Parkerizing my parts on the 1960 FLHF build

[sw48]

Post parkerizing, it would be best to treat the parts that aren't going to be painted with a preservative oil specificately formulated for rust prevention.

[Saddletramp]

Post parkerizing, it would be best to treat the parts that aren't going to be painted with a preservative oil specificately formulated for rust prevention.

I have seen various types of gun oil recommended. Also products like Boeshield T-9 and Tectyl 802A. The possibilities are endless.

Edit: Ok, so you got me thinking and I came up with an informative article on the net.

https://artizono.com/the-complete-gu...-applications/

[chuckthebeatertruck]

The only thing you may want to avoid are oils with heavy distillate waxes. Basically, if the bottle says anything more than oil on it, think twice. Those types of oils work well on firearms but tend to create a white crystal surface on many home parkerized hardware items, especially cp bolts (in my experience). I didn’t run into that problem on pedals, but I did on brake levers.

ymmv

thanks for creating this thread. It’s fun to share adventures in home parkerizing.

My first home baths were made by dissolving the innards of dry cell batteries in phosphoric acid. Near total guess work and worked surprisingly well.

[Saddletramp]

The only thing you may want to avoid are oils with heavy distillate waxes. Basically, if the bottle says anything more than oil on it, think twice. Those types of oils work well on firearms but tend to create a white crystal surface on many home parkerized hardware items, especially cp bolts (in my experience).

That's good information. I will definitely keep that in mind going forward. Thanks for the input.
I read a lot about the different methods from home brew to more commercial operations as well as some of the history of the process since it's creation but I don't believe I've ran across the dry cell/phosphoric acid approach yet. Very cool.

For now, as I have already committed two quarts of 60W oil to the process, my next batch will be with that as well with perhaps a heated oil bath. The park really soaks up the oil, which is obviously what we want. So heated or thinner oil may speed up that step somewhat.

We'll see in a couple of weeks when the weather here on the front range of the Rockies is supposed to get back up in the 50's. My Electric heated double boil type tank setup needs that to get up to acceptable temperature for treatment. There's a fine line line between 185 degrees which I don't want to exceed and the boiling temp here at my elevation so I have to watch it carefully.

James

[sw48]

Hey James, rather than use a motor oil which has the main purpose of lubricating moving parts I would invest in a can of oil specifically formulated for corrosion protection. Back in the late '90's I parkerized some parts using product sold by Harbor Vintage. This was followed by immersing the parts in a bath of preservative oil conforming to a military specification MIL-L-3150 which is commercially available. Pictured are a brake pedal and rod I treated at that time.

IMG_3761 1.JPG

[Saddletramp]

Hey James, rather than use a motor oil which has the main purpose of lubricating moving parts I would invest in a can of oil specifically formulated for corrosion protection. Back in the late '90's I parkerized some parts using product sold by Harbor Vintage. This was followed by immersing the parts in a bath of preservative oil conforming to a military specification MIL-L-3150 which is commercially available. Pictured are a brake pedal and rod I treated at that time.

IMG_3761 1.JPG

Wow, that lever and rod look good. Obviously holding up well. Do you recall what the oil was?

I looked at several products since your last post and most of them had paraffin/waxes and some claim to produce an amber hue when done. Don't want that.

Chuck said in his post that he had issues with heavily waxed oils and most of the mil-spec products I've seen are gun oils, but I have seen a couple of mostly straight oil products.
I'd like to look into what you used if it is still available. If you think of it, let me know.
Thanks.

[chuckthebeatertruck]

I've ran across the dry cell/phosphoric acid approach yet. Very cool.

Some of us have time on our hands. Before I had two nickles to rub together; I had to crack a few books and figure a few things out for myself. The internet sped that along - but in essence if you don't have a parkerizing kit and you do have a hardware store nearby . . .you can parkerize.

Because a lot of what you need for home brew is the same as a parkerizing kit; the real cost to make a solution is around $10. The rest of the costs are the same home brew or commercial kit.

Here's what you need.

2 gallons distilled water
Quart of concrete prep and etch, or anything containing 25-40 percent phosphoric acid
Biscuit of clean steel wool, not coated wool or soapy wool - it needs to be clean.
Thermometer that reads to 200 F
Two stainless or enamel pots (Goodwill is often great for these things -- and Amazon has cheap food service trays for banquets that are cheap and will last forever)
Camp stove or good hot plate (Amazon has really cheap hot plates that work well . . .)
Safety gear
Simple green
Stainless wire if you're really fancy
6v lantern battery, zinc type

Here's the steps.

Bring a gallon of water up to 175-190 degrees.
Carefully add 1 to 2 cups of etch and prep. It's acid, be careful.
Strip apart the lantern battery and dig the manganese out of the paper cells. It's the greasy black/charcoal stuff. Get as much as you can. Wear gloves, please.
Add the manganese to your warm solution and stir it well
Shred and toss in the steel wool
Let the steel wool dissolve -- literally. Keep cooking until it does.
Let the mix cool to room temperature.
Strain through a filter and set the clean liquid aside. You'll have lots of junk on the bottom of the pot. Dispose of properly.
Filter/strain the solution again and store in a milk jug or similar acid resistant container. Mason jars work too.

When you are ready to park, get out your solution.

Heat it up to 175-190 and replace any water lost to evaporation to make a 2 gallon solution.
Bring a gallon of clean water up to boiling in a second pot.
Degrease your parts. Abrasive blast them clean, clean, clean.
Plop the parts in the clean boiling water and let them get good and warm. Five to 10 minutes is a good window.
Toss the parts into the park solution
Let them fizzle for 10-30 minutes.
Lift them out and dunk in boiling water to stop the reaction.

