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Thread: BS Vice - restore or retire?
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25th Feb 2018, 07:39 PM #16Member: Blue and white apron brigade
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Yep
name.jpg
I've also made the leg out of 20mm BMS and am blackening it with Tannic acid.
I turned down the top 50 mm of the leg to 19 mm so it fit neatly into the 3/4" hole in the bottom of the back jaw.
I welded a steel collar to the leg but have decided to not weld the leg to the jaw - I have added a 10 mm grub screw to stop the leg falling out when moving it around.
This is the second coat of Tannic acid - the brighter the steel the more coats it needs to get a decent solid coat of sooty black.
leg.jpg
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27th Feb 2018, 04:00 PM #17Member: Blue and white apron brigade
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If added 3 more coats of tannic acid to the leg and now it looks like this.
Photographing a matt black surface is a bit like taking a photo of a black cat or dog at night.
The slight sheen, compared to the photo in the previous post where it looks more sooty, is achieved by rubbing off the excess tannate with a cloth
Legf.jpg
Rubbing with a cloth also reduces the blotchiness which is revealed in this closeup taken before using the cloth.
Closeup.jpg
This what one of the jaws looks like since the BLO has hardened up.
The brown areas are rust that hasn't been converted to tannate, probably because that area was not properly cleaned and still had some grease on it.
IMG_8508.jpg
Here is a WW lathe tool rest I made up and have treated the same way.
The blotchiness will be reduced by rubbing off the excess tannate.
IMG_8504.jpg
Summary:
I like the look of the converted surface, its thinner and sootier than phosphate conversion and can be painted over very easily if needed.
The surfaces need to be as clean as possible before the tannate is applied - all oil and grease should be removed.
Multiple coats are needed and even more is needed for bare metal but the overall time that it takes is about as long as for an epoxy paint to dry. I just left a container with a the tannic acid and a paint brush in a convenient location near the suspended parts in the back your and every time I walked past it added a noter coat if the previous one was dry.
The tannate surface develops more evenly if after about the 3rd coat the excess/loose tannate is rubbed off lightly with a cloth.
Sealing the surface can be done with any self polymerising oil like BLO.
It's not supposed to be suited to tools that are handled but it will be interesting to see how much of the tannate rubs off with handling. if it does and it rusts it should be a matter of a couple of coats of tannic acid again.
I suspect the bare metal would need less coats if it was allowed to rust first. Getting it to rust evenly would be tricky but my acid vapour metal bluing tank seems very good at doing that.
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28th Feb 2018, 03:55 PM #18Member: Blue and white apron brigade
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All done and a couple of before and after shots.
FinalBSvice.jpg
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