Blue Screws

[LaBounty]

Hey Phil-

That's a pretty good idea! I've often wondered how I would re-blue really large, steel hands if I needed to and now I know.

I just finished up a New Haven model #26 that needed a new set screw for the pendulum. It was a 1-64 thread, cheese head, blued screw that was easier to make than search for. I just used a torch to blue it and had great results. I think the key is to have it nicely polished and heat it slowwlllyyyy....It is pretty easy on small stuff (after lots of practice) but I think your idea of using the oven while the wife is away is better on bigger jobs.

Thanks! David.

[Mike306p/Ansoniaman]

Very Interesting!!! Thanks Phil. I will have to try this sometime. :smile: Mike 0136966

[Len Lataille]

And what will the continued use of muriatic acid do to your oven or your health. The fumes have to go somewhere. Remind me not to eat at your house.:-)

Len
THE CLOCK CUCKOO

[wilf]

I have not tried this for over 45 years ,but when I was a watchmaker we used to blue screws and the likes by making them red hot and trowing them in oil (does not have to be expensive clock oil I think any oil will do ,give it a try and let us know how it went.
Putting the parts in the oven may make them blue but I feel it woul also remove de strenght of the hands ,I could be wrong ???

[Len Lataille]

Muratic acid bath was done...in the garage... then washed...

Don't worry Len, you would never get an invite anyway.

Phil,
Moderator
NAWCC Clock Message Board
Pschilke@peoplepc.com) [HR][HR]

Whew! You had me worried. :smile:
As for the invite, unless you live within 20 miles, I woulnt accept. Did my traveling in my 20s. Now I'm a homebody.
This software keeps changing. I hope this message gets through.

Len
THE CLOCK CUCKOO

[bil2054]

There is an excellent discussion of tempering, bluing, etc., in the Q&A book put out by AWI. Phil has reproduced what is done in industry by a tempering/annealing oven. In the bluing process, the steel is really being tempered, which relieves the brittleness of fully hardened (cherry red heated) steel, and has the happy side effect of the blue colour. Even if the steel has not been fully hardened,and is being treated soley for colouration, it gains some degree of strength. The matter of what to use for quenching is somewhat less critical for watch or clock parts, as they don't have much mass and cool quickly. Oil is neccesary for more massive parts, as it does not vapourize as easily as water, and thus remains in contact with the surface, continuing to draw the heat. Water that has been left to stand (de-oxygenated) is good for quenching small parts. Mineral oil is excellent, being light and having a high flash point. When I was a mechanic, I often made or modified tools, and when retempering, I would toss the piece into a bucket of crankcase drain oil; worked great! :smile:
Phil's method takes alot of the guess work out of it, and is great for usun's that don't have the practice to successfully eyeball it.

Bill Miller
NAWCC Member #157710
Bill's web page (http://bil2054.freeservers.com)

[lpbp]

Thanks for sharing Phil, another great topic started, I sure love this board.

Larry Pearson, FNAWCC #35863 L138
candiate for Director

[Allen]

Phil,

Sounds like the only possible oversite on your part is that you will be restricted to bluing screws when your wife is not home. Otherwise sounds like this could possibly lead to you crying the blues after your wife catches you bluing screws in her appliance domain. Go for it! Adds another demension of suspense to clock repair. Been there. /Allen

[RichG]

Gee Phil,
Maybe you could start another little business enterprise here. Phil's Hand and Screw Blueing.
Of course your wife would probably insist that you buy your own oven. :biggrin: :biggrin: :biggrin:
Seriously this is interesting to know if I ever need to blue a set of hands.
Rich
NAWCC #0157382

[Andy Dervan]

Hi Phil,

Does it matter if the oven is gas or electric?

Andy

[Tom Con Vic]

Great tech tip, just took a hand out of the over (electrical) and it is that deep, irridescent purple. Just don't tell your wife to keep the oven clean so you can do blueing in it. Wives have no sense of humor sometimes.

[wilf]

Gunther sorry about the 2 dots could not create them.
I do love your humor ,ever since I read your comments I stopped watching (are you being served) keep up the good work. wilfger

[bil2054]

Here's a neat article from the archives of the BHI on blueing:
Bluieng techniques (http://www.bhi.co.uk/hints/bluing.htm)

Bill Miller
NAWCC Member #157710
Bill's web page (http://bil2054.freeservers.com)

[jimkatzin]

I just tried bluing my hands per Phil's method, but rather than turning blue, they turned very red and blistered. Am I doing something wrong?

Jim, now in the ER.

Jim Katzin
CT Chapter 148

[LaBounty]

Hey Jim-

Phil's method will only work on steel hands, not brass or plastic :smile:.

Just kidding. You probably already knew that. I would suspect that your hands weren't polished bright and shiny, or weren't clean enough, and that there was some contaminate on them. Clean them up, once you are out of the hospital, and give them another try!

D.

[Bob Baxter]

Wilfger
Here are some directions for the two "dots" you were referring to.

The umlaut (the double dots) over several letters in the German alphabet can be easily entered into most text boxes in a Windows application.

To enter these special characters you:
Position your cursor at the desired entry point
Hold the ALT key and enter three numbers on your NUMERIC key pad
For the lowercase letter ü enter 129
For the Uppercase letter Ü enter 154.

For a complete list of the characters in the default key set, see this web page - http://www.cdrummond.qc.ca/cegep/informat/Professeurs/Alain/files/ascii.htm

Have fun,
Bob

[jimkatzin]

Lighten up labounty, I wasn't talking about CLOCK hands. :rolleyes:

Jim Katzin
CT Chapter 148

[LaBounty]

Oh. Now I get it! :rolleyes:

Chuckle, chuckle...

D.