I Cerakoted a AR upper, lower, handguard and buffer tube Keltec Navy Blue. It looked real purty going into the oven. An hour later when I opened the oven, the parts were black! Areal nice looking black none the less. I had flashed the surface of the upper and lower with gloss black first and applied an American flag stencil. I peeled the stencil off the lower and that portion looked kind of like a ghost flag with the lower being semi gloss black and the flag being gloss black. I was thinking this might be kind of uniqe. The stemcil overlapped the upper and when I removed it, the surface underneath was red! I guess I'm going to have to redo the whole thing now. I use an analog smoker to bake the parts and i think it may have gotten possibly 50 degrees too hot. Any ideas? I am foing to call Cerakote tech support Monday and see if curing to hot would cause that
Any ideas?

No Pics?...

Quite a few guys cerakoted their smurf guns a darker blue, and it too came out nearly black. Had they not told me that it was a dark navy, and held it up next to a black a400, I never would have known the difference.

Im teavelung now, ill try to get some pics up tonight

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Originally posted by Tommydogg:
Im teavelung now, ill try to get some pics up tonight

So, top result from googling "teavellung" is "5 readons teavellung sole rocks", then I realized I added an extra "l". I then googled it correctly and found this review of Hyatt Place in Pittsburgh: "I highlt recommwnd this hitel to anyone teavelung to pittsburgh. Very close to metro, sports stadiums, bars and dininf. Stayed July 2017, traveled with friends."

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Originally posted by trapper189:

quote:

Originally posted by Tommydogg:
Im teavelung now, ill try to get some pics up tonight

So, top result from googling "teavellung" is "5 readons teavellung sole rocks", then I realized I added an extra "l". I then googled it correctly and found this review of Hyatt Place in Pittsburgh: "I highlt recommwnd this hitel to anyone teavelung to pittsburgh. Very close to metro, sports stadiums, bars and dininf. Stayed July 2017, traveled with friends."

This amused me greatly

Lol, airport typing, i flew to Kennesaw today for work. Sometimes auto correct does not work! Should have been traveling. That gave ya'll somethimg interesting to do instead of NFL!

I wish I had taken a picture before I cured it.





Ain't no blue to it!

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That gave ya'll somethimg interesting to do instead of NFL!

Sad, but true.

Black Lowers Matter. You're right, not blue at all. I have a few ARs I want to Cerakote so, hopefully the Cerakote people can tell you what went wrong and I won't have them same thing happen.

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Originally posted by Tommydogg:

Ain't no blue to it!

I mean, painting a black part navy blue isn’t likely to turn out anything other than dark. Maybe a light colored primer coat first?

Before applying the Cerakote, I sandblasted the parts, so they were natural aluminium color. They were blue going into the oven. I had used some from that jar about a month ago and it went on blue and came out of the oven blue.

Navy blue is the new black.

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Originally posted by Tommydogg:
I use an analog smoker to bake the parts

Maybe used the wrong kind of wood - I prefer apple or cherry. Sorry couldn't resist.

While not the correct color - it does look like a nice finish!

Probably because I used black cherry. Tech support at Cerakote said higher temp than 300 for an hour could have caused it. He recommended trying at 250 for two hours and see what happens.

Did you remove all of the anodizing? I thought that was a very bad thing to do as you lose all of the surface hardening?

Blue or black - looks pretty good.

quote:

Originally posted by Tommydogg:
Before applying the Cerakote, I sandblasted the parts, so they were natural aluminium color. They were blue going into the oven. I had used some from that jar about a month ago and it went on blue and came out of the oven blue.

Sandblasting the parts removes any surface treatment of the base metal. You're not just removing paint. The surface should be treated again. You may not be able to anodize, but you can alodine for the aluminum.

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It looked real purty going into the oven. An hour later when I opened the oven, the parts were black!

You burned it.

Ship it to me for disposal....

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I wish I had taken a picture before I cured it.

Regardless that looks sweet.

I am curious about removing the anodizing and whether that could be harmful.

They say you have to have the right amount of micro bumps that result from fine sandblasting for the Cerakote to adhere properly. Cerakote is pretty tough, but i dont know if it is bad for the surface under the Cerakote. I Would leave the finish as it were, but the stencil that I applied prior to the blue messed up due to the higher heat. I have not gotten back to it yet as i am still out of town. Messing up a finish is part of the learning process i guess!

Looks good.