Cerakote galling?

Duramaximos · #1 10-18-2020, 01:42 PM

Hello all,

I have a new to me rifle that was recently Cerakoted. I have no other experience with Cerakote. A colored coating was applied to all metal parts except the bolt tube which was coated in a smooth dull black. Looks to be a different coating altogether.

In warm temps the bolt cycles relatively smooth with close fitting tolerances, very little slop in the bolt. Lockup is tight but not overly.

Now move the rifle into cold humid conditions and the bolt is sticky when extracting and loading. Not sticky when locking and unlocking. Almost feels like metal galling. Which is surprising because Cerakote products claim to minimze this sort of thing. The rifle has been thoroughly cleaned and is free of excess oil.

Any thoughts?

I'm tempted to remove the black coating on the bolt tube...

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Dean2 · #2 10-18-2020, 02:25 PM

Phone the guy that did the work. That isn't normal, I would guess there is something wrong with the coating that was applied, soft, too thick, coating where it doesn't belong or whatever, but I would get him to fix it right rather than mess with it.

Pathfinder76 · #3 10-18-2020, 02:31 PM

Cerekote is horrible. IMO it has no place on a rifle. Yes it is sticky and is exactly the cause of what you are experiencing.

fps plus · #4 10-18-2020, 02:31 PM

I doubt it is galling. Anytime you put coatings on you have a build up of whatever the coating is. You may find a light gun oil of some type may help . Sit in front of the tv and cycle the action hundreds of times , of course with no ammo. That may wear some of the binding areas . I have seen issues with screw holes , pin holes and magazine releases due to coatings

Duramaximos · #5 10-18-2020, 02:49 PM

It is not metal galling. It just feels like it.

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Dean2 · #6 10-18-2020, 02:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chuck

Cerekote is horrible. IMO it has no place on a rifle. Yes it is sticky and is exactly the cause of what you are experiencing.

That is very interesting. I have only ever had two rifles that were Cerakoted, I prefer Blued or plain Stainless, but I never ran into the problem described. Only had them two or three years each so maybe never got them out in the right weather to see it.

marxman · #7 10-18-2020, 04:02 PM

I have a weatherby 6 lug with ceracoat. Its stainless and I would rather have some other surface treatment rather than a coating. Mine doesn't chip off like I thought it might its very thin and wears through nicely at places on the bolt and is not sticky, though I have smoother actions. If the ceracoat is sticky I think it is clearance or application problems i don't know how anyone would try to fix a ceracoat that wasn't behaving, or how something that would change factory dimensions could be expected to work perfect every time even if applied properly

Full Curl Earl · #8 10-18-2020, 09:35 PM

I have cerakoted an awful lot of rifles, and thats the first claim I have ever heard that its horrible. Maybe you and the OP had work done by the same individual. Cera is applied at .001”, so if that binds a bolt, you don't want to get a human hair in your action thats for sure, as they are.003. I suspect it was oversprayed and fix is simple, blast it off and redo it. I will admit that matte black on a bolt does show wear quickly, but its only an appearance thing.

QUOTE=chuck;4250518]Cerekote is horrible. IMO it has no place on a rifle. Yes it is sticky and is exactly the cause of what you are experiencing.[/QUOTE]

fps plus · #9 10-19-2020, 04:53 AM

I’m not for or against any types of coating but one thing to remember that if it is applied .001 of an inch on a round item such as a bolt there is.001 on both sides and now becomes the total of .002 . The same goes for the inside of the action. So now you have the possibility of .004 build up of coating .

Pathfinder76 · #10 10-19-2020, 07:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Full Curl Earl

I have cerakoted an awful lot of rifles, and thats the first claim I have ever heard that its horrible. Maybe you and the OP had work done by the same individual. Cera is applied at .001”, so if that binds a bolt, you don't want to get a human hair in your action thats for sure, as they are.003. I suspect it was oversprayed and fix is simple, blast it off and redo it. I will admit that matte black on a bolt does show wear quickly, but its only an appearance thing.

In sloppy rifles it may be fine.

Positrac · #11 10-19-2020, 08:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Full Curl Earl

Cera is applied at .001”, so if that binds a bolt, you don't want to get a human hair in your action thats for sure, as they are.003.

Yup, seen it a thousand times.

At double that thickness one hair from the nether-regions of a young red-headed nubile can jam an action up right tight...

Full Curl Earl · #12 10-19-2020, 01:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Positrac

Yup, seen it a thousand times.

At double that thickness one hair from the nether-regions of a young red-headed nubile can jam an action up right tight...

Lol
And you win, a 1000 times is alot!