Cerakoting a rifle

F

f21sh

Guest
Good Morning All
I will be attempting to Cerakote my first rifle. Should I cerakote the action and barrel assembled together or each individual part, receiver, lug, barrel and then assemble? Anyone with experience.
 
Depends a bit on what action you are doing. If it is a sloppy factory action then you can pretty well spray everything and still have it work. Check the headspace and see where it's at. When I build a gun that I will be coating I don't want the coating to affect headspace so I do the parts separately and some custom actions are too tight to even have a couple of thou added and still function. I mask off the abutment areas on the barrel and I screw a stub that holds the lug and action together and it masks off the abutment areas there, and it gives me something to hang it by. I plug both ends of the barrel with silicon plugs and run a 1/16 welding rod through them to hang it by. Speaking about bolt guns, that is.
 
I do the action and barrel assembled, bolt out, trigger removed. If I'm doing just a bbl, then I dont spray the thread or shoulder.

I put a small silicone plug un the muzzle.
 
I have done hundreds of them and as long as your spray technique is good and your using a high quality gun you will be fine

Bnhpr said:
I do the action and barrel assembled, bolt out, trigger removed. If I'm doing just a bbl, then I dont spray the thread or shoulder.

I put a small silicone plug un the muzzle.
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I have been thinking about doing everything separate then putting it together and see how it affects headspace. Every rifle I have Cerakoted so far has been a completed rifle except for bedding when I coated it. You have to get the lube out of the threads or it will ruin your Cerakote. I put a little break free CLP on the threads and the face then blow it off with compressed air so there's just a light residue of oil and then tighten the barreled action and then start soaking in mineral spirits then acetone then gas the assembly out at 3++° for 1 hour and repeat acetone gas out till nothing seeps through. It's a pita sometimes but necessary for a good finish. So I'm thinking about breaking one of mine down and doing it all separate and see how it goes for me.
The way it looks to me if you did everything separate on a Remington 700 and increased each surface (action face, each side of recoil lug, face of thread tenon, bolt face and receiver lugs & bolt lugs) by .001 you would increase your headspace by .001 then when the coating wears off of the bolt lugs and action lugs you would be another .002 excess on headspace. Then take into account those machinist's that try have a perfect zero clearance fit on barrel threads another .001 around the threads and the barrel is now to tight by .002.
There's a individual employed as a gunsmith somewhere in the U.S. that I told I did a little Cerakote and he claimed his work was so critically perfect that his barrel threads couldnt withstand any buildup and still fit not even another tenth of a thousandth of and inch of Cerakote. I'm not a commercial Cerakote applicater I do what works for me, I have found by blasting with finer grade of aluminum oxide and spaying thinner coats of Cerakote I can cut down on the buildup to less than .001 and still have a durable finish . I will find out some time soon how well it works out for me when I start with a Cerakoted action then fit a barrel and then plug the chamber and muzzle and Cerakote it threads and all. I like a little clearance in my threads so I'm sure it'll fit when I'm done.
 
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I hear you Mike. Really the only problem I have with doing it as an assembly is after it's finished I have soaked and cooked all the oil out of the action/barrel threads, how will that look when it gets taken apart dry for a new barrel some day? I have taken some apart within a few months of coating without any gulling of the threads or marring up the Cerakote in the vice then lubed the threads and torqued the action but I don't want to do this on every one I coat. Sooner or later I'll jack up a finish on a barrel just to put a little oil back on the threads. Maybe it's worth the risk and occasional rework??
I could leave the assembly just hand tight without lube then break it down for cleaning and lubricating but there again I run the risk of marring the finish on the barrel in the vise when tightening the action.
 
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You would probably be able to get some lube back on the threads via the receiver ring holes.
 
If you do the barreled action as an assembly keep in mind when you Cerakote the bolt that you will lose some headspace clearance if you spray it on heavy and don't mask the bolt face and lugs.
 
Cerakote assembled or in parts.

Jay why not mask the bolt lugs and face? That way I would keep some clearance for head space. Head space clearance right now is < 0.001 it is nice. I would not want to screw head space up. The dry threads issue is what generated my original question.
 
I never found a good way to mask just the bolt lugs and face. I masked the whole bolt head on one rifle I did. You couldn't tell it till the bolt was opened and the head pulled into view in the port opening, I just masked all the way around the bolt body right behind the lugs with some narrow high temp tape and blasted and coated the bolt then removed the tape after it cooled off. Looked good but if Cerakote is self lubricating why not use it all over? I blast and coat the whole bolt. I spray a light coat just enough to wet the steel and bake it. Never a problem with headspace never a Sako extractor that won't fit not one problem so far. I like Cerakote. I don't like the smell the mess or the cleanup or the hazards of using it and acetone every day but for a few guns here and there, ain't nothing better.
 
Oven

Jay what type of oven do you have setup. I spoke with NIC they said I could use the oven in the kitchen safely without contaminating the oven. Still enjoy my wife's cookies and fruit pies. I have a fine liquid masking material however it would need to be removed prior to baking the finish. Should test compatibility of the liquid mask first. Method development always takes time.:p
 
Professionally built oven big enough for 2 barreled actions and all hardware in one load.
That liquid mask doesn't sound like a good plan to me.
How much of it do you plan to do? Would your wife like a new oven for Christmas? If it's only once surely it won't hurt anyone.:confused:
 
Cerakoting

By any chance has anyone built their own oven for baking the cerakote and would they be willing to share share their construction method and plans? Wife really does not want me to use the kitchen oven.:cool:
 
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