Powder Coat vs. Cerakote | Which Is Better? 

Powder coat or Cerakote? What would you go with?

The glossier you mix Cerakote, the harder it is. For a better comparison, try a 1:12 ratio. Also, Cerakote comes in MANY vivid colors. The reason for the acetone bath before the sandblast is so you do not contaminate your sand, which would contaminate the surface. Cerakote also takes 5 days for a full cure. I understand this was a ghetto comparison, just laying down some facts.

Back at it again with the vids!

A fuel spill resistance test would be nice, I mean, no one is gonna spil fuel over the levers, but maybe someone will powdercoat/cerakote other parts of the bike that would be at risk of begin covered by fuel

You do such a good job at helping people out with making bikes look awesome! I like powder coating just because the color selection

He's a proper dude this guy. Top lad with such a good attitude and awesome content

Just found your channel a couple days ago... Trying to watch every video lol. You give me so many tips and tricks for maintaining my 02 Cr 250! Much respect.

Thanks for making this video. I finally know and understand the differences and how each hold up now.

This was helpful, practical, clear, and to-the-point. Thanks for avoiding the temptation to make this into clickbait, or to stretch out the video with filler.

Keep up the good work! Love your content!

Keep up the work man

Most people don’t know this, but you can apply multiple coats of cerakote. Spray a coat on your project then hit it with a heat gun till it looks dry then spray another coat. I have about 4 coats on the outer (not areas where tolerance is important) parts of some of my guns, and the cerakote is tough as nails there. EDIT: you still have to fully cure the piece in the oven afterwards.

Updated 2 years later & cerakote now has alot of colors up to high gloss black. Tested that one, tungsten & gold & yes its awesome

Great video mate.You're awesome.

Finally, a "which is better" video that actually has someones opinion on which is better instead of "both are wonderful use whatever works for you!"

Thanks for video... one thing to point out is that Cerakote has many different variations for the same color! The letter at the beginning and end of the code denotes the type of coat and what its good for! Like more resistant to friction are great for gun slides and high temp coats that you can use on pipes and even piston heads...

Both are cool, I like your choices on each part for the cr250 build

Great vid. Just what I was looking for. Thank you.

That cerakote looks soo good!!!

So, I've been looking at options for coating parts and pieces that would be durable. 1 reason I've decided to go with cerakote is that it isn't limited to metal parts. It also works on polymers and plastic. The "H series" has quite a few color options... And thanks to it being a liquid, you can mix colors to get the exact tones you want, you can also do some pretty awesome patterns with stencils and airbrush guns. Just some additional thoughts to consider.

Thanks for the demonstration.

thanks. You did answer my question about both finished though. Neither one flaked or cracked off which is good. Solid prep is key to that I'm guessing.

Great video! Very helpful! Thanks so much!

And absolutely love your video they really motivate me

Very informative, thanks.

Thank you.I've wondered what the difference was.It's a tough choice.(Yep,went there)

Awesome vid and edits and filming and bikes

Basically, powder has a bigger variety of colors, but some areas will need masking, and Cerakote has a few colors, but does not need masking. Nice testings, really fair. Not something you see often here.

Really nice video!✌️

Nice comparison test at the end, thanks for doing that! Personally I like the look of cerakote on dirt bikes and guns. Any thoughts on powder vs Cera on something like a shock spring where the base metal is going thru some extreme flex?

Hey Cameron, I have been watching a lot of your videos and have been thoroughly impressed by the work you do. I had an idea and was wondering what your thoughts on it may be. The idea would be using a copper plating and then Cerakote over the copper plating. Wondering if you think this would be possible or if the end result would be messy. Thanks again for the awesome videos.

Nice video keep the good work up

Loved the vid! You deserve more subscribers man, The work you put in your videos and the professional quality of them is amazing! Keep it up😋

Hi Cameron! Can you do a video where you explain the correct setting of the suspension?

Excellent video.

You can do Wet powder coated, you mix a special liquid with your color of powder coat and paint with a brush or use a spray gun to coat item, then bake as normal!! Search RU-vid videos.

Good vid man, those handles went thru an extreme test...very impressive, thank you i think that powder coating would be the option that i would go with because of the color options and it seems simpler to repair? Or less costly then the cerakoting. Thx again!

you gotta be the most kick back, coolest moto dude on youtube! funny as hell too. Hey about acetone soaks before or after.. I think that unless your running an oil water separator on your air compressor- you should finish the entire process of cleaning the part with a final clean acetone soak. you cannot go wrong with that. There will always be condensation and oil in your compressed air, from the compressor pump. Dont forget to always drain your compressor tank as well. That will tell you better what kind of grease is present in the air your blowing, IF your not running a water oil separator.

