Rifle Painters........

There is always the option of doing it yourself. Its not really that hard of a job for a DIY person. Generally the hardest thing is building an oven to bake the parts. (barreled actions dont normally fit in the kitchen oven).

Many smiths will do the job, check locally. I'd offer, but I'm too busy building customer rifles right now....

MEL

Yea I have looked at the DIY thing and the oven is the only drawback. Brownells makes what I want and it is about $35 a can.

Any ideas on an oven design? What I came up with would cost about $300! Cheap metal gun safe $150+, HVAC foam board $55, 6" electric fan $10-20, oven element with control $75(??)

What is the best way to hang a barreled action that is wet with paint?

There are a hundred ways to do the oven. The cheap way is to get two eletric charcoal lighters to use for your heating elements. Then build a case to warm it in. You can build a case out of 2x6 if you wanted (yep, it holds 300 degrees, just be sure to give enough air space between heating element and the wood....). Use your imagination... I'm using a more pemanent solution now... but still cost only about $50

MEL

Do you mind going into detail on your oven? If I do one I would rather have a good one than a one time use oven. Maybe just a photo??

Main thing is - How do I hang the darn thing (and parts) without touching the paint??

I believe I will be baking one this weekend, if I do, I'll snap a photo.

Well, I use an old gun cleaning rod to hold the barreled action, and various hangers, etc to hold the little pieces.

MEL

Now a question about some of the types of coatings out there.

My 40XB has a very thick coating on it, can not find out what it is, but I like it.

Gun Kote - what are the pros and cons of it (probably what I am going to use) What does matte black look like? British Brown?

Brownells makes a baking laquer?

Any sugestions? What does the SC riles come with?

Thanks!!

Gun-Kote is a bit more of a pain to apply than the baking laquer or teflon, but its thinner (so if super tight tolerences are needed) If tight tolerences are not a concern then the teflon bake on and perhaps just the bake on laquer might be a better choice (metal prep is easier). The gun-kote is super rugged and thinner per coat, but the preperation of the metal is more work.

Currently, gun-kote is being used on the SC rifles, but teflon is preferred (probably name recognition) by more people, so I will probably be switching over to teflon soon. (when my current gun-kote runs out).

you can read more about inidividual products here
http://www.brownells.com/aspx/NS/GunTech/NewsletterArchive.aspx?p=0&t=2&i=467

MEL

Thanks MEL, that is the most informative page that I have found about the different coatings on the web! I had been looking at the Teflon/Moly coating or Gun Kote, I know now that I will go with the Teflon/Moly Oven cure coating. (on the first rifle anyway)

No problem!! I'm glad I was able to help.

I was not able to get my metal prep done in time, so I will not be baking this weekend. Pic of my oven will have to wait a few more days

MEL

Got any pointers for the metal prep? Other than the normal directions. First rifle with be a Ruger M77 Mark II S.S. in .270. Just my reg. old hunting rifle.

Thanks again!!

If you have access to a bead blaster, that is the best. But not necessary. If you are using teflon, you can use beads, if you want to gun-kote, you need to use aluminum oxide to blast off the previous finish. If you don't have a blaster, and want to keep it cheap and easy, then you can just rough up the finish with a wire wheel or sand paper, etc. After that, you need to very toroughly degrease the metal, and be sure not to touch it with skin before painting them

MEL

I let a guy who'd never applied teflon to a rifle before coate my rifle. The gunsmith said it was worth a go and if he screwed up the smith would fix it free of charge. Barrel and bolt was coated with black teflon - and all I can say is that the finish is friggin lovely. Although I would've wished for a olive green of some kind instead of black..but heck, that I can do later.

Yep, I have access to a blaster. Thanks

Kamatz, That makes me feel better!

picked up the parts for the oven this weekend from my local "homedepot" 2) 500 watt lighters. I am going to try it with one lighter first and see what she can do. one grill temp. gauge, switch, hangers, handle, hinges.......

One question, what do ya'll think about putting one strip of foil tape under the lighter on the wood? Lighter will be about 1 inch above the tape. Will it get hot enough to light the sticky backing on the tape?

On my initial test oven, I used simple 2x6 to build a box with no floor and no cap (top). I put the whole setup on my concrete driveway, charcoal lighters on the concrete, and sheet plywood on on top as a cap. It goot up to 290 degrees and held there, but required both lighters.

The 2nd time around I changed one thing... I put tin foil directly on the ground with shiny side up, then put my box over it. This help dramatically!! I had to turn down the heating elements (I have a plug controlled by a dimmer switch that I plug the lighters in).

The wood box has now been replaced... but it worked for 2 or 3 bakings. I just had it a bit too thin so the heating elements were to close to the box walls and started to charcoal them... no flames though

MEL