Gun Bluing a Bicycle Frame
We had a discussion on the ramble about bluing a bike frame. After further research gun bluing a frame doesn’t sound like a great idea. The major downside to this is, “All blued parts still need to be properly oiled to prevent rust.” So I guess it could get kind of gross and you might not want to touch your frame and then touch anything else. Like the guy said in the bike forums link you could probably clear coat once you’ve blued the frame but in my opinion that kind of defeats the purpose. Either way this could probably go under the category of things to do to a bike if you want to waste a lot of time with up keep.
Unfortunately I can’t find anything on the web about gun browning (cory?). Supposedly it’s a similar process to bluing but you use urine and it makes the steel turn a brown color. Can anyone find something to support of this claim? I’m thinking it’s bullshit.
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its a bitch to find. i dont think that too many dead west virginian gun smiths have blogs they maintain. but here:
“METHODS USED IN PATINATION
The Cold Patina (no torch used)
This is usually done by immersing the object in a bath of chemicals. The water temperature can be anywhere from cold to hot, though some immersion techniques require boiling the solution.
You can even achieve a cold patina by urinating on your artefact, if you’re so inclined.”
thats a from a patina 101 thread at the sword forum.
ferric nitrate? guns and swords are awesome!
Never heard of bluing a sword. I guess you might do it on a bayonet?
gotta protect that sabre somehow.
sean where is yer freakin website? and where is my free Ti rando frame? i promise not to urinate on it.
Not if you have the sword of darkness:
It protects YOU. (for only $79.99!)
i’ll piss on your bike for you.
how do you think I got that sweet Trek with the yellow flame and rust job to work?
it’s cor-ten frame tubing.
That Cor-Ten stuff is pretty cool, unfortunately:
“Trapped water corrosion
It is not a rustproof material. If water is allowed to accumulate in pockets, those areas will experience higher corrosion rates, so provision for drainage must be made.”
Drainage Provisions = Speed Holes.
The site is up in a very nuts and bolts fashion…meaning that i have a main page and everything is will 404. I’ve been busy in the shop trying to finish all lathe oriented projects and fittings I need because I’m losing access to it in a few weeks.
Your free ti rando frame is nearly complete. I’ve been feverishly working out the bourbon dispenser integration in the top tube. It interferes with the internal brake routing. It’s been even tougher to find an efficient refrigerant suitable for keeping the beer in the down tube cold. You’ll like this, the beer tap also works as a pump peg.
Even cooler is the fact that the right seatstay holds about eight oz of tequila and the left holds a mash of organically grown limes and genuine cane sugar, while the left and right chainstays contain DogFishHead vodka and Glenfiddich scotch respectively.
Clearly, you now see the reasoning behind my choice to use ti rather than steel. If you’d still rather have a steel rando bike, I’ll keep this one and build you a similar one with lugs, but I’m not going to be the one drinking my booze with a side of JP’s FrameSaver.
if you built it with reynolds new 953 it wouldnt be an issue. also: what lathe projects? also: above bike sounds dope. i’ve seen the rough site layout, it looks good. let us know when there is some content up. dogfishhead makes vodka?
No. If I built it with 953 it would still cost as much as ti, but I’d have to wait for three to fives months for Reynolds to deliver the tubes. Plus, I’d have to turn my own head tube from a much bigger piece of stainless and well…it would still be steel.
Lathe projects include turning custom BB shells from ti stock (three of em); lightening existing shells (two); cutting headtubes to length, squaring them off and giving them an eccentric cut. I also made some of my own Paul’s race mounts, which are rad and was totally Sacha’s idea (i got his permission to use it). Had to grind down a few expanding mandrels to size for above mentioned BB shells. Made some fittings for my fancypants internal hydro line. and I still need to make follower pulleys for the 19mm and 22mm tube bending dies I’m in the middle of making.
Delivery of the above bike is just around the corner.
Dogfish makes a bunch of spirits. I bought some vodka when I came back to MD to help friends move out here…don’t bother with it. It’s expensive and it sucks. Save yourself $28.01 and go buy some rubbing alcohol to get the same experience. I only mentioned it because I’m putting it in your bike to get rid of it
If there was any reason for me to ever move back to the east coast, it would be machine tool availability. We don’t have shit out here and the stuff that’s here, is going for 3x it’s value. That and rocky trails…nice rocky trails.
You can find a few lame pictures here to tide you over
http://www.flickr.com/photos/60034804@N00/
toodles
Oh, by the way, what happened to Gary? I’m totally out of the loop.
gary got shot in the face in towson getting his laundry out of his car. with a 22 pistol. it went into his jaw. he was literally back on his bike in 2 weeks. he still has mild swelling in his jaw from it.
so from what i gather from this retarded way of communication: you dont have all of these ti working tools (understandable) so you have to go to some machine shop everytime you need new fittings? doesnt that destroy any kind of delivery time? (not trying to bash it just seriously curious) or is the hope to make enough fittings to work for a year? it seems like all this custom work is going to shoot your hopes of making the bikes slightly less expensive than most custom ti. or am i wrong? i mean this sounds more custom than a custom moots or IF…
i’ll use the dogfishhead in my alcohol stove.
yer making paul race mounts or paul racer centerpull mounts? (is there a paul race, if so what is it?)
you would use centerpulls? i have the mafac racers on my new 650b project. 5 bucks for the pair at a local shop.
i have access to a new, nice CNC this summer, and i wanna try some projects out. if you have weird shit that you would like to have attempted, let me know. i promise nothing in terms of any delivery time or success, but i do promise not to steal the design.
ok i am gunna go look at those flickr pages.
CNC? That seems to be a Johnson paradox. I have something for you. I need to make a fixture for post mount disc brakes. I was gonna build one with lugs and brass, but if you have access to a CNC machine…
ha. that would be awesome. if yer serious, send me the file when you get a chance.