Ok guys I've been thinking of doing this for some time and this week I decided to go for it. I've been wanting to do a hot caustic blue on my XD tactical and last week I found a great recipe.
View attachment 1952
So, here goes.
Warning this mixture is nasty and can cause serious burns. The Lye reacts with the water and can splash you causing burns. Wear eye protection, rubber gloves, aprons, face shield. Do not breathe the fumes. Even the droplets from it fizzing burn skin.
Ingredients:
-4 cans Drain Out drain cleaner (You use 2 cups of distilled water per can. So you can use more than 4 cans if you need to.)
-8 cups of distilled water
-Steel wire
-Steel pot
-Burner (turkey fryer)
-Brake cleaner or Acetone to degrease.
Process
I can go into further detail if someone wants. For now, I will keep it short.
First I stripped the old blue and polished the sides of the slide, stripped the blue from the barrel and other metal parts. You can polish the part to a mirror finish if you wish, I did the sides of the slide slightly more polished (shiny) than the top of the slide. If I get the top too shiny, I'll get glare when aiming on a sunny day so I left a matte finish. Once I finished polishing, I sprayed the slide and barrel and other small metal parts with Rem Oil and put them in a plastic bag to keep them from rusting.
View attachment 1947
View attachment 1948
Pour the distilled water into a clean metal pot, slowly pour the Drain Out, be careful it will boil over and fizzle. If you get splash from the fizzle on you, it will start to burn after a little while. Once you have dissolved all the drain out fire up the burner and bring the mixture to a boil.
View attachment 1953
(Be careful-- you do not want this on you!)
Sand the steel wire to remove rust or other coatings. Use rubber gloves to degrease the parts and wire. Wrap the wire around the barrel and slide so that you can submerge the parts but not touch the bottom of the pot. I just ran the wire through the barrel, same thing with the slide.
Suspend the parts and let them boil at 280 degrees (F) for 40 minutes. Take the parts out after that and quickly submerge in a bucket of water. The parts will be very hot, don't touch. Rinse the cool parts in water for a while. Soak in WD40 to remove all water.
After 24 hours, polish the part with 0000 steel wool to remove any stains left over from the bluing.
View attachment 1949
View attachment 1950
View attachment 1951
Mine had some dark reddish stains on them. I've read that it's because the temperature got too hot. Guess I will need a better thermometer!
Spray the stripped and polished parts with oil.
View attachment 1952
So, here goes.
Warning this mixture is nasty and can cause serious burns. The Lye reacts with the water and can splash you causing burns. Wear eye protection, rubber gloves, aprons, face shield. Do not breathe the fumes. Even the droplets from it fizzing burn skin.
Ingredients:
-4 cans Drain Out drain cleaner (You use 2 cups of distilled water per can. So you can use more than 4 cans if you need to.)
-8 cups of distilled water
-Steel wire
-Steel pot
-Burner (turkey fryer)
-Brake cleaner or Acetone to degrease.
Process
I can go into further detail if someone wants. For now, I will keep it short.
First I stripped the old blue and polished the sides of the slide, stripped the blue from the barrel and other metal parts. You can polish the part to a mirror finish if you wish, I did the sides of the slide slightly more polished (shiny) than the top of the slide. If I get the top too shiny, I'll get glare when aiming on a sunny day so I left a matte finish. Once I finished polishing, I sprayed the slide and barrel and other small metal parts with Rem Oil and put them in a plastic bag to keep them from rusting.
View attachment 1947
View attachment 1948
Pour the distilled water into a clean metal pot, slowly pour the Drain Out, be careful it will boil over and fizzle. If you get splash from the fizzle on you, it will start to burn after a little while. Once you have dissolved all the drain out fire up the burner and bring the mixture to a boil.
View attachment 1953
(Be careful-- you do not want this on you!)
Sand the steel wire to remove rust or other coatings. Use rubber gloves to degrease the parts and wire. Wrap the wire around the barrel and slide so that you can submerge the parts but not touch the bottom of the pot. I just ran the wire through the barrel, same thing with the slide.
Suspend the parts and let them boil at 280 degrees (F) for 40 minutes. Take the parts out after that and quickly submerge in a bucket of water. The parts will be very hot, don't touch. Rinse the cool parts in water for a while. Soak in WD40 to remove all water.
After 24 hours, polish the part with 0000 steel wool to remove any stains left over from the bluing.
View attachment 1949
View attachment 1950
View attachment 1951
Mine had some dark reddish stains on them. I've read that it's because the temperature got too hot. Guess I will need a better thermometer!
Spray the stripped and polished parts with oil.