You should see what brake fluid does to the coatings. Brake levers are usually subjected to a few drops when adding fluid to the reservoir.

Turn your racks around and you won't need to tilt to get past the anti-remove feature of the oven for cooking safety reasons in the home, almost all oven racks will work this way, both of mine do. Good vid and test.

You should tape some clear plastic film on the inside of your sandblaster viewing glass window, other wise your viewing glass will begin to fade and it will be hard to see through it.

Just buy ARC levers made of memlon and never worry about them again. They're also unbreakable.

Cerakote has tons of colors,and if your cerakote has texture you didn't spray it right you most likely got dry spray (didn't put it on heavy enough).

I wonder how you make your videos so good. I want to ask you about the name of soundtrack you put into videos. It is so cool.

You should check Cerakote's website, they have tons of colors. I'm talking just about any color you want. I'm not saying you were lying but maybe just misinformed about the selection of colors. Edit- cerakote also comes in gloss and people have great success with candy coating when they mix the color with a clear coat.

I always figured the acetone soak was to eat up any remaining bits of oils or waxes, and that soaking before blasting was to keep your AlOx blasting media from getting contaminated with oils or waxes...

I think the biggest difference is the cerakote looks factory new. Powder coat looks really good but never looks factory new. Always looks like well done DIY . I'm shocked how good that cerakote is. I'm definitely going to look into it more, great video.

I do powder coating I'm surprised the powder didn't hold up so good did you fully cure the part? Also if it's for exterior use you should apply a clear. I would like to see more on this 👍

You can get all kinds of colours with Cerakote. They even have an FX line that adds a colour shifting element to the finish. That's even ignoring that some guys have used powder coating pigment mixed with Cerakote to get some really cool results.

I have a feeling, that depending on length of curing time, this would be a different experiment. I’ve had powder coated parts in the past, that nothing could touch.

You should do a durability test of the E-Series Cerakote 🙌

Nice video, thank you. Learned lots!! I love ceracote for firearms 😉 Powder Coat for Bikes 👍

Great vid..

Another thing to keep in mind is each color of cerakote for the regular H series and not the elite series has different properties and durability. All of the colors in the elite series have the same properties since they don't have all the filler material used to achieve the desired colors as done in the H series. The best color to test with in the H series is the graphite black as it's the toughest color in the H series afaik.

Comment on part preparation I've noticed on your videos. I typically degrease parts like this in an ultrasonic cleaner before and after blasting. It shaves 60-90 minutes off preparation time. I like your oven, I need to buy one of those. For small batches of paint and catalyst, I use the eyedropper to measure. For instance, if it is a 12:1 mix, I use 6 eyedropper full of paint and 1/2 eyedropper full of catalyst. For video of the finished part, the high contrast of the white background blacks out the surface appearance of the part. You should either use exposure compensation on the camera or a black background. For corrosion testing, you can expose to hydrochloric acid or muratic acid found at your pool supply at your hardware store.

yeah it has texture because the low MIL thickness of cerra cote doesnt build like the powder so you can see and feel the blast texture through the finish

Cerakote had many more colors now, than it did when you made this video. I'm pretty sure that the color pallet will keep growing.

I have seen commercial powder coating to be MUCH stronger. My wheels' coating wore like iron. But Thumbs UP for a well done video!

Cerakote comes out matte unless you mix the hardener at a more concentrated ratio. A bright semi gloss I think is about the max. The max ratio is on their website.

Is either of these available in food-grade form? And if both, which is better (yes, I realize that "better" almost certainly varies as per specific application, i.e. type of food (raw meat, dry grains, etc.), temperature, and so forth, so I'm hoping for either a "general" type of "better" or some "this is better for these foods, and the other is better for those foods" type of suggestions). And thanks in advance for _any_ suggestions (and please, I'm only interested in food-grade applications, i.e. small kitchen appliance type things that can be built by "Dad and Son" and sold via Ebay or our own website).

Cerakote has tons of colors, and they can be mixed to get custom colors. They can also be sprayed in layers to get patterns and other looks, like battleworn or foliage patterns. Look at what people are doing to guns with Cerakote. There are way more options than powdercoat.

Great analogy, paint without the solvent..

