Gunsmithing Preheating cerakote oven

[Jeremybj]

Hey guys,

Real easy, quick question for you.

Planning on Cerakoting my first rifle tomorrow and everything is ready to go I think.

My only remaining question is do I have to preheat the oven, or should I just turn it on after the parts are put in? It takes my oven about 20 minutes to go from room temp to 250.

Should I start the 2 hour timer from the time it gets to 250 or from the time I turn the oven on?

 

[wnroscoe]

Re: Preheating cerakote oven

Blast, degrease and pre heat to baking temp. This will remove any oil that is in the barrel/ receiver joint, and there will be oil. Keep degreasing with brake parts cleaner to wash off all oil and residue.

Dont spray any paint until the oil stops leaching.

Once 100% oil free and clean let the parts cool back down to 120 degrees or so, then spray the cerekote. Crank the temp back up and once it settles to either 250 or 300 bake for the desired time. I use 300 for 45 minutes. The oven temp will swing slightly until the parts are up to temp, once this temp swing becomes stable, approx 10-15 minutes, start the timer.

 

[Jeremybj]

Re: Preheating cerakote oven

Ok, I'm at the everything is degreased and I have ran them in the oven to drive out any remaining oil, so I am that far.


Do you warm the parts up to that 100-120 temp and spray them warm?

And just to clarify, you are saying get the heat turned up, put the parts in, let the temp stablize, start the timer?

 

[wnroscoe]

Re: Preheating cerakote oven

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Jeremybj</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Ok, I'm at the everything is degreased and I have ran them in the oven to drive out any remaining oil, so I am that far. <span style="color: #FF0000">Make sure when you reach 250+ degrees that no oil is leaching out. It's important that the parts reach the desired temp first to mnake sure they're dry of oil.</span>


Do you warm the parts up to that 100-120 temp and spray them warm? <span style="color: #FF0000">Yes</span>

And just to clarify, you are saying get the heat turned up, put the parts in, let the temp stablize, start the timer? <span style="color: #FF0000">Yes</span> </div></div>

 

[ugsly]

Re: Preheating cerakote oven

Please stop me if Im wrong guys, I know there's more then one way to skin a cat.

Do you warm the parts up to that 100-120 temp and spray them warm? <span style="color: #FF0000">No, you want parts at room temp. If they are too warm when you spray the cerakote on them it will essentially flash when it hits the metal and your coating wont look right & will be ruff.</span>

When you degrease & blast, just blow the part down with air to remove any blast media. If you spray it down with degreaser again it will leave a residue behind. When your cerakote goes over that you will notice splotchy areas.

If Im wrong please chime in guys,
Kc

 

[wnroscoe]

Re: Preheating cerakote oven

Warming slightly is OK, just not too hot or you'll get dry spray. Ever notice what happens to a room temp part that you get hot, condensation starts to build up. Brake Parts cleaner doesn’t leave a residue behind like carb cleaner would. When the parts are in the oven pre-heating there will be some oil leaching at the barrel receiver joint. I guess you could re-submerge the parts to degrease but brake parts cleaner works fine and is GTG.

If your way works I say rock on, like you say, there's more than one way to skin a cat. Just for conversation, I've discussed my method with NIC on numerous occasions and they've said rock it.

 

[ugsly]

Re: Preheating cerakote oven

rgr William, The guys at NIC are great people. We stopped in about 3 months ago and Brandon was nice enough to give us a tour of the place. Wish I could fit their paint booth in my shop

Kc

 

[LRI]

Re: Preheating cerakote oven

When I first started fiddling with this stuff I tried spraying it with the part hot. My thinking was getting it to flash as soon as it hit so that lint/dust wouldn't embed into the wet finish.

What I learned is as Roscoe mentioned, the finish ends up with a dry sprayed appearance. it flashes too quickly.

Also, If your doing a number of parts, your biggest part will remain hot longer. By the time you get to little stuff it'll be much cooler. A muttled/inconsistent finish is the result.

Keep everything the same temp and let the oven do the work for you after you've applied finish. Results are much better.

 

[Straight Shooter]

Re: Preheating cerakote oven

We busted for the formal training. In leiu of that I recommend following the manual to the letter.

We soak in acetone from 20 minutes to overnight. Bad parts are run through a solvent tank and a scrub with simple green and hot water before going to the acetone to help keep our acetone tank clean. Then cook to burn off residule oil. If oil shows up it's back to the acetone for 20 minutes. Then back to the oven. Once the oil is gone we let them cool enough to handle and go to the blast cabinet. You do not want to contaminate your aluminum oxide with oil. Then once blasted it is blown down with sterile air and once it gets down to room temp we go ahead and spray. Then it's off to the oven for 225-250 for 2 hours. We have found the colors are more stable at lower temeratures. Our oven is at full temp in 5 minutes and the timer is the on switch so we just go from cold. No preheat needed with our oven. It's usually still a bit warm from burning of the oil anyway.

 

[LRI]

Re: Preheating cerakote oven

Save yourself some money. Find a racing fuel vendor in your area and swap the acetone for methanol. 1/3rd the cost and works just as good.