I have an old military foot locker that I was going to turn into a damp cabinet for rust blueing. It is 13x16x32. I am planning to stand it on end and screw some blocks into the base to elevate enough to allow the door to swing freely. I have a small crockpot for adding the heat and humidity. I was planning to run some wires taught across and use them to hang parts. My question is how to support/suspend the barrel?

Or perhaps I should maintain the horizontal orientation of the box and suspend the barrel by means of a dowel through the bore hooked on a couple of screweyes.

If anybody has a description, or better yet photos, of their arrangement I would love to get some good ideas for configuration...

Yes please, I want to try rust bluing as well. I ahve an old rem scoremaster 22 as the gunea pig & then it will be my 1903 Mannlicher Schoenauer & the the 1910 MS.

I'd go vertical. A piece of brazing rod thru the barrel, bend each end as neccessary, one bend holds it, one hangs it. Or a piece of heavy trimmer line thru the barrel tied to a washer at one end and a loop on the other to hang it.

Is it enough to just have a high wattage bulb over a bowl of water to create the humidity required? How long does one leave the rifle in the sweat box?

Plug both ends of the bore to keep the rust out. This indicates but does not require a horizontal orientation, your particular shop space may dictate the actual position.
Regards, Joe

I have done some hobby rust bluing using Gun Goddess Rust bluing solution, and it worked out very well. Once you get it on there and it cures its tough stuff.

I used my shower for a damp cabinet and it worked fine!

Also, because I did not want to plug my barrels to boil them I used steam instead. I just suspended the barrel over boiling water and let the rising steam hit it. Worked fine.

The damp cabinet at the gunsmithing school at Trinidad was vertical. It was about 6" or 8" deep, about 34" high, and 18" wide. It had a small tin plate (maybe 5" diameter) of water in the bottom next to the light bulb controlled by a switch on the side of the cabinet. I think there were dual-horned wire coat-hooks across each side. Maybe 3 of them on each side? You hung the barrel set on an S-hook placed through the extractor hole onto the coat hooks. Or you could hook the receiver body for a rifle. Both ends were plugged with rubber stoppers. There was a little combination thermometer/hygrometer in the cabinet. Using the Brownells rust blue, it was only about an hour in the cabinet to get a layer of rust.

At home, I've had success getting a layer of rust in my garage during the humid summer in MD in about 3 or 4 hours, or just using the Mark Lee express blue solution, which rusts right away without a box, but I plan to build a damp box because it worked really well.

BTW, it had a glass front with a wooden border so that you could see humidity and temp as well as rust progress without having to open it.

Hope this helps,
Steve

I have been reading a lot of sorces on rust bluing & have always been confused by some using a sweat box and others just heating the rifle with a hair dryer and applying the rusting solution. The hair dryer method is supposed to be quicker as you can do 6 ot 7 repeats in a couple of hours.

Why this difference? Is it the type of rusting solution used that determined the quick or slow rusting?

I have made up a solution with Hydrochloric acid, Nitric acid & steel wool which is supposed to be a quick rust.

quote:

Originally posted by Nakihunter:
I have been reading a lot of sorces on rust bluing & have always been confused by some using a sweat box and others just heating the rifle with a hair dryer and applying the rusting solution. The hair dryer method is supposed to be quicker as you can do 6 ot 7 repeats in a couple of hours.

Why this difference? Is it the type of rusting solution used that determined the quick or slow rusting?

I have made up a solution with Hydrochloric acid, Nitric acid & steel wool which is supposed to be a quick rust.

It sounds like you are talking about a "quick blue" similar to the Mark Lee brand.

Normal slow rust bluing needs to sit for hours or days in a damp cabnet or in the right environment to produce rust.

I have had luck slow rust bluing small parts using steam to get the rusting process started.