Sandblasted SS treatment afterwards??

[brguide]

Use a whole glass bead new at a 100-170 grit (NO. 10). That is what will match a glass beaded action. I have never had any of mine rust either. You can grab 50 lbs from ZORO part# G0700563 for 61.26. If you dont need that much grab 10 lbs from amazon. Just make sure you grab the whole glass and not crushed. Aluminum in the 120 grit is great for SCRATCHING for duracoat/cerakote. Otherwise the Glass peens the surface. If you go to a course grit like 60-80 it will look dark gray, but from most manufactures I have talked with use the 100-170 to peen their actions with.

 

[RYEWSKY25284]

Looking for NON Cerakote or Duracoat ways to finish/seal a stainless steel barrel after sandblasting for matte finsh. It is my understanding that it starts to oxidize and rust shortly after blasting. Thanks

Bead blasted stainless steel doesn't rust. You would have to really try HARD to get one to rust.
These 2 rifles are more than 20 years old, been in the rain, freezing blizzards and still look really good.

 

[crazyhorse]

I wouldn't worry about it.

I have a semi-custom stainless Sendero that was blasted when I had a new bbl installed. Its a working gun that's been to Colorado and NM on snowy drop camp hunts and spends the rest of its time at home in the swampy river bottom deer woods.

When it gets wet or dirty I use standard care as soon as available and other than a few abrasions that wont wipe off , I've never had any surface finish issues.

 

[ntsqd]

Bead blasted stainless steel doesn't rust. You would have to really try HARD to get one to rust.
These 2 rifles are more than 20 years old, been in the rain, freezing blizzards and still look really good.

The 300 series of SST alloys are pretty good at resisting corrosion. Quality firearms aren't made from the 300's because they gall far too rapidly. Remember the bad name SST had in the early days of SST firearms? That was because they were made from 300 series alloys, and they galled badly to prove it.

The SST alloys that quality firearms are made today from can rust. Leave some blood on it for a couple months and watch what happens. Leave it out in a salty fog for a while and watch what happens. Please don't.

That said, with normal care they shouldn't rust, but you can not treat them as "rust-proof".

 

[david g ranes]

The 300 series of SST alloys are pretty good at resisting corrosion. Quality firearms aren't made from the 300's because they gall far too rapidly. Remember the bad name SST had in the early days of SST firearms? That was because they were made from 300 series alloys, and they galled badly to prove it.

The SST alloys that quality firearms are made today from can rust. Leave some blood on it for a couple months and watch what happens. Leave it out in a salty fog for a while and watch what happens. Please don't.

That said, with normal care they shouldn't rust, but you can not treat them as "rust-proof".

Left a marlin 22 magnum laying on my work bench for quick access for skunks or what ever things just kept getting piled on it and more or less forgot about it for 2 years I would have never believed how bad it rusted don't think I will ever get it cleaned up. David

 

[26Reload]

Had a tikka ss few years back.....yuck.....one hunt on the coast and it went to hell.....
Rather have my triple color cerakoted rifles....cool is the word...

 

[Blancoalex]

Thanks for all responses will look into some glass beads for starters.

 

[RYEWSKY25284]

The 300 series of SST alloys are pretty good at resisting corrosion. Quality firearms aren't made from the 300's because they gall far too rapidly. Remember the bad name SST had in the early days of SST firearms? That was because they were made from 300 series alloys, and they galled badly to prove it.

The SST alloys that quality firearms are made today from can rust. Leave some blood on it for a couple months and watch what happens. Leave it out in a salty fog for a while and watch what happens. Please don't.

That said, with normal care they shouldn't rust, but you can not treat them as "rust-proof".

I've never had any trouble with any of my "stainless barrels" rain, snow, mud... just wipe'm down & store them in a somewhat controlled environment and you're go to go. After all, it is called "Stainless steel".

 

[ntsqd]

"Stainless" is a misnomer. Some of them stain fairly easily, others not so much. AISI 316 is an example of a 'stainless' that is pretty hard to corrode or stain in any way. Certain, very specific environs can do it, but it's difficult to achieve those environs. AISI 409 is a good example of a so-called "stainless steel" that rusts in fairly normal conditions. Saying something is "stainless steel" is not terribly descriptive at all. It narrows the field of metals used, but that is all it does.

I'll guess that Salinas gets a marine layer at times. Leave a piece of barrel "stainless" steel outside for a while in that stuff and watch what happens.

 

[westcliffe01]

If you ever get carbon steel contamination onto a prized stainless item, you can remove the oxide and the underlying ferritic base material using citric acid. It's easy to get in powder form, its safe ( used on sour candy).

Make up a saturated solution using distilled water, stiring in the citric acid powder until it no longer dissolves. For stubborn contamination , use a toothbrush to scrub the area and you can warm a bit of the solution in a cup in the microwave to increase the aggression of the reaction. For quality control you can make up a copper sulphate solution and paint it on the area.. The copper sulphate will stain any ferrite base material on the surface. See caveats below before rushing off to do this however...

I personally have not tested 400 series stainless in the normalised or annealed condition (barrels and actions). So I do not know if the copper sulphate will work for those materials. I do know that for 420 stainless that has been hardened and tempered it works perfectly fine but that is because the heat treatment converts the ferritic grain structure to austenitic. Thus ignore the copper sulphate test for your barrel or action, it is fine for 300 series or hardened 400 series materials....

 

[RockyMtnUT]

I've never had any trouble with any of my "stainless barrels" rain, snow, mud... just wipe'm down & store them in a somewhat controlled environment and you're go to go. After all, it is called "Stainless steel".

Stainless can "rust". There are many grades of it and like the picture above I build these all out of 316ss, environment plays a large part along with passivation. Now if blast media has contamination or a wire brush or wire wheel has contacted iron then used on SS then it will look like hell in no time.

 

[ntsqd]

Water purification or de-ionization unit?

 

[RockyMtnUT]

Water purification or de-ionization unit?

Water purification. (Induced gas flotation) in vessel one then media filter in #2. 170k just in stainless