Taking Care of Aluminum J Frame AirLite after Exercising

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_CY_

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Taking Care of Aluminum J Frame AirLite after Exercising

For CCW... it's hard to beat an AirLite revolver... they are so handy that we take em with us on that sweaty 45 mile bike ride... or sweaty 4 mile run...etc..etc..

4th of July morning ... a buddy and I decided to ride out the the tea party at 111th and Garnett... a good 20 miles away.

it starts raining 5 minutes into the ride and basically doesn't stop for 4+ hours. not a big deal... 90 degrees and soaked is not so bad.

when I got back... naturally my 337PD was soaked.... which leads back to reason for this little writeup.

Aluminum has it's own peculiar set of characteristics. the same for steel, stainless steel and titanium.

Titanium is basically inert and stainless steels used in firearms are resistant to most corrosion. what we should be worried about is corrosion to the Aluminum and steel parts.

as most of us already knows.... rust will form on unprotected steels. what's not readily known is aluminum naturally forms an anodic film.

both rust and anodic films or anodize are basically oxidation to base metals. what accelerates this process is SALT & WATER.

in other words if you don't remove that sweat from your aluminum J-frame. you could end up with a badly corroded revolver.

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any interest?

not cleaning your aluminum J-frame revolvers could end up doing serious damage to your aluminum frames. above pictures shows the damage that can be done to your aluminum J-frame after exposure to sweat.

scandium refers to the trace element added to aluminum for strength.
titanium cylinders are all but impervious to body salts and acids.
 

_CY_

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that's categorically incorrect ... Titanium is all but inert
ti is resistant to all but the strongest acids... we used to take a mixture of nitric/hydrofluoric acid to etch titanium.

taking about a violently boiling orange bellowing clouds mixture!!!

Titanium is violently reactive. Titanium oxide is basically inert.
 

338Shooter

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Look up Titanium Sublimation Pump. Clean titanium is very reactive, it forms an oxide layer almost instantly in the presence of O2. This oxide layer (passivation) is why it is so nonreactive in the form we use it in. Clean titanium probably has a very similar reactivity of clean aluminum which is also another big beneficiary of passivation.

TSPs are used in ultra high vacuums which are used in molecular beam epitaxy.

Oh, also, the titanium you etched was likely a Ti alloy with some combination of one or more of Al, V, Pd, Fe, Mo, Cr, and Sn. Likely you dealt with Grade 5 or Grade 9 Ti alloy.
 

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I've dealt with many many many pounds of titanium. All of it was an alloy, usually 6AL4V. We used to take a 900 pound forging and machine it down to a part that weighed 47 pounds. Think jet engine mount. (I used to be in aerospace manufacturing, metal finishing, NDT, etc.)

But I've never heard of an oxidized surface on any metal referred to as being passivated. Now stainless alloys are passivated to prevent corrosion but the process is actually the reverse. The theory goes that by dipping it in a hot acid bath, not unlike what the O/P refers to in titanium etching, the iron oxide on the surface of the steel is dissolved. There are two schools of thought in the aerospace industry, one is that this is the way it works, and the other is that it's complete hogwash. After testing literally thousands of test samples in a salt fog cabinet per ASTM-B-117, I think I'm in the first camp. As for anodize it IS an oxidized surface. And an FYI most if not all anodize processes will produce a surface that is not electrically conductive. If you need to re-anodize something, you have to strip it (acid etch) and this is how you know the coating is completely gone (think ohm meter). Because if there is any coating left on it, it's not conductive, and you won't get another coating on it.

To the O/P: Just give the J frame a wipe down with a soft rag and some Ballistol after you get sweat on it. Every time you take it off after getting it sweaty! The Ballistol will neutralize the salts and it will provide some waterproofing too.
 

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It's a carry gun. It's going to eventually get ugly. Just live with it. It is not for looking at. It's a tool. Keep pretty guns in the safe.
 

ez bake

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To the O/P: Just give the J frame a wipe down with a soft rag and some Ballistol after you get sweat on it. Every time you take it off after getting it sweaty! The Ballistol will neutralize the salts and it will provide some waterproofing too.

Problem is - you've got to remove the grips if you really sweat on it because the sweat will get under the grips and damage the finish there.

The 642 is clear-coated - its not bare metal, but the coating is crap. The answer is to have OlYeller coat it with something more corrosion-resistant.

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ai70.photobucket.com_albums_i91_rawatkins_DSCN0700.jpg
 

Shadowrider

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Problem is - you've got to remove the grips if you really sweat on it because the sweat will get under the grips and damage the finish there.

The 642 is clear-coated - its not bare metal, but the coating is crap. The answer is to have OlYeller coat it with something more corrosion-resistant

Where's the after pics? LOL!

They are probably sulfuric acid anodized with a hot water seal. It's not crap, it just does the exact same thing as the black anodized finish. It just looks worse faster because of the color. But your right, an Olyeller finish would be better in all likelihood. Now if they would chromic acid anodize them they would hold up a whole bunch better, it's astounding how long that will hold up in a salt fog cabinet. But it's an ugly grey. If they did that with a dilute chromate seal followed by stainless cerakote it would be bullet proof.
 

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