Duracoat Process

A commenter in Paul’s post over at HuffPo gives a pretty good education on how Lauer Custom Weaponry’s Duracoat process works.  For the sake of brevity, I’m only pasting the relevant bits:

I am a frequent purchaser of Lauer products and the only travesty I see in this report is the fact that the Wisconsin dealer charged $200 for the Duracoat (your first error, its not “paint”) job. I’ve done several, and $200 seems a little steep.

It’s actually a neat process. You have to completely disassemble, degrease, and bead blast the firearm first with 120 grit aluminum oxide, then parkerize, then duracoat, making sure that you have the correct “paint” to hardner ratio between 10:1 and 14:1 (personally, I find an 11:1 ratio just right).  It requires a good bit of tools an know-how. Air compresser, media-blasting gun, air brush (I use a Paasche dual-stage) parkerizing solution, heat tank (or a good sized crock pot), and a few other odds and ends.

The end result, if done correctly, is a beautiful, rock-hard, durable firearm finish resistent to holster wear, self lubricating, and, which happens to come in a multitude of colors.

No doubt it’s expensive, now that, thanks to Bloomberg and the Brady Campaign, Lauer is now the hottest name in Duracoat.  Clearly if we don’t get this technology off the streets immediately, we can expect drug dealers and gang bangers to immediately start procuring bead blasting equipment, parkerizing solutions, and heat tanks, and to begin reading up on hardener ratios.  If this scourge is allowed to continue, they’ll soon be so obsessed with Duracoating, they won’t have time to sell drugs and shoot up street corners!