Anyone else using Cerakote? Tips?

Yes. Sometimes naivety and assumptions get the better of me and I will admit that I wasn't gassing off as instructed... Turns out Cerakote doesn't tolerate that kind of tomfoolery.

That being said I might have found part of the culprit at the shop tonight. I headed there with the new air filters and such intending to spend an hour or so performing maintenance on the compressor. However when I removed the old water/oil filter I was surprised at what I found:



A few months ago the compressor got left on overnight accidentally, on that same night the air-hose in the sandblaster failed and the compressor ended up running for many hours straight. It cooked itself a bit in the process, but after changing the oil and stuff it seemed to run ok so we continued using it. What you see above is something we missed... Seems the compressor vaporized and burned a lot of oil, and that oil got into the air-hoses where it condensed leaving this delicious 'compressor butter'...

The water/oil filter, regulator, and the manifold were all full of this stuff. About 1/8" thick on the walls of all the piping. I drained the tank and took the large bolt out of the side of it. There's some of the condensed oil at the bottom of the tank but it's otherwise remarkably clean... I'll be replacing all the piping and components as I think it would be a fools errand to try to clean them.

Wouldn't be surprised if that was causing part of the issue given that I didn't have a filter on my HVLP gun!

 

I've closely inspected the blades under good light and it doesn't seem that there's any foreign matter stuck to the paint... It could be, but others are spraying different finishes in our shop with no issues so I think it's likely to be a problem with the prep...

Nice job on those knives! I would like to switch to 100 grit media I think, but I've had real problems finding it near me. i will have to look harder and swap out the media in my sandblaster.

I had been thinking about using a tack cloth, but I wasn't sure if the wax would get grabbed by the rough sandblasted surface. I will give it a go on a test piece soon and see how it works. I'm sure I'll get it worked out (especially with all this help) I'm pretty stubborn about this kind of stuff!

Thanks, I just got a good dessicant drier that will be attached directly to my gun, hopefully that will help things!

I haven't tried the other finishes personally, but from what I've read on gun forums most people seem to agree that Cerakote is one of the most (if not the most) durable finishes around, that was why I ended up wanting to try it out...

To be honest most people ask for black. If I was asked to recommend a color for a soldier's knife it would likely be coyote brown or flat dark earth, similar colors are fairly common in nature and will blend in with the majority of camo schemes... I agree about black not being the ideal color. I may well end up getting a pot of coyote brown just for military customers, other customers seem to mainly want black so far.

For reference guys this is what the black Cerakote looks like when I manage to get it right. The fact that it comes out so nice is the only reason I'm still willing to fiddle with it! It really doesn't look like paint in person, looks like the blade itself is just made from some black material almost.



Here's hoping I can start getting it right more often! The knife above had to be re-coated 3 times before the finish came out well.

 

I haven't yet had the chance to try again. I'll be taking all the advice given so far and coating some blades this weekend... If that doesn't give the desired results then will definitely take you up on your kind offer!

Will do!

 

Yep, black blade was finished in the same shop, same compressor and after the 'butter fiasco'... I think I just got lucky. We bought $500 in new parts today to replace all of the lines/parts that are attached to the compressor, hopefully that (in addition to the dessicant drier that I have added to my gun) will help keep the finish nice.

Sorry to hear that. I took it in the manner which you intended i believe. If I have issues after the compressor if overhauled I will get in touch!

Sounds like good tips all around! Thanks, I will keep those in mind!

Yeah, it was definitely a filter as opposed to an oiler.. However it was all full of gunk. We've bought all new parts and I will be rebuilding everything tomorrow.. We'll see how it goes!

Always with the fancy solutions

That woud definitely work! I'll try the compressed air from the overhauled compressor with the new filters and all that jazz, plus the off-gas and stuff. If that doesn't work then alternative pressure sources might be something to look into for sure...

 

Ok, so yesterday I spent the day re-building the compressed air system at the shop. New pipes and hoses, new manifold and couplers, new regulator and 2 new filters. Everything was replaced except the compressor itself.



Also got an inline drier/filter which is setup to attach straight to my HVLP gun:



I then prepped the blades and applied a new batch of the coating. Here was the process:

• Degrease blades in ethanol
• Blast blades with 80-90 grit sand at 115PSI
• Blow any excess grit off blades with compressed air
• Brush down blades with clean (new) paintbrush to make sure all grit is gone
• Gas-off blades at 300ºF for 60 minutes
• Mix Cerakote (27ml of graphite black, with 1.5ml of hardener), thoroughly mix, strain through fine automotive paint strainer.
• Spray light coats onto blades while they're still warm. Coats were lightly sprayed from 3-4" away from the parts.
• Bake at 250ºF for 2 hours.

Unfortunately even with the extra prep steps the coating still has defects. Below are some pictures of the defects. The spots feel rough and scratchy when you run your fingers over them, like little pieces of sand or something. Very few of these defects could be seen on the blades before they were baked. The coating seemed to go on a little thicker than usual this time, normally there is a bit less texture to it.







This batch has been ready to go for over 2 weeks except for this coating issue. It's starting to be a real pain.