - FAIL (not unexpected)
"B" regular WD-40 spray - light corrosion, no heavy pitting but does not wipe off - FAIL
"C" Remington aerosol gun oil (Remoil) - some very small spots of corrosion that almost wipe off - FAIL
"D" Wurth HH2000 aerosol lube - significant corrosion spotting and pitting -FAIL
"E" Vaseline hand applied - minor corrosion spotting on the edges - FAIL
"F" KleenFlo EngineStor aerosol - absolutely NO visible signs of corrosion anywhere - PASS

Since I have more of these metal strips, I'm going obtain some Ballistol and repeat this using it and some other commonly available products like chassis grease and silicone spray and whatever else I can find kicking around.

But of these test strips the only one that had the only acceptable results of absolutely no corrosion was the strip coated in KleenFlo EngineStor, everything else failed to a greater or lesser degree.

Until next year, happy shooting. And by the way the vacuum sealer is awesome for making up portion packs out of big family packs of meats for storing in the freezer.
 
When you do the Ballistol you will need to include all these other (fresh) samples as well to ensure they all undergo the same environmental conditions.

Someone had done something similar with 10- 12 commercial gun lubricants / protectants and his results were somewhat surprising too. Just goes to show..... don't always believe the hype. Test for yourself if you really want to know.
 
Boomer686 said:
When you do the Ballistol you will need to include all these other (fresh) samples as well to ensure they all undergo the same environmental conditions.

Someone had done something similar with 10- 12 commercial gun lubricants / protectants and his results were somewhat surprising too. Just goes to show..... don't always believe the hype. Test for yourself if you really want to know.
Click to expand...

Yup, that's the plan. So far I'm thinking Ballistol, 3in1 silicone spray, synthetic engine oil, gear oil and whatever other stuff I can find in the garage. Will use the same type of strips prepared and sealed in the same manner and buried in the same compost pile for approximately the same amount of time ~ 10 months iirc.
 
dirtybarry said:
Yup, that's the plan. So far I'm thinking Ballistol, 3in1 silicone spray, synthetic engine oil, gear oil and whatever other stuff I can find in the garage. Will use the same type of strips prepared and sealed in the same manner and buried in the same compost pile for approximately the same amount of time ~ 10 months iirc.
Click to expand...

If you have a chance you should try some g96.
 
I may have some input of value. I contacted l an oil specialist directly and asked about metal protection on machined surfaces ( steel ) required at my job for long term storage ( multi decades ). To make a story short, we bought a 5 gallon bucket of Kotespec Total oil. I tried it on storage of firearms from leftovers, found it was adequate. Just like any protective coating, it should be cleaned before firing. It is very liquid when applied, smells good, well (if you're into metallurgy), it dries off and leaves a small film on the surface. I'm not sure it is available for the peasant though, as 5 gallon was minimum purchase and I bought it in the name of the company I work for. I find it more adequate than any commercially available product on the corner store.
 
Maxima Chain Wax.

Cheap, easy to spray on, and toxic (until the carrier flashes off), but it keeps metal shiny better than anything I've ever worked with.

I used it for years on the RZ.

Just keep it far away from electronics.
 
sharpish said:
Why would you seal them in a bag? Wouldn't that In itself seal out most environmental moisture?
Click to expand...

Because the US government says that's how they package guns for long term storage and I don't think there's any coating that would survive years of exposure to water and corrosive substances without it.
And the operative word is in your second question and that is "most" but obviously this plastic is not 100% impermeable. They probably use something cooler and 100 times more expensive and hard to get.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom