Degreasing Before Bluing

[JoeLee]

I'm just about ready to give it a try...... I have some machine parts that I'm going to hot blue. A friend of mine gave me a 5 gal. pal of bluing salts, I don't have any of the degreasing stuff that the big shops use. I've been told by one place that sells this stuff that I can use Simple Green as a degreaser. Any one ever use this stuff before bluing????

JL..................

[J. Randall]

Joe, I haven't but I have used the aerosol cans of brake cleaner from the auto parts store when I wanted something spotless.
James

[Mike Hunter]

TSP or Greased Lightning works very well

[deltaenterprizes]

Plain old Dawn dishwashing liquid has worked for me.

[JoeLee]

OK, thanks for the input. I guess as long as what ever degreaser you use removes any and all oil film and doesn't spot or stain the metal then you should have good bluing results. I don't know what the makup of the stuff is that the bluing supply co. sells but I do know it's in a granular form and should be properly diluted with water and has a working temperature of 150 deg. The stuff is only $5 a pound but there is a rip off haz mat fee for shipping it. The people at Simple Green told me that heating thier product above 120 deg. starts to actually reduce it's cleaning ability.

JL................

[RWO]

An easy way to degrease is to run the parts thru a dishwasher. Run just as you would for dishes, but take the parts out before the drying cycle starts or you will get flash rust. They will be spotless and ready for bluing.

RWO

[Xringshooter]

Acetone is another excellent degreaser. Soak the parts for a while and the remove them (using powder free nitrile gloves so none of your body oils contaminate what you just cleaned).

[chriskat]

I've always used brake cleaner before parkerizing. Haven't blued anything yet.

[38_Cal]

Some of the new generation brake cleaners will leave a residue behind. Test on a piece of plate glass or a mirror before totally trusting it to clean for bluing.

David

[JoeLee]

Good point, if there is a residue left behind it should show on a piece of glass. But the trick is to go from your degrease tank to the warm water rinse with out spotting or drying and then into the blue tank.

JL..............