A while back I made the decision to Duracoat my rifle. The clerk at Lauer made it sound like a simple spray job. However,the great minds here at AR advised that it should be bead blasted and parkerized to have any durability in the field. I opted to forgo the bead blasting and sanded all my parts. I then degreased them in brake cleaner and then in acetone, just to be thorough. The little parts were easy enough and fit in my stainless drywall mud pan. The barreled action took some ingenuity though. I had most of the fittings from my renovation project but had to buy the hot water heater element and chord. I noticed that other people simply manipulate the plug to regulate temperature. I put a switch on mine for ease of function.

Let it be known that PVC will warp and eventually melt at lower temperatures. In fact, the pluming manager (friend of mine) tried to talk me out of the project because he feared that such a project would certainly end in failure. Heeding such a warning, I did the trial run with water first. Everything went fine so I loaded up the parkerizing solution.

I found that you really need to take things slowly when heating up the solution. If you just leave the element on until the solution hits 180, you will surly melt/warp the PVC at the bottom. I took full advantage of convection to avoid warping the PVC. I turned on the element until the surface hit 120 degrees and then turned it off for 5 min. I slowly worked my way up, letting it 'rest' after 20 degree increments. Once it hit 180 I only needed to turn it on for 20 sec at a time to maintain temperature.

I have to say, that it worked out pretty good. I did have some white streaking on the barrel, which wont matter anyway after the duracoat is put on.