Blueing my nuts

[drewpy]

No its not that cold at the moment, I'm talking a cheap way of protecting my steel nuts and bolts as well as refurbing the rusty ones.

I've been doing this method since I learned it at school when we had decent workshop facillities like furnaces, and metal work rooms. I made a bottle opener and heated it to just under cherry then dipped it in old engine oil. the finish was superb and was a nice satin black.

well I tried it on the engine bolts and they came up a treat. I stuck them in a drill and used wet and dry to get most of the rust off then used wire wool to get a good finish. Got my butane torch and heated till I got bored (I think the steel is pretty hard being engine bolts) and quenched it in some old engine oil.

I think it came out pretty good and its tough too!

 

[OliverB]

I know you folks had a cold Winter in the U.K. but things should have warmed up by now!!

Like the effect!

 

[chris]

Hey, nice nuts drewpy.

 

[new kid on the brat]

i like that idea!!..... but i'm a little afraid of a torch being that close to MY NUTS.

 

[FUBAR]

looks nice, but by doing this you are moving the atoms in the metal and then when you quench the metal you trap carbon atoms inside the steel molecule. so your taking the bolts from a slightly ductile and forgiving nature and making them brittle and hard.

so hopefully the case doesnt split when you hit a nice pothole . i took a bunch of metallurgy courses in univeristy

 

[bcware]

Isn't it just making a brittle coating though? I mean, 99% of the internal metal should still be just as ductile; you just have a shell covering the bolts now.

 

[drewpy]

yep, they never got to red heat at all!

 

[FUBAR]

if your heating somthing as small as a bolt to "dark cherry" your heating the entire thing not just the surface so yes the grain structure will change
but hey; looks over engineering! thats what i always say