Box of old pistols

[Mike Irwin]

"just make sure one end is clamped in a much thicker peice of steel to make it like the pistol!"

Clamped in?

What are you talking about?

That should have absolutely no bearing on what we're talking about, especially on the "pore" level.

"we know thin metal would freeze faster than thick metal"

EITHER heat or cold can be an effective method of breaking adhesions between separate pieces of metal.

Heating the pieces will squeeze them more tightly together, essentially crushing the adhesions. When the metal cools and shrinks, it opens up spaces that were formerly filled by the adhesion.

Super chilling the parts, wether through a freezer or through use of dry ice, makes them shrink and pulls the adhesions apart.

Sometimes using both is indicated (a shell casing stuck in a die is often best removed by chilling, then quickly heating the die so that it expands and pulling the shell case before it gets warm enough to expand.)

 

[psychopuppy1]

1st off, I agree with you Mike!
Clamped in, "what are you talking about?" We where talking about the barrels on the pistol! He cant get them to unscrew from the breach. So to make your test accurate, you would need a similar set-up! If your test is for a flat peice of steel, then go get a cast iron pan, read the directions on how to cure it, they will tell you to heat the pan, so the pours open up, then treat with oil!
The pistol barrels are not flat, and one end is screwwed into a thicker peice of steel! Thus the reaction would be different! Plus, my anology was for cracks, not pours! On a round tube, such as a barrel, with one end clamped ( or screwwed into a breach) heat would close the crack, not open it!
Thus my anology of welding the engine block, heat would cuase the edges of the crack to EXPAND, thus closing the crack,while welding, so we had to wait for the block to cool, there by, reopening the crack so we could reweld it!
The only time we heated the entire block was to pop out the old sleeves, and put in the new ones, which where sitting in dry ice waiting to go in!
Your very last sentance, in your last post, proves we are both talking the same thing! Throw the pistol in the freezer, then pull it out and use a heatgun to heat the breach while unscrewwing the barrels!
I love your thing about the dog as a gift, its so true!

 

[velocette]

Clamped, frozen, baked, drilled, soaked, hammered or what.
That ~140 year old pistol sits unmolested in its shadow box with
a small note describing it, XXX Goex gunpowder glued
over a formed piece of epoxy to resemble a pile, a ~40 caliber
lead ball and a percussion cap all in the box. It'll hang on the wall
of my brothers Adirondak "camp" for the next 140 years. (God willing)
A small powderhorn is hung from the bottom of the box just for because I
have several, not because it is original to or for the pistol.

Roger

 

[Mike Irwin]

""He cant get them to unscrew from the breach."

Ah. OK, sort of lost the bubble.

I don't think I'd need to make a mock up because I've frozen large parts that have been screwed together, or which have large bolts running through them, and have had more than considerable success over the years.

A few years ago my Mother wasn't particularly happy to open her deep freeze and discover the alternator for the garden tractor. The blind bolts holding the casing together simply refused to budge. Three days in the freezer at 20 below, along with lots of Liquid Wrench, resulted in three of the four bolts breaking loose fairly easily, with the fourth requiring only a few taps on the wrench handle with a hammer.

Another freezer success story was this light fixture:

It had hung on the house from 1903 until the 1970s when my Grandfather replaced it with some ugly non-period coach lantern. Mom found it in the basement, quite rusted and in need of rewiring.

To do so I needed to get it fully apart, which included the arm, held in place by two long carriage bolts, and four screws holding the backing plate in place. That one was a real challenge due to it being very difficult to get penetrating oil to where it would do any good, but after several days in the freezer, all of the screws and the two bolts released easily.

A little rehab, rewiring, some paint, and the proper light now hangs back where it should.

The only real failure I've ever had with cold sinking was on an engine block to an old John Deere tractor. But, to be fair, heat failed on that one, too, and we had to drill out 7 of the 12 bolts and chase the holes.

 

[psychopuppy1]

The light looks great! Kudoo's! My wife used to flip when she would find parts in the freezer, now she is used to it! The last being the bearing race for my Geo! The outter and inner bearing is one peice, that needs to be pressed in/out! Heat to the hub, peice of cake!
Velocity, thats a great display! I love hunting in the northern woods, I just hate living in N.Y.!
One thing I've found for breaking loose rusted bolts, acetone and tranny oil(or Marvel mystry(sp?) oil) mixed 50/50,! Start using it a couple of days before you need to take something apart, works better than PB Blaster or anything else!