doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Help with making a bluing/boiling tank?

All the comercial bluing tanks I see for sale are horizontal troughs. While talking a welder/fabricator friend into making me a freeby tank, he suggested a vertical orientation because all he would need to do is weld a base plate on the bottom of a 3 ft. section of scrap tube steel. I would clamp the tank atop a turkey frier and hang/suspend the bbls in the tank with a wire. Aside from being tippy, is there a problem with this plan?

P.S. I only want to slow rust blue. Thanks!

Uneven heating!
I made my own from a piece of stainless steel , bent it around a 2X4. It's rough, but does the job.

Ryan ---- I have some experience with your problem. If you call me at 910-221-5288 , I'll be happy to explain how to handle this problem.

Just buy a tank from Brownells. I screwed around with many different things from pipe cut in half to rain gutters. The tank from them is around $70. Just do it you won't regret it. I use a dual hot plate to cook. It won't boil but it gets damn hot enough to do the job.

I use a two-burner Coleman stove connected to a 20 lb. propane tank. More than enough heat and lasts a long time. The tank that I use is one that I made out of 20 gauge steel. I had a problem with uneven heating because of the thinness of the steel and consequent uneven colour in the piece being blued. I solved the problem by putting a sheet of 3/16" steel plate under the tank to diffuse the heat. I should point out that I use the old Herter's Belgian Blue (an "express" rust blue), and it does a lovely job, ending up looking like the old Superposed guns..

I don't think you will get an even boiling temperature for a long barrel that way. Could be wrong. I thought about it myself.

But I use a piece of aluminum rain gutter and a couple of campstoves. It has done more rust blued barrels than I can count now.

Brent

Make it horizontal and stainless steel.

Mine is 6"x 6"x 36" of 1/8" aluminum sheet. Handles welded on each end. I heat it on an old aquarium stand with a homemade single 3/4" pipe burner(propane) under it. Cover it with a piece of aluminum flashing when heating and have flashing wind skirts on the sides. It comes up to a boil quickly and takes very little gas to maintain.

OB

OB makes a very valid point. It takes a LOT longer to boil a tank that has no cover on it.

For my tank, just use a piece of aluminum flashing. I did use a piece of 1/4" ply but it got charred too many times. Really not appropriate for a lid. The aluminum scrap works well enough.

Brent