Duracoat - a firearm finish

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Tank
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Duracoat - a firearm finish

Post by Tank » Thu Apr 25, 2013 2:54 pm

Couple of months ago now GarryT over on the UBC mentioned that he was going to start doing the Duracoat process for the shooters over there. At the time I was rebuilding my FWB300s so I contacted him with regards to the front sight.
The original front sight on the FWB300 series and the FWB150 - as shown here in the photographs - is attached to the end of the barrel with a wedge pin and there is no easy/economical way of attaching anything other than these original sights. Besides, they work just fine. The issue is that the original paint finish on all of them has now worn/chipped off. In fact, this particular front sight was a bit of a mess. It was badly dinged at the front and there was an element of rust from the retaining ring, the paint was ectremely patchy and it was also badly pitted in places.
I waited until Garry had received all of his supplies from the US of A and sent him the two front sights last week. I had of course removed all of the paint because we had discussed the condition and he was going to bead blast them both prior to coating. For those that don't know, there is nothing worse than contaminating good glass bead with rust and old paint flakes so I tried to send him them as clean as possible, it also reflects on the cost - I wasn't having Garry waste his time cleaning old paint off when I was perfectly capable of doing it myself - If you are going to get anything Dura coated by Garry - and he is the only person offering this service on such a small scale in the UK that I know of - it may be worth your while discussing this with him if you are unsure of your skills.
As you can see from the photograph of the front top edge I straightened the tubular shape (wrong choice of words there!) and filed it as far as I dared. There is evidence of the prior damage still but Hey! the gun is fifty years old, well nearly!!

A little about the Duracoat process, this process was specifically designed as a firearms coating, DuraCoat's combination of elasticity and hardness creates a finish impervious to impact, scratching and the elements.  Some users say DuraCoat displays some lubricating qualities, but this phenomenon was never intended when DuraCoat was created. It is impervious to most everything including Pyrodex, Salt Water and of course all smokeless powders. A bit of overkill on an air rifle, but as I discussed with Garry, the one part of any rifle that gets abuse is this end. We rest them against walls, doors cars - you name it, the front sight of any rifle is the part that sees the most knocks - and we wonder why the sights are off?

Cost - always a consideration - well it worked out at £15 each. I had Garry do two front sights for me and if it had been just the one it would have been a little cheaper but not much. You have to remember that the chemicals are not cheap, this is essentially an epoxy type mix so a two part coating and there is a minimum to mix to actually get it to go through the painting equipment then there is all the cleanup involved. The coating takes between five to seven weeks to achieve full hardness but it is still very durable after just a couple of days and you can just asemble the parts with impunity.

I had considered painting these myself, something I am well able to do BUT - they are aluminium or more correctly an aluminium alloy and I would have needed to buy etch primer then a durable satin finish coat. About £20 of paint for the one job so for the extra it was a no-brainer.

The thread in the sights for the various retainers - I was a little concerned about this. I have had some bad experiences in the past and these threads are very, very fine. I needn't have worried - Garry knows what he is doing an the retaining rings went straight back in there AND he coated the inner tube part perfectly, a very nice job.

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And they are not spots on the finish there, that is me with all the dust i blew around just before taking the photographs DOH!
graham.
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