How bad does a part have to be before you write it off?

[Patrick Chadwick]

That, of course, a very loose question. In some cases, parts that look like scrap can be recovered to working condition.

The question was posed on the Enfield forum, but the answer belongs here.

In the course of the thread on refurbishing an Argentine Rolling Block, I explained the basics of electrolytic cleaning of steel and iron, whereby the part to be cleaned forms the cathode in a weakly alkaline electrolytic bath. Regular readers will have seen how Joel, going from absolute beginer to compentent refurbisher in a matter of weeks, showed some excellent before and after pictures of the barrel which initally looked like a bin case. At least to the faint-hearted.

As Joel has gone rather quiet for a while, under the pressure of work, I have used the time to make a few photos of items I treated myself, in the hope that others may be encouraged to tackle components that look hopeless. It is no bad idea to practice on hopeless bits, as you are not losing anything, and you sharpen your judgement as to what can be done.

As the TV cooks say, "here is one I prepared earlier!" This is a double-set trigger, from the 1850s Anschütz that I am restoring. You have already seen the barrel plug and tang in the RB series. First, the trigger as set:

Attachment 20322

And now, the trigger as released:

Attachment 20321

Observe that although the baseplate is rusted, after electrolytic cleaning, followed immediately by cold bluing, all parts have an even color, which makes the rust pitting much less obvious. Because the reduced rust is, basically, the same as the "blued" surface. And the hardened parts have survived extraordinarily well for 160 years. All edges are still sharp, and this trigger is going back into service!

I tried the method out on a piece of what any sensible person would call scrap.

Attachment 20320

And after the electrolytic cleaning (no bluing) it looked like this:

Attachment 20323

Still gruesome, of course - but functional! In this photo it is set:

Attachment 20324

And in this one, it is released:

Attachment 20319

Now although one would be unlikely to use this mechanism in a rifle again, the recovered parts would be perfectly satisfactory as templates for making new components. That could not be said of the trigger as I first saw it!

Patrick

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[fergs]

those parts look good after the electrolosis, but scoose my ignorance but how would i go about setting up my own electrolosis bath. This would not only be good for removing the crap off that cremated no4 but of quite a few peices of light horse gear i have aquired over the years, but am to afraid to sand blast or use abrasives on them. I have heard of electrolosis being used before to bring an old military barrel back almost from the dead!.
regards
Fergs

[Patrick Chadwick]

those parts look good after the electrolosis, but scoose my ignorance but how would i go about setting up my own electrolosis bath.

Sorry, I only just noticed this. If you loook through the series on the Argentine RB, you will find an adequate descritopn to get you started.

[Peter Laidler]

I rebuilt about 70+ ex Indian Army No32 telescopes about 10 or so years ago. They all 'worked' after a fashion but with horrendous wear and on 20 or so, the tubes were badly pitted. When I say badly, I mean 'right through' badly. I skeletonised a couple of the penetrated tubes and had to replace damaged ocular ends too but all were bead blasted, phosphated and given a good coating of sunkorite. The corrosion was still visible but I felt (they weren't mine.....) that as they were now rust free and well protected against the ravages of rust in the future, then the pitting still visible undfer the paint and phosphate was just a part of its history.

To be honest, once they been reassembled they were as good as new. I wonder if anyone still has one of these former rust-buckets on his No4T.

On a similar vein, we'd encounter rust-bucket rifles very often in the Far East tropics where the monsoons lasted from September until the following July/early August. Under the woodwork was dire on some No4's and 5's - even L1A1's - and No5's with a capped fore-end were the worst! But they'd come in and go through the system, just like the rusty telescope casings. They'd be rebuilt and immersed in the hot oil bath for 2 hours, greased up but that was all part of its new life.
Our examiners used to say that being rusty but fixable isn't the same as worn out and UN-fixable

Cured rust pitting doesn't bother me so long as it's protected from now on

[fergs]

Am currently in the process of cleaning up an old no4 that was rusted to hell, couldnt even get the bolt out. But thanks to the electrolosis have got the bolt out and just about all the screws. What a difference that makes, is far better than using molasses for the same job and you can see the rust coming right off before your eyes!!
Regrds
Fergs

[Patrick Chadwick]

Fergs, any chance of a couple of "before and after" photos to enourage others? Or is it already too late?

[fergs]

will post the after shots soon, but am one step ahead of your thought
stay tuned
fergs

[Chuckindenver]

i have a saying...if i cant fix it..its trash.

[louthepou]

I think I'm fairly tolerant. If a part is rusted so bad that it can no longer perform its intended function safely, well that's when the part becomes "decoration" for some other part of my house! Otherwise, if it can be restored / repaired, I keep it.

Lou

[sovblocgunfan]

Hi, Just reading through this thread and thought I'd share a thread from another forum where it teaches how to build an electrolysis tank. I built one of these for use with some pistol parts-my contribution starts on page 2. It worked great, even if the pistol didn't turn out as hoped. There are many contributors to the thread who had successes. It really was pretty easy.

Surplusrifle Forum View topic - How to make and use an electrolysis tank *PICS*