sand blast, clean and park info on doing it right

badboybeeson

badboybeeson

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ok guys i spent all summer building my shop, time to start on the winter projects.
i need to know what i should clean the guns with before bead blasting and what to use after, before i park it.
I,m trying to stop transfer so the park job comes out good and the same all over.

post as much info as poss.
thanks bbb
 
After I blasted my parts I put them in a pot of boiling water that was on the next burner to the park solution to remove any oil that was hidden in nooks and crannies.

I don't know if the pre-heat of the parts helped, but the park came out even on all parts. This was on a Nork 1911 using Radocy solution.
 
I wonder if you dipped it in a tank of Varsol and then blew off the excess with an air compressor, and then hung to dry for awhile.

It makes a blued gun look very dull as it removes all oil and moisture from the metal.

I have cleaned pistols in Varsol tanks before and it cleans and degreases well.
 
If the gun is really oil caked I'll strip it and wash all the parts and let it dry. If not..I'll just strip it.
I then blast it using aluminum oxide and pre heat it to 325 for an hour to sweat out any oil that is left.
I then wash it again wearing latex gloves to keep oil from my hands off it.
Let it air dry, pre heat it to 125 and spray it.

I use a product called "gun wash" to clean the parts. It's a cleaner used in the automotive painting industry to clean spray guns.
 
My prep routine is:
1.Scrub parts with toothbrush and mineral spirits,let dry
2.Rinse with laquer thinner or brake cleaner
3.Blast parts
4.pre-heat in oven to 190-200 deg F to make steel more reactive and avoid lowering the temp of solution.You should minimize the time between blasting and immersion in the park solution in order to eliminate the possibility of steel re-oxidizing after blasting.
Make sure you wear heavy rubber gloves throughout the process so as to not contaminate the metal or solution with fingerprints
I once had a Breda Garand receiver which would'nt take an even park due to embedded oils.I re-blasted and boiled it in lye solution before parking which solved the problem
 
We just did some last weekend. Soaked the parts inn Muriatic acid (Canadian Tire) and then parked them. THey looked pretty good.

I would suggest media blasting first for any stuborn parts or a thourogh wasing as the acid only eats away the rust and oils.

Sosa
 
All of the advice above is pretty good. I've used brake cleaner to degrease as well.

If you do sandblast alone, the surface has many sharp edged pits, which will suck the lint right off a cleaning rag. To avoid "fuzzy gun syndrome", bead blast after sand blast, to soften the edges.

It is a good idea to degease before blasting, otherwise you can drive/embed pockets of rust or oil right into the metal pores, where it will find its way back to the surface eventually. And degrease again after blast.

I did mostly Electroless nickle, and the prep for that is even fussier .... the slightest trace of oil showed up as black soot marks on a silver background.
 
I hope im not hijacking this thread. Can I use the glass grit(from Princess Auto) instead of aluminum oxide to blast parts before parkerizing? I understand some have used sandbox sand.
 
quinnjoblow said:
I hope im not hijacking this thread. Can I use the glass grit(from Princess Auto) instead of aluminum oxide to blast parts before parkerizing? I understand some have used sandbox sand.
Click to expand...
The company that makes gun kote recommends aluminum oxide as sand and glass beads don't rough the surface up enough for their product to adhere to it. Blasting with glass beads leaves the surface like a golf ball.
 
Striker said:
The company that makes gun kote recommends aluminum oxide as sand and glass beads don't rough the surface up enough for their product to adhere to it. Blasting with glass beads leaves the surface like a golf ball.
Click to expand...

intresting ill have to look at how some small parts come out with the glass bead.
\So as i asked what to clean the guns with befor blasting and befor parkerizing so i dotn get transfer.
varsol work?? cheap they would be good.
bbb
 
Aluminum oxide is really aggressive - I'd stay with glass beads. And NO VARSOL - it's got oil as a base - use brake kleen, acetone or lacquer thinner as a de-greaser.
 
DaveGP said:
Aluminum oxide is really aggressive - I'd stay with glass beads. And NO VARSOL - it's got oil as a base - use brake kleen, acetone or lacquer thinner as a de-greaser.
Click to expand...

It is..but if you use 120 grit..it works great. The marks it leaves are microscopic..to look at the surface or touch it, it feels smooth.
BBB I use that product called gun wash. It comes in a 20l can for around $35 here. You should be able to get it at any auto paint supply store.

Here is a model 94 just after I blasted it.

94004.jpg
 
We generally don't do any type of degreasing operation before parkerizing. The come off the machine and go straight into the blasting cabinet and hit with aluminum oxide, about 120 grit I believe. After blasting, the parts are never touched. They go straight from the blasting cabinet into a hot degreaser. I'm not sure what the degreaser is, it was included from the chemical company. From there right into the parkerizing solution.

We've also found that it is critical to stop the reaction as quickly as possible or a brown residue will appear. Right after leaving the park tank the parts go into a hot water rinse and a quick scrub. Then into a special oil mix to soak.
 
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Striker said:
The company that makes gun kote recommends aluminum oxide as sand and glass beads don't rough the surface up enough for their product to adhere to it. Blasting with glass beads leaves the surface like a golf ball.
Click to expand...

Thanks,thats what I figured. I was just thinking that the aluminum oxide might be agressive enough to damage markings and receiver threads. I will stick to the finer grit of oxide.
 
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