Removing severe rust pitting

[englishman_ca]

Just wondering what methods others have used to hide or remove rust pits from older rifles.

I have a spare barrel that has some pretty deep external pitting above and below the woodline. I could have at it with crocus cloth and polish it out but I got thinking (I hate when that happens).

I thought about using JB weld to fill the holes and then paint the barrel. Or bead blasting then using solder. Mig welding and polishing?

The pits do not effect the functionality, I am just looking at cosmetics. What methods have given you good results?

 

[canuckgunny]

You definitely don't want to do any welding / soldering in my opinion. Too much heat. If it's gonna get painted you definitely want to get ALL the rust down, I have used stick-on 3M pads on a pnuematic angled die grinder many times. Good Automotive putty with the right blend of hardener is very easily sandable, yet tough. Makes for a very smooth finish. If the outside's rusted, Hows the bore?

Edit to add: After any sanding you should throw some paste bluing on it to prevent rusting which starts immediately -though invisible. Oiling it between shifts is a good idea, but then you have to clean it again anyways and oil becomes an issue with the puttty/ paint. A tube of bluing gel isn't much$. Just my opinion.

 

[sunray]

"...deep external pitting..." There is no safe way. Pitting is an indication that the barrel has severely rusted. The barrel is already weakened by the pitting, so it's best to leave it alone.

 

[englishman_ca]

Excellent bore

The only reasons why I am using this badly pitted barrel is because the bore is excellent and it is a hard to find part. Although the exterior is rough and looks ancient, the bore is in suprisingly good condition with bright and shiney Metford rifling. There is some pitting at the muzzle of about 1/4 inch down the bore. If this effects its shootability, it can easily be counterbored. Other than that, the barrel should make a good shooter and is ready to go on the receiver.

The outside has pitting right along the woodline, some of it quite deep. I am not too worried about loss of strength, the barrel is very thick walled.
But I do agree that they don't help the integrity of the barrel, they could be stress risers and cause problems one day if the rust was left active. I just cleaned the barrel in my electrolysis tank so now there is zero rust on the parent metal, even the pitts are clean of rust.

I would leave things be, I usualy do, but this barrel is going into a functional restoration of a not too common Lee Metford eight shot rifle, so it would be nice to make it pretty too, but functionality comes first.

If I wanted to spend the time and effort, I could remove the pocks that are visible just above the woodline by using a draw file, hand polishing and then using the appropriate grit papers with the right touch to produce something close to original finish. I would not take them all out, but the big pits would become little pits and the little pits would be gone. This would make it look 100% better yet not make any dimensional changes to the fit of the barrel in the barrel channel.

But for now I will just gently blast it with fine sand to make the pits less noticeable and then finish it with a slow rust blue. I'll get it mounted into the receiver and get the rifle complete and assembled so I can see how it shoots before I decide if and how I am to refinish the barrel and the rest of the rifle.

I must confess that pits, knocks and dings in an old rifle don't really bother me as long as it is clean and in good repair. An old gun is allowed to look old. That is how I usualy do a restoration, remove signs of abuse and years of neglect yet make the rifle look to have overall honest wear for its age.

 

[6.5x55swm]

NEVER, EVER weld on a barrel with stick or mig, a barrel is straight and the heat from welding WILL warp it, I'm a welder DON'T WELD ON A BARREL bring it to a machine shop and have it turned down to look like new

 

[Reaper]

Use Durafill by Dura Coat,it fills in pits and whatnot and is rock solid and stable.

 

[scanner]

WOW, flashback from the past years ago I had a Martini carbine 303 which was one of those from India. It was a junker, I mean I loved the gun, but she was pretty bad shape. I decided to refinsh it. I took it apart and found the same thing..horrible pit depth under the forarm. Very deep. Someone had already removed the rust. At first I thought it was a flaw in the barrel forgging years back. Anyhow, there's really nothing you can do. If you want to just paint it, then you can use a good auto puddy to full the pits. I would not recommend welding (for the same heat reasons as others have said). Soft sodder and lead would not warp the barrel if you're carfull, but you can not hot blue it afterwards or else the sodder will turn like a goldish color, and lead I believe would fall out. But again painting it would be ok.

