How well does hotfix rhinestones and Cerakoat work together?

[Jason_2111]

So for xmas, I'm pimping out one of my niece's AR's. She's getting a Tiffany-blue cerakoat job, along with a furniture upgrade.
I wanted to also put some hotfix Swarovski crystals on the side to bling it up a bit.
The only concern that I've got is how well the heat-applied hotfix ones will stick to the Cerakoat. I know the stones would stick to anodized aluminum just fine, but I'm concerned they might not hold on Cerakoat... or worse, pop off and screw up a perfectly good paint job.

Does anyone have any experiences with this combo? If you're ashamed to say in public, feel free to PM me.

TIA!

[Gunsmith Dan]

Hello Jason_2111

We are a Certified Cerakote Applicator and to answer your question:

No it will not stick very well and even if it does stick it will pop off after some time. Cerakote in fact will not even stick to itself after it is fully cured unfortunately so the only way is to remove the Cerakote or mask the area prior to coating.

If you need any other information or help in getting them attached in a very permanent way as well as Cerakoted to look like it came from the factory (we have the Tiffany Blue formula as well) call us (760)388-5766.

[NYT]

what you would have to do is buy plastic crystals instead of actual stones and then epoxy them to the plastic furniture. you could do this by cerakoting the furniture and then roughing it up in order to apply the epoxy to the plastic crystals. i did this with my nieces barbie motorized car.

[Jason_2111]

Thanks for the info guys... that's kinda what I figured would happen. I painted the engraving on a couple of mine that were cerakoated... and they paint just didn't want to stick.

I'll do some experiments. I have a feeling the best result will be in carefully removing a small circle of the cerakoat every place there will be a rhinestone. If my experiments fail miserably, I'll give a buzz Dan. Thanks!

[Jason_2111]

After some initial experiments, I've determined that hotfix rhinestones are completely not correct for any sort of application that isn't fabric or some such thing. The hotfix glue is basically a pre-applied tiny dab of hot glue.

Yeah, that's not going to work.

Looks like it's going to be an industrial grade adhesive on non-hotfix flatback stones.

While digging around, I found this interesting summary of different adhesives:

http://www.firemountaingems.com/encyclobeadia/beading_resources.asp?docid=glues

I'm going to continue experiments with 4 or 5 different glues/epoxies, and share the results for any interested in adding a little bling to the old lady's AR.

Clearing off just the right amount of cerakoat to give a good spot to stick to turned out to be easier than I thought... I'll be using a laser. It doubles as a way to layout the stones perfectly by engraving the pattern where they go, then drop them on the dots.