Gunsmithing Cerakote oven bake shelf life

[Jeremybj]

Hello,

I did a pretty large amount of cerakoting last year and have a little left over matte black. I have an ar barrel I am thinking of going from stainless to black. The cerakote was bought like February of 2012. How long is this stuff ACTUALLY good for? On the website it says 1 year.

Any help would be great.

Thanks,

Jeremy

 

[Rhys]

I had a couple colors that I used up to 2.5 years after they had originally been opened. I did however have a small refrigerator that I kept the stuff in with the hopes of extending the life of it.

 

[Redcreek1]

The shelf life is one (1) year, unless refrigerated, in which case it can last as long as five years.

 

[cannoncrossfire]

I'd stick to 1 year shelf life if you're not keeping it in a fridge (as already mentioned).
I tried some left overs of Graphite black I had which were a year and a half old, the stuff came out rough and I ended up throwing the parts in acetone before they were baked, and opened a new bottle of Cerakote which then went on smooth (cleaned the spray gun between of course).

 

[LRI]

What I've learned.

Get a refrigerator. It greatly extends the shelf life.

Once a week, get your shake on with each bottle in your inventory. Ceracoat is about 50% solids by volume. They LOVE to come out of suspension. If you let the stuff sit too long it'll turn to concrete at the bottom of the bottle. It's basically junk at that point.

Hit up a hobby shop and buy a bag of marbles. Drop one in each new bottle to help mix it up.

I've had stuff in the fridge last over a year using these methods.

Good luck.

C.

 

[pyrofx]

Find your marbles

I'll second Chads comments.

Keep it in the fridge. When you have a cognizant thought between grabbing the coffee creamer every Monday , shake the bottles. The marble idea is a great one as it helps mix the product. I have a bottle of orange that I use for front sights that has been in the fridge for 2 years and is still good .

The best idea though is paint more stuff and use it up !

Greg