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Steamer for converting rust
- Thread starter Hoosier8
- Start date
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Just experimenting with 2% ammonium chloride right now. Instead of boiling in distilled water, steaming regular water does the same for long parts. I have a rusted shotgun action and barrel I will try the steaming with.
I will post pictures. I have a Stevens 67 that is covered with rust that I will try converting and carding to see how it turns out. The funny thing about the rusty Stevens is the bore looks like a mirror.
Here is what I will try with. It’s a Stevens 67 that I got as a bag of parts. Just reassembled it for these pictures.
It does not steam off the rust but converts it to black rust (ferro-ferric oxide) that leaves a layer of black rust fuzz that can be steel wooled off (0000) or carded with a very fine wire wheel and basically how guns were blued before hot dip bluing which is quicker and better suited to production. Rust bluing takes more time. What I am trying is called conservation and stops it from rusting more. I will see after that how pitted it is.
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That’s fine depending what one plans on doing. Converting rust to black rust is just a non-invasive way to convert rust to bluing instead of removing it and rebluing it. For old firearms you are not going to refinish it’s the way to go for preservation. I will do this eventually with my Civil War guns but will not refinish them.
For instance if you are going to reparkerize you would bead blast the item. If you are going to take it down to bare metal with evaporust/electrolisis and sand/polish out pits you would still recoat for protection in some manner, one being rust bluing by starting a thin layer of rust and converting, another being something like cerakote. If you have the cash you can invest in hot caustic bluing but rust bluing is more suitable for me at home.
I am using cheap guns to try this out with. I will probably make some mistakes but that’s why I going with what I call $100 guns, guns that sell for $100-$150 in great shape.
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For the Stevens 67 trigger guard I will probably use Brownells Gun Kote gloss black. Not as tough as Cerakote but easier and cheaper to apply. The trigger group in this gun is pot metal so would not take bluing.
dieselrealtor
Master
I read something about boiling ferrous metals some years ago, hadn't heard about steaming.
Same temperature but no need for distilled water. I have a cheap deep fat fryer for boiling small parts in water.
Trying with some steel blanks to see if I can blue them. I am using a 2% ammonium chloride solution to start with. The rusty gun will get a steaming no matter what.
First attempt at rusting last night did not work well. I need a humidity cabinet. This time I made a makeshift humidity attempt and tried to keep it between 100 and 110 degrees. This is 1/2 hour after wiping a solution of 2% ammonium chloride. Next will be a 10 minute boil, carding, and another pass at rusting.
First carding after boiling. The finish is not polished so it won’t look great when done and will take more iterations of the process. Just steel wire brushed. Just seeing how dark I can get it. Got something else to get done so on hold right now.
Darker but splotchy and the spot at the top is where some condensate dripped on it. Going to quit on this coupon and later polish one and get better humidity control. I also did not clean it like I should before starting.
