SIG Sauer aluminum frames: Corrosion

Even in AC, the humidity would be very low. An AC tends to remove moisture in the air. So dry inside air, dry outside air, even with temp swings, not likely to have much in the way of trapped moisture.


A leak that reached the case, as most are no where near water tight, could cause an issue. If the leak was discovered and fixed, there may be no evidence by the time they pulled the guns out.
 
Even before I read the story I thought of galvanic corrosion, I don't know a whole lot about it but have heard of it really messing with aluminum. Not related to pistol frames though.
 
Galvani was an Italian scientist and there are galvanic tables showing the position of more or less active in that type of
corrosion.
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So it was an Italian that invented corrosion?:D:D:D

I have to think that there is more to that story. I might take it at face value if the guns had been in Miami,
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Having lived in Miami for almost 40 years, even Miami wasn't that bad unless you lived on The Beach. I used Paralketone on guns and put them in sealed plastic bags and they lasted as long as 10 years before being unpacked. The only gun I ever saw that bad was an RG .38 that an old women brought into the store that had been stored under a sink. It literally crumbled when the barrel was tapped on the carpeted countertop, but it was made from Zamak.

The exfoliation on that SIG looks like exposure to some kind of acid. The aluminum in the aircraft lavatories looked like that. What puzzles me is the hammer spring/strut assembly is corroded, yet would have been protected by the plastic grips.
 
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The photos are impressive, but I agree that there's more to the tale. I tend to think that water got in somehow, maybe by condensation (as was mentioned).
 
I've read, but don't know if it's true or not, that some of those fire insulated lock boxes are insulated with some kind of wet material sandwiched in the wall construction of the box. I've never sawn one apart so I can't confirm if it's true. That, coupled with any temperature swings creating condensation could be the reason those guns corroded so badly. Also, if they were touching each other, being dissimilar metals, may have added up to the result we see.
 
... this is what happened to guns stored in a locking case for one year in Las Vegas...
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I'm calling BS on this story! There is absolutely no way this could have happened the way the writer depicted. NO WAY!!!
 
Sgt127 said:
I would swear it was stored next to an open container of hydrochloric acid that gassed off.
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I don't think so. I've seen the results of a poorly sealed container of hydrochloric acid stored underneath a shelf with some tools on it, and the result was a uniform coating of oxidation on everything.

The reason I'm going with the galvanic corrosion theory is that this looks similar to the innards of an engine I've seen, which had a cast iron block and aluminum alloy cylinder head, and had been driven for a while using straight tap water in the cooling system instead of the proper water/antifreeze mixture. The block looked a little nasty, rusty in a few spots, but the cylinder head was pitted like crazy and covered in thick powdery-looking white residue, like the SIG in the pictures. :eek:

BTW I agree with those calling bull hockey on this story. Condensation within a properly sealed container would involve a fixed amount of airborne water. There's only so much damage that could be done unless more water and/or air were continually added to the system. I'm fairly confident that these guns were basically submerged, possibly in foam that was totally saturated.
 
As others mentioned, I'm very skeptical of the writer's account. In my experience, the only thing that causes aluminum to corrode that badly is extended contact with salt water or galvanic corrosion.

That won't happen just from being left in a padded case in a dry climate.
 
I don't think so. I've seen the results of a poorly sealed container of hydrochloric acid stored underneath a shelf with some tools on it, and the result was a uniform coating of oxidation on everything.
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Yeah...you're right. It likely would be more even...

But, that amount of damage is either acid, or that gun, literally, became a battery for awhile.

I remember what pennies used to look like that we put on top of our car batteries to act as a sacrificial anode. (Does anyone still do that? I'm dating myself....)
 
I think at some point these handguns were in salt water, and not really given proper quick removable of the salt.
No matter what you do if metal comes in contact with saltwater it will attack the metal.
Small amounts of rust can happen anytime, the handguns metal surface treatment has been damaged, and it comes in contact with highly humid air.
 
Forget the Sig, look at the Glock. Whatever attacked the slide was corrosive enough to go right through the tenifer and pit the steel. Have you ever seen the torture tests of Glocks? No amount of salt water did that kind of damage to the torture tested Glocks. Salt water + electrical current + lots of time....maybe.
 
I have seen the foam react with gun oils to form a corrosive sludge that will eat the finish right off of a gun.
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I have seen this with products like CLP that include a solvent. THere are lots of brands of lubricants and protectants, but i think most won't have that effect. Neither should be runny or applied so thick they run ou of that mechanism either.

Even in AC, the humidity would be very low...
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How about someone in Las Vegas volunteers to put an aluminum block in their house until it cools, put it in a ziploc bag and place it outside. See if there is condensation in the bag after a few hours.