When is the next build video coming

After applying powder could you leave the clip attached until it is placed in the oven to keep any powder from falling off?

Either surface coat might last longer and be tougher if you aggressively etch the part surface. Maybe with shot peening. Maybe with electropolishing on high current. Try bending a flexible piece of material. My bet is on powdercoat.

Cerakote for its slight texture on levers.

If you want something Cerakoted professionally, but can't find an automotive place to do it for you; try looking for gunsmiths/custom firearms shops in your area. A lot of them do Cerakote these days, are really skilled artists, and will have no problem doing whatever part you want.

Cameron Niemela should rebuild some early '70s trail-bikes & early dirt-bikes etc. Not necessarily the toaster-tank '60s "SCRAMBLER" type of stuff, 'cause that's expensive - but some early '70s steel-tank chrome-fender type utilitarian "farm bike" type MX-ers. Dress 'em up with good alloy rims etc, better size better tires etc, maybe even do one as a dual-sport with one of those factory add-on "light kits"?

A lot of powder appears to be floating right past the part after it exits the gun. Why? Bad electrical connection? Voltage too low? Should that happen? How to avoid?

Instead of making threads couldnt you apply vaseline to keep it from sticking to the metal like with paint

i would still go Cerakote over Powder .. looks better in my book .. and easier to handle. would have been nice to see you do 2 coats of Cera vs powder

I'll be having me a 97 cr250 build up from the frame

nice video!

You should try the aluminum anodizing

Other topic - has anyone applied a color vinyl wrap/coat to their tank/fenders/plastics ? Wish I had on my KTM - and with the small surface area compared to a pickup I think its a really cool idea to keep your bike like new under the wrap and then in a year you can peel off and have a NEW bike or recoat another color or print. Might also be good to renew the finish….

Do you powder coat while the object is cooling down... or when it is completly cooled?

try gunkote. its tougher then cerakote. you need the primer for it though, so its 2 sprays but only 1 cook. Very similar prep to cerakote.

I prefer powder coating only because of the better color choices. I'm currently doing my 2001 RM 125.

great vid homie. What do you think about trying to cerakoting upper fork tubes

Just a correction to your post. You said that cearakote does mostly greys and blacks and not so much blues etc. I viewed their site and they actually have a full rainbow of colors including metallics.

i've got a question: why do you soak the parts in acetone before sandblasting them? wouldn't it be more clever the other way?

You should do a video of anodizing

Acetone is great stuff. The human body produces small amounts so as solvents go it's not horrible, and it's so effective it's the standard for cleaning parts used in high pressure oxygen service! It's cheap at hardware stores so it's all win. I found your video while searching for exhaust coating info (I'm going to use their high temp oven cure on a Thunderheader whose shit coating promptly rusted through). My gunsmithbro Cerakotes all sorts of parts and of course powder coat doesn't survive on hot rifles.

If you sandblast without removing the oils the blasting process will drive those contaminants into the part. Then you will have issues with the finished part.

Actually - Cera Kote has a plethora of colors. To get a glossy Cera Kote finish; one needs to do a Cera Kote clear coat.

What brand powder coat did you use? NIC manufactures both the Cerekote & Prismatic Powders powder coat, I live near NIC and pick up my powder in person, their showroom has lots of Cerekote & powder coated samples.

There are a lot more color choices for cerakote now than when this video was made.

Can the Cerakote have more layers? Or thicker?

Cerakot does have a much much more colorful choice to pick from. From yellow to pink and everything in between

dude you know you can get scratch resistant powders but nice video man

Interesting channel! keep up the good work! btw, your last name.. you have some Finnish roots?

Well you've convinced me... going to use cerakote on my bike parts from now on. I've had NUMEROUS problems with powder-coating on my bikes flaking off and having a lip or edge that gets in the way and its been more of a pain that I though it should have been.

May I ask how large the capacity of your compressor is and how large is your blast cabinet? I would also like to start blasting and powder coating, but I don't really know which compressor is suitable for the job. Thank you in advance.

looks like you hit the lever right at the same spot it is suppose to break away from

Can you do the same test but in a exhaust pipe.

Great video but you did hit the Cerakote lever alot harder than the powder coated lever but great video?

The aesthetics of cerakote's ultra smooth surface finish is first rate.

Why a 30min acetone bath? would an acetone wipedown w/ clean rag be sufficient here, or does the soak time really contribute to a higher quality finish?

What soap was that

That was a super thick powder coat.