Question for you Cerakote guys

shelton573

Active member
So I am thinking about starting to do my own cerakote and was just curious what kind of paint gun and compressor you all are using. I am looking at just buying their H series kit that comes with the paint gun, mixing equipment, etc but have seen guys using an airbrush kit to apply it. So...what are you guys using and what do you find works the best? Any info is much appreciated!
 
I have sprayed quite a bit of cerakote over the last 3 years or so. I started very basic with just an airbrush I already had and a home-built oven that used a hot plate and insulated tube. I blasted my first job with a hand held sandblaster that used a tube stuck in a bucket. I was just using a Porter Cable pancake compressor and had to stop frequently to let it build up pressure. But it was something I already had on hand. I did a few jobs with very minimal equipment in the beginning just to see if I could do it and get the results I wanted before I invested too much in it. Once I saw that I could, I started upgrading equipment every chance I got.

I figured out real quick that my air system needed some work. The two big problems were air volume and moisture. Moisture causes problems both spraying, and by clogging up your blast cabinet. Since my system was small, I needed a way to cool the air to help condense the moisture out of it. I took about 30 feet of old 3/8 copper line I had laying around and made a big spiral coil out of it, and made a big trap at the bottom of it. It looks like something you would see on a moonshine still. This helps cool the air and condense the moisture out of it, like a pre-separator. From there I ran hose over to and old 10 gallon air tank I had, to use as a secondary tank to increase my air volume. On the outlet of that I had my regulator and a store bought moisture separator. Once those things were done I had a decent volume of good dry air.

The first thing I bought (immediately after spraying my first rifle) was a blast cabinet so that I wasn't wasting all my blast media every time I blasted something. Since it wasn't a very technical piece of equipment I went cheap and bought from Harbor Freight. I will say though, get the biggest cabinet you can. I got the big 40 lb one thinking it would be plenty, but in reality it is barely big enough for longer barreled actions. I am really glad I didn't get the 30 lb cabinet.

http://www.harborfreight.com/abrasive-blast-cabinet-68893.html

I did a few rifles and stocks, and saved some money. The next weak link in my system was that home built oven. It caused me lots of trouble, and I had to baby-sit it all the time. Space in it was limited, temp control wasn't good. So the next upgrade I did was to get a 40" Masterbuilt electric smoker with digital temp control. That made life so much easier. I could run large batches, Yeti cups, all kinds of things. Plus using the digital temp control and timer, I could spray something late at night, throw it in the oven, and go to bed. It would be done in the morning. Not to mention you really need precise temp control if you are going to be doing any polymer framed pistols (3 hours at 185 degrees). The digital controls really helped to open up my schedule since I was doing things in my off time. But even the 40" Masterbuilt was barely big enough for long barreled actions. In fact, I had to take one of the racks and modify it where it would hang a piece from the very top of the oven, but it will work fine if you rig things around. They don't sell my exact model anymore, but this one is really close to the Masterbuilt I bought.

https://www.amazon.com/Masterbuilt-20070311-40-Inch-Controller-Electric/dp/B0048HU34Y

Later on my little pancake compressor finally gave up the ghost, and I upgraded to an Iron Horse 1.5 hp, 20 gallon, 5.6 cfm compressor. That made life much better as well.

Also somewhere in there I quit using the air brush, and started using the cheap spray gun they sell on the cerakote website. I never could justify dropping the coin for the Iwata spray gun they sell. Maybe if I made my living doing gun work, but I don't. The cheap one has worked just fine for me as long as I keep it clean. Looking at their website now, it looks like the cheap gun they sell now is a Paasche for $65. That is not the one I have. They used to sell a Chinese one for like $40, that is what I have. It has sprayed a lot of cerakote, for sure. There for a while I was doing a whole bunch of custom Yeti cups.
 
Thanks for all the info JT!! Couple of additional questions for you

I have an old 36" gas smoker that I do not use since I went to charcoal. Does it have to be electric heat? Do you know if an open flame heat source (covered by deflector) will effect the paint? I'm afraid it may. My buddy is in HVAC and can get an old air handler that he is pretty sure we can get to 250+ degrees. I plan to build a cabinet with electric heat but just curious what LP would do.

When you do the a whole rifle, do you do the coating with the barreled action together or do you break it down? My plan is to take the barrel off by I'm afraid when putting the savage nut back on the wrench may damage the coating.