A leak that reached the case, as most are no where near water tight, could cause an issue.
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That really depends on the brand. I am confident a Pelican case will hold water out while submerged to unreasonable depth for an extended period of time. A plano case obviously does not. Would make a lot of sense if that was the issue. That foam is full of air. I can also see a storage locker owner not mentioning anything about the roof leak in their unit.

In Ohio we use various salts to treat sidewalks in the winter. Usually bought in about a 5 gallon bucket or 40 pound bags and lasts 3-4 years. People usually put them in the garage at the end of the snow season. I've seen things next to stored salt that was improperly sealed really take a corrosive beating. Reason I throw whatever is left out at the end of Winter. I imagine pool chlorine, much more likely in Nevada, would do similar.
 
As others mentioned, I'm very skeptical of the writer's account. In my experience, the only thing that causes aluminum to corrode that badly is extended contact with salt water or galvanic corrosion.
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I'm not sure about the salt exposure, plenty of various aluminum parts are exposed to salt on a regular basis, especially in parts of the northeast where they dump salt on the roads every other day for five months out of the year. Almost seems like it has to be some type galvanic corrosion, only question is how on earth did the pistol come in contact with an electrical field of some sort. Maybe there was a pack of batteries in the case. :confused:
 
I believe these guns were exposed to some type of strong oxidizer (chlorine, fluorine or acid) or electrical current and electrolytic solution. There is no way in my unbelievably uneducated opinion that this could happen in a dry environment in a one year time frame.
 
The Glock turned out ok.

The OP on the blog site is working with second hand data - the son in law is telling the story, not the owner. He claims the father in law shot the guns, cleaned them as usual, then stored them in a closet.

What did he clean them with? How much fluid was applied? Looking at the SIG, plenty of it was left under the grips, and if it was a caustic solution with water as an ingredient? I see the grips weren't removed and wiped down underneath. Oiling them there wouldn't result in the corrosion we see.

It looks a lot more like what you get when you pull alloy rims off a salt zone vehicle.

With the potential that the SIG was runny wet under the grips with a water based caustic cleaner, storing it for a year like that looks NORMAL. Pull the grips of any older 1911 that was in theater in wartime. They got wet, they rusted under the grips. Normal.

Secondly, storage in a closet top shelf in Vegas. We assume low humidity, no idea that is reality. With cooking, little need for the air condition to run part of the year, showering, and where the clothes dryer might be vented, it's entirely speculative to say what the humidity levels were.

Add - the guns were left in the closet according to the story, but no proof someone didn't borrow them and they messed up how they were subsequently cleaned and stored. All we know is that the owner found them where he left them - no proof they stayed there.

As far as the bloggers' opinion of SIG customer service, it's his credibility explaining the story fairly, which has significant flags of being less than balanced. Seems spring loaded to curse when he's not the one who suffered the loss. The SIG is very much unrepairable - why sink more money in it when a new one would be cheaper all said and done? The damage was done when the shooter didn't take off the grips and wipe out the cause of the corrosion.

I've had a P938 sitting in a lock box under my bed off and on for two years, I don't clean it ever with water based solutions, and it's just fine thru humid Midwest carry. While the blogger tells a story, I don't see much examination of how it could have happened. Taking the word of the son in law at face value seems to be asking too much.
 
I agree that the story doesn't seem like it's true. I've had hundreds of similar guns stored in the same environment that the blogs OP mentioned run through my hands with people trying to sell them. None were that messed up. 1911s, old revolvers, SIGs, Hi-Powers, etc. Spots of rust from oil on someones hands that was never wiped off, sure.

That said, I'm in and have been living in Miami Florida all my life. I have a pretty decent outdoorsy lifestyle with hiking, biking, running, and all that fun stuff by the ocean. Never had that issue come close to arising. Again, rust spots on the decocker & grip screws before the TIN coating. But that's about it.

I really wish we could get a true statement from the father who stored them away.

My torture tests on my personal SIG's are semi-irrelevant because it was with fresh water.. But even that didn't yield such dramatic results.
 
On the AR15 Forum some SEALs who participate there (and are considered content experts for several types of weapons) mention that salt-water can pretty harshly affect SIGs. (They have seen it first hand.) It may depend how long they have to go without being de-salted and relubed or treated.

If you do a search on ALUMINUM CORROSION you'll find, as some have already stated, that two different metals in contact can sometimes have a galvanic interaction that results in corrosion.

I don't know if the OP's story is correct as stated, but aluminum isn't corrosion resistant, and corrosion can occur with some combinations of metals. Some aluminum alloys are very susceptible to corrosion. (That's why some aerosol products come in steel cans, while other can come in aluminum.)

We don't know enough about what went on in the original case.
 
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