Nominate somebody to test Cerakote on a flashlight

Limit it to tube lights like Convoy S series or hosts you are confident in and have feriners get them through RMM shipped to you. Insurance isn’t out of the question and ask that it be covered by the winner.

I wanted to vote for HKJ because I want to see his graphs!!!

So has the testing begun?

No. The lights just got here yesterday and I plan to coat them today and possibly ship them tomorrow

Dunk them in various liquids like acetone, thinner, gasoline, diesel, battery acid, motor oil, brake fluid, carb cleaner, crazy glue etc.

Dunk them in crazy glue? :~

Now searching for a bucket of crazy glue. :bigsmile:

How about liquid nitrogen or dry ice (carbon dioxide) :evil:

I think perhaps the testing frenzy is going off on a tangent. Real world examples are what we’re looking for. I don’t think the majority of us would be prone to drop our light in liquid nitrogen. I mean, sure, we have it around for keeping Bull sperm ready for another season and all that kind of stuff but not likely to drop a flashlight in there by mistake.

I’ll try to do a series of graduated tests that would represent things most likely to happen to it in an EDC role. Tossing a light out the window of a moving vehicle was representative of the light that gets left on the hood and doesn’t fall off till there’s enough wind to blow it off. Pretty likely when people are getting kids strapped in the car seats and that kind of stuff. Dropped in the gravel and run over with the car, yada yada yada…

You’re right, I got a bit carried away. It’s better to concentrate on real life situations. In the realm of my close relatives would that be: leaving it in the garden overnight, driving the lawn-mower over it, dumping it in a ditch (or toilet bowl), doing a full cycle in the washing machine, leaving it under the hood and than starting the engine. And one of my furry assistents likes to hide and bury things in the backyard.

Dry ice can work for a real world test. Some people live in areas that can easily get very very cold. You won’t get it that cold in a freezer but dry ice will do it. And dropping a light certainly happens in all seasons.

So you have liquid nitrogen on hand?
That would make a fabulous final “test” after all the real world tests. :evil:

I don’t know about the Cerakote, but the LED oughta LOVE the liquid nitrogen! You might get an extra hundred lumens out of it!

Oh but it won’t love it after the drop. We can guarantee that.

Drop tests Everyday heights Onto different surfaces From a speeding vehicle Crushed under a car
Scratch tests Decreasing sandpaper grits Increasing pressure Knives
Thermal tests Abrupt temperature changes Cold: Ice, Dry ice, LN2(?) Hot: Boiling water, oven tests
Chemical tests Alcohol, acetone Thinner, gasoline, diesel Acids: H2SO4 (battery acid), HCl Bases: NaOH (Greased Ligntening)

What others have said. :slight_smile:

Knives? Define please.

I mean, are you talking about trying to scratch it with a keychain pen knife or cutting on it with an CPM-154 blade? I could always toss it up in the air and try to hit a homerun with my Samurai Katana…

Ok, it should be fairly obvious that acid tests and things like Greased Lightning that are used as anodization strippers would be counter-productive to do further testing. We are out to see how the finish reacts to normal EDC carry, not an all out attempt to destroy it. in10sivern can do that with his guns. :wink:

Yeah, I just threw knives out there while thinking about ways to easily damage lights. Might be an easy way to demonstrate hardness.

We all like to get carried away. 0:)

n10sivern, maybe I should quarter the 2 lights on my table saw so I can do much more testing on the pieces? :stuck_out_tongue:

Haha, whatever you wanna do Dale. May be a slight delay in them. I didn’t get a chance to spray the light today as my son was sick. I will try tomorrow my son and weather permitting

+1 for DBCstm

Ok ok, can we actually get serious about this and be real? These are sk68 zoomie clones, cheap a$$ lights that won’t have a strong factory finish, right? We already know some of these suggestions will destroy an aluminum light. So wouldn’t it be reasonable to think in terms of testing that would likely mar or destroy a normal to good factory finish without totally annihilating the metal underneath?

How many lights have we all destroyed? I mean, really? For example, the Eagle Eye X6 skidded 60mph on pavement (I can still hear that horrid sound to this day!) without getting scratched at all. Yes, once it caught a pebble and started flipping it did some base metal damage that also gouged yellow striping paint off the road surface, but the light on it’s side skidding like on a giant sanding belt did nothing to it at all. I know this because I’ve built a triple out of it and use it regularly. The bezel is damaged from impact and the thin edges on the raised tail cap where the lanyard attaches are damaged but not broken. That’s a pretty serious test, and the light survived with only minimal scarring. So the real question is, to test the FINISH of the light as compared to other factory finishes, what kind of tests would portray normal everyday examples of what an EDC light might be likely to go through, with no or reasonable damages.

We can all think of a 1000 ways to destroy something, I don’t think that’s what this is about. If you pay $800 for a gun, and coat it with this ceramic coating, what would you expect that gun to endure before failure? (realizing, of course, that failure could mean death to you, the guy who wants said gun to defend you!)

Carrying a light clipped to a pocket that also carries car keys can be very damaging to the lights finish. The Eagle Eye X6 comes out of that with brass markations on it’s surface that can be wiped away, leaving the light unaffected. Perhaps the keys got more damage than the light, not sure. Will Cerakote fare as well? Simple things, that we all do daily, that’s the real question here. Simply to show that this is (or isn’t) a nice viable good looking alternative to protect our modded lil beauties.

Don’t forget if it falls out of your pocket while doing barrel rolls. :smiley: