Thread: DIY parkerizing

Hi all

Thought I would share my journey to do some home parkerizing on a couple of rifles that I have.

It all started when I brought a mid 60's Parker & Hale in 22-250. It had a nice wooden stock that had seen better days, so that was the first task. Stripped all the nasty varnish off and then sand through the grits up to 1000 and then boiled linseed oil for a classic finish.

The barrel (full varmint profile) had some quite nasty pits on the outside and the blueing was in a sad state. So I started looking at options to refinish it.
I had tried cold blue on a shotgun barrel once and wasn't very happy with that. Then I read about parkerizing. It seemed like a good wear resistant finish, mainly used on WW2 era firearms. It could also be done at home with a bit of planning and assembling some items.

The project has been slowly moving over the last 12 months. I have been buying materials as the budget allows and accumulating the neccessary gear.
As I go along and learn more about it the gear has been changing and hopefully improving.

The parkerizing process involves submerging a ferrous metal part into a tank of phosphoric acid, manganese dioxide and pure water. Which is sitting at a temperature of 94 degrees Celsius.

Before the part are immersed they must be totally free of oil, dirt and old finishes.
To help with this I built my own sand blasting cabinet.

The tank to submerge the part in needs to be non-ferrous and able to withstand a moderate heat.
The first tank I made was stainless steel chimney flu split along one side and some ends welded in to make a tank. Sitting in a MDF frame.
I originally was going to heat this with a dryer element suspended below the tank providing radiant heat. Mainly because I had a dryer element.
Then I came across a hotwater cylinder element left behind by the previous owners of the house, much better idea it could heat the water directly.
Bit of a flaw with the stainless tank was that although I had access to a tig welder and some knowledge of how to use it, the stainless was of a very thin gauge and ended up stuck together but holey, falling back on my builder roots I siliconed the joint and was going to hope for the best once it was full of hot acidic fluid!
So the mind turned to alternative tank materials, that would be cheap.
I looked at aluminum, but didnt want to end up with the same problem as stainless.
Next thought was PVC box section and glue some ends on it, wouldnt withstand the temperature.
Then I thought of plexiglass or acrylic sheet. After some research it turns out it can withstand up to 160°c which is more than enough. Even better I had plenty of it laying around at work so it was free and it can be worked with woodworking tools.

So I have just finished the tank, glue is drying. The heater element fits nicely in a hole in one end of the tank.
To control the heat of the solution I brought a PID controller which includes a thermocouple to measure the heat of the solution and then controls a relay to turn the element on and off.

So just a few more steps and i should be ready to get the process under way. Hope that's not too long a description!! More pics to come.

Cheers
Dan

Sent from my SM-A505GN using Tapatalk

Fantastic project .... keep us posted...

Originally Posted by Sika stag

Fantastic project .... keep us posted...

Thanks, I have now decided that my marlin X7 and a norinco JW27 are going to get the same treatment eventually

Sent from my SM-A505GN using Tapatalk

Originally Posted by Dan88

Thanks, I have now decided that my marlin X7 and a norinco JW27 are going to get the same treatment eventually

Sent from my SM-A505GN using Tapatalk

Another JW27....they are few and far between and very nice wee shooters...

I saw a canoe in the remote bit of the yasawa islands made from a piece of roofing corrugated iron
the guy using it was really honking along and I didnt see him bail it out at all in the 10min I watched him cover a huge amount of ocean

they just bent the ends over a few times and hammered them down, if you want to continue with the chimney flu that could work if you then tig' or soldered the join
looks like you have moved past that idea but incase you needed a second tank for some reason

Watching this with interest, you might end up with a sideline if this works out!

Will the acid react with the copper element ?
I would heat the tank in some sort of double boiler bath arrangement with anti freeze chucked in the heating water
A 200 ltr steel drum cut lengthways will give you a cheap tank with a screw fitting for the element. I would cut it so that the part you use is a bit more than half the drum - more a horse shoe shape than a half circle.

Originally Posted by Moa Hunter

Will the acid react with the copper element ?
I would heat the tank in some sort of double boiler bath arrangement with anti freeze chucked in the heating water
A 200 ltr steel drum cut lengthways will give you a cheap tank with a screw fitting for the element. I would cut it so that the part you use is a bit more than half the drum - more a horse shoe shape than a half circle.

Drums are made out of sheet iron = ferrous, acidic immersion will give the acid breakfast.

Um, isn’t stainless steel also ferrous?

Originally Posted by 257weatherby

Drums are made out of sheet iron = ferrous, acidic immersion will give the acid breakfast.

Not what I wrote, 'double boiler' bath. Which means put the acid tank inside a larger heating tank (half drum) filled with water and anti freeze where the heat is transferred from the liquid in the heating tank through the wall of the acid bath tank. Cant boil over and any spillage is captured in the outer tank. Like a little pot sitting inside a bigger one as an example.

Nice job on the acrylic tank, have you thought of traditional hot bath blueing now that you have a bath and all?

The element is stainless steel and the brass is non ferrous so it should be ok.

I hadn't thought of a double boiler, could be worth looking into tho storing a 44 gallon drum needs a fair amount of room.

The jw27 is great, I had considered making it a one piece stock as another project to see if that would improve accuracy even more.

I had thought that if it works out it could be a good little sideline, not sure what the pros charge just assumed it was more than I was willing to spend.

I'm also looking at doing some anodizing as the floor plate and trigger guard are alloy and won't parkerize.

Pretty happy with the tank, I have some left over plexiglass so might make a box for the PID controller and electrics.

I'll add some more pics soon, it's been a nice project as I can just do bits and pieces as I go when I can fit it in around work/kids/home improvements etc

Parkerizing seems like a more hard wearing and more permanent finish than blueing. I personally prefer the parkerizing finish over blueing, I see my guns as tools and prefer them to have a more utilitarian finish.

Once the parts come out of the acid tank they are rinsed in water and then submerged into oil which soaks into the newly created micro etched surface cutting off the oxygen from the steel.

For an oil tank I have a length of 100mm pipe which will have a fixed end cap on one end and a screw cap at the other. I'll fill it with new motor oil and save it for re-use

Sent from my SM-A505GN using Tapatalk

Pic one is mark1 tank, might use it as a rinse tank after acid bath.

Pic two is the stock of the rifle all cleaned up.

Pic three is how I mounted the element into the tank, had to rebate the plexiglass to have enough thread exposed on the inside for the nut.

Pic four is the barrel as it is now, un-sandblasted.

Pic five is the raw materials, phosphoric acid and manganese dioxide, should be plenty for a few batches.

Pic six is the PID controller and relay, about $28 off trademe

Pic seven is the diy sandblasting cabinet, just need to mount the gloves properly. It has an LED strip light inside that runs off a makita battery when I want light.

Sent from my SM-A505GN using Tapatalk

I have a Rem 700 that was bead blasted and Parkerised around 1988. The finish is still going strong with never any rust.
Your rifle stock looks very similar to a BSA CF2

I have a Rem 700 that was bead blasted and Parkerised around 1988. The finish is still going strong today with never any rust.
Your rifle stock looks very similar to a BSA CF2