Hello,
New to the hide, been a lurker for awhile. I find lots of great discussions here. Well anyways…
Bought a TRG (338LM) in 2005, scoped it, reloaded some rounds, dialed it in and put it in the back of the safe. Really hadn’t fooled with it in years.
About a month ago I got access to 800 yard range on private land, heres where the story will un fold.
I got the Rifle out was looking at it, decided I wanted it cerakoted, got a quote, decided to “save” some money and do it my self… remember for later. Back in the day I have done 25-30 guns in duracoat. So the thought of Cerakote didn’t scare me. I just didn’t have an oven. Let’s build an oven… I had an old thick wall electrical cabinet from years ago, this would be perfect. It’s 24” wide 18” deep and 60” inside the cabinet, perfect. How to heat it? I bought a smoker grill element with thermostat, cut a clearance hole in the bottom and mounted it. Fired it up and the best it would do is 225 on wide open. BTW I’m not a thermal engineer. Ok we need insulation and another grill element. I looked at YouTube, didn’t like the thoughts of housing insulation. I ended up using 2200 F degree ceramic spun industrial insulation 1” thick by 24” wide by 50’. I found this on Amazon reasonably cheap, like $130 a roll. Ok moving on, new element added, insulation installed, check, let’s fire it up. Within 8 minutes up to 400 deg F. You can touch the outside cabinet after 30 minutes and not get burned, nice! I dialed in the thermostats to hold at 300 f consistently. Ok time to buy some supplies,I need Cerakote stuff. Bought Elite E-100 blackout for the TRG. Bought the iwata spray gun Cerakote recommends (Amazon) was cheaper by like $70. I bough mesh strainers, graduated cylinders, gram scales, lab grade chemical mixers, dissonant filter regulator… you get the idea… Well crap now I need a sand blaster. Harbor freight $229 model will do. Now the #100 garnet grit… remember I said I’ll just do it myself and save some $$$, with all that above I am $1600 in on trying to save money.
Well let’s Cerakote something, ok I got a desert Eagle let’s do that before I do the TRG. Full disassembly, degrease, sand blast, gas off, inspect, reapeat if oil weeps. And did it weep, at the factory seem at barrel chamber, I had to gas off like 7 times til it stopped weeping. The Eagle was ready, BTW I watched like 20 hours of Cerakote videos on YouTube ( Branson Cerakote are my hero’s) to get ready for my adventure. Long story short, the Eagle turned out perfect. Love the Elite series from Cerakote.
Ok the TRG should be much easier with less moving parts. Rifle stripped. Got to thinking about the oven elements much closer to the TRG action, what to do? I ended up cutting a piece of 1/2” steel and placing 6” above the elements to shield the direct heat from being that close to the reciever. I left about a 2” gap in front and back of the cabinet. Now it takes about 25 minutes to heat the cabinet to 300 degrees, but now I’m not worried I will over bake my goods. The TRG turned out perfect, with the iwata spray gun a cave man could do Cerakote and an oven. I will try to post pics of my homemade oven. I will also try to post pics of harbor freight sand blast cabinet with add on for the long TRG barrel. I threw in a picture of the Eagle too. Thats oil transfer from the towel, not poor finish.
Plans for the TRG, here’s what I have bought:
Near Mfg 45 moa rail (Richard is a super guy)
Arken EP-5 in mils
M Brace scope rings in medium (28mm)
Accushot FC-5 bipod
I’m in the process of putting rifle back together, I will post pictures when completed.
New to the hide, been a lurker for awhile. I find lots of great discussions here. Well anyways…
Bought a TRG (338LM) in 2005, scoped it, reloaded some rounds, dialed it in and put it in the back of the safe. Really hadn’t fooled with it in years.
About a month ago I got access to 800 yard range on private land, heres where the story will un fold.
I got the Rifle out was looking at it, decided I wanted it cerakoted, got a quote, decided to “save” some money and do it my self… remember for later. Back in the day I have done 25-30 guns in duracoat. So the thought of Cerakote didn’t scare me. I just didn’t have an oven. Let’s build an oven… I had an old thick wall electrical cabinet from years ago, this would be perfect. It’s 24” wide 18” deep and 60” inside the cabinet, perfect. How to heat it? I bought a smoker grill element with thermostat, cut a clearance hole in the bottom and mounted it. Fired it up and the best it would do is 225 on wide open. BTW I’m not a thermal engineer. Ok we need insulation and another grill element. I looked at YouTube, didn’t like the thoughts of housing insulation. I ended up using 2200 F degree ceramic spun industrial insulation 1” thick by 24” wide by 50’. I found this on Amazon reasonably cheap, like $130 a roll. Ok moving on, new element added, insulation installed, check, let’s fire it up. Within 8 minutes up to 400 deg F. You can touch the outside cabinet after 30 minutes and not get burned, nice! I dialed in the thermostats to hold at 300 f consistently. Ok time to buy some supplies,I need Cerakote stuff. Bought Elite E-100 blackout for the TRG. Bought the iwata spray gun Cerakote recommends (Amazon) was cheaper by like $70. I bough mesh strainers, graduated cylinders, gram scales, lab grade chemical mixers, dissonant filter regulator… you get the idea… Well crap now I need a sand blaster. Harbor freight $229 model will do. Now the #100 garnet grit… remember I said I’ll just do it myself and save some $$$, with all that above I am $1600 in on trying to save money.
Well let’s Cerakote something, ok I got a desert Eagle let’s do that before I do the TRG. Full disassembly, degrease, sand blast, gas off, inspect, reapeat if oil weeps. And did it weep, at the factory seem at barrel chamber, I had to gas off like 7 times til it stopped weeping. The Eagle was ready, BTW I watched like 20 hours of Cerakote videos on YouTube ( Branson Cerakote are my hero’s) to get ready for my adventure. Long story short, the Eagle turned out perfect. Love the Elite series from Cerakote.
Ok the TRG should be much easier with less moving parts. Rifle stripped. Got to thinking about the oven elements much closer to the TRG action, what to do? I ended up cutting a piece of 1/2” steel and placing 6” above the elements to shield the direct heat from being that close to the reciever. I left about a 2” gap in front and back of the cabinet. Now it takes about 25 minutes to heat the cabinet to 300 degrees, but now I’m not worried I will over bake my goods. The TRG turned out perfect, with the iwata spray gun a cave man could do Cerakote and an oven. I will try to post pics of my homemade oven. I will also try to post pics of harbor freight sand blast cabinet with add on for the long TRG barrel. I threw in a picture of the Eagle too. Thats oil transfer from the towel, not poor finish.
Plans for the TRG, here’s what I have bought:
Near Mfg 45 moa rail (Richard is a super guy)
Arken EP-5 in mils
M Brace scope rings in medium (28mm)
Accushot FC-5 bipod
I’m in the process of putting rifle back together, I will post pictures when completed.
