Colored Steel!
06-16-2007, 08:22 AM
#3
sure, you can zinc plate it an ugly yellow-gold color.
06-16-2007, 08:28 AM
#5
There are a couple of processes to coat steel. The most common is black oxide. This can be done at home with a firearm bluing kit. A couple of commercial coatings are Gold Irriditing. This is an electroplated Irridium coating. And finally there is beautiful Gold Titanium Nitride Coating. This last process involves making a very hot plasma of Titanium Nitride which is then attracted by the steel. MacMaster Car also has a blue coating on some of their small metric screws. I don't know how durable it is.
John
John
Last edited by John Stranahan; 06-16-2007 at 08:03 PM. Reason: changed sprayed to attracted by
06-16-2007, 10:00 AM
#6
During my college years (2 years ago 
) I worked at a Titanium Nitriding facility. Its a little more complex than spraying it on. The majority of the company's business came from machine tools (drills, end mills, blades).
The process (short version):
1. Parts/tools are cleaned + chemically etched
2. If needed, tools are sandblasted
3. Parts are fixtured/masked off in special collers
4. Parts are put into a giant chamber where all the air is sucked out to produce a vacuum. Nitrogen is then purged into the chamber.
5. Titanium pellets that were placed into the chamber are atomized by plasma
6. The atomized titanium is attracted to the parts, similar to powdercoating.
There are other coatings similar to titanium nitride, theres titanium aluminium nitride (TiAln). It came out of the chamber as a dark gunmetal/purple color. It looked badass (AKA Associated's "Unobtanium" shock shafts). Those were the main two the company did.
) I worked at a Titanium Nitriding facility. Its a little more complex than spraying it on. The majority of the company's business came from machine tools (drills, end mills, blades).The process (short version):
1. Parts/tools are cleaned + chemically etched
2. If needed, tools are sandblasted
3. Parts are fixtured/masked off in special collers
4. Parts are put into a giant chamber where all the air is sucked out to produce a vacuum. Nitrogen is then purged into the chamber.
5. Titanium pellets that were placed into the chamber are atomized by plasma
6. The atomized titanium is attracted to the parts, similar to powdercoating.
There are other coatings similar to titanium nitride, theres titanium aluminium nitride (TiAln). It came out of the chamber as a dark gunmetal/purple color. It looked badass (AKA Associated's "Unobtanium" shock shafts). Those were the main two the company did.
06-16-2007, 03:30 PM
#7
There are a couple of processes to coat steel. The most common is black oxide. This can be done at home with a firearm bluing kit. A couple of commercial coatings are Gold Irriditing. This is an electroplated Irridium coating. And finally there is beautiful Gold Titanium Nitride Coating. This last process involves making a very hot plasma of Titanium Nitride which is then sprayed onto the steel. MacMaster Car also has a blue coating on some of their small metric screws. I don't know how durable it is.
John
John
06-16-2007, 04:20 PM
#8
It is basically an acid soulution. You can get it at most sporting goods stores that carry firearm accessories. It comes in a 3-4 ounce bottle and it called "Super Blue" or "Gun Blue".
Roughly the process is you clean your parts really good, the dip them in the solution for a couple minutes or less, then rinse them in water. You may need to repeat the process once or twice to get a really nice finish, and the cleaner the parts the better. It will leave most steel looking very dark blue to black. It will NOT work on stainless steel.
06-16-2007, 04:27 PM
#9
What thunderbt3 says is true. Its also an electrial process where the plasma titanium is attratred through the electrial attraction (I think the titanium pellets are the anode, and the parts become the cathode). Not practical for most if any RC parts.
But there are many different colors that can be produced using different blends of materials from gold (TiN) to browns, blacks, and varying shades of purples and pink using TiCN, and TiAlN which is Titanium Carbon Nitride, and Titanium Aluminum Nitride. These coatings have been developed mainly for cutting tools. They make tools last longer by creating a very slippery surface that is very hard. So the substrate (HSS or carbide) is not worn away by rubbing of chips as easily, thereby increasing the sharp edges ability to stay sharp. Its basically impractical to process any RC parts this way because of cost, and if its only for a color, its really impractical.
06-16-2007, 08:01 PM
#11
Birchwood Casey makes a little bluing touch up pen that is inexpensive and should do a steel turnbuckle just fine.
http://www.gundogsonline.com/shooting-supplies/gun-cleaning-supplies/birchwood-casey-presto-gun-blue-pen.html
John
http://www.gundogsonline.com/shooting-supplies/gun-cleaning-supplies/birchwood-casey-presto-gun-blue-pen.html
John
06-16-2007, 09:58 PM
#13
With a magnet
06-16-2007, 10:05 PM
#14
