Hey all,

Well, it has been a painful 6 months for me. When they say that you will spend way more to finish an AR15 80% lower than you would a normal AR15 lower receiver, they weren't joking!

Anyhow, I have gotten through all of the milling and I even have etched these lowers using the elctro etching method with the Vinyl stencils - that turned out great for me.

So! I have 4 lower receivers ready to be Cerakoted now... I will be using a 2 stage Paasche Airbrush for the application of the Cerakote.

Here is my dilemma:

What I have is a detached garage and I live in Fargo, ND. We are still pulling average days in the 30's up here so outside painting is still a no go for me... This detached garage I have has one normal door (not a big garage door) and one window. It is about a 20 x 15 foot footprint with the door on one side and the window on the other.

So, I actually came by a donated spray tan "booth" of sorts that basically has three walls and an open top on it... I thought, well, I will save myself the time, money and energy and not build an actual booth and voila, I'm all set to go...

Yeah, until I read today about the toxicity and flammability of the Cerakote... Now, I did go ahead and purchase that respirator and the organic filters from 3M that all the Cerakoters seem to be wearing in youtube vids...

Now,I am looking at building a somewhat small scale paint booth with an exhaust fan much like this one here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWXtFYOJBLY

I would just position the fan to blow the fumes out the window in my detached garage...

But! There are problems with that as I have been reading! The fans like this can blow up too from the Cerakote vapors... So, I am at a complete standstill right now with this. Should I just roll with the spray tan booth and my organic respirator and just hope for the best with no exhaust system? At best with this, I still have a vapor issue I would think right? That vapor would just hang around while the lights are on and whatnot and still be a fire hazard I would think...

So, I have gotten some really good stuff from this site in the past and this is me reaching out for help on this issue! I am so close, yet so far away with this yet... Thank you so much for any help any of you can give me! I have had these 80% lower receivers for over 2 years now and it is time to get these things done! I have way too much money into these and backing out simply is not an option for me at this point.

I would use the down draft style booth with furnace filters to catch the paint over spray. Go down to goodwill and find a humidifier for the fan assembly . The pleated filters should catch most the solids so you won't have to worry about sparks .

Here's what I what I was talking about. https://youtu.be/m6wN0bisBmw

Thanks for the reply Easy_E!

So... The guy I posted in the link on my original post also has this vid:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-sjHRhamLo

He takes his exhaust fan and attaches a drier outlet to it as well for venting outside....

Somebody needs to tell me why I can't use this exact setup for Cerakoting... This guy has multiple vids using an airbrush and DuraCoat with this thing and it looks bullet proof... You can't tell me that $9 Walmart fan he is using doesn't have brushes that are causing sparks..? I looked at the stat sheet and the flammability level on DuraCoat is listed as the same for Cerakote. Yet guys are using these types of fans for exhaust systems all over the place.... What gives?

I built and used the setup from the youtube vids. Thing worked great. All this junk you read online about Cerakote paint fumes and whatnot are pretty much way off. I ran this setup hard for 72 hours two weekends ago with literally 0 issues and the fumes were vented properly.

Are you in a Broom closet?

A shop doing a lot of shooting?




I use a Half face respirator with P100 filter
in a garage with the door cracked open and no issues.

But Im only shooting a couple of parts

I used to paint cars in my parents attached two car garage . I would build a room with sheet plastic and the exhaust was a 20x20 furnace filter over a box fan. This was back in the days of enamel with reducer and hardner. I think the warnings on that is more to cover their ass more than anything. I bet it's dry before it hits the ground.

Something to consider. Aluminum is a soft metal. The Anodizing is what gives a reciever hardness. So with bare metal I would go that route. If it is already Anodizied, then the spray finishes work fine.