How to blacken a stainless steel bezel

peter yetman

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I'd like to turn one on my stainless bezels black. I know I can do it with a titanium one by heating and then immersing in oil.
Is there a similar way to do it with stainless?
Thanks,
Peter
 

usdiver

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I'd like to turn one on my stainless bezels black. I know I can do it with a titanium one by heating and then immersing in oil.
Is there a similar way to do it with stainless?
Thanks,
Peter

Would you like a project then? I ve got some titanium I want blackened.

Regarding the stainless bluing would be nice, or there's dlc I think you can get done, or black oxide.
 

peter yetman

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Apparently you can do the Ti ones by getting them red hot then drenching them in a cup of WD40. I read it in the HDS thread somewhere, I think.
P
 

Modernflame

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Good point. My Google Fu is weak, but from what I can tell the hrc of titanium will be less than 40. Since it's not a terribly hard metal to begin with, I can't see that it would matter if it fell to 35 ish.
 

usdiver

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For me or the bezel?
P

Both

I m currently burning some titanium as we speak. Red hot first time. Dipped in water. Now again red hot then will cool by air. It has a nice dark grey color.

I ve got more parts i m wanting to do and I ll shoot you a pm.
 

klackey

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FYI........ I bought one of each of the aftermarket bezels and they only came in "silver". I wanted something "different". I took them to a local cerakote shop and they "painted" them black. It was not crazy expansive as I was not in a rush and he just waited till he had a full gun to do and used the left overs on my bezels. They look awesome...……. but now will not fit! I am now invested deeply as I have the trits to go in also. I believe the issue is the inside threads were also coated and now are too thick to work. Very frustrating, I asked before about the thickness and any close tolerance issues. He said it is very thin and he has no problems with anything he has coated.... his focus is guns.

My only idea would to have them sand blasted on the inside...…..but that is even more investment and not certain it will "fix" the fitment issue. I am getting close to "done" as I could have purchased a whole new HDS for what I have spent.

Just a word of caution...…
 

usdiver

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klackey
Sorry to hear of your experience it is very frustrating and disappointing as well as expensive. If the cerakote was done correctly it may be near impossible to get the stuff off.
Did he say how much thickness the cerakote is as in numbers? I know DLC is only 5 microns and very thin.

I m thinking it may be possible to cover the outside of the bezel with heavy tape such as duct tape or similar and have only the inside blasted. You also want to make sure your trits will go in the slots first otherwise it may be that a full blast is required... but I hope you can get it fixed.
 

klackey

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usdiver

I do not recall the number he said. The trits fit fine now and the coating looks uniform and thin. The shop is very professional, well known in gun community (not just a "local" backyard shop) so I am confident it was done correctly.

It could be user error..... I do not recall testing one bezel before I had the work done. It would be odd that two bezels from two different runs would be flawed. I also tried to screw them into three different HDS lights to be sure.... I was able to rebuild the HDS lights with the original bezel so original parts are fine. Not sure what to do next...… paper weights :(

Sorry for a hijack...
 

peter yetman

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How hard is Cerakote? Can you try scraping the threads wuth a scalpel or someting sharp and pointed? If you're going to dump them there's nothing to lose.
Hey, no hijack, it's interesting and someone may be able to help.

P
 

klackey

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Thanks, that was what I came up with also..... sandblasting..... I might look into that someday.

Spent more time playing/looking and I am truly stumped.... the coating is just not that thick....

Just ordered another trit bezel....
I will "live" with silver.
I will NOT be messing with this one! HDS threads seem to have very tight tolerances.

Hope my lesson will prevent someone else the mess I fell into.... and the after market bezels are $ and somewhat rare. Hate to have killed off TWO.
 

Hogokansatsukan

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Thanks, that was what I came up with also..... sandblasting..... I might look into that someday.

Spent more time playing/looking and I am truly stumped.... the coating is just not that thick....

Just ordered another trit bezel....
I will "live" with silver.
I will NOT be messing with this one! HDS threads seem to have very tight tolerances.

Hope my lesson will prevent someone else the mess I fell into.... and the after market bezels are $ and somewhat rare. Hate to have killed off TWO.

I won't say the tolerances are tight... but 99 out of 100 machinists won't make our parts. The other 1 doesn't know how to read a calendar.

When HDS did Cerakote, we didn't have the insides done... especially the threads.

What I would do, and this doesn't mean that it would work at all.
I would start with rum. Pour a little on the bezel, and the rest down yourself. Make sure most of it goes inside yourself and not down the front of you like so often happens with me.
I would then grab my high speed rotary destruction tool I call "Dremel" and use a soft polishing wheel with jewelry rouge and see if that can take it off the threads. If that doesn't work, just add more rum.
 

klackey

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Spent some time with my mistakes...(Cerakote bezels). I think my goof was that I used wine instead of the reccommened rum. Oh, and no power tools.

I tried to use steel wool...…….. after 20min I could not even tell difference. I am developing a serious respect for
Cerakote!!!

I may pass these along to someone who has the time and desire to mess around with these things.
 
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