Container For Hot Bluing Mix

When I used to blue, I used 6"x6"x40" tanks made from mild steel. Every once in a while I would have some small parts to do, but didn't want to fire up the big tanks so I decided one small tank would be handy. I got this bright idea that a .50 cal ammo can would work out perfect for size. So I dug one out and ran it through the blast cabinet to remove the paint. I then filled it with solution and began to heat it for bluing. Evidently those cans must be plated with something, because everything in the solution came out GREEN!
I dumped the solution and cleaned the can again with more abrasive media, and it still didn't want to blue like the black iron tanks. So ,I scrapped that idea and just made a tank from sheet steel.
Figured you might want to skip the headaches....
 
Had a similar experience with using city water from the tap. Figured I'd give it a try and would run it through a very expensive filter that was used for stripping chemicals ,heavy metals and chlorine for fishtanks. Some other chemical in the water decided to create a large amount of pink foam on top of the salts . And instead of turning the metal A blue black color it was more of a brown shade. So being creative I used this batch to color some shotgun parts to match their wooden stocks. Turned out really nice for a mistake. Haven't had any trouble with distilled water. Experimentation is half the fun .

Jay
 
Hmm, never considered the use of distilled water.
 
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