Bent Ramrod
07-02-2013, 03:15 PM
Last week I took the Color Casehardening Class at Lassen College in Susanville. Great place and great location. Lots of various interesting Gun Stuff going on in the building all week long; wish my own Alma Mater was that cool.
The last day, I was the official "Dumper." One guy opened and closed the oven, I got the crucibles out with tongs, held them while a third guy removed the covers, and then I had to overhand the crucibles, holding them by the tongs, so they crashed against the cover of the quench tank with the opening of the crucible in line with the hole in the top of the tank. This had to be performed in one smooth motion in seconds, since any outside air getting into the parts would ruin any chance for getting colors. Done right, the contents were jolted out of the crucibles, plunged into the swirling, aerated icewater in the tank and caught in the screen at the bottom.
It was like kids on Christmas morning when Quench Time happened late in the afternoon; everybody crowding around as the shielding was peeled off the parts and "Are there colors? How do the colors look? Wow!! (or Ehh...!)" from everybody. So I had plenty of audience to see my indifferent eye-hand coordination in operation aiming for that hole in the top. The crucibles were red hot, and even the regular size ones, fully loaded, are not light in weight, so if I had accidentally let one loose I probably would have burned the Child Development Center the next building over down to the ground. (Why do they need to "develop" Children nowadays anyway? Nobody ever "developed" me when I was a kid. I guess that's why I'm doing this kind of stuff as a delinquent adult.)
However, despite having to correct my aim at the dump site, almost everything came out all right; the only exceptions were the shielding setups that swelled and stuck in the crucibles from the heat and couldn't be easily jarred loose. Some that eventually came out after multiple bangings against the top were so full of charcoal and parts that they still made sizzling noises when they were fished out of the water. Amazingly, the colorations of most of these ranged from not bad to very good, in the sense that they had color patterns of more or less extent and quality. A lot of whether they are great, or good, or merely OK, is pure personal taste anyway. Only one setup, in a big crucible, stuck too tightly to be gotten out, no matter how much jarring and banging I did. Eventually the top shield broke away from the rest of it and the contents fell out, but by then the air had gotten in. They came out bluish-gray, but any bad color job can be done over after annealing and a little fine repolishing to get the blah colors off.
The big crucibles were very heavy, and too large for the hole, so they had to take the lid off the tank. I wish somebody had taken a photo of me dumping the one that emptied properly. The volcanic eruption of steam and charcoal must have gone up ten feet, and eight inches or so of the water and ice in the tank vanished immediately. The shotgun actions that were in that one came out spectacularly well.
My Ballard receivers pictured below have good colors, but (for my taste) too much blue background, considering that the other parts and the barrel will wind up being blued as well. I think I'm getting a handle on the "nuances" of the color generation, although, as usual, "more research is needed." As a frustrated former chemist, this search for the ideal color balance (essentially a thermal/chemical/dark-arts combination) could turn into quite the obsession for me. I'm trying to get lighter outlines on lines and edges, with the blue and other colors in the centers of panels and masses. The later efforts (like the back of the Single Action frame and the tangs of the Hopkins and Allen) began to show some of this in places, so I got a few ideas out of this session that I hope to check out in future experiments.
The little Stevens Favorite frame and lever in the fourth picture were a rusty, pitted mess before I started smoothing the outside surfaces. Spent the whole week sandblasting, drawfiling, sanding, buffing and polishing this and other equally aged and distressed parts while waiting for the polished stuff to come out of the heat treating oven. Had to scramble to have more parts ready for the next day, as only one heating was possible per day. Regardless of what I wished, some of the pits were too deep to remove in time, so in they went anyway. I am about polished out!
The Single Action revolver frame came out pretty well, considering I couldn't find the shielding box they used and had to improvise. The last day, I finally found the box, but by then it was too late. The Single Action frames from the box that I saw came out looking like Colt had done them. This one looks maybe more like Ruger did it; OK, I guess, but... The end shows that gray outline I would like to have along all the edges. Practice, practice! No substitute for it.
I have to commend Lassen College for the quality and helpfulness of the instructors. They lectured on the basics, consulted on the nuances and helped make shielding for us on the machine tools. Even the other students, unless they were having to concentrate on some task at hand, were glad to talk about what they were doing and what they had been doing in other classes. You could learn a lot just by osmosis; sitting around and listening to conversations. Nobody at this College was throwing Frisbees at dogs out on the lawns instead of attending classes; everybody there was motivated.