They will air dry fast from the boiling water.

Put them immediately in warm oil. Let the parts soak it up.

Pat dry the excess oil and you're done.

The parts in the attached photos were all done with this home brew solution. They remained in nearly perfect shape for more than 8 years, including sitting out in the rain a bunch of times -- notably at the 2024 Eagle River National Road Run. Only the headbolts showed rust spots after being out in the rain. They were 4140 steel and never did take the parkerizing as "richly" as other parts. But a wipe with oil and we were back to normal.

Again, please experiment a bit. You won't ruin parts. You will find what works well for you. It's what's so nice about parkerizing -- it's a very friendly thing almost anyone can do. If you can boil an egg -- you probably can pakerize. If you can read a recipe and are mostly safe with chemicals - you can parkerize.

[chuckthebeatertruck]

When I did those parts in the picture -- it was about a decade ago and I messed around doing it one summer afternoon. Here's the photos of some deep home brew parking . . it's amazing what you can learn between the library and the internet :-)

[sw48]

Wow, that lever and rod look good. Obviously holding up well. Do you recall what the oil was?

I looked at several products since your last post and most of them had paraffin/waxes and some claim to produce an amber hue when done. Don't want that.

Chuck said in his post that he had issues with heavily waxed oils and most of the mil-spec products I've seen are gun oils, but I have seen a couple of mostly straight oil products.
I'd like to look into what you used if it is still available. If you think of it, let me know.
Thanks.

Sorry but I don't remember the particular brand of oil I used back then. Maybe an internet search for products conforming to MIL-L-3150 can help. Not sure what oil chuckthebeatertruck used in his process but looks like he got excellent results. Some gun oils are also formulated to provide good corrosion protection so they could be a good choice.

[Saddletramp]

Sorry but I don't remember the particular brand of oil I used back then. Maybe an internet search for products conforming to MIL-L-3150 can help. Not sure what oil chuckthebeatertruck used in his process but looks like he got excellent results. Some gun oils are also formulated to provide good corrosion protection so they could be a good choice.

Welll thanksn Chuck and Otis and SW478who remains unknown. Thanks for responding.,. So I have to to give everything to my Broncoes. .Go Bronc's

[Saddletramp]

Sorry but I don't remember the particular brand of oil I used back then. Maybe an internet search for products conforming to MIL-L-3150 can help. Not sure what oil chuckthe beater truck used in his process but looks like he got excellent results. Some gun oils are also formulated to provide good corrosion protection so they could be a good choice.

Well, Like I said HD had plenty of 60W around back in the thirty's and forty's. Well, let's see my survivor '48. With plenty of OG park.
James.

[marksg]

I believe it was on this forum that I received the recommendation to use Boiled linseed oil. It was horrible. Since then I have gone back to 30w non-detergent with good results.
Thinking about it again I may try some of my Way oil ISO 68 since it is sticky and may stay longer. Seems about the same weight as 30w.

[chuckthebeatertruck]

LINSEED OIL? Wow oh wow someone was repeating something from the victorian era.

Boiling parts in linseed oil can give you a surface finish . . .and it can be rust resistant. You also can do the same over and over to a surface -- but it's a really poor weather proofer at best and can actually mold under some circumstances. Not to mention -- it smells bad and is way more work than petroleum oil.

Anyways, the stickiness or "weight" of oil has zero do do with how a parkerized part absorbs or holds oil. What matters is whether the oil bath is hot. If you drop hot parts into a cold batch of oil -- it closes the surface before oil is fully absorbed. Leaving the parts in the oil longer does nothing. Once the metal pores close - there's no where for the oil to hide and it just wipes off the surface.

Instead, what's going on with parkerization is that the surface of the metal is opened by the acid in the bath -- the manganese reacts with those open pores and creates a pacification layer similar to galvanizing, except that managanese has little to give up to free ions. It truly is a surface conversion and needs a secondary coating (paint, oil, etc) to achieve it's full effect. Galvanization doesn't need painting or oil to achieve the same as the zinc can give up free ions and "rust" before the steel.

So, with parkerizing, we tend to choose oil baths as the most efficient protection. What happens is that the oil molecules get "trapped" by the phosphate coating and without some serious "pressure" from air or mechanical means -- the oil stays put. The phosphate is "scratch resistant" so the surface stays nice for a long time.

This is exactly like when you have a fine finned cooler/radiator and after washing -- you notice that some drops of water just won't come out from drying unless you hit them directly with a blast of air. Then, the droplets suddenly release and viola the part fully dries. Think of it the same way -- except on a microscopic level. The oil just can't come "loose" from the jagged craigs and cliffs created by the phosphate conversion.

That same "surface tension" that keeps the water drops stuck is what is going on with oil molecules on the parkerized surface.

Hence almost any oil will soak in regardless of "weight" or "stickiness" because neither is what keeps the molecule in place. However, if that same molecule can crystalize as it "dries" out . . .then it tends to bloom across the part and look terrible like something "dried" on the surface similar to deodorant stains on a black t shirt.

Gun oil comes in about 400 varieties and even within brand names, there's amazing variation. And, if it recently switched to "made in China" you are almost guaranteed to have a lot of silicone or dissolved silicone waxes in the "oil." You need to read it to make sure you understand what you're doing.

Really, cooking oils, fatty oils, natural oils -- are all really poor choices for parkerizing. Given used drain oil is free -- and a quart of quality motor oil is less than $10 USD . . .why not just use what works?

[Saddletramp]

So my next park batch will be with a heated oil bath of 60W. So the hell with all of you nay-sayers. Works for me. And the oil bath, for two or three days the park sucks up the oil.
Sorry Chuck, but it happens.
Whatever.