the best way to get rid of pitting on a project rifle

[battyone]

I'd stick to cold blueing, all that seems an awful lot of trouble to go to, when you can buy a bottle of birchwood casey that'll work just fine.

I've used their super blue and it's worked great, just so simple to do. Degrease, then wipe on and leave it. They say leave it a couple of minutes or whatever, I've left it overnight and it goes a yellow rust, run it under the hot tap and give it a scrub and your done.
No reason why you can't keep coating until you get the effect/depth your after. Once done it's all about the oil.

I've got a cold blacking kit from Frosts that works great too if you want jet black instead of blue-ish black, comes with a great degreaser too. But the dewatering oil doesn't do much.

[Rickenbacker]

You must be genius or lucky then, cos I've tried and tried with BC cold blue - and my efforts have been rubbish

Followed the instructions to the letter (I'm sure it says 30 seconds exposure time, and less is better than more), but soon as a coat starts to look dark-ish, the next coat takes it back to mid-grey...

I'll have another go and leave it on there longer next time

It's been fine for small bits like screw heads & pins etc, but barrels & cylinders have been disapointing

[valboskie]

My original Plan was to cold blue with phillips cold blue if it worked great If not I was going to ask Donald to try and rust blue it in the warmer weather.
I have now been wet n dry sanding the action all week at night and on my lunch break.
I don't know What I'm doing wrong I must be approaching 20 hours sanding and it's still pitted
It's a lot shallower but still very visible
So I can't Cold blue the rifle it will look poor and not worth all the effort.
Mick covered up pitting with his rust bluing so that might be my only option.
I will keep sanding away and see where it eventually Gets me ..

I have borrowed a bench grinders so I will buy a buffing kit with mops and some buffing compound
And try that to save some elbow grease.
It might work. I hope it works. It better work
Atb
David

[Rickenbacker]

Sounds like a mare of a job mate Mick knows better than me, but I think any pitting you see now - you'll still see when its blued & polished

[thisisdonald]

I started clearing some of the trees for my shed last night mate... got an early finish and made use of the daylight.. exposed a decades old junk heap with old electric panel heaters and seesaws etc.. piled under years of compost - need a wheelbarrow! Mon the light nights!!!

[thisisdonald]

this is what we need Dave!!!!

[battyone]

You're never going to remove deep pitting, especially with fine wet n' dry.

I'm doing a cadet at the mo and the cylinder has a line of pitting either side, down it's full length,just at the stock line.
A bit of measuring made it obvious that there was no way I could file deep enough to remove it all and still have a cylinder in one piece.
So all I can do is smooth it a little and polish the rest.

It's blacking/blueing right now. Liberal coat of BC super blue. I'll check on it later.

I'm reasonably confident I can lose the pitting well enough with a thorough oiling.

A few trips through the dishwasher will get steel rusting nicely.

It may be possible to get rust pits to rust more and self fill the depth. Just try anything that might cause rust on the pitted areas, then wet flat the surrounds. With multiple rust treatments you might get enough build up.
Dishwasher soap seems good, or salt water, vinegar, caustic soda.
Just try things, the links to salts give plenty ideas of things that will get you some rust going.

[valboskie]

this is what we need Dave!!!!

Now your talking that looks the business
Mirror finish in 40 seconds
Atb
David

[frontend loader]

My original Plan was to cold blue with phillips cold blue if it worked great If not I was going to ask Donald to try and rust blue it in the warmer weather.
I have now been wet n dry sanding the action all week at night and on my lunch break.
I don't know What I'm doing wrong I must be approaching 20 hours sanding and it's still pitted
It's a lot shallower but still very visible
So I can't Cold blue the rifle it will look poor and not worth all the effort.
Mick covered up pitting with his rust bluing so that might be my only option.
I will keep sanding away and see where it eventually Gets me ..

I have borrowed a bench grinders so I will buy a buffing kit with mops and some buffing compound
And try that to save some elbow grease.
It might work. I hope it works. It better work
Atb
David

Only 20 hours? I have got 30 hours in a BSA Standard so far and haven't started on the cocking lever/link.It can be a time consuming job.I had to weld over some of the really bad marks ,it looked like someone had had a go at the loading tap housing with a hacksaw blade.
One thing to avoid is attacking it with a polishing mop as it will ''ripple'' the barrel and compression tube and the finer it's polished the more these are highlighted.There is a device that holds the barrel between live centres and allows it to spin while it's polished against the mop,this will help eliminate the ''ripple'' effect.I made a set up around a bench grinder and lapidary wheel to polish out pits and then finish with wet and dry and cutting oil,with a very light polish on the machine.

