dura coat

[Beekeeper]

Has anyone ever used the stuff?
I bought some to use on a 1888 Commission Rifle as the barrel tube was badly pitted.
Used it on wednesday. Boy talk about failure to launch!
The promo claims you can't get it off even with sanding and little or no wear.
mine pealed off ith my fingernail (whole gun).
Have sent e-mail to Lauer weapons ( where I bought it ) asking for help.
Doubt I will get any but e-mail free.
Would like to know of anyone else that has used the stuff to see if I can find out what I did wrong.


beekeeper

[45nut]

I did a couple actions, and two or three complete guns without issue. The biggest problem I had was the pathetic canned air they sent.
Degreasing and proper mixing of the catalyst and the mix is job 1, sufficient air to last the job was easy with a regulated compressor.
This 99 Savage, was savaged and abused but has a second lease on life now thanks to duracoat.

[HeavyMetal]

Degreasing is an absolute must for the dura coat to "bite" in and hold.

When I bought some a year or so ago I called and talked to thier tech guy,. He was adament about degreasing the entire weapon then sandblasting it and the not touching it with my hands and not to degrease a second time just hit right on top of the sand blasting!

He also told me not to waste time between sand blast and spraying!

I had my air brush set up all preped and tested took the gun to work sand blasted after hours went home mixed and sprayed. Primer first then let sit 3 days and applied the dura coat itself then did the same and applied a semi gloss coating a few days later.

I also let it set for a week before I handled it and reasymbled.

If you didn't do these things it could be your problem, I've had several kids in the family handle the little Ruger 22 pistol I did and have not even had the finish fade let alone flake or peel.

Keep us posted on what you find out.

[Beekeeper]

Heavymetal,
I asked about a primer when I e-mailed Lauer the first time to find out about duracoat.
That may be my problem on this old dog but they said nothing about it.
The barrel tube was badly pitted and rusted through in places so I asked about filling the pits and holes with J&B Weld. they had no problem with it ,said duracoat would work fine and here was what I needed. bought what they recommended . No Primer!!
If they answer I will ask about primer and see about getting some.
Thanks for the info.



beekeeper

[Lloyd Smale]

my buddy does alot of it and says if it doesnt stick the most like problem is you didnt cure it properly.

[Rick459]

Beekeeper,
here are some photo's of the Ruger 10/22 that i built for my girlfriend almost two years ago using Duracote. it looks the same today. the trick for using Duracote is to bead blast the item using 120 grit aluminum oxide. gives the Duracote more of a bite on the surface. sanding may work in some cases, but with surface rust pits bead blasting is the way to go. it will remove most of the pits. if you lived close to me i would bead blast the rifle for free. HTH
Rick

[cheese1566]

Prep, prep, prep, prep...

I have not used DuraCoat, but I have used Brownell's GunKote. I used a small cheap detail gun from Harbor Freight to shoot it.

From research on both products and then the use of the GunKote, I learned the prep was essential. But GinKote is oven cured and is not a two part epoxy mix...

I soaked and "scrubbed" everything in lacquer thinner, blasted all steel parts using DuPont Starblast in a homebuilt cabinet, sprayed down the parts using Walmart brake cleaner, parkerized the steel parts using Brownell's zinc phosphate, degreasing again with brake clean, then spraying, and then oven cure. All the time changing rubber gloves frequently.
The blasting gives a surface the finish can hold on to and may be used alone. I parkerized after reading it is somewhat porous and the finish has more of bite to hold onto, and was highly recommended. Plus, parts not shot with GunKote will hold oil preservatives better than bare steel (why the military uses parked guns...)

[Morgan Astorbilt]

Anybody know how to remove this stuff short of sandblasting? I bought a 1911 "Race Gun" in camo, and it's resisted all the paint removers I've tried.
Morgan

[Beekeeper]

Morgan the Lauer website says the only way to remove duracoat is to blast it off.
As for it not sticking I took it to a gunsmith I know and after suffering through the rath of even using it ( he was smiling ) we proceded to redo it.
Did it exactly as I had done it at home ,worked perfect.
I guess he held his mouth different than I did, only thing I saw different.



beekeeper

[Morgan Astorbilt]

Thanks, I guess I'll just have to learn to live with it.
Morgan

[nicholst55]

As stated, surface prep is critical. I have had good results using cheap brake cleaner (no residue-type) for degreasing. FWIW, DC sticks very well to degreased parkerizing.

Some folks have reported success removing DC with paint remover; I haven't tried, so I can't comment.

Also, DC is at least very similar to Sherwin Williams Polane, which is significantly less expensive than what Lauer sells DC for. If I was planning to apply DC in volume, I'd definitely look into Polane. Here's an excerpt from the FAL Files detailing one guy's experience with Polane:

"I used the duracoat mirage flage on my Century R1a1 this week. I really liked the end result so far. I wanted more paint for other projects so I headed to my Sherman Williams Industrial Coating store. The sales people took a whiff of the duracoat and initially thought that it was Polane. However, the catalyst mixture in duracoat is 12 parts paint to 1 part catalyst. For Polane the ratio is 6:1 or 7:1 depending on the type of Polane one uses. I used the polane to coat a DSA Stock set. It seemed to coat well. I have not reassembled the second gun yet so no experience on how well it holds up. I have other projects to paint so I bought a gallon of flat black and flat green they mixed for me. With out the catalyst each gallon was about $65.00. The UV inhibitor catalyst is about $70 with the standard catalyst running about $35.00 for a half gallon.

I had the store place the paint in quart containers so I don't have to open the gallon cans repeatedly. The paint should last longer that way.

The catalyst for duracoat and polane is different as well. The Duracoat catalyst is very thick. Polane is a little less viscous. The odor is very different as well.
Sherman Williams stated that the Duracoat could be a Color Wheel brand."

[Jetwrench]

Rick 459,
SSSWWWEEETTTT Rifle, Me likes. Jetwrench