Sandblasting and Parkerizing

[Zee705]

Has anyone done their own blasting and parkerizing?

I'm restoring a No.5 Jungle Carbine and it needs a new finish. I have some manganese solution I picked up from MG34 many years ago that I want to try.

I plan on building a DIY cabinet then using glass bead to peen the surface. I don't have room for an actual blasting cabinet otherwise I'd just buy one. I could see myself using the DIY job allot in the future.

The No.5 has electro-pencil markings that I don't want to wash out and I'm told glass bead is the best option for this. Guys on other subs have said they use aluminum oxide, garnet and even play sand but I think that will be too hard on the markings while producing a rougher finish. I'll do some electro-penciling and blasting on a piece of test steel before moving on to the rifle.

For the people that have experience, what grit would be best with glass bead? 60-80?

 

[Grizzlypeg]

The velocity and condition of the glass bead affects how abrasive it is. If you recycle smashed glass bead, it acts like sand blasting, and defeats the purpose of glass bead, which is to soften the aggressiveness by using something spherical. The machine I used to use at work, had a centrifugal separator, that got rid of most of the smashed beads (which are sharp like glass), and also filtered out the material removed. Even then, for delicate work, we would change the beads out frequently.

 

[Zee705]

Good to know, thanks. I'd likely be doing one time use with the media anyways.

 

[buoff]

Sandblast and packerize

Yes I did one years ago on a Garand receiver and bolt. I don't remember what glass bead size I used. I bought a bag of glass beads from Princess auto. I didn't have a blast cabinet so I just blasted in my backyard over the grass. Glass bead does not dimensionally change the metal like aluminum oxide. On my Garand receiver, it only took the old finish off.

I use Radocy parkerizing solution.

Here is the results.

 

[rajczak_kashka]

Oooops! I just sandblasted off the serial numbers by accident ! Lol. Guy on the corner of my street says he’ll take this mess off my hands for $5000! And that’s most likely how many many more guns will end up in criminal hands once confiscation of property starts.

 

[Zee705]

Yes I did one years ago on a Garand receiver and bolt. I don't remember what glass bead size I used. I bought a bag of glass beads from Princess auto. I didn't have a blast cabinet so I just blasted in my backyard over the grass. Glass bead does not dimensionally change the metal like aluminum oxide. On my Garand receiver, it only took the old finish off.

I use Radocy parkerizing solution.

Here is the results.

That finish looks great! Did you plug the chamber and muzzle before put the barreled action in the dunk tank?

 

[tiriaq]

I use aluminum oxide with lower pressure. Doesn't cut aggressively.
I would not park a bore.

 

[Zee705]

I use aluminum oxide with lower pressure. Doesn't cut aggressively.
I would not park a bore.

Silicon plugs?

 

[OneBarfly]

I would just de-grease and drop in in the parkerizing solution. I've done this many times with Garand receivers and parts. Might not work if the surface had a painted dip finish, as you'd need to strip that away first with a chemical remover.

 

[buoff]

That finish looks great! Did you plug the chamber and muzzle before put the barreled action in the dunk tank?

The barrel was put on after the receiver was parkerized. It made it easier to do since I only need a small container for the parkerizing solution.

 

[Zee705]

I contemplated sourcing an Enfield action wrench but I think that just asking for trouble. I need to take the flash hider off though to get the upper handguard retaining ring on. I have a 2 jaw puller setup that will work once I drive the pins out.

 

[buoff]

I took a flash hider off a jungle carbine 35 years ago. I am trying to remember if they were taper pins.

 

[Zee705]

Here's a couple of pictures. They seem to be soldered on top so would that indicate non-tapered pins?

 

[tiriaq]

More likely rivetted a bit.

 

[Zee705]

Reading on the Enfield forum that these may have been sweated on.

I hope this setup with some heat will work. Not looking forward to trying a 12 ton press.

 

[buoff]

As I remember, after I took the pins out, I was able to pound the flash hider out with a hammer and a brass drift. Than again there may be different variation on how the flash hider is attached.

35 years ago, jungle carbine was going for $99 each.

 

[marshall]

I had a smaller snap on blasting cabinet, too small for rifles, but I did lots of small parts , tools and such with glass beads, and ground glass, silica oxide. I would run 60-80 lbs and it was just a nice smooth matt finish, clean off rust, paint , welding scale.
I also used a pressurized large blaster, with sand or what ever the job called for, mainly machinery builds, heavy welding clean up , but not on guns.
I forget the name , but had some real hard black sharp stuff that would cut anything it hit.
Not hard to make a cabinet, you can but the parts , gloves, gun, at princess auto, the one I had had a exhaust fan with a filter, to such dust out as it can get real hard to see , that is not a problem if using one out side, you lose all your blast material, where as with a cabinet , it is reused ( the glass) I would change it every few months, unless it got too much crud.

I had free sand, but it was almost too fine , and it has to be 100% dry to work, so not really worth the bother, thou I did use it on old siding on the shop before a repaint.

 

[turbo_bird]

I've done a few pistols and other small parts with home brew park solution and Allegheny Arsenal stuff from PJ's. They all turned out pretty decent, but the store bought solution didn't stink up my house as bad, and gave a more even finish. That could be just because I had a bit more experience by then. I've used glass beads and regular cheap sandblasting sand, and glass beads definitely make for a nicer finish in my opinion. I think I've had the pressure turned down around 50-60 psi. I didn't have access to a blast cabinet the last couple times, so I just used a cheap handheld sandblast gun in my driveway. Definitely stay away from vehicles doing it though, it gets everywhere.
This one was with the commercial solution, manganese and regular ones for the two tone look.

Sandblasted before parkerizing. This was with regular sandblasting sand, not glass beads, hence the sort of sparkly finish.

The frame and small parts of this one was done with home brew solution, and glass bead blasted.

It's not perfect, but the imperfections aren't as noticeable with the eye as in a flash photo.

This was the first one I ever did. I think lots of sediment in the solution is what caused the splotching, but it's been durable and good enough for IPSC use on a Norinco. I think the sediment might have been caused because I read that taking the manganese electrode from a dead alkaline battery could make the finish darker, so I tried it.

Kristian

 

[Zee705]

Do you mean sediment like this? Will it be a problem? I figured it would just recombine after heating it up.

Worst case I'll probably try a ceramic spray finish on top of the park to mimic the correct suncorite coating.

 

[turbo_bird]

I only had sediment issues with my homebrew park solution, probably from the dissolved steel wool or the battery electrode I put in. As long as I kept things moving and didn't let it build up on any surfaces it didn't seem to cause any issues. The stuff I've done in the commercial solution didn't have that problem, and the amount of sediment was way lower. The bottle of manganese park I have looks similar to yours, the bottle of zinc park has none. I probably wouldn't worry about that little bit.
Kristian