Parkerizing

[pitfighter]

Has anyone here done their own parkerizing?

What kind of results?

Could they control the color - green, grey, etc?

Here is a link to the products - http://mg34.com/product-category/parkerizing/

Please post pictures if you have - or have had a shop do it for you.

(I am not interested in any modern finish that may look similar.)

[Discogodfather]

I do my own, the secret to success for me was to spend alot of money on the setup. About three years ago I was building an MP5. I bought some cheap solution on ebay, got a propane tank with some camp stove burners and some meat thermometers and went to work, never had done any parking before.

Disaster! I lost the gun in the solution, it was completely screwed up. Really a bummer to loose my first MP5 build, but I did practically everything wrong.

My old post about the experience:

http://www.calguns.net/calgunforum/showthread.php?t=827965&highlight=parkerizing

These are the secrets to doing a good job:

1) Use distilled water ONLY
2) You have to bead blast before, the metal has to be opened up otherwise no etching can occur.
3) Temp control has to be very accurate, around 185-195 degrees. Having a meat thermo and a burner was not working for me. When you dip the metal in there is also a big temp drop, so you have to compensate. More metal, more of a dip.
4) Helps to have a rinse tank
5) helps to have a pre-dip tank that can heat up your metal to prevent the temp drop when you go to the park solution
6) ONLY buy good park solution, I only trust Lauer now

Spent around $500 for this setup, a very cool guy on GB and ebay who is a gun guy sells these tanks. Super expensive but electronic temp controls and really easy to drain, just a pleasure not to have to deal with propane.



Bead blast with some glass bead, then into the Lauer solution. I got grey and black, and they both come out very nice, grey is a dark grey and black is pitch black. I also have some Lauer super black which is a pre-dip for using with the black solution. It makes the park a very deep black, you just throw it in the cold solution and then into the park solution. Lauer sells an oil you spray on after rinsing as well, works great.

I've done tons of parts and it works very well, it was expensive to set up but now its a breeze. I did a MP5k, a HK33, and tons of little parts here and there.

You can also do tiny parts with a microwave, haven't tried it yet but I hear it works very well.

[Discogodfather]

The zinc is the grey, the manganese is the black. I don't know how to do green. Basically time determines the intensity of the color. If you did quick it can be a very light grey or black. Over 5 minutes and it gets much darker. Also, different steels park differently, so if you park all at the same time a trigger assembly and a barrel, etc. some get dark more quickly than others.

You can reuse the solution, and some people swear about "priming" with some steel wool. I did not do that and got great results. About to do another lot in a week, I'll throw up a video.

[Milsurp Collector]

I have done some Parkerizing, and I didn't spend a lot of money.

I started out with this kit http://www.midwayusa.com/product/731...ep-by-step-dvd

For small parts I use a stainless steel saucepan like this http://www.walmart.com/ip/16818005?w...929152&veh=sem

For larger parts I use a stainless steel roasting pan like this http://www.staples.com/Cuisine-Selec...AQ&kpid=520225

I also have a long stainless steel tank that could fit a barreled receiver but I have never used it.

I did the Parkerizing on my gas stovetop in my kitchen. For the long tank I have a dual-burner gas camp stove but I have never used it.

I got a Winchester M1 Rifle from the CMP that had dark, almost black Parkerizing on the receiver. I lucked out because it came with a Winchester operating rod. I had a Winchester trigger group and some other Winchester parts I obtained separately, and the rifle came with a new CMP birch stock that had new hardware. So the barreled receiver, trigger group, and stock metal was all in different shades and I wanted it all to match with a black color that contrasted with the birch stock after I refinished the stock.

Here it is before



You can see the different shades of metal





And here it is after I refinished the stock and Parkerized the metal (except for the barreled receiver and op rod) to a uniform dark color. By the way, it shoots great and I have used it in competition at my gun club.

[LowThudd]

Randal (member ar15barrels) is in Van Nuys and does parking. http://www.ar15barrels.com/services.shtml

[spb_la]

MY AKM parkerized by Randall. It was a while ago - and I am happy with the way it turned out, I am sure he can do even better now.

[pitfighter]

Nice, thank you, gentlemen!
That was exactly the sort of info. I was looking for.
Disco - very informative, thank you for taking the time to lay out the process.
Damaging the receiver on this project is not an option.

[Milsurp Collector]

If you want to send it out look at http://shuffsparkerizing.com/services/parkerizing/

He does a lot of work on Garands and has fast turn-around.

[81turbota]

That looks awesome DRH!

[rromeo]

We've just started parkerizing at the shop, with the kit from Midway. We do small things now, but may be getting a bigger set up for barrels and such later on. The owners are trying to buy a new building, so he doesn't want to have a lot of stuff to move.

[pitfighter]

DRH - that does look good -

The originals of this "rifle", had an almost light-green color to them.

[50BMGBOB]

The green tint was a zink park that was seasoned over time with cosmolin. There have been a few threads on 1919.com on how to treat it after a zink park to get that tint.

[pitfighter]

50BMGBOB,

The finish I am looking to replicate has green tint, but the gun has not been in or near cosmoline (ever.)

[Milsurp Collector]

The green tint was a zink park that was seasoned over time with cosmolin.

The often-stated green tint from exposure to cosmoline theory is a theory that doesn't have much to back it up. The green tint (particularly seen on Remington 03-A3's) was due to a treatment that would be difficult to perform today due to EPA and OSHA regulations.

[Saigon1965]

Is that the one Pit?