I’m just curious of DD anodizes the aluminum under the Cerakote, just wondering how it may impact long term durability. I have the tornado grey Cerakote finish and I wonder if there will be anodizing underneath as the Cerakote finish wears off from use.
Can’t answer directly about DD, but when I had a rifle Cerakoted, it had to be stripped to bare metal before Cerakote was applied.
A friend of mine does Cerakote as part of his side-job doing gunsmithing, and that is what he has told me.
Wow. I did not realize that. I’ve thought about having an AR ceracoated.
No way would I get rid of anodize for paint.
Cerakote’s application instructions do state that aluminum be abrasive blasted, but the recommended sandblasting procedures should not remove all of the anodizing, if the initial anodizing was within specs.
Remember, just because the color has been removed, does not necessarily mean the anodizing has been removed.
the parts come in raw and get cerakoted, unless something has changed. I used to work for LSI, and they own a company that does cerakote. When I was working there they did cerakoted parts for SIG, and Daniel Defense.
Have you tried asking DD directly? I’ve had good luck just asking the manufacture directly.
Interesting, were those parts receivers? Right now DD apparently does their Cerakote in house.
most of what i saw was hand guards, but i worked on the other side building howa rifles. I only saw everything in passing.
I’ve passed the question up to DD directly. Anyways, according to DD, they do their Cerakote in house, so maybe the process has changed? But nothing on whether the part was anodized prior though.
if they did i understand why. i couldnt believe they were outsourcing it to this company. sig purchased a robotic arm to do the spraying of their parts. i also haven’t worked there in over a year so lots could have changed.
The anodizing does not need to be removed prior to Cerakote. The metal surface only needs to be abraded to some degree (e.g. lightly sandblasted).
Got a reply from Jeff McCombes at DD, and he said that all rifles are black anodized before Cerakote. So that answers that.
Cerakote is applied post anodizing.
That sounds a lot better!
Anodizing isn’t going to be removed by proper cerakote prep. Anodizing is an important part of the process, and the weapon needs the hardening of the aluminum. Don’t think of anodizing as just a color, that would be racist. Its underneath that counts…