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Can You Cerakote after Vapor Blasting

What are the steps to get your parts ready for Cerakote? To be honest, there are many ways to approach this. Here at Vapor Honing Technologies, we use the wet blasting process to remove contaminants and paints off the surface of an object before Cerakoting. Today, you will go on a journey to see our steps in prepping for Cerakoting. 

We got the chance to use an AK-47 for this experiment. We received the gun in pieces and were informed which color will go where. After finding out what each piece is, my co-worker and I started vapor blasting each part. We used one of our machines called the VH685, and the abrasive that we used is 120 mesh aluminum oxide at 100 PSI. It is not the correct aluminum oxide, but this is what we had at that moment. C-series High-Temperature coatings by Cerakote recommend 100 mesh aluminum oxide or garnet sand. This abrasive will create an etching surface where the coatings will bond together. Would recommend using powder-free gloves for handling and acetone. 

After vapor blasting all the parts, we handle the pieces with powder-free gloves and cleaned the parts with acetone. Note, It is crucial from here on out to avoid touching the parts with bare hands.

Cerakote

The next step is finding a ventilated area with a room temperature of 60-80 degrees. Our spot was not the best, but it’s the only spot to set up. We used an air gun and a small compressor to Cerakote the AK-47. Our air pressure is set to 30 PSI and is tested to make sure the air pressure doesn’t drop below 30 PSI. My next important step is putting on the respirator and practicing using the spray gun. I did a few passes with the gun at a distance of 3” to 4” between the air gun and cardboard. After I got familiar with spraying, I started coating each piece of the gun. The colors are transfer gray and glacier gold.

Results

The first layer was applied lightly and the second layer was added thoroughly after sitting for fifteen minutes. Each part sat a whole night before I added the 3rd and 4th layers. 

After the 4th layer, I let it sit over the weekend for it to cure. On Monday at 3 PM, it was assembling time. As a result, the color came out amazing. 

You can Cerakote after vapor blasting. Again, there are many ways of prepping parts for paint, and vapor blasting is an easy way to do it. It literally took me and my co-worker less than 1 hour to prep the gun to paint. 

To learn more please contact us online or give us a call at 828.202.5563

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