Anybody who is interested in learning gunsmithing techniques would do well to go on Lassen's website and pick some course(s) to take. I don't recall College being this much fun the first time around.:mrgreen:
751667516775168751697517075171
The last day, I was the official "Dumper." One guy opened and closed the oven, I got the crucibles out with tongs, held them while a third guy removed the covers, and then I had to overhand the crucibles, holding them by the tongs, so they crashed against the cover of the quench tank with the opening of the crucible in line with the hole in the top of the tank. This had to be performed in one smooth motion in seconds, since any outside air getting into the parts would ruin any chance for getting colors. Done right, the contents were jolted out of the crucibles, plunged into the swirling, aerated icewater in the tank and caught in the screen at the bottom.
It was like kids on Christmas morning when Quench Time happened late in the afternoon; everybody crowding around as the shielding was peeled off the parts and "Are there colors? How do the colors look? Wow!! (or Ehh...!)" from everybody. So I had plenty of audience to see my indifferent eye-hand coordination in operation aiming for that hole in the top. The crucibles were red hot, and even the regular size ones, fully loaded, are not light in weight, so if I had accidentally let one loose I probably would have burned the Child Development Center the next building over down to the ground. (Why do they need to "develop" Children nowadays anyway? Nobody ever "developed" me when I was a kid. I guess that's why I'm doing this kind of stuff as a delinquent adult.)
However, despite having to correct my aim at the dump site, almost everything came out all right; the only exceptions were the shielding setups that swelled and stuck in the crucibles from the heat and couldn't be easily jarred loose. Some that eventually came out after multiple bangings against the top were so full of charcoal and parts that they still made sizzling noises when they were fished out of the water. Amazingly, the colorations of most of these ranged from not bad to very good, in the sense that they had color patterns of more or less extent and quality. A lot of whether they are great, or good, or merely OK, is pure personal taste anyway. Only one setup, in a big crucible, stuck too tightly to be gotten out, no matter how much jarring and banging I did. Eventually the top shield broke away from the rest of it and the contents fell out, but by then the air had gotten in. They came out bluish-gray, but any bad color job can be done over after annealing and a little fine repolishing to get the blah colors off.
The big crucibles were very heavy, and too large for the hole, so they had to take the lid off the tank. I wish somebody had taken a photo of me dumping the one that emptied properly. The volcanic eruption of steam and charcoal must have gone up ten feet, and eight inches or so of the water and ice in the tank vanished immediately. The shotgun actions that were in that one came out spectacularly well.
My Ballard receivers pictured below have good colors, but (for my taste) too much blue background, considering that the other parts and the barrel will wind up being blued as well. I think I'm getting a handle on the "nuances" of the color generation, although, as usual, "more research is needed." As a frustrated former chemist, this search for the ideal color balance (essentially a thermal/chemical/dark-arts combination) could turn into quite the obsession for me. I'm trying to get lighter outlines on lines and edges, with the blue and other colors in the centers of panels and masses. The later efforts (like the back of the Single Action frame and the tangs of the Hopkins and Allen) began to show some of this in places, so I got a few ideas out of this session that I hope to check out in future experiments.
The little Stevens Favorite frame and lever in the fourth picture were a rusty, pitted mess before I started smoothing the outside surfaces. Spent the whole week sandblasting, drawfiling, sanding, buffing and polishing this and other equally aged and distressed parts while waiting for the polished stuff to come out of the heat treating oven. Had to scramble to have more parts ready for the next day, as only one heating was possible per day. Regardless of what I wished, some of the pits were too deep to remove in time, so in they went anyway. I am about polished out!
The Single Action revolver frame came out pretty well, considering I couldn't find the shielding box they used and had to improvise. The last day, I finally found the box, but by then it was too late. The Single Action frames from the box that I saw came out looking like Colt had done them. This one looks maybe more like Ruger did it; OK, I guess, but... The end shows that gray outline I would like to have along all the edges. Practice, practice! No substitute for it.
I have to commend Lassen College for the quality and helpfulness of the instructors. They lectured on the basics, consulted on the nuances and helped make shielding for us on the machine tools. Even the other students, unless they were having to concentrate on some task at hand, were glad to talk about what they were doing and what they had been doing in other classes. You could learn a lot just by osmosis; sitting around and listening to conversations. Nobody at this College was throwing Frisbees at dogs out on the lawns instead of attending classes; everybody there was motivated.
Anybody who is interested in learning gunsmithing techniques would do well to go on Lassen's website and pick some course(s) to take. I don't recall College being this much fun the first time around.:mrgreen:
751667516775168751697517075171