Powder coating a rifle barrel

M

Michael J. McCasland

New member
Over the years I've had a number of motorcycle parts powder coated. When done well powder coating is extremely durable, it comes in about any color you can imagine and can e done in some bizar, even camo like patterns. What I'd like to know is, has anybody tried powder coating for a rifle barrel?

I can see some possible draw backs:

1: You need to bake the barrel at ~425 degrees to get the coating to melt properly. Would this hurt a rifle barrel? It would if the barel is tempered, but it's very rare to find a tempered barrel. Some experimental barrels and some military barrels have a temper, but few civilian barrels are tempered.

2: Powder coating might slow the cooling process of a barrel. Possibly even to the point where an uneven coating might cause un even cooling .... possibly warping the barrel a bit during cooling ... the famous wandering group barrel.


Honestly I don't believe the heat or the possible cooling issue would be of any real concern, but I just don't know.
 
Funny you ask this. I was talking with a friend this weekend about it. I think a black wrinkle would look really cool. I don't know if if would hurt the barrel because you're not firing hot rounds down the barrel while is 400+ degrees. As far as getting an uneven coating warping the barrel?? I think you'd have to get the barrel very hot to get it to warp but it might affect the harmonics of the barrel. I might give it a try since we have a powder coating booth here at work.
 
Michael,

There is a product called Black Oxide that is sold by Caswell Plating Co. It has been used to coat shotgun bbls and some pistol frames. Not sure if the process works the same as powder coating but you might give their website a look. They sell all kinds of coatings and kits including powder coating and they have a forum dealing with coatings that you can search. Caswellplating.com

Truckeedan
 
I don't think 425deg is going to affect rifle steel's even if it is tempered. From what (little) I remember about metallurgy, only the lowest carbon content steels would be affected at that low of a temperature.

Doesn't the powder coating have a kind of rough texture? If so, it might actually improve cooling similarly to bead blasting, though I'd certainly want to ensure that the coating was even.
 
Brownell's sells several bake on coatings that require baking in an oven. These coatings are made to put on guns. I just wouldn't put any plastic parts under that kind of heat.
 
i'm not a metal expert nor a gunsmith, but i would doubt that 425* would be hot enought to hurt a barrel. i mean papaer wouldn't even ignite under that heat. i would assume that while shooting pd's a barrel could get much hotter than that
 
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i'm not a metal expert nor a gunsmith, but i would doubt that 425* would be hot enought to hurt a barrel. i mean papaer wouldn't even ignite under that heat. i would assume that while shooting pd's a barrel could get much hotter than that



I thought combustion took place at 421 degrees? I don't know for sure. I don't think I would try it on a scope. There is a guy here in town that does powder coating. I will call him.
 
OK, I just got off the phone talking to a guy here that does powder coating. He said , yes, he has done it. He used a ceramic coating that is baked on at 250 degrees for two hours. He said there are 31 colors available and he has not done camo but it is possible to do. He said the ceramic coating is extremely tough. The finish is dull, not glossy and very thin. He also said that some firearms manufacturers are just starting to do this. I am really glad you brought this up Micheal. Gives me another "project". I have a Ruger 77 .223 with the canoe paddle stock. I will have Richards Microfit make me another stock and powder coat the action, barrel and scope rings. Great idea!!!!! I'll be the guinea pig.

Just ordered the stock from Richards. Royal Camoflage laminate. Micheal, you have really got me stoked up. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif
 
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Hey guys,
While I have never done a firearm, I have powder coated motorcycle parts, car parts, etc. I've really toyed with the idea of powder coating my 870 shotgun in matte black, but just haven't tried it yet.

Powder coating can be had in any number of colors, shine levels, and textures. One of the last items I did was a hammertone silver on an old box from an S-K ratchet/socket set. The set belonged to my father and was still complete but the box finish was in rough shape.

Hmm...you guys got me to thinking again.
 
Guys - You can thank the Green monster thread, he got me to thinking about this one. Alot of gun finishes are done by companies that are not easily accessable, you need to send your rifle away and god knows how long it will take to get it back, but powde coating is available almost any where, at least in the bigger towns and cities.

Be careful though. Even the most experienced powder coater will get coatings in places you might not want it to be in. You need someone that knows hoe to plug holes and protect threads. Thats why I was thinking about a rifle barrel. If you get a decently finished barrel blank and have it coated BEFORE it's threaded, chambered and crowned then the likely hood of finding powder coating someplace it doesn't belong would be reduced.

There are some very neat powder coat products out there. It is only limited by your imagination. The guy that powder coated some of my motorcycle parts even coated Glass bottles just to prove it could be done. You need a static charge for the powder to stick on, glass doesn't hold a charge very well so he heats the glass FIRST then sprays the powder on and heats it some more. I don't knoe what the usefullness of doing this would be, but it is neat.
 
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You are right Micheal, there are parts of the action I do not want covered. I may have just the barrel and the largest surface areas of the exterior action done. I will not do the bolt nor the trigger. This will prove interesting. If you have any other thoughts about this let me know. Better to cover bases now than at the last minute. I will take the barrel, etc, in on Monday or Tuesday. The feller that owns the powder coating business owes me some $$ so I won't have any out of pocket money and the stock is $212.
 
