Anodize, Powder Coat, Wild Colors!

[gunboy]

I am fairly familiar with both processes but wondering how durability is for each.  I really like the purples, reds, blues, i.e. race gun look,  and have a new (to me) open 1187 to play with.  I see JP and others do anodizing on aluminum parts which I know is harder than reg. aluminum but don't see anyone powder coat.  Why? Is the heat treat after too much?

Anyone have a recommendation on someone in TX that is good.  Anyone use the powder coat equipment from Eastwoods?

I saw a purple 390 Sporting at a comp/ last week that Briley had done in light purple....very trick!

[EricW]

You can certainly powder coat aluminum.  I don't think the heat involved is great enough to destroy the heat treating.  The major issue is the tolerances as powder coating is comparatively very thick and and it is difficult to hold exact thickness tolerances just because of the application process.  Powder coating is a plastic and would be unsuitable in any location where moving parts are involved.  To avoid this, very extensive masking would be required.  The abrasion resistance of powder coating over time is also not the greatest.   It's certainly doable, it would just be a pain to make it work.

Anodizing actually changes the surface of the metal to what is practically a ceramic.  The hardness, thinness and controllability of the application really lend anodizing suitability to use in gun parts.  

[gunboy]

great info, Thanks Eric

[Trey]

gunboy,

I had a friend who powder coated his glock 35 (slide and magwell).  He's Irish, so he coated it in metallic flake green.  It really looks funky and cool.

**warning**

Eric W is dead on.  Powder coating is THICK so do not apply it anywhere internally/externally or where it could affect the guns function.  The powder coat was only put on the externally places of the slide.  Just cosmetic

As for durability, I can't really say.  He's only had it about a month.  It seems like it should hold up fairly well.

It was also very inexpensive.  The gun/magwell was done for $20.

[BigDave]

look here Tripp Research

I remember seeing some pretty funky colors that Virgil was playing with.  Plus, he's in TX

[Carlos]

Anodizing is dirt simple and can be done cheaply at home.  Do a search on "anodize" on http://www.roderuscustom.tzo.com Use the dyes from Caswell's plating, not the RIT stuff.

[jkmccoy]

I have done some anodizing of aluminum parts. Although it is definitely within the realm of possibility for a fairly competent hobbyist, it is NOT "easy as dirt".  The process of anodizing is really just a method of using the natural tendency of aluminum to oxidize rapidly to form a hard coating on the work piece.

Left alone aluminum will oxidize rapidly on the surface. Although aluminum oxide is very hard (RC90) naturally formed oxide will be in very fine particles and will be easily rubbed off.

Anodizing uses that tendency to oxidize to create a coating of aluminum oxide on the surface of the work piece. The anodized coating is very thin, but very hard, and is bound to the surface of the workpiece. I agree that using special anodizing dyes (e.g. from Caswell plating) is much preferable to using RIT dyes.

Because the surface is very hard, anodizing does provide some resistance to surface wear. But, because the coating is very thin, you will eventually wear through the anodizing. I anodized an STI alloy frame for a friend of mine. It is holding up quite well except for the high wear points where the slide rubs.

There are lots of good web sites out there about anodizing. Dig around on my site and you can find my discussion of anodizing. I also have some links on my "home machine shop links" page for some other viewpoints on anodizing.

Cheers,

(Edited by jkmccoy at 3:22 pm on Mar. 2, 2003)

[Bret Heidkamp]

Powder coating needs 450 degrees for 20 minutes, on average, to cure.  It is thick, much like any painted surface - about 6 to 8 mils per coat if I remember correctly (I might be wrong, old age).  Any thicker and your powder coater didn't know what he/she was doing and goobered it on.

Secondly, it is pretty tough stuff and the really cool part is that it is very flexible.  Although this doesn't apply here to guns, you can coat parts like springs with it and the stuff won't crack and fall off like normal paints would.

The other cool thing is any color you can imagine in a regular paint can be done in powder these days.  Transparent colors are available so you can do "candy" finishes over polished aluminum (nickel plated works great).  I did put a candy purple over my Lim holster.

It's tough to beat powder coating - it is VERY scratch resistant and won't chip off.  You can run a screwdriver blade along a piece of it and it won't shatter the finish, just peel it.  (Hint: if it shatters and chips, it was underbaked!) Good for cars but you should be very sure you want it on a gun.  Once it's on, it needs to be acid stripped (CitriStrip), sandblasted, burned off, or otherwise removed.  It's very tough to remove.

Call a good powdercoater for more info - and mask it yourself if you want to save some bucks and have it turn out perfect.  They use a special high temp tape, so be sure to ask for some, most won't mind since masking is labor intensive.

[gunboy]

Thanks to all who posted such great info....info backed by experience.  Its really appreciated.  I am glad to have found this site!!