I never shot my Martini. The reason was because of the pitting. Inside the bore the grooves were very dark, and I felt there might be deep pitting inside as well as outside, making very thin walls on the barrel to hold pressure.

Two things you may consider is relining the barrel and chamber in a low pressure caliber. Possibly a 38 spl handgun round and just shoot target loads. Or you could put a new or used barrel on the action. The new barrel can be turned on a lathe to look just like the original.

Oh, and the inside of my reciever had packs and packs of dirt. Must have been 100 years old, but the action was still working fine.

 

[guntech]

I have a spare barrel that has some pretty deep external pitting above and below the woodline. I could have at it with crocus cloth and polish it out but I got thinking (I hate when that happens).

You could polish with crocus cloth for a few years and you wouldn't remove a small pit let alone deep pits. Crocus cloth does not remove any appreciable amount of metal. To make it look good you need to remove the same amount of metal everywhere slightly deeper than the deepest pit. Draw filing and 180 grit wet/dry paper. It isn't worth it.

Sand blast the hell out of it and blue it or have it parkerized.

 

[PerversPépère]

If money is no object, you could have it metal sprayed then turned with a surface grinder.
PP.

 

[Ken The Kanuck]

I've used this stuff on some pretty heavy duty industrial applications and it has worked well.

http://www.belzona.com/

KTK

 

[englishman_ca]

Sandblasting and blueing is the way that I will go. Won't be pretty, but then again, it won't look terrible.

The rest of the rifle will be an assembly of 'well seasoned' components, so it won't look out of place.

 

[Tom Cates]

rust pits must be stopped with something like navel jelly (phosphoric acid) or the pits will continue. Even if you reblue, they will pop back out. You could bead blast and put on a "rough finish".

 

[Spencer]

The only reasons why I am using this badly pitted barrel is because the bore is excellent and it is a hard to find part. Although the exterior is rough and looks ancient, the bore is in suprisingly good condition with bright and shiney Metford rifling. There is some pitting at the muzzle of about 1/4 inch down the bore. If this effects its shootability, it can easily be counterbored. Other than that, the barrel should make a good shooter and is ready to go on the receiver.

The outside has pitting right along the woodline, some of it quite deep. I am not too worried about loss of strength, the barrel is very thick walled.
But I do agree that they don't help the integrity of the barrel, they could be stress risers and cause problems one day if the rust was left active. I just cleaned the barrel in my electrolysis tank so now there is zero rust on the parent metal, even the pitts are clean of rust.

I would leave things be, I usualy do, but this barrel is going into a functional restoration of a not too common Lee Metford eight shot rifle, so it would be nice to make it pretty too, but functionality comes first.

If I wanted to spend the time and effort, I could remove the pocks that are visible just above the woodline by using a draw file, hand polishing and then using the appropriate grit papers with the right touch to produce something close to original finish. I would not take them all out, but the big pits would become little pits and the little pits would be gone. This would make it look 100% better yet not make any dimensional changes to the fit of the barrel in the barrel channel.

But for now I will just gently blast it with fine sand to make the pits less noticeable and then finish it with a slow rust blue. I'll get it mounted into the receiver and get the rifle complete and assembled so I can see how it shoots before I decide if and how I am to refinish the barrel and the rest of the rifle.

I must confess that pits, knocks and dings in an old rifle don't really bother me as long as it is clean and in good repair. An old gun is allowed to look old. That is how I usualy do a restoration, remove signs of abuse and years of neglect yet make the rifle look to have overall honest wear for its age.

My recomendation would be leave it alone or do it properly. I have refinished rifles with pitting at least as bad as that a couple of times. Draw file the entire barrel , polish and reblue. Only you would ever know the rifle had been neglected in the past.

 

[Libertas aut Mortis]

There is a product called Evapo-Rust that I got from Home Depot.

Non-corrosive and completely removes rust (not iron or steel) in a couple hours.

An amazing product.

 

[Striker]

Wouldn't getting a machinist to chuck it up in a lathe and turn it down be easier then draw filing it?
We've removed some bad pitting using 100-600 grit sand paper, time and a hell of a lot of elbow grease.

 

[icedog]

Ken,
Those Belzona products look interesting...who retails them, and are they available in small "home use" quantities ?