Saw it on the tactical wire email. I hate to hear this. They do great work. They will continue industrial coatings.

Wow! Tough time. And, I was thinking of sending them something to refinish.

Even though Robar has been competition for our CPII Nickel Boron Nitride plating I hate to see any firearms company go out of business

There are not too many of us 30 year company left

why is the question?

quote:

Originally posted by Ronin101:
why is the question?

Easiest answer: Not making enough profit to warrant continued firearm works. Same thing with Klein years ago. They are making more money doing industrial work.

The refinishing business is not easy. Everyone wants it done yesterday. The plating industry is very regulated and the chemical costs keep getting higher and higher and the firearms industry is dependent on politics

quote:

Originally posted by 12131:

quote:

Originally posted by Ronin101:
why is the question?

Easiest answer: Not making enough profit to warrant continued firearm works. Same thing with Klein years ago. They are making more money doing industrial work.

Yup. Business is to make money. The Firearm industry makes it tough.

quote:

They will continue industrial coatings.

When I read "closing their doors" I think "going out of business." Discontinuing the firearms side of their operation is not going out of business.

quote:

Originally posted by egregore:
When I read "closing their doors" I think "going out of business." Discontinuing the firearms side of their operation is not going out of business.

Yeah but their FFL / Gunsmith / Firearm operation is closing it's doors / going out of business.

My first P-220 has a full NP3 finish, which has held up very well. Sorry to hear they are ceasing the firearms side of the business.

Isn't this similar to what happened at Klein in Erie, PA?

We are fortunate to have CCR here as an active/contributing member. The have refinished a P64 and a P-220 for me and I highly recommend them.

Quite surprising. I just figured that they'd always be there.

Damn. They're 10 minutes from me and I always have a gun in mind to send them. I follow them on FB and didn't see anything about this. Is there a last call for taking new gun refinishing jobs?

Someone posted a letter from Robar. It stated that refunds were coming and firearms were being returned untouched.

I was set up at a Tom Allman gunshow at Louisville Fairgrounds when he brought this Diamondback with NP3 coating on it to show me about 30 minutes before closing Sunday. $600 ask. I passed. Got home and the gun haunted me. I called Tom Monday morning. He lives about 60 miles north of me. He drove S I drove N and we met in the middle. Still have it and love it.

They did a really nice job on my Browning Hi Power.

That is dreadful.
I am scheduled to take a CZ PCR to them in October.
I have a P7 and a 1911 in NP3. Wonderful in terms of protection, nothing can I clean so easily, and to me it is a classier looking finish than any other "white" finish, including hard chrome and stainless.

That’s surprising and sad to hear. Some years back, I handled a P226 that Robar had worked over including a nice trigger job and done in NP3 that I really wanted to buy, just couldn’t afford it at the time. From a sample size of one, I was impressed with their work.

Bummer! They do/did fantastic work...

Generally when a business with a backlog of orders, makes a quick and drastic decision like this, it's something that forced them to.

Either a government agency is forcing them to make drastic changes that are too costly and would cause the firearms end to become unprofitable (such as EPA/OSHA etc.)

Or, one of their head employees is retiring/quit etc. and they cannot hire/find anyone skilled enough to replace them. Prepping firearms for refinishing is very detail oriented work.


Or they got a very large contract on the non-firearms side of the business and need the capacity and it's very profitable.


Otherwise, if it's simply profitability on firearms went down, then most businesses would stop taking new orders, or drastically increase prices on new orders, and simply finish up the orders they already have on the books to keep existing customers happy or the new orders they get become more profitable.


This is all sheer speculation on my part.

quote:

Originally posted by jimmy123x:
This is all sheer speculation on my part.

Given the average internet IQ, this is probably a smart way to start your post, rather than conclude it. This is how rumors get started. I guarantee someone at Robar who has better things to do is going to eventually get a phone call inquiring about the stuff in your post.