My buddy has a big blast cabinet and large compressor we can use so I think we are good there.

Is the spraying process as complicated as they make it sound on the instructional video? THey make it sound like you have to hit a sweet spot on the spray width, distance, etc but watching youtube videos, guys are spraying it just like you would spray bomb it. Just wondering if I am reading more into it and make it harder in my head than it has to be.

Thanks again for all the info!
 
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I knew a guy who sprayed quite a bit of cerakote and got good professional results using a propane smoker. However, he also said he sure wished he would have got an electric one because the propane was a PITA. Moisture mainly hurts in your air line when you are spraying, getting spits and bubbles in the finish. Once your coat is laid down smooth, cerakote flash dries pretty quick. 15 minutes in the oven and you can usually touch it. I think you would be OK with a deflector over the open flame, but I don't know. I really don't have any real experience with using propane for curing, just heresay knowledge.

I usually don't pull the barrel off the action, but that is pretty much the only thing I don't fully disassemble. Having said that, I had a Savage rifle I put back together last night, the action was already done. So I just cerakoted the barrel, and then put it back on and headspaced it. So I have done that both ways. I have a rolled tube of paper I slide over the barrel before I slide the slide the wrench for the nut on. I am more likely to scratch the barrel sliding the wrench on and off than boogering the finish on the nut.

To me, spraying isn't that hard. You will have to experiment some to get your gun set right, and figure out how much product to put on. I would say that in the beginning most folks try to lay it on too thick. You don't want it to look dry as soon as you spray, you want it to look wet. But don't pile it on. You will end up blasting some stuff off and redoing it. No other way to learn, short of going to their applicator school (which I didn't).

The absolute most important thing is getting everything really clean, and keeping it clean. Any kind of oil is your enemy. Nitrile gloves are cheap. I go through a bunch of them making sure I never touch anything with bare hands once it is blasted. Soak things good, clean them good before blasting. You don't want your media contaminated by oil. My blast cabinet doesn't get anything oily or greasy in it ever. I like 100 grit aluminum oxide at about 80-90 psi. That will give you good tooth, but still let you spray a glossy finish if you want. I have used 80 grit Garnett too, but it is a little on the rough side. Fine if you are looking for more of a matte finish, but pretty hard to get a glossy finish with it.

Here is the Savage I put back together last night. Technically this is an older picture of it, with the 220 Swift barrel on it. The new barrel I put on it last night is a 22-250, but same contour and length so it looks the same. That color is a custom mix of Burnt Bronze (80%) and Graphite Black (20%).

 
Originally Posted By: Tim NeitzkeI've thought it would be fun to learn how.

Thinking a lot of practice on non gun items would be a good start..lol

Yea I'm thinking there will be a lot of hand tools looking pretty nice before I blast and spray a gun lol
 
Originally Posted By: JTPinTXI knew a guy who sprayed quite a bit of cerakote and got good professional results using a propane smoker. However, he also said he sure wished he would have got an electric one because the propane was a PITA. Moisture mainly hurts in your air line when you are spraying, getting spits and bubbles in the finish. Once your coat is laid down smooth, cerakote flash dries pretty quick. 15 minutes in the oven and you can usually touch it. I think you would be OK with a deflector over the open flame, but I don't know. I really don't have any real experience with using propane for curing, just heresay knowledge.

I usually don't pull the barrel off the action, but that is pretty much the only thing I don't fully disassemble. Having said that, I had a Savage rifle I put back together last night, the action was already done. So I just cerakoted the barrel, and then put it back on and headspaced it. So I have done that both ways. I have a rolled tube of paper I slide over the barrel before I slide the slide the wrench for the nut on. I am more likely to scratch the barrel sliding the wrench on and off than boogering the finish on the nut.

To me, spraying isn't that hard. You will have to experiment some to get your gun set right, and figure out how much product to put on. I would say that in the beginning most folks try to lay it on too thick. You don't want it to look dry as soon as you spray, you want it to look wet. But don't pile it on. You will end up blasting some stuff off and redoing it. No other way to learn, short of going to their applicator school (which I didn't).

