At what temperature do springs detemper?

[AussieMike]

I like Brownell's Gunkote as an easy to use, hard wearing finish. In the past I have fully stripped firearms before using as I was concerned about the baking temperature of 350 degrees Fahrenheit detempering the springs.

Is this really necessary. I would like to "touch up" the finish on several firearms and would like to just spray the externals and then bake the gun un-dissembled. Is their any risk to the springs?

Thanks for your help.

mike

 

[Sam1911]

350 deg. F. is below the tempering temperature for springs, which are fairly soft.

I'd not worry too much about the springs, but disassembling the gun down to component parts will always get you a better job of decreasing (oil and grease will come out of EVERY seam or joint when you get it that hot) and a better coating.

 

[dfariswheel]

Most of the baking type gun coatings are not that sensitive to baking temperature.

If you can, remove all springs first. If you can't and worry about 350 degrees being too much (it isn't) just turn the temp down to 325 and bake longer.
I have baked as low as 300, just giving it more bake time.

One way to insure no chance of too much heat is to buy an oven thermometer and check the temperatures in the oven to see how accurate the oven settings are.
To be safe, check the temps in various areas of the oven to detect cool or hot spots.

 

[AussieMike]

Thanks everyone, that will let me sleep better. I degreaser in an ultrasonic cleaner so I suspect most of the grease is removed.

Thanks,

mike

 

[Old Dog Man]

Baking gun in over

You can bake the gun in the oven prior to coating it, to flash off any oil not removed by cleaning. Bake at 325deg. for an hour, let it cool and then do your coating. Some coating manuf. recommend this so thats what I do. Al