DIY Refinishing oven

[arctictom]

Nice project , the results look good.

[Aesop]

Da!
Bolshoi success!
Iz glorious Kalashnikov! Iz built like Russian tank! Iz looking good!!

[Netpackrat]

Currently on Day 13 of waiting for KG to get back to me with a quote for shipping a reasonably large order of Gunkote and Kphos to Alaska. I'd emailed them at the link specified on their website, then finally called them on Monday and got the attention of a salesperson who passed the info along to the person who handles special shipping arrangements. Then a day or two ago got a followup email from the salesperson, informing me that the person in question is one of the owners and is quite busy, but will be getting around to it eventually. I'd kind of like to get this show on the road, especially since I am planning to attend a class in just over two months with one of the rifles to be refinished. Only waited so long to attempt ordering, because I was waiting for somebody else (who just might be a member of this forum) to get back to me with his color selections...

If I have to temporarily Krylon my SBR AK the week before class, I am gonna be annoyed.

[Netpackrat]

Still nothing... Fired off another email asking if there had been any progress on getting me a quote. Starting to wonder what a guy has to do to be able to order Gunkote.

[BobbyK]

NPR,

I'm going to be doing a cruise that stops in Anchorage end of June... Would it be more feasible to ship it to Seattle and have me smuggle it up?

[Netpackrat]

I'll let you know, thanks. I got an email back this morning saying the person that does the special shipping arrangements is now ill and in the hospital... If I want to get the show on the road more quickly I probably just need to look into DIY barge shipping options.

[Netpackrat]

So, a month and a half later I think as of today I finally have succeeded in ordering Gunkote from KG. It has been one of the worst customer service experiences of my life, thus far.

After my last post, I basically got a couple weeks or more of stalling from the person who finally responded, because only the lady who was sick apparently had the knowledge of how to ship to Alaska. (WTF?) Finally, she mentioned that was because shipments to AK had to go by air, with special packaging due to liquid/hazmat, and she didn't even know if they could do it for a "small" order like mine (I guess enough material to paint 15+ guns probably is small by the standards of some of their customers). At that point I realized that the person I was dealing with was completely clueless, and so I responded to her email, asking if there was some reason why that couldn't go ground to Seattle, and then from there to AK via an LTL consolidator? And if I could just get the approximate dimensions and weight of the shipment, I could even make the arrangements myself. Because I DO have experience getting stuff shipped to Alaska.... AlaskaTRX and I used to be in that business with our father, and we handled many such shipments. She said she'd be out of the office the next day, but that she or somebody else would get back to me with that information.

Roughly a week later with no further response, I called KG and left a message on their voicemail trying to get some sort of action, and a dude called me back right away... Said the lady I had been emailing with was no longer with the company, and had me email him the list of stuff I had compiled and originally sent them a month previously... So I finally had some interest from KG, but I was back to square one since they provided me with a quote for air shipping that was well over 50% of the cost of the material itself. Back and forth ensued, and I was able to get them to understand that they could ship it by ground to Seattle, and I would take it from there but I needed the packaging info in order to get a quote on the barge shipping to AK. I finally got them to cough that up last week, and when I called the LTL company I was told they needed the UN number for the packaging and some other information before they could give me a quote. I forget what it all was (I have it written down someplace), but basic info that every hazmat shipment carries regardless of shipping method. Nothing too complex. I responded to my contact at KG asking for the additional info last week, and once again I got zero response back.

Finally over the weekend I concluded that if I want to meet my goal of getting some of my stuff painted before the end of July, I was going to have to cut my losses and just pay for the 2 day air shipment even though it's probably the stupidest way to ship paint up here. Left another phone message yesterday asking for a call back, and no response. I was pretty well convinced that they had written me off as a PITA by then and were simply ignoring me. I emailed again today explaining that I need to get the show on the road and wanted to just go with the air shipment, and could they please call me back for my credit card info. Wonder of wonders, within 20 minutes my phone rang with KG on the other end. So I should be getting my stuff soon, at exorbitant cost, and it will still have taken a lot longer than the slow boat would have, were I dealing with competence.

The thing that sucks the most is not the time it has taken to get to this point, but one of my goals here was to establish a baseline for shipping possible future orders up. If my only goal were for AlaskaTRX and I to paint our own guns, then the air shipment wouldn't have been that big of a deal, and we'll still be saving a ton of money vs. paying somebody else to refinish our guns. However, one of my purposes is also to evaluate whether I want to get an FFL and do refinishing as a side business in the future. By the time I am done with all of my guns I should have some good cost data in terms of time and consumables required, as well as knowing whether or not I enjoy the work enough to want to try doing it on a professional basis. But unfortunately I have also established that as much as I may think KG has a better process, if I would have to go through this each time I needed to place an order for more material, and/or pay the cost of air shipment each time, I would have to choose a different process... it doesn't matter how good their stuff is; it's hard enough to succeed in business even without flaky suppliers.

[Old Grafton]

NPR, your patience and persistence in this long-running slow-motion trainwreck is nothing short of astounding. There would be a long string of mysterious fatalities in the saga were it I dealing with all this, just sayin'....

A couple of suggestions:
1. Keep your parkerizing setup; don't worry about a temp controller. The stuff will work at any temp from 170F to boiling, and it's re-useable darn near indefinitely by just adding water and a splash of park solution periodically. The only drawback will be sludge buidup (scoop out when cooled) and changes in the manganese or zinc concentration but if you're going to paint over it (the surface conditioning is PERFECT for paint adherence) that won't matter. Fresher solution, darker (on average) color. Rinse, blow dry, heat any jointed, riveted or laminated areas to ensure drying, don't oil prior to paint application.

2. Look into catalyzed automotive finishes. The various gun-painting "inventors" haven't invented anything new, regardless of non-specific claims. Any color, gloss or not, you pick. A pint goes a helluva long ways with a decent HVLP gun.

[Netpackrat]

Oh, it ain't over yet. I got the invoice back from them for confirmation today, and given how impatient I am to get things moving, combined with they did give me a discount that changed the amount I was expecting to see, I sent the go-ahead reply before noticing that a couple items were missing from the invoice and another had the wrong quantity. So I sent the correction a few minutes later, and now sit here hoping that they get the second reply in time and that I get the correct stuff.

[Netpackrat]

Okay, so KG is working hard to redeem themselves. The lady I am dealing with now is going to re-do my order from scratch based on the list I originally sent a month and a half ago, and she said she is going to split the cost of shipping with me. That won't help me with "goal 2" as described above, but it is outstanding none the less.