[frontend loader]

Now your talking that looks the business
Mirror finish in 40 seconds
Atb
David

Works just like a crankshaft grinder,except the crank is spun and the belt is pressed onto it.I think that machine in the link and a lathe might work pretty well though.I found I had to turn the tube while grinding/polishing it,maybe it's because I only buy rusting relics

[T 20]

I've sorted it now

I was putting my acid above the radiator in my heated cabinet and then hanging the test piece above it and nothing was happening.

So yesterday I put a shelf in the heated cabinet just above the radiator so that I could stand a rusting box on that.

I used the plastic box I'd rusted my Original 5g in during the summer months so I knew the box worked.

I've just had a look in the 5g box and my test pieces are rusted to buggery so that shows me the way forward with the acid rusting --- You have to keep the whole setup warm from the outside.

So if you have your rusting box in your garden shed you'd have to keep the whole shed interior warm or build a heated box in your shed to put your rusting box in.

I can't see any need to play with other chemicals now to form the rust as the acid works fine if you get the right environment outside your rusting box --- besides which I'm getting a bit fed up of weeing on bits of metal.






All the best Mick

[valboskie]

Only 20 hours? I have got 30 hours in a BSA Standard so far and haven't started on the cocking lever/link.It can be a time consuming job.I had to weld over some of the really bad marks ,it looked like someone had had a go at the loading tap housing with a hacksaw blade.
One thing to avoid is attacking it with a polishing mop as it will ''ripple'' the barrel and compression tube and the finer it's polished the more these are highlighted.There is a device that holds the barrel between live centres and allows it to spin while it's polished against the mop,this will help eliminate the ''ripple'' effect.I made a set up around a bench grinder and lapidary wheel to polish out pits and then finish with wet and dry and cutting oil,with a very light polish on the machine.

I wish I knew about the polishing mops before I ordered A full kit with extra mops.
I thought I could give the barrel and action its final polish.
I had no idea about ripples
Looking at my pitting and micks hw77 the rust bluing might fill it all in and give a nice finish.
I'm glad I never bought a grinder.
Atb
David

[valboskie]

I've sorted it now

I was putting my acid above the radiator in my heated cabinet and then hanging the test piece above it and nothing was happening.

So yesterday I put a shelf in the heated cabinet just above the radiator so that I could stand a rusting box on that.

I used the plastic box I'd rusted my Original 5g in during the summer months so I knew the box worked.

I've just had a look in the 5g box and my test pieces are rusted to buggery so that shows me the way forward with the acid rusting --- You have to keep the whole setup warm from the outside.

So if you have your rusting box in your garden shed you'd have to keep the whole shed interior warm or build a heated box in your shed to put your rusting box in.

I can't see any need to play with other chemicals now to form the rust as the acid works fine if you get the right environment outside your rusting box --- besides which I'm getting a bit fed up of weeing on bits of metal.


All the best Mick

Mick that's great glad you worked it out... Donald You take note lol.
What rifle are you going blue next and take plenty of pictures.
Atb
David

[Rickenbacker]

I've sorted it now

I was putting my acid above the radiator in my heated cabinet and then hanging the test piece above it and nothing was happening.

So yesterday I put a shelf in the heated cabinet just above the radiator so that I could stand a rusting box on that.

I used the plastic box I'd rusted my Original 5g in during the summer months so I knew the box worked.

I've just had a look in the 5g box and my test pieces are rusted to buggery so that shows me the way forward with the acid rusting --- You have to keep the whole setup warm from the outside.

So if you have your rusting box in your garden shed you'd have to keep the whole shed interior warm or build a heated box in your shed to put your rusting box in.

I can't see any need to play with other chemicals now to form the rust as the acid works fine if you get the right environment outside your rusting box --- besides which I'm getting a bit fed up of weeing on bits of metal.






All the best Mick

Glad you're getting it sorted Mick

What are you gonna wee on now? Cos all us blokes likes to wee on something out of doors!

[T 20]

Glad you're getting it sorted Mick

What are you gonna wee on now? Cos all us blokes likes to wee on something out of doors!

Hi Phil

The rusting is working that well now I don't have much time for a waz.

With the first gun I fume blued (Rusty 77) I was rusting for 24 hours before boiling --- with the rusting tank inside my heated cabinet I'm having to boil 3 times a day.

The rusting time can be varied by altering the temperature and I'm finding a nice slow low temperature rusting is better than a quick rusting at high temperature --- this ties in better with my working day.

A slow rusting also makes it easier to catch the rust at the right time to boil --- you get a longer period between the rust forming and pitting developing.

A few of the lads who attended the Boinger Bash we're interested in how this process worked but I wasn't able to show them last year due to the hit and miss nature of the rust forming.
Now I'm able to pretty we'll predict the rusting period we can have a bit of a play this year and a quick demo of fume bluing.

I just hope folks don't laugh at my boiling tank for small parts --- it looks just like an electric wok.



All the best Mick