Tranny plate! Parkerized, cad or painted

[Robert Luland]

Doug I hear ya. This is what weve bin doing to try and avoid that pitfall. The first is to glass bead if you have that option. The next I got from Chris in which I boil the stuff in water for ten minutes to hopefully get any remaining grease etc. Next into the soup and then into boiling motor oil. I tried to get some pictures to day of this greenish tint but can’t seem to pull it off in my shop with the fluorescent lights. Bob

[Glenn]

Bob

let me know your results and when I should start sending you my stuff for plating



Glenn
Moose

[Robert Luland]

Glenn it's very simple. I drink pony piss light and a lot of it. You bring the case and you can parkerize all day in my facility. What a bargin!

[Glenn]

bob

just bought a blasting cabinet and am cleaning everything I can up and would like to learn how to parkerize. If you are doing it anytime soon let me know and I'll observe.

I'm sure my wife would not mind me using her stove in the house (as long as she doesn't know)

[T. Cotten]

Bob!

Brownell's statement about fingerprints applies to the finished park'ing over decades, not just the preparation.

An original piece will show the character of everything it has encountered over its history.
Even hardware coated in cosmoline will reflect the many different shades of cosmoline.

When assessing park'd finishes, beware that a dry finish is deceptive, as it should never be completely dry of some petroleum dressing. And it should be a given that the lighter colored parts probably spent less time in the pickle pot. The grain size is perhaps the best indication of that.

Before arbitrarily running everything from a project through an aggressive blast, I strongly encourage everyone to try walnut hulls first. That media has a remarkable ability to safely remove surface rust and salts to reveal the true durability of the chemical "pickle", as well as the two or three basic colors that distinguish moly parkerizing from.. whatever the others were.
(There is even a zinc park'ing formula).

Hopefully, the results may also dissuade you from annihilating the original finish.

More history is destroyed by restoration than will ever be preserved.

....Cotten

[Glenn]

will definately try the walnuts first, the problem is eating all the walnuts then grinding up the shells

[Robert Luland]

Tom I'll give it a try. Got twenty pounds of walnut that I use on my brass. Bob

[T. Cotten]

"Disposable" cabinets and critical media are now economical enough for shops and dedicated enthusiasts to just buy another cabinet for each media, and conveniently pull the one thats needed from under the bench.
(Try HarborFreight, for example.)

I couldn't produce without hulls, fine beads, aluminum oxide, and steel shot in separate cabinets. If only I had more room......!

....Cotten

[Glenn]

this is the first cabinet I have bought are you saying you can not clean it out and use different media?

[T. Cotten]

Glenn!

Of course you can use the same cabinet, if you scrub out all other abrasives scrupulously.

Most shops just can't take the chance on contamination, or pay help to change media constantly. Many of my projects might see four different media in one day, and it would be quite a PITA whenever a do-over is required.

I even have separate dust collectors for each, although hulls and shot produce very little.

....Cotten

[Re-cycleInc]

Parkerizing success on 47 WL parts

I just came across this thread after I just finished my first two attempts at parkerizing. I read Bruce's book for some reference and then added some tweaks of my own. I bought the manganese formula (for dark black/charcoal finish) and used about 3 ounces of the solution per 1 gallon of distilled water. I glass beaded all of the parts and then did a quick dip in muriatic acid. The muriatic acid was my own personal touch after I had previously cleaned with brake parts cleaner had failed to get a satisfactory (varying)finish. When I used the acid....outdoors and down wind...the parts came out beautifully black and uniform. I had the park solution cooking at +200 degrees in a stainless steal pot that I bought for about 10 bucks at the local Christmas Tree shop and then I had a hot pot of 60W oil cooking on the other burner. I beaded the parts, did a quick rinse in the acid, quickly patted them off with a paper towel and then placed them into the solution. I also wired everything on a thin piece of copper wire in order to keep the nuts and bolts separate in order to ensure a uniform coating. The main note is to not touch the parts with oily gloves or bare hands. I pulled them from the solution after the phosphatizing bubbles had stopped and then threw them into the hot oil. Once all the parts were in the oil I removed the oil from the burner and let let everything cool together at a natural pace. Once cooled, I wiped off the parts and everything turned out perfect. I even accidentally tested the finish by mistake. I unintentionally left the small amount of acid uncovered next to some other parts that I had experimented with and when I cam back the next day, the experimental parts had flash rusted due to their proximity to the acid. My parts from the "final" dip were still nice and black and oozing oil.

As a note; I normally don't keep muriatic acid on hand, but I learned that it takes the cadmium plating off of parts VERY easily. I had bought a set of cad plated head washers and needed to strip them to parkerize them. Muriatic acid is readily available from any pool supply store. MAJOR NOTE WHEN STRIPPING CAD PLATING: The chemical reaction between muriatic acid (diluted hydrochloric acid) and cadmium produces cyanide gas. Make sure you wear proper protection and do the procedure in a well ventilated place. BTW - the acid also removes parkerizing in a flash. I chose to re-do a couple of parts from my experimental batch and the acid took it off like it was water color.

I realize this is an old thread, but maybe someone is still looking for more information. I am in no way a pro, but the above process worked pretty well for me. Thanks to everyone else for all of the posts that I have been readin for the past several months. Hopefully I can someday help all of you as much as you have helped me.