Any of you guys have experience with Cerakote and stencils? I have a few guns that I want to coat and I’d like to do some sort of pattern on at least a couple of them. I see Cerakote sells a heat rated vinyl sheet, can that be cut on a Cricut machine? TIA.
That looks very nice.
Ive used Gunskins as well.
Thanks guys, but I’m really looking to paint these guns. I’m already set up to spray, only thing I had to pick up was an unused electric oven. I’m betting that my machine can cut the stencil vinyl, I’ll just need to trim it down to 12” to fit the mat and adjust the cutting pressure.
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I would run some thermocouples though that oven first for a temperature uniformity study. You may be reaching annealing temps in areas for AL. Even though most are 7075-T6 or 651. I wish I still had access to the specs for further guidance.
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Yep, I wanted to see how steady the temperature would hold so I ran it for three hours when I got it, I did see about a 10 degree swing as the heating element cycled on and off. Cerakote calls for a two hour bake at 250 or a one hour bake at 300, if I can hold 250-260 for two hours I’m thinking I’m gtg? I see people do this with a toaster oven so it can’t be too complicated. Lol. It was pretty windy the night I tested it, with the air vents on the oven I know I was getting a draft that made it cycle faster. You can see the difference in the cycling when the wind intensity picked up and dropped off. I did move the temp probe higher and lower in the oven and only recorded a few degrees of temp change.
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Got a box of Cerakote supplies and a roll of their high heat stencil material so once I get everything prepped, I guess I will find out how hard it is to do!
I picked out several colors and they included a 4oz tester of a new color (Crocodile) for free to try.
First thing to do is run a piece of the stencil through my Cricut and make sure it cuts clean. I have a Camelback stainless tumbler that could use a repaint, I think that’s going to be my guinea pig for testing the process since there’s a ton of videos on Cerakoting Yeti cups and the Ozark Trail knockoffs. That way I won’t mess up a firearm right off the bat.
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Revisiting this thread for an update! I finally got around to Cerakoting my first project. I had a Harbor Freight blast cabinet already and I bought fresh 120 grit abrasive for this project. The grit blasting went much faster than I expected, the “mil spec” anodizing on the Aim Sports handguard I chose was stripped completely in about 10 minutes. The receivers I had were both purchased with a raw finish since I knew I was going to coat them so they were finished in the blast cabinet in about five minutes each. After a solvent wash and soak in acetone, I racked the parts in the oven to gas out any remaining solvent. They say that oil will sometimes leach out during the out gassing process and indicate more cleaning is required but these came out dry so I let them cool back to room temperature while I got ready to spray. I found that Cerakote sprays more like water than paint, I had to dial back on the paint volume more than I expected and while it does flash off it stays wet until it’s cured in the oven. I had sprayed a drink cup first and that went well, spraying receivers with all the nooks and crannies is harder and requires a little planning ahead. It only took about 2 ounces to spray both receivers and a 15” handguard so a 4 oz tester size bottle might do two guns if you’re careful or definitely if the handguards are shorter. I bought a glass 50ml graduated cylinder and glass stir rods to mix the paint and catalyst, 50ml is enough paint to cover all three pieces with little waste. I used a 200 gram scale to weigh out the paint and catalyst. The vertical electric smoker worked good. It was very windy and the ambient temperature was falling as it got dark so I had to babysit the temp control to keep it at 250 degrees for 2 hours. Not sorry I tried this and I’m looking forward to doing more when the weather warms up a little. Here’s a couple pics -AR10 in Jesse James Cold War Grey H-402
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Awesome input! Never even considered a smoker for curing. Thank you for sharing!
I used the wire rack to hang bare parts for the off-gassing bake shown in the pic above but I removed the rack and added 3/4” angle iron to the very top with holes drilled in it to hang the parts after they were sprayed. Kept the handguard several inches farther from the heating element while it was baking. 15” handguard fit easily in the vertical smoker.
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2 spammers in 2 minutes!
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Waay to busy to check in today.
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