Best coating for barrel and gas tube?

[On_Point1]

First post, Hello all.

So my plan is to have my barrel and gas tube coated in
Cerakote Magpul FDE so that the stainless doesn't show
up under my DD rail. Is there a better option? I'm looking
for something fairly tough and want it to match up with
the FDE furniture, as this will be used as my coyote rifle
and I don't want it chipping off.

[Stickman]

It should work fine, I've done it with Norrells MolyResin, and it had no issues.

[On_Point1]

Stickman, would Cerakote work on a chrome bolt assembly for an AR as well?

[polymorpheous]

Probably a bad idea to coat the gas tube.
It will more than likely burn off or discolor.
I can't see good thing happening from coating the BCG.
Seems to me it would wear off gumming up the action.

My bought a receiver set from Red River Tactical which was coated inside and out with KGkote.
The coating on the inside of the upper turned into a muddy mess of lube and KGkote. Seizing his action up.

[MikeCLeonard]

Stickman, would Cerakote work on a chrome bolt assembly for an AR as well?

I would NOT do that.

Painting a bolt carrier group would likely produce tolerance issues and cause your carrier to stick.

[RD62]

Stickman, would Cerakote work on a chrome bolt assembly for an AR as well?

Paint the ejection port cover if it isn't already.

Keep it closed when hunting.

I don't think the small amount of black showing on the bolt carrier would be an issue though.

[On_Point1]

I will be running a side charging upper so painting the dust
cover isn't an option.

And as far as the affects of heat on a Cerakoted gas tube I
can't find any info that leads me to believe that it would
discolor, supposedly it can withstand temps of 1200 degrees.
And as to the abrasion issue, the info I have found so far
looks like it stands up to repeated cycling really well.

Am I missing something that would be contrary to the
Cerakote specs? Thanks for the responses guys, I'm all ears.

[jonconsiglio]

Out of curiosity, why do you feel you need to have the gas tube coated? As for the BCG, I think it's a very bad idea.

[On_Point1]

There is no functional reason to my idea of coating the
gas tube, I would just like to have it match up with
the color of the barrel so that there is no stainless visible.

It is purely for aesthetics, maybe my loonism has finally
gotten the best of me lol.

[TAZ]

I have a KG coated barrel and a plane jane SST has tube under DD rails. Unless you're up close and personal the tube isnt an issue. If your that close to me to notice the tube... Well other issues are more pressing. I doubt that painting the tune will be an issue unless the coating disintegrates and starts to flake or melt off making a mess.

The BCG I'd stay away from painting. It may make it without wearing or you may increase the size of the BCG enough to cause reliability issues. After the fact painting and toleranced parts usually don't go together well.

[MistWolf]

Another option to look at is having the barrel bead blasted. It won't be FDE, but it will be a light to medium grey and it will kill the shine and eliminate reflection and will most likely cost much less than Cerakoting.

If I recall, there are two types of Cerakoting. One type insulates the heat, that is, it reduces how much heat the coated part radiates. I had this type of coating applied to a set of headers to help reduce under hood temps and to improve exhaust flow. I don't know if it was the coating or the Borla header, but my Jeep didn't heat up as much on the trail and the engine felt more responsive. (Keep in mind butt dynos are influenced by the amount the wallet was lightened by the mod, cubed.)

The other type is to improve heat radiation. This is the coating you want for your barrel. If the Cerakoting you're looking at is the same ceramic coating process I had applied to my headers, it's a very tough finish indeed

[Tzook]

I see no real benefit from coating your gas tube.

Coating your BCG is a HORRIBLE idea.

[Campbell]

OP, air-dry cerakote will withstand higher temps than the h-series oven cure...but the h-series is much tougher. I don't see heat being an issue with your varmint set-up. If you feel the gas tube will spook Wile-E-Coyote, then spray it after proper prep, no issue there. Your chrome bcg is as it should be IMO. Hope that helps.

[Casull]

Coating the gas tube makes sense if you don't want it to be seen so easily under the rail. Most tubes are shiny.

Coating the carrier group probably bad since it's one of the more important components of your gun's innards. Although, I've never seen it done and wonder if perhaps other treatments could result in a "colored" bolt group.

