quaycur

Has anyone on here ever tried using gun bluing on a raw metal frame? I know full well how to use it, I've just never done it on a bike before. The frame is (probably) Cr-Mo and I've sand blasted it to a very nice, smooth finish. It's just so good looking I don't want to cover it with paint. Gun barrels are treated with this and they're made out of the same steel, so this should be fine, right? I can't see any reason using bluing on the frame would be a bad idea, let me know if I'm wrong.

Although I'm sure a lot of you might argue that I've already ruined the frame. To answer any crap I might catch about the holes: I don't give a ****, it looks ****ing cool. I test rode it a lot after drilling them and really pounded on the thing. It was fine and I don't plan on doing any serious racing with this, anyway. I wanted to have fun and get something unique in the process and I'm in love with the result!

EDIT: I realized I forgot to say what kind of bike it is. It's a ~1987 Nishiki Sport I got for free from my landlord after it sat outside for four years. So no need to freak out, it wasn't some prestigious Italian thing.

So, the final finish at this point is: Sandblasted Cr-Mo frame treated with bluing; lugs painted gloss black; antique gold lining around lugs (for looks and to cover up the brass brazing that the bluing won't affect).







I looked around for a picture of something aside from a gun that had been treated with bluing, found this:



Although, this is probably a more appropriate preview:





Oh! I'm also looking for one of those sweet older stamped aluminum Nishiki head badges if anybody has one to spare.

gridplan

I think there are at least a couple of threads on this in the archives. Here's one:

https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vintage/508384-finishing-steel-frame-gun-blue.html

cudak888 

Hell-o DREW!

Ten bucks has it that it will collapse and spill you into the road within the first 10 miles, provided you don't chicken out.

-Kurt

quaycur

^ I'll take pictures

rugerben

If you use this, your bike will shoot to MOA at 100 yards every time.

I see you're in Branford. Take the bike up to the Blue Trails range in Wallingford and try it. You'll see.

rugerben

actually, you just gave me an incredible idea. Why not use the very advanced gun finishes on bikes. I would love to duracoat a bike frame!!!

cudak888 

"Spike Bike will shoot your frame full of holes..."



-Spiro Bikopoulis

mkeller234

regardless, you did do a really nice job drilling those holes. What did you do to make them so clean and even?

Otis

Hey, maybe the OP is not as fat as some of the guys around here, and a Nishiki's got plenty of extra meat on it anyway.

Regardless of what you think of the concept, the work looks damn good. Layouts like that are not that easy to get that straight looking.

I think a neat way to take it one step further would be to braze tubing inside across each hole. That would bring back any loss of strength and look more finished. Of course that would be a lot of work, but that's what it's all about, right.

cudak888 

To dream...the impossible dream...

-Kurt

Mike Mills

Why can I see only one of the photos, photo #2?

Not that I want to see more, my eyes are burning just from the one image.

Otis

Here you go Kurt, some more "drew's" you can thumb your nose at.

cudak888 

I'm familiar with Masi's take on it (at least a sleeve is brazed into these), but I've never seen anything like the former. What is it?

-Kurt

Six jours

FWIW, bluing isn't an especially tough finish. Few of my blued guns are in perfect shape after years of use in the field. Although I think it would outlast the frame in question...

bigbossman 

Not to hijack, but "1 minute of angle" is not dependent on distance. MOA is MOA, regardless of the yardage. It does get proportionality bigger the further out you go, but it remains "1 minute of angle".

Sorry for the interruption - I'll go away now.

quaycur

That thread might have talked me out of the bluing. I could always clear coat it, but the natural texture is so nice. There was a link to Fast Boy Cycles in there and he uses a very cool looking finish. Waiting to hear back on what it is.

Kept a steady hand, measured twice, cut once. I struck a centerline with a scribe, measured out each hole, gave my center punch a good workout, and drilled a 3/16" starter hole. Next came this crazy 1/2" drive bit that looks like a standard 45º countersink but stretched out to about 3" long (no idea what it's called). It tapers from 1/8" to 1/2" and drilled those teeny holes out like I was drilling through cheese. Then countersink and file.

I've been holding steady at ~150 for quite some time

You're killing me with the inner tube. It would look so damn cool but there's no way I'm doing that now. I just want to ride it!

Don't know, the picture's there if you right click and view it in another window. It did it once or twice with me, too. Here's the album if you care to burn out your eyes a little more: https://picasaweb.google.com/happynes...kiProjectBike#

Otis

Messori Pista Special.

Search for John Waner's bikes on Wool Jersey.

Six jours

Quote:

https://picasaweb.google.com/happynes...kiProjectBike#

Jeez. I just drilled a single 1/4" hole through the underside of the lower headlug on my new frame, intending to fit a grommet through which the internal lighting wires run. I decided it was too big for safety, so filled it with silver brazed steel rod and then drilled a much smaller hole just big enough to fit the ungrommeted wire.

So either I'm way overcautious or you're going to die. Lol.

Otis

That would be a "tapered reamer" I believe.

quaycur

eventually. EL-OH-EL

Yeah! That ***** kicked that frame's ass!

quaycur

We're seriously censoring "*****" on here? What if I found something that was *****in'? Or if I was working on project that was a real *****? Or if I wanted to talk about my female dog? ****.

mkeller234

Seriously though, be careful on that thing.

cudak888 

Oh, **** off.



-Kurt

Six jours

Heh. Over on the framebuilding forum you can't post about your favorite ******* file unless you get creative with your spelling. "Bastrad..."

unworthy1

no, it's called a Unibit, at least that's one brandname: great tool for drilling holes in thin materials. Holes through frame tubes have been done before (as a 'style exercise' for tradeshow bikes, usually) and ALL the examples I ever saw they at least had filled the holes with tubing. I reckon they knew they'd be displaying the things to a few framebuilders and engineers and didn't want to be laughing stocks.Cause, seriously, it may LOOK as cool as f**k, but any junior engineer can explain how this (unreinforced perforatiion) ruins the structural integrity of a load-bearing tubular structural member...so wear a helmet.