I think I saw something on rimfirecentral about this at one time, they dont have to bake it at 425 it can be done at a lower temp it will just need to stay in longer. Ive had cast aluminum cylinders done before with no ill affects except it is a pain in the but for the next guy to own to get it off.
 
The same company that laser engraves my stocks, also has a HUGE powder coating facility. I have talked with them quite a bit about the process, but to me, it doesn't look as though it adheres to the base-metal as good as what I would like.

Early on, I coated some material with Norrell's and had them powder-coat some of the same material. The powder-coated product did not fair well in the salt-water tests. It seams that the powder-coat just doesn't adhere to the metal like the Norrell's. They have tried all kinds of different process changes to try and get the powder-coat to be more durable, but they still have problems with it. I know nothing about the powder-coating, other than what they have told me.

As far as heating the barrel: I have to pre-heat my barrels to 150 F. for Norrells, and I bake them for 1 hour at 300 F. This is all done while the barrel is hanging. I use 1/8" brazing rod, threaded on one end and a hook on the other. The rod goes through the muzzle and a "T" block screws onto the threads on the chamber-end. I hold the brazing rod while I'm coating the barrel, and the barrel hangs from the rod in the oven. When the barrel is finished with the baking cycle, I hang the barrels until they are cool. I know 300 F. won't hurt the metal, but I don't think it would be good for a barrel to lay down while it was that hot. I don't know for sure that it would cause problems, but I didn't want to find out the hard way!
 
Parkerizing is commonly used on firearms. The Parkerizing process cannot be used on non-ferrous metals such as aluminum, brass, or copper. It similarly cannot be applied to steels containing a large amount of nickel, or on stainless steel. I had an HDR rifle Parkerized for around 100 bucks.
 
There is a hot chemical process for stainless steel, much like Parkerizing or bluing. That process uses chemicals that are all but illegal in Minnesota. I looked into the process before going to Norrell's and decided the permits and EPA bs I would have to go through was not worth the trouble.
 
If you have even the smallest trace of oil on or in the metal pores it will screw up the powder coat. Better to degrease and then bake the metal for a few minutes allowing expansion and residual contaminats to bake off before applying the powder.

Bad thing about powder is if you scratch it there is no touch up.

Would like to know how brittle the ceramic process is on the finished product as far as chipping.

We've powdered aluminum wheels with good results. You can anodize aluminum in various colors and it looks pretty awesome when done right.

If all your looking for is a dull matt black finish, parkerizing is hard to beat. Which reminds me the Orlite magazines are the only AR mags that have a parkerized spring, pretty neat.
 
I powdercoat for a living on the job {actually the guys that work for me do it I just supervise.} I have powdercoated many gun parts for myself and have been doing this for about 6 years. Here are some facts about pc. It is not ceramic, it is very extremely fine epoxy plastic dust that melts into a solid film with heat. You can powdercoat anything that conducts electricity because it is applied as a dry spray and sticks to the piece by electrostatic charge. How powerful of a charge dictates how thick it will accumulate on the piece. Once it builds up a thickness to insulate it stops sticking and falls off. Theory here is that you get a perfectly uniform maximum coat one time. It is more durable than paint because when paint dries the solvent that makes it liquid leaves it and the resulting paint coat is kind of like a sponge whereas powdercoat has no solvents. It liquifies by melting and when it cools nothing has left it to make it like a sponge, it is able to stay a solid film. All this is at the so called "molecular level" and paint with its many pores allow future oxidation to start immediately. Pc will last much longer as long as the surface was treated to stop oxidation. We use a process called iridite on aluminum. The problem with pc on guns is that they dont have any powder that is able to flatten out like paint or parkerizing. The black wrinkle looks good but it is still not flat. It has a shimmer or sheen to it. Most powdercoat colors are high gloss, the so called semi-gloss is too glossy for a gun in my opinion. The heat required will not hurt gun metal. One other fact is that if it messes up it is very difficult to get off and you have to remove it all with very strong paint stripper or glass beads to try again. Sherwin Williams industrial division sells it, but most folks get what they need alot cheaper from Eastwood Company in Pa. They sell small home kits that are effective and not out of reach to the average guy. This will probably generate a million questions and I will definatelty try to answer all of them. Biggest advantage to PC is no dangerous heath hazardous solvents or solids like paint and very short cure time, this is why manufacturers are in love with it...so called EPA friendly and gets the product out the door quicker. We are a contractor to the govt. and they mandate it in a milspec for what we make. Good luck.
One more detail, since powdercoat sticks by static charge when you are coating in a tight corner it gets rejected, kind of like opposite poles of two magnets. They call it the Cage-Faraday effect. When this happens and you will see it you have to turn off the static charger and just let the dust fall onto this spot. Tricky but it works to get the entire part covered. Also, you cant final rinse with hard water as the residual calcium cooks to the surface and leaves white streaks.
 
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