Mark Lee's Express Blue: Lost instruction sheet

[ironwolf]

  Hi Ya'll

 Can't remember the cleaning/rinse part of the sequence.  I do remember boiling the parts in a laundry detergent solution, but do I boil the rinse as well?  My Dad, who is 83, and was slow rust bluing since before I was born says to just use brake cleaner.

  Thanks for any and all ideas
  Kevin W.

[mjm46@bellsouth.net]

For cleaning the steel before bluing or browning Brake Cleaner is the ticket.

[Hungry Horse]

Most brake cleaners have gone through a major change in the last couple of years. Our government trying to save us from ourselves again. So, test it before you do something you can't reverse.

                   Hungry Horse

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

I use a product called "Comet" cleanser and a piece of green Scotch Brite to degrease my barrels before browning/bluing.  Having plugged both ends, I set one end on a rubber pad in the laundry sink, and scrub away.  I use an old tooth brush around sight slots and barrel tenons.  Rinse with hot water and dry with paper towel.  Takes mere minutes and gives perfect and uniform results.  You know when it's done when the steel wets and doesn't bead water.

[ironwolf]

  Yeah Horsey, That's what's got me worried.  I'm rust bluing a bbl. and rib. Much more critical than browning  Don't want to find out the hard way that the mtl. is not clean.
  I'm Hoping someone on the board here has the printed inst. sheet.  I found out about this solution here through Rich Pierce.  I read about the laundry soap method in SGN.  The boiling action really cooks out all the oils and such in a manner that no aerosol could ever do.  I'm pretty sure you gotta' boil it again in fresh, clean water for a rinse.
  I've got two tanks but only one pipe burner.

   KW

[ironwolf]

  Good idea Taylor.  I know what you mean about the "beading". 

   Thanks much,  K.

[kutter]

I don't have the M/Lee instructions handy,,but I'd avoid boiling and detergent solution and placing the steel parts in it.
Take it up to just under boiling temp,,just under 200F is fine.
At boil temp, SOME detergents will lightly etch, leave patchy areas of discoloration or a coating of residue on the steel.
Perhaps the additives in some are the problems (perfumes, colorations, softeners,,ect)

Even the commercial cleaner Brownells sells (sold?) was used at 195F.
I know from experience that if used at a rolling boil, it would leave patches of off color etching on the bbls.

I use TriSodium Phosphate cleaner. It's about as pure a cleaner in water solution as you can get.
It's still available but you have to look for it in DYI stores and the like. Usually in the paint & prep area.
All the cleaning agents that the pretty bottled stuff have left out.


The hot-soapy water idea is a good cleaner when used with a scrub down to loosen the crud. The old standby laundry brush works well for large areas,,toothbrushes and M-16 cleaning brushes for the small areas.

A hot water rinse, same scrub down,,then a cold water rinse.

If you don't use the cold water rinse, the parts will start to flash rust on their own. You may not want that to occur. You deffinetly do not want to apply some cold rust blue solutions when the metal is warm/hot. Most of all Laural Mtn. It will deposit a nice coating of copper for you on the warm metal.

If you're using M/Lee Express Rust solution, going from the hot rinse right to the first coating of solution may be possible if the metal is hot enough.

[westbj2]

I have known Mark since he first developed the bluing solution many years ago.  He says that Simple Green detergent works better than anything he has found to degrease.
Jim

[ironwolf]

  Thanks for the response guys.  All good advise and suggestions.  I have T.S.P.,  Simply Green as well as Comet on hand.  And to Kutter,  I believe I'd heard the explanation about the 195* temp. before. Thanks for the reminder.

   YMHS  Kevin

[wilkie]

I've found that I can use Brownells dicropan im hot water bluing as a cold rust blue without the boiling water part.  Just polish, deqrease with acetone or lacquer thinner, apply a thin coat of im with a tooth brush, let set for a day, brush off with steel wool or a stainless steat wire brush, then apply more solution and repeat.  Takes about 4 or 5 coats.  After the last coat you should wait a few days before oiling.  This gives a black oxide coating similar to hot caustic bluing.  After a several days the bluing becomes more wear resistant.  I used this to reblue the bottom of an skb o/u shotgun receiver by just steal wooling the bottom of the receiver and the outside of the trigger guard where the bluing had been worn off, then coating with im and a thooth brush after removeing grease and dirt with acetone.  Took 4 or 5 coats but couldn't tell where old blue stopped and where new blue started.  I've also used this on lockplates and ml barrels also.  It doesn't take long to apply and is easy to do.