[Quiet-Matt]

For do it yourself small jobs I use Teflon/Moly oven cure finish from Brownells. It goes on easy and evenly. Prep work is the most difficult and most important. Media blasting the surface will ensure the most durable finish. On a parkerized barrels all thats needed is cleaning, but on stainless or blued barrels you will need to blast the surface. I use aluminum oxide.
http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/pid=1145/Product/TEFLON-MOLY-OVEN-CURE-GUN-FINISH

As far as coating the gas tube, I wouldn't recommend that. If you want it black, Spikes sells melonited gas tubes that would be a better choice.
http://www.spikestactical.com/new/z/parts-accessories-upper-parts-c-146_151.html

-Matt


.

[An Undocumented Worker]

Or just let the gas tube get dirty with carbon, it will go from shiny, to grey, to flat black depending on your round count.

[HELLABEN]

ive painted completely assembled uppers with norells moly resin, (cerakote is better) and as a byproduct the gas tube got painted, it held up fine, didnt burn off.

i did burn norells off a silencer though

and dont krylon silencers, barrels or gas tubes, it will burn like crazy, it will smoke like a forest fire, i made this mistake once

[Iraqgunz]

Why anyone would find any value in coating their BCG or gas tube is beyond me. I guess if you are really brave, go ahead and coat the BCG and then come back and let us know what happened.

[nimdabew]

I painted a gas tube on an assembled upper with krylon and it has held up just fine. Suppressed and heavy firing schedules don't seem to burn it off yet.

[On_Point1]

Thanks for all the replies, I'm gonna scrap the idea of coating the BCG, but I'm gonna try it on the gas tube and see what happens.

[John_Burns]

Regular Cerakote will not effectively stick to the chrome plating on your BCG and is not intended for moving parts.

NIC also makes another Creakote product called Micro Slick that some use in that application, Next Gen Arms, but again your chrome plated BCG will not coat very well as the reason for the plating is to keep crap from sticking.

[FloridaWoodsman]

Take the advice to get the melonited gas tube. The area inside the handguard is going to be shaded, so the black melonite will hardly show and it's going to last.

[An Undocumented Worker]

Is there any functional reason for some sources selling a melonited gas tube, or is done just because they can? Secondly are the melonited gas tubes still made from stainless? If so from what I understand meloniting stainless can reduce it's corrosion resistance.

[FloridaWoodsman]

Is there any functional reason for some sources selling a melonited gas tube, or is done just because they can? Secondly are the melonited gas tubes still made from stainless? If so from what I understand meloniting stainless can reduce it's corrosion resistance.
I'm guessing it's just to make the stainless black. The corrosion issue is something we might ask the makers. I see things on the web that imply that there are different methods of applying meloniting, one of which is not suitable for stainless because of corrosion. So for stainless, they skip the last "Q" in the usual "QPQ" process.

I'm more impressed by experience than theory. My own experience with it has been less than a year, so I can't speak for my tube's endurance. This fellow, though, used a stainless barrel for testing and the melonite seems to have done well.
http://68forums.com/forums/showthread.php?26592-melonite

[An Undocumented Worker]

I'm guessing it's just to make the stainless black. The corrosion issue is something we might ask the makers. I see things on the web that imply that there are different methods of applying meloniting, one of which is not suitable for stainless because of corrosion. So for stainless, they skip the last "Q" in the usual "QPQ" process.

I'm more impressed by experience than theory. My own experience with it has been less than a year, so I can't speak for my tube's endurance. This fellow, though, used a stainless barrel for testing and the melonite seems to have done well.
http://68forums.com/forums/showthread.php?26592-melonite

I was refering only to the use of melonite on a gas tube.

On barrels, when used in conjunction with an appropriate barrel steel melonite seems like a superior finish as compared with chrome lining, but lets not let this thread get hijacked about that discussion

[Mjolnir]

If you choose you *MUST* coat the BCG then use a PVD (physical vapor deposition) coating such as Nickel Boron and Tungsten DLC (WDLC).

These coatings would also work on your gas tube.

Not sure it's needed. If they were $15 and $2 more for the parts, respectively I'd take them but I've thus far not been sufficiently concerned enough to spend the money to have it done to existing parts, to be honest.