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Painting Steel Parts

Posted: Sat Oct 13, 2007 11:06 pm
by CannonCreator
Ok I am planning on making a new combustion laucher to run off off metered propane. I want make this a full out high budget cannon, so I want to make it also look pretty cool to. So I want to give half the parts a Blue polish paint, and the other half a Red polish paint. At first I was thinking of getting them anodized at a body shop but I beleive you can only anodize aluminum not steel parts. According to my google search anodizing steel with aluminum anodizer will dissolve steel parts. And there is not many places that anodize steel.

But I still want a nice polish anodized look to the meter parts. So what is the best stuff to paint with, after I sand down any coarse sections, and polish it?

Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2007 7:58 am
by mark.f
Well, since the steel is galvanized, (usually), you won't be able to go to a gunsmith and have the parts blued professionally. Neither will you be able to give it a good enough looking blue coat with some of the DIY kits.

For galvanized steel, I'd say sand it slightly, prime it, and then paint it.

Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2007 8:22 am
by jrrdw
Powder coating will work nicely, probly wont cost that much either. If you want to do it yourself i seen some painting systems on ebay a while back that was like powder coating, called for use of a heat gun. If you spray it, to get a high polished luster, wet sand dried paint with no less then 2,000 grit wet/dry sand paper, then buff with fine buffing compound then a lite coat of clear coat, then wax. When finished, hold a ruler against it sticking out like a arm, if you can read at least 6 inchs in the reflection, you did a good job!