Chemistry lesson wanted

[Martin Shaw]

Afeter the arrival of the 7/8ths Bagnall in the autumn I have been contemplating a rake of slate wagons so a kit arrived as a try out to see whether a rake made sense. It came with wheels I didn't care for and the only suitable ones I had were on O gauge axles. Making two G1 axles is a simple turning exercise as seen in the bottom example and I decided oil blackening was more sensible than paint and a test is shown in the upper example. The only oil I could find in the garage was some 220 bearing oil which at 0deg is not far off steam oil for viscosity and I wonder whether it is entirely suitable for this exercise. The test axle isn't too bad but not wholly successful. Would for example a lower flash point vegetable oil be better. I welcome any thoughts on this.
Regards
Martin

 

[simond]

Martin, the only experience I can offer is blackening coupling hooks.

I hate brass hooks on rolling stock, it looks daft (and is very common, even on expensive, beautifully painted models!) so where I’m building something I use Premier steel hooks, heat them to red and drop them in a little pot of Wahl beard trimmer oil. Other breeds are available.

It’s a light mineral oil, which I use for almost all lubrication of models. It blacks steel perfectly well.

hth
Simon

 

[Rob Pulham]

I have used 3 in 1 oil in the past but now I use more household friendly cooking oil (in my case out of date olive oil). As ever the secret to successful blackening even when heating up, is making sure that the item being blackened is clean before hand.

 

[Martin Shaw]

Thanks Simond and Rob. Whilst listening to my monday evening fix of Cerys I arrived at a conclusion, the axle centre could usefully be blackened whilst the journals will be all but invisible and oiled anyway and therefore won't rust. Whilst I polished the axles with Scotchbrite before blackening I think a chemical clean with Acetone or celly thinners might also be worthwhile. I have ordered 2M of 5mm EN1A which might come tomorrow but at the mo I have no more stock. Once I have decided the procedure it becomes a batch exercise to alleviate boredom. I'll have a further tryout in due course.
Martin