Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Cerakote "Air Cure" v/s "Oven Cure"

Is there any advantage of one over the other (air v/s oven) in toughness?

How hot do you have to get the oven and metal to allow curing on a firearm?

250 degrees and yes the heat cured is tougher. Not to say the air cure ain't fairly tough as well, but the heat cured is really tough stuff.

It may be a stupid question, but does heating a gun to 250 degrees cause any adverse effects to it?

nope

not unless it's made of plastic... gotta watch those tikka bolt shrouds and clips and such...

Plastic shouldn't be an issue with a Win. Model 70 in SS...

The (air dry) is supposed to be equivalent to KG, and Dura.
The Bake is superior by far. I will be baking plastic stocks first thing. My daughter wants a pink camouflage pattern. Done to her stock.

How hot can you get that plastic before you get warpage?

Optics are usually ambient cured,I've cerakoted all my rifles and the 2 I'm having built will be cerakoted also.I think I was told it was 300 degrees that it was cured at.

Plastics are done at a different temp, and extended times. They are already doing GLocks and other polymer frames. The Cerakote oven cure can even be applied to wood.

My daughter will be the first to know how it worked out....

Well maybe the second one

For metal 300 for an hour for a quick cure, the best cure is 250 for 2 hours.

I cure plastic all the time (not even close to the above temps), all I can say is be careful and you better make sure your curing oven doesn't have temp spikes or you can get in trouble.

Ambient cure is good for scopes, NEVER bake a optic.

How good will Cerakote work on a wooden stock?

BBerg

As good as anything else.

Mcmillan and Manner both say baking at over 160 degrees will void a warranty.

I use alot of the air cur on stocks and optics and have been very pleased. I usually use it as a base coat and then do any secondary colors in duracoat or even krylon. If you want to change something you can pull off the last two with about any carb or brake cleaner and it leaves the cerakote intact.

I have done bolt handles with both as an experiment and the bake on will show no wear at several thousand rounds where the air cure might show signs of wear at the same point. Either one will last one heck of a long time and if an impact is hard enough to scratch the air cure it will probably mark the oven cure as well.