Tips and links to refinishing your own barrels?

[Himark]

I have searched this forum and the general answer is to send them off. However, I would like to rust blue them myself. I have seen the midway video and while it makes it look simple I am sure it is NOT.

Who has done there own? any tips would be great and or links to a thread discussion about it would be appreciated as I am coming up empty handed on my search.

Thank you in advance.

[B. Dudley]

Well if you are going to rust blue yourself, you will have to make an investment in some equiptment that is needed for doing the job. Mainly a Tank for boiling that is large enough for a set of barrels and a way to heat the water effectively. That is about it really.

Brownells sells Iron tanks for about $75.00 and Stainless tanks for about $150. When I bought mine, I went for stainless, because I knew iron would be an issue in the long run. Heating can be problematic. When I did trial runs heating the 4-5 gallon tank on my stove, across 3 burners, it took hours to bring the water up to a rolling boil. But, when I made up my 40" two row pipe burner pumbed to natural gas, I comes to a boil in about 30 mins. from cold. So, turning off the gas between boilings is not a big deal, because you can be back up to a boil in about 10 mins if the water is still hot.

I got my pipe burner setup for natural gas from brownells as well. It was about $170 and then I built an angle iron stand for the tank that the burner attaches right to with muffler clamps. I opted for Natural gas over propane, because I did not want to mess with tanks and I was able to tap right into my gas line for my furnace in my shop.

Propane gives you the most BTU output. You can make your own pipe burner for propane using an old grill buner and a pipe with holes drilled into it. But I found Brownells pipe burner kits to be a great value for a hassle free and pretty much ready to go setup.

And for solutions, go with Mark Lees Express Blue. It is very fast working and gives a nice dark black color. There is no long rusting times and having to let the barrels set and sweat in a box. I can do a set of barrels from start to finish in 4-5 hours with mark Lees. And that is with about 8-10 rusting/boiling cycles. You will find that a lot of production shops are likely using it too, because it works so fast.

And, finally, the result of most any bluing job is very dependant on the polishing and prep work. you must get good at polishing metal and draw filing if need be. That is where most of the work is in finishing a set of barrels.

There is nothing wrong with wanting to do your barrels yourself, but you will find that the money you will spend up front on tanks and heating setups will cost about the same as sending them out. So, if you have no intention in doing it again, you might want to re-think it.

[Himark]

Thank you for the genuine reply. As you stated buying the equipment can be a deturrant however, one of the guys I shoot with has the tank and I have a pair of turkey fryers that I melt lead on. That should be a quick way to handle the heat and tank. Thanks again for the reply!

[B. Dudley]

Sure. Borrow the tank and set up the fryer burners and run some tests to see how long it takes to boil the water and check for fairly even heating.
When you actually boil for bluing use distilled water only.

There are a lot of other minor tips I could provide if you would like when the time comes.

[Himark]

absolutely! I very much appreciate it. I have the barrels at a shop now getting a dent lifted and will be doing them when they are returned. As I work in a body shop and have done a lot of metal finishing this process does not scare me especially with good advice from guys on here. tx.

[J. A. EARLY]

I agree with Brian on the Mark Lee's Express bluing. Works great. Lots of barrels and other parts from one bottle.

I use a double burner propane camp stove that has the tall legs, about $100 at Gander Mountain. Took a grinder to the ends and my tank fits right on top of the burners. To a boil in minutes. Can use it for other things as well obviously and comes apart and goes back in the box to save space.

Found a guy making sufficiently long stainless steel tanks with a lid on e-bay for much less than Brownells. With stainless steel, one can also do parkerizing.

Just my 2 cents.

[J. A. EARLY]

STAINLESS STEEL TANKS $ STEEL TANKS

http://stainlesssteelcreations.net/p...-products.html

Great quality.

[Tom]

Tim
I have done a few, mostly 22s and one shotgun. Brownells sell a steel tank pretty cheap I put it right on the kitchen stove it spans two burners. Just need to get it off before the wife gets home. I only use enough water to cover the barrels it will boil in about 10 min.

I Finnish the barrels to 400 grit by hand no machines for me. I have used Brownells rust blue or pilkingtons rust blue. For a sweat box I have a small stack on gun cabinet I think it's for eight guns it's pretty cheap but makes a great sweat box. I put a rack on top to hang parts and a crock pot in the bottom for heat and humidity.
In my experience once the rust turns red pull it out and boil, don't let it sit longer it will tend to etch the metal deeper than I like. Blueing gives me tremendous satisfaction, hope this helps.
Tom