The absolute most important thing is getting everything really clean, and keeping it clean. Any kind of oil is your enemy. Nitrile gloves are cheap. I go through a bunch of them making sure I never touch anything with bare hands once it is blasted. Soak things good, clean them good before blasting. You don't want your media contaminated by oil. My blast cabinet doesn't get anything oily or greasy in it ever. I like 100 grit aluminum oxide at about 80-90 psi. That will give you good tooth, but still let you spray a glossy finish if you want. I have used 80 grit Garnett too, but it is a little on the rough side. Fine if you are looking for more of a matte finish, but pretty hard to get a glossy finish with it.

Here is the Savage I put back together last night. Technically this is an older picture of it, with the 220 Swift barrel on it. The new barrel I put on it last night is a 22-250, but same contour and length so it looks the same. That color is a custom mix of Burnt Bronze (80%) and Graphite Black (20%).



Thanks for the info! That rifle looks good! I think that would look pretty good on my creedmoor with a black and web stock
 
Originally Posted By: shelton573Originally Posted By: Tim NeitzkeI've thought it would be fun to learn how.

Thinking a lot of practice on non gun items would be a good start..lol

Yea I'm thinking there will be a lot of hand tools looking pretty nice before I blast and spray a gun lol

Orange would be a good color....lol
 
Originally Posted By: Tim NeitzkeOriginally Posted By: shelton573Originally Posted By: Tim NeitzkeI've thought it would be fun to learn how.

Thinking a lot of practice on non gun items would be a good start..lol

Yea I'm thinking there will be a lot of hand tools looking pretty nice before I blast and spray a gun lol

Orange would be a good color....lol

prolly help keep track of em hah
 
I was going to do this as a side job for a little extra money until I found out I needed an FFL. Then I scraped the idea and sold my equipment.
 
Originally Posted By: pyscodogI was going to do this as a side job for a little extra money until I found out I needed an FFL. Then I scraped the idea and sold my equipment.

Only have to have an FFL if you charge for the service correct? I am planning on just doing it for friends and myself free of charge right now (they buy their color of choice of course) but I am planning on trying to get my FFL anyways. Shouldn't be an issue as of now correct?
 
IDK. Might not hurt to check or at least not tell everybody. I was planning on doing it for added income. Personally, I thought the need for an FFL when all I was doing was changing the color of a firearm totally stupid.
 
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The "For Profit" thing is what kills it. I have done quite a few rifles/pistols/shotguns, mostly for myself but did do a few for friends strictly as a favor to them, no charge. It does throw you into the FFL thing if you charge (or are compensated in any way) because refinishing for profit falls under the gunsmithing category. I did make them buy their own Cerakote so that I wasn't out that money. A couple of them I basically showed them how to do it, let them use my equipment, but they actually did the work.

But, Yeti cups and other things like that do not fall under the umbrella of ATF. So, I would do odd jobs that were not firearm related to make some money to pay for my equipment and build up my stock of cerakote colors. That way I could basically do my own stuff for free so I wouldn't have to pay someone to do it for me. Custom cerakote work is expensive if you have to pay for it out of your pocket. I would get my stencils from WeaponsStencils.com, he is a good guy to deal with and would do all kinds of custom stencils for me.

I still have a bunch of stencils and cerakote, but haven't done very much of it since last summer. I tore 3 tendons in my shoulder last spring and had surgery in June. For months I couldn't do anything at all, and I am still playing catch up around the house from being down so long. Christmas before last I got kind of burned out on it anyways, I had so many custom Yeti cups to do I was always behind, and I don't like that. Now that I have all my stuff paid for I am just kind of coasting along, and doing a project for myself every now and then.

I also have one of those little dorm room refridgerators I keep in my shop to store Cerakote (and a few beers) in. Keeping the Cerakote that way makes it last much longer.
 
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I have a friend that does Hydro dipping. He's got the FFL problem himself too. He has stopped doing firearms and mainly does Archery equipment and golf carts.
 
I use the Iwata gun they recommend and it was worth the expense. I modified a Harbor Freight blast cabinet and use 120 grit AO in conjunction with a 60 gallon Devilbiss air compressor. I have an oven I made out of a metal gun cabinet that has two 1000w elements in it. It's currently controlled with a voltage regulator but I am gathering parts to control it with a PID.

Spraying it can be a little tricky at times when it comes to tight spots and the color you are using. Some are more transparent than others and you will have to learn as you go and find what works for you.
 
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