Painting Markers ???

[maniacmechanic]

OK 1st off I know anno & duracoat are permanant & will last a long time

I am wondering why not paint markers ?? I love changing things around & why trade a blue ULE for a black one , when all you need to do is paint it , when it gets scratched ( the most expensive anno seems to get scratched the fastest ) just repaint it , don't like the color ? change it
worried about tolerance's , just mask it off , and it stays in spec
I would think that with quailty preparation , paint would be fine & with a good clearcoat , damage from paintball paint would be minimal

OK let's here the Pro's & Con's

[Sumthinwicked]

i do it with my lb wanna see www.putfile.com/sumthinwicked the paint rubs off on woods and iover usage but i painted mine a year ago still looks fine wash everything in achohol first let it dry mask hole off paint away i did as one piece so things would fit together and i pull my tac awapt all the time you could send to me if you want and i could paint it whateva u want ill charge u a lil bit and the cost of paint and shipping

[malJohann]

It can be done, question is which paint to use and how to get it off easily when you want to?

[gunangel]

i had the same idea after i got my cocker ano'd and had the diameters of the screw holes change and dropping a dime on it causing a scratch...

my marker in the march MOTM is actually enamel coated. comes in a can and i have to say i am surprised by the durability. cons would be it flaking off or changing tolerances, the first which can be handled by following the directions on the can...something most people fail to do, which results in spray paints bad reputation...the second of which can be accomplished like you said by masking.

definitely use some good cleaning alcohol and rough up the surface with some fairly rough grit sand paper or a self etching primer or agent. if you wanted even more permanence you can go with an engine enamel which you bake on but that thing lasts for a long time. buying paint meant for cars/wheels/engines/headers is usually better than anything you can find at a hardware store, other than ceramic which i have found to be quite useful.

if all else fails you are out a few $ and you can always send it off to get it ano'd or powdered at a a later date.

[chafnerjr]

OK 1st off I know anno & duracoat are permanant & will last a long time

Don't mean to pick on you for saying permanent and will last a long time but I had to.

Anno isn't permanent though... at least in regards to being able to change it. Anno can be stripped pretty easily in order to re-anno or paint or whatever. As far as I know it doesn't change any tolerances... but can still be gouged out as it only colors the outermost layer of the metal.

[snoopay700]

Don't mean to pick on you for saying permanent and will last a long time but I had to.

Anno isn't permanent though... at least in regards to being able to change it. Anno can be stripped pretty easily in order to re-anno or paint or whatever. As far as I know it doesn't change any tolerances... but can still be gouged out as it only colors the outermost layer of the metal.

Yeah the problem with anno is that it basically colors the oxidized layer of aluminum and while that layer sticks to the aluminum and is theoretically permanent, if anything happens to the layer it's screwed, suck as scratching it. And it can affect the tolerances but not on the order that it'll actually affect anything unless you get it stripped like 100 or maybe even 1000 times.

[trippleRipple]

Yeah the problem with anno is that it basically colors the oxidized layer of aluminum and while that layer sticks to the aluminum and is theoretically permanent, if anything happens to the layer it's screwed, suck as scratching it. And it can affect the tolerances but not on the order that it'll actually affect anything unless you get it stripped like 100 or maybe even 1000 times.

Effectively your saying the only difference is the cost.

both can be refinished, check.
both can/will be damaged if abused, check.
neither will realistically effect the tolerance, check.

I have not priced up an ano job in a long time but a can of quality primer, a can of quality color coat, and a can of clear will cost every bit of 20-30$. Sure the remainder of the cans can be used else where but will you?

Personally I am not sure if its worth the effort. I bet most people that go down this road buy the paint, try it, play a few times, and then end up sending the parts out to be ano'd anyway.

Shrug save your self the money and aggravation and just get the ano job.

[snoopay700]

Effectively your saying the only difference is the cost.

both can be refinished, check.
both can/will be damaged if abused, check.
neither will realistically effect the tolerance, check.

I have not priced up an ano job in a long time but a can of quality primer, a can of quality color coat, and a can of clear will cost every bit of 20-30$. Sure the remainder of the cans can be used else where but will you?

Personally I am not sure if its worth the effort. I bet most people that go down this road buy the paint, try it, play a few times, and then end up sending the parts out to be ano'd anyway.

Shrug save your self the money and aggravation and just get the ano job.

Plus good paint jobs can be hard. And anno is easier to be damaged usually since it's just the oxide layer on the aluminum, but it still takes quite a bit.

[Toll]

If the metal is properly prepped and you don't BEAT on the thing you can spray it. That being said you will probably be happier with annodizing as it will cost about as much depending on what you're doing.

Self etching primer + automotive colours + 2/3 layers of clear would probably keep it kicking around for quite some time.

[trippleRipple]

Plus good paint jobs can be hard. And anno is easier to be damaged usually since it's just the oxide layer on the aluminum, but it still takes quite a bit.

If you go with a hard coat anno it should hold up really well. Dont know if anyone uses hard coats on paintball guns but in the stuff I used to do for the ocean environment the hard coat was pretty impressive. Not so good for lighter colors like yellow, makes them look dark like a nice shade of puke.