Parkerizing

[enjenjo]

Any one ever done it? Hot or Cold? Pre-cleaning? Post coating?

[phat46]

Working on handguns now, or trying something for car parts?

[enjenjo]

Working on handguns now, or trying something for car parts?

Something for car parts

[river1]

if you're talkin car parts, Steve Szymanski aka elpolacko did it on some exhaust parts. Don't know if car is on the road yet but you can read about it here

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/m-f-ing-hot-rods-32-3w-build-for-a-hamb-member.616418/page-13  post 390

later jim

[kb426]

wikipedia has a good description.

[enjenjo]

wikipedia has a good description.

I Looked at Wicipedia, and several other places, and it got me confused. There are several different formulas, and even some home made solutions. Plus, there are both hot and cold solutions. No where did I find that one worked better than the other.

So I pulled the trigger and bought a pint of solution from Eastwood. I have always had good luck with Eastwood products, so I will experiment with it.

[grazza]

Thank you Sir, I had never heard of this Parkerizing before, now I have. Learn something new every day.

[Mac]

Maybe you've already been there and seen it but just last week I came upon a homebrew parkerizing thread on the HAMB's motorcycle sister site "The Jockey Journal" board.
Sorry, I'm on the wife's iPad and I can't work out how to attach the URL but the title is Homebrew Parkerizing by Old.Wrench. It looks pretty comprehensive.

[Pete]

Any one ever done it? Hot or Cold? Pre-cleaning? Post coating?

I do it to the flat tappet cams I grind.
I use the dark iron formula. I charge with steel wool.
It is a 3 tank hot process with the solution around 200F.
The first tank is hot water. 200F.
The second tank is the acid.200F.
The third tank is hot water 200F.

The parts (cams in this case) are clean and dry. NO OIL OR GREASE.
They go in the first tank for 5 minutes preheat.
Into second tank till they stop bubbling.
Vertical agitating in third tank to wash acid off.
Let dry by own heat and spray oil.
Ready to ship.

I have done gun parts on occasion. Works fine.
I have done model A spring leaves after glass beading. It keeps them
from rusting and with Teflon liners makes them very smooth and easy working.

[unklian]

You've probably seen this:
http://www.jockeyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=139889

[jaybee]

I love the look and on the right car I can see it being used quite a bit. I've never refinished guns, so I've got some questions. What's the heat and corrosion resistance? As I understand it corrosion resistance partly depends on oil filling the pores in the finish. How often would that need to be done, does the oil need to be baked in, and how does that affect the heat resistance?

[Pete]

I love the look and on the right car I can see it being used quite a bit. I've never refinished guns, so I've got some questions. What's the heat and corrosion resistance? As I understand it corrosion resistance partly depends on oil filling the pores in the finish. How often would that need to be done, does the oil need to be baked in, and how does that affect the heat resistance?

Heat, up to say about 500F doesn't seem to have any effect. I have seen gun barrels at least that hot with no apparent change in surface appearance.
The military Parkerized many of their small arms in the past and they didn't rust.
As noted before, oil application is the last step of the process. It does not have to be baked in. As with any ferrous material, keeping a thin oil layer on it reduces corrosion. Oil will give the part little or no heat protection.

On a side note, in the link noted in an above post, that stated Parkerizing
would only work on carbon steel, that is in error. It works very well on cast iron and many other ferrous alloys. the article noted there were 2 solutions,
commonly used. Manganese and zinc. There is also iron. The finish color with the iron solution is very dark black.

[jaybee]

Good to know. I can see it on all sorts of underhood hardware, but also interior hardware in cars that have a "built for business" look. It would be very purposeful on a car with that competition vibe.

I asked about heat both because the el Polacko build featured it on some exhaust parts and because the very first thing I thought of was the exhaust system of a car with a race car look. I picture it on an exhaust tip routed through the body with a stainless body plate, for example. The contrast would be very cool and a pipe like that is very common to see on race cars.

[enjenjo]

I received the blackening solution from Eastwood today. I just bought a pint of solution, not the kit. It cost $17.97 plus shipping.

The solution is concentrated, and is to be mixed with 2 quarts of distilled water. It is used at room temperature.

To prepare the part, you should sand blast it, or if clean metal, use triple etch metal prep. My parts were rusty, so I blasted them to white metal. After blasting I( cleaned it with brake cleaner, then a cold water soak tho wet the surface. Then I used a wire to suspend it in the solution, moving it around every few seconds, leaving the part in the solution for a couple minutes. After removing the part from the solution, I rinsed it with cold water, dried it, then washed it in mineral spirits to remove a chalky powder from the part. I blew it dry with air, then oiled it with Boeshield, and polished it with a cloth.

It looks good, a nice black finish.  I did a test piece I am going to leave outside to see how it holds up. The inside of one part had some zinc electroplating on the inside. Where the zinc was, it did not blacken, so if you have that, you can get it off with muratic acid. In my case, that part won't show. Any pits will still be there too.

[enjenjo]

I played around some more with it yesterday, any old Parkerizing has to be removed too, or it comes out spotty. I also found out it's not real abrasion resistant.

I have a formula for a hot mix, I think I will try that and see how it works.