I looked in "The Science and Engineering of Materials" and found that perhaps the best way is to zinc plate the steel. I have no idea what that does to the weight, or the pocketbook, but the rational behind the zinc plating it that it if the zinc gets scratched, it continues to be effective, since zinc is anodic to steel. If a layer of paint gets scratched, the steel undergoes rapid, localized corrosion.
The book also mentions tin plating, saying that it works, but steel is anodic to tin, so if the tin gets scratched, the localized corrosion would be worse than the paint coating. So, disclaimer: I have no experience in this area, just a book. "Your results may vary" Mark Youkey myou...@cox.net Oklahoma City Subject: Re: KR>chemical corrosion coating for 4130 steel? > Dave McKelvey wrote: > > > Mark, I've used alodine (1204 I think, I'll double check). I used it to > > treat some torx bits that started rusting as well as steel hardware, I > don't > > think it's hard to find but I don't remember where I got my bottle. You > do > > want to clean it real well first and it will give it a flat black finish > > otherwise it comes out brown. > > I thought Alodine was for aluminm, not steel. And my bottle of Alodine 1201 > says "Chemical Coating for Aluminum" on it. Right now I have a piece of > 4130 out in the sunny front yard that I mist every hour or so. One end is > bare, and the other end I waxed with Blue Coral Poly Sealant. That'll be a > data point after a few weeks, but so far one end is rusting, and the other > looks new... > > Mark Langford, Huntsville, AL > N56ML "at" hiwaay.net > see KR2S project at http://home.hiwaay.net/~langford > > > > _______________________________________________ > see KRnet list details at http://www.krnet.org/instructions.html
