Ideal temp and humidity for slow rust blue cabinet?
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That is not too hot at all. It's more of a humidity thing than heat. Items will rust nicely at lower temperatures if you have plenty of humidity but my box will get up to 120 degrees. I use a Vick's vaporizer in the bottom of mine with a spoon full of salt. I use a tall wooden box wrapped in Tyvec. You must get the water hot to produce humidity so i would say yours is about perfect. 125 @ 100% humidity is the ideal situation.
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Thanks I was just wondering I put my third coat on last night and put it in that box for about 4 hours and didn't seem like I got a good rust and it didn't boil off or card off all that well seem to be rather splotchy so I was wondering what was going on
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On the third coat it may take 10 hours in the box for a good coat of rust to form. When it's not fully rusted it is very difficult to get off. After a couple of coats it is starting to get rust proof so it takes longer and longer to get rust to form. If you didn't have the box it may take weeks in low humidity weather like we are having now in the South. It took me a while to understand and it still makes my patience ansy when rust bluing or browning to leave it in there until its ready so i know what you are going through.
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I went ahead and coded it last night after I brushed on it a while and had a pretty good coat of rust on this morning I put it in the box without the heat Source just a wet towel and a pan of water I'll let it sit till after work or late afternoon and go ahead and boil it and see what kind of results I get
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Is there another light bulb under your shelf? Is your shelf made out of perforated metal or does it have cutouts allowing the heat from a bulb to react with the water tray? That is a very nice sweat box, i am just curious.
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No bulb under the shelf and it's not perforated, just used scraps from the floor of the sheet metal shop. Another foot or so taller would have been great but I could not find any that length.
Like I said I was concerned about too hot but tonight it boiled off pretty good and carded ok, still struggling with some unevenness and splotches, but that may of been prep- just 180 ao at 60 PSI, learning curve here.
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Like I said I was concerned about too hot but tonight it boiled off pretty good and carded ok, still struggling with some unevenness and splotches, but that may of been prep- just 180 ao at 60 PSI, learning curve here.
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The metal under the paint has been Phosphated to prevent rust. If you don't soak the frame and slide in something to remove the gray metal it will give you fits when trying to blue, rust blue or brown. Phosphate will resist any kind of metal finish other than paint. The dark blotchy rust on your frame reveals there is some Phosphated metal still left. Vapo-Rust will remove the Phosphate and i always soak the frame and slide in Acetone for a day or so after the Vapo-Rust treatment because it has a rust inhibitor in it.
The light bulb should sit directly under the water pan, it will heat the water and cause it to evaporate filling your box with humidity. Perforated metal is what is mostly used but you can saw a 3" hole in the shelf you have so that the heat from the bulb can heat the water. Other than that you have a very good looking sweat box. Rust bluing and browning has a certain amount of Voodoo involved and sometimes you get lucky and have no problems but most of the time there is always some glitch you have to overcome.
The light bulb should sit directly under the water pan, it will heat the water and cause it to evaporate filling your box with humidity. Perforated metal is what is mostly used but you can saw a 3" hole in the shelf you have so that the heat from the bulb can heat the water. Other than that you have a very good looking sweat box. Rust bluing and browning has a certain amount of Voodoo involved and sometimes you get lucky and have no problems but most of the time there is always some glitch you have to overcome.
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I had parked this gun just a few weeks ago and was fitting some new mags(opened up the mag well ) and during the touch up dinked up the park job so I thought I would try the rust blue .
I blasted off the park with AO at high pressure and then went over it with the air down to 60 psi . I then heated the frame up 3 times with heat gun and soaked each time in acetone . I thought I had it pretty clean .
I guess not
.
Thanks Shadow for the help , you do good work .
Kirk
This is a pic before I started the rust blue .
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I blasted off the park with AO at high pressure and then went over it with the air down to 60 psi . I then heated the frame up 3 times with heat gun and soaked each time in acetone . I thought I had it pretty clean .
I guess not
. Thanks Shadow for the help , you do good work .
Kirk
This is a pic before I started the rust blue .
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