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Well now that the weather has changed (well at least for most of us) it is time to start tinkering with our guns. Now is a good time to have all that fancy mill work and anodizing completed--but there are a few things that you need to know before you delve into the mess that can be plating/painting and coatings.

With anodizing, what you really need to look is the experience if the company doing the work. Most if the big names that do the anodizing for paintball have enough experience to keep the parts in tolerance. Let me explain this a little better.

When you anodize aluminum (which is the only metal you can anodize) you are using a chemical bath with dyes and electric current to invoke a change in the surface to accept the dyes. Now the big concern here is that the part can't stay in the vat too long or it will change the tolerances of the part or parts being anodized. By tolerance I mean the sizes. I have seen parts the looked great but caused problems with screw holes to big to hold a screw and the threads pull out. With the Automag the problem when a rail had been dipped too long is the rail bushing will fall out, the pin from the main body no longer fits snugly in the recess in the rail and sear pins wobble around and cause excessive wear to the rail/sear/bolt. So if you are going to have a part anodized by a local firm, make sure to explain that you need them to be very mindful of the tolerances for the parts. A VERY important note when sending stuff to an anodizing shop is to make sure you take all of the non aluminum parts out of what you're sending. If you leave a steel screw in your aluminum vertical-bottle adapter it may cause a burn of the metal you are anodizing.

Plating/Chroming - With most plating jobs you are adding material to the parts. The steps involve a lot of work which is why chrome plating is expensive. To start off with you strip and clean the parts and then start with the polishing. Next you plate some copper and more polishing and then a layer of chrome. With all of these steps it is very labor intensive. The nice thing here is that there is little danger of ruining any parts unless you remove the pin from the rail.

Powder Coating - This process puts a very durable color coat on almost any type of part or material. The parts are first cleaned and treated, and are then charged with current and a special spray gun then shoots very fine powder onto the parts. The powder stays attached because of the electric charge passing through the parts. The parts are then moved into an oven where they are baked. This melts the powder and covers the surface with a very consistent thickness. The only exception is at the ends. This is the one real draw back to powder coating the Automag's main body. There can be a thick build-up on the end of the tube. This will cause all sorts of problems from sear engagement, to inconsistent velocity and leaks. Some people have just sanded down the ends but the overall thickness is very important because adding material to the rail side of the main body will cause the above problems.

Painting - The old basic--you can do this yourself, but you need to be very careful. I have seen some awesome work done with paint. What you need to keep an eye on are the fit parts--don't paint the rail where the grip attaches (you can mask this area and paint the rest just be careful of the trigger and safety), and the valley where the main body rests. Don't paint the bottom of the main body where it will touch the rail. Again you can mask these areas and paint around them. Try not to get paint down into the power feed, regulator and barely openings.

There are some great companies out there that do great work, PK's does some of the best custom work I have seen to date. They do stuff that looks like custom airbrush work and the tinting and mill valley fills with different colors.

Well have fun and get creative.

(Rob Hoover, is a certified Airgun Designs technician and can be found at most major Paintball events working the AGD booth.)

You can reach Rob at rhoover@capaccess.org