doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Barrel prep before rust blueing question

FWIW, I have cut the solution up to 50/50 with distilled water and still had a good reaction on most barrels. Was hoping to get a finer finish...jury is still out on whether or not it is a valid approach.

Best,
Mark

When you guys talk about grit size are you speaking about emory cloth or buffing compound?

If it's buffing compound, where do you get it and do you use oil with it?

I've been using Flitz buffing compound but don't know the grit size.

In my case - wet/dry sandpaper. I use oil with it. Either NAPA ATF (I guess that's not really oil), or WD40. Water works as well.

I don't know how you would use buffing compound except on a wheel. I never let my barrels touch a polishing wheel.
Brent

Salvaged the burners from a small propane kitchen stove and made a rack to set my tank on. Works great but only gets the water in a 40 inch tank up to the bubble stage. Not a rolling boil. A little less heat will do the job.

I use rust blueing solution that requires heat for the application so I use the boiling tank to heat the barrels. The water evaporates immediately when they are removed and it gets them hot enough to apply the blueing.

After rust browning dozens of muzzleloader barrels one trick I use is to scrub the barrels clean with hot soapy water and then etch them with, "The Works" toilet bowl cleaner.(hydrochloric acid). The kind in the gray bottle. Then scrub again with the hot soapy water(dishwashing detergent). The browning solution takes an immediate bite into the metal and seems to be a little more even.

On a related topic, Can I touch up area in an original barrel by re rusting the whole barrel over the old blue?

dt, with the solution I use it can. I finished a barrel awhile back and when I had it finished and oiled I noticed a very small thin spot in the blueing. I stewed over it for a couple of days wondering what to do. Finally I just degreased the barrels, fired up the boiling tank and added more coats of rust (Mark Lee) until the spot was deep like the rest of the barrel.

Now with the slow rusting process I'm not sure but once the barrels are degreased I would suspect you might be able to continue the process. The blueing on there is rust and adding more solution on top should start the process up again.

Not a real answer to your question but just my thoughts on it.

I find that if you polish with WD40, you get a quicker bite and a better result in fewer passes than if you polish dry. The dry polished bbls will be mirror-like, and I think this burnishing effect actually protects the metal (or perhaps the satin finish you get from polishing with oil helps retain more acid).

Of course, the other variables (strength of solution, temp, humidity, time etc.) all interact so you may not get the same result unless all the variables are the same.