Gunsmithing Cerakote: Blasting vs. Sanding

[azsugarbear]

I want to try my hand at Cerakoting - more for the learning and experience than anything else. Always been a bit of DIY in me. Trying to keep the costs down. Already spent a lot on the paint, sprayer and home-made oven. Is it absolutely necessary to blast the parts, or can I get by with sanding them with....say 200 grit paper. Particularly looking for anyone who has sanded and been successful/pleased with how the job turned out.

 

[Captain Kirk]

I have done a lot of blast prep using alum oxide, but if you don't have a blast cabinet you can still pick up a very inexpensive blast kit without the cabinet, they are messy and its harder to retrieve the media. My worry of sanding would be the lines created by the sandpaper since you are sanding in one direction. You could take the disassembled parts to a shop with a blast cabinet and have them do it, it takes very little time.

 

[jasonfaz]

It's night and day difference. I missed a couple mags during a Cerakote run a few years back and decided to take the emory cloth to them instead. It turned out horrible. The lines are clearly noticeable and the finish feels dramatically different. Blasting is imperative IMO if you want the finish that Cerakote will give you when done right.

 

[cal50]

Blast with garnet or aluminum oxide media for proper results.
Anything else and you are just wasting your time and material.

 

[azsugarbear]

Thanks. That's what I needed to know.

 

[nzgrip]

Sanding marks aside, you have a high chance of the cerakote failing to adhere properly. I know this from experience with cerakote C-series high temp coatings.

 

[Danco411]

The trick with Cerakote is to follow the process exactly. Any deviation will result in disappointment. It is a tricky application. Not difficult but if you skip a step or don't do a good job it will be reflected in the result. If you can't blast then I would suggest Duracoat. It goes on much thicker as it is a paint and is much more lenient in application.

 

[ugsly]

Cerakote isnt hard to spray, it takes a little time to figure out your spray gun settings that work well for you. Once you have that and know what you can get away with you'll be good. Are you soaking it to remove the oils? I soak and heat to drive out any oils, thats a must also. I would blast dont mess with sanding, as said above you'll just be wasting material and time.

Casey

 

[slayer_21420]

You stated you already spent a lot of money on all the other necessities, so why would you skimp out on this step?

Get a harbor freight blast cabinet, I got their big one that is normally $300 on sale for $209 and used a 25% off code on top of that. It's actually pretty nice for the cash.

 

[near_miss]

I was wondering do you blast before or after the soak? Use acetone correct?

 

[ugsly]

Blast after you degrease and remove all oils and contaminates. If you don't your media will get contaminated and your coatings will be compromised and then your fucked, you'll be dumping all your media and cleaning your cabinet. I use CRC brake cleen, Chad uses methanol gas and has had great success with it (much cheaper). Keep in mind solvents will evaporate so keep it covered otherwise it can get $$.

Casey

 

[jasonfaz]

I soak twice. Soak --> Degrease (bake) --> blast (i use 80 grit AO) --> soak (to remove any remnants of blast media) --> air dry and blow out parts with compressed air --> paint & bake. I use acetone for soaking/degreasing.

 

[kombayotch]

I prepped a stock with one of these units over the weekend:
Portable Abrasive Blaster Kit

Worked great! I just did it over a large empty garbage can and tried to angle things so that the abrasive would be deflected into the can. It captured most of it.

 

[Full Bore]

We do a fair amount of optics, scotchbrite pads work great on the parts that can't be blasted.