I have the bluing shop up and running. Tanks welded, installed, filled.





Here's a quick list of projects with parts in this bluing. I've been sanding and racking these over the last couple of days. I'm sure I'll forget some.

1). Rearick - Tundra
2). Alder - Delta Ranger
3). Hoover - Chameleon
4). Tony - Hawk
5). Hahn - Tundra
6). Shop - HAWG parts for reassembly
7). Shop - X-Caliber parts 308, 46, 58, 62, 62. There will be a rifle or two, assembled for sale, as per the discussiojn about 10 days ago.
8). Reblue of inventory parts - varied models - some yet to be determined. Since 96, I've accumulated parts, and darned near complete guns as people have changed their minds, models, or dropped out. One that comes to mind is a Ranger Mdl. 97 in .177". I'm rebluing some parts to make them all match. The HAWG 62 is in this group. The few guns that are finished as working capital will be those few that first receive interest and are matched with their customer. Obviously, I can't finish a whole bunch of extra guns. But - the remainder will exist in the background, to eventually be completed.
9). There's a rifle I'll be selling for the estate of a customer. A fine Tundra 45 Magnum. I'm bringing it up close to "as new" condition. This involves stock refinish. Perhaps a barrel re-blue. It's totally disassembled now, as I go through it to re-certify it for sale.





I'm sure there are more projects. Quite a few racks and trays of parts.

Gary



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/13/2011 05:38PM by barnespneumatic.

Inserted the pics above. Racks and trays of the parts going into this session. The new bluing tanks roughly installed for this session.

Bluing is a flithy process. The salts corrode everything in the bluing shop - that's why you need a seperate closed area. The salt actually crawls up the tank walls and out of the tank when it's cool. Even with a top on the tank. The used salts are a brick orange color. All this goes into solution when heated. Point is ... while it looks like a real slob put it together and maintains it ... that's the nature of the beast.

Finishing a few more parts for he racks. Couple of more racks and trays go in - they I'll fire the burners.

Wish me luck.

Gary

BTW. The Dragon skin frames didn't pass my tests. The paints failed to cure correctly. It's a long story and makes my hip hurt. At any rate, they've all been sanded for bluing. No Dragons this time.

Another issue came up, I realized too. Everybody interested had a different taste in color. Therefore; it would become a "custom order" nightmare that would complicate what I was trying to achieve. "I'd like to get that 58 there ... but I don't like the blue/black Dragon skin ... I'd prefer the green/brown". So; it's sort of another head banging that I didn't need right now.



GAry



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/13/2011 05:52PM by barnespneumatic.

Here's a few more pics. Everything all racked now.

Hey - this has been a fascinating thread! Gary, Gary, Gary, Gary. Anyway ... here's what I sanded thru gritted teeth the past few days. Ha ... get it? Sanded ... grit ... gritting teeth ... pain ... sanding grit ... humor in there someplace.


Mike ... there's your hammer tube for the Tundra. The adjustment holes. And, it will have the faux carbon pattern on it. There's 11 barrels in this batch. Let's see. .244, .252, 2- .308s, .318, .465, .495, .563, .568, .617, .620 IIRC

Gary



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/14/2011 12:25AM by barnespneumatic.

Faux carbon fiber = AWESOME. Always loved that look on your bench guns.

Great to see stuff being moved along through the "queue" . . .

And look, we even have a "Gary in the bluing shop" smilie:



-- Jim

That's right Jim!

I'm trying to shake the flames off. haha.

Remember when I was working, Kelly visited, and she told me my apron strings were smoldering ... leaving a trail of smoke as I moved. hahah.

Gary

Gary,

I've often wondered, what do you plug the barrels with during bluing?

Lon

Hello Lon,

They are not plugged. The barrels and reservoirs - everything ... are blued inside and out. The bluing does not have any mass. None I've ever noticed or could measure.

Part of the process is boiling out the salts from every crevice. Then, while hot from that boiling .... it is submerged in water displacing oil. That sweats out any moisture left in the oxide formation.



Gary

Gary,

So 3 tanks?

Lon

Lon - Five tanks.

Constant flowing clean rinse tank.
Hot boiling cleaner pre-blue tank
Hot boiling salt tank
Hot boiling clean after blue boil
Water displacing oil tank


Checki today's progress .... ....

Great to see Gary and appreciate all the hard work/effort. Faux carbon fiber is going to look sweet. Very interesting, the power adjustment holes

I just noticed the pre faux finish work to the metal. Does that add to the final finish look.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/14/2011 09:09PM by marcar.

Hi Mike,

Yes - the finish before bluing, completely determines what you get afterwards. This crosshatch is carefully laid down, over a tube that has already been nicely sanded to a good quality finish. So - it's not to hide flaws, or such. The crosshatch is laid down, so there are not any "hot spots" for the eye to stop on when it's scanning the pattern. It's then burnished. Then cleaned. Boiled clean, rinsed, then hot salt blued.

Note ... on the rack that had your tube and your receiver housing on it, the other items on the rack blued instantly. At about 280 F, everything else was a rich black. These two items, being a different alloy (and each of those being different from the other) were staying white. I had to alter the bath to raise the boil to 285 F. At this, they started to blacken ... slowly. I rinsed them, altered the bath to near 290 F ... put them back ... and got the black ... then let them soak some. That tank took three times the duration that it should, and required some real special attention to temp. and bath solution.



Gary

I could definitely see the uniform pattern and felt it was purposely laid down. Can't wait to see how that part looks finished.

Hot salt bluing seems very scientific from all your discussions and with many variables, not withstanding metal alloy types and percentages.

I know todays bluing session fought you all the way but you stood victorious in the end.........congrats for that!!