https://www.alloutdoor.com/2019/08/30/robar-companies-inc-officially-business/
Priced themselves out of the market?
Priced themselves out of the market?
Never heard of them that I can remember.
Robar was very popular back in the day before Cerakote became the standard for aftermarket gun finishes. It was also one of the earliest self-lubricating, proprietary finish on firearms that were favored by law enforcement and civilians alike. Unlike Cerakote where they certify and train other gunsmiths, customers had to send their guns to Robar located in Arizona to get the work done.
They did attempt to sell the company but sadly nothing came to fruition.
They did attempt to sell the company but sadly nothing came to fruition.
Man this sucks. Langdon was using them exclusively for his stuff. They had the process down better than just about anyone for gun stuff. There are many others out there, but a processor has to have an FFL to do the serialized part of a gun and there aren't a lot of shops that mess with them. Not much money in it, industrial and aerospace is where the coin is.
That stinks. I always thought that their NP3 and NP3 Plus finishes looked interesting.
I doubt it. He's going to have to find another shop which is a wrench thrown into his works too.I'm wondering if he will lower his prices a bit.
I fear that this is going to be a trend for plating shops. Metaloy has been in and out of accepting orders the last couple or three years. They had a fire (I think) and a tank go out on them. The hazardous waste costs of disposal isn't cheap.
There are vendors all over the country for automotive, aerospace, etc. that are NADCAP certified and doing individual guns just doesn't make them money. When one of us sends in a gun they have to have an FFL which has a cost. Also a gunsmith will disassemble it and it'll stay "kitted" with a work order in a locked (hopefully) room or cabinet until they get a dozen or more ready to go into the tanks. It takes that to justify firing up the tank heaters, aerators and rectifiers to even do them in a small specialty shop. When done, said gunsmith will have to reassemble and function check, and one that knows his stuff will get a nice living wage. For ROBAR, which also has an industrial business, comparing that overhead to the revenue that comes in from that "small side" of the business and then comparing that to the industrial side, well the numbers just don't make sense for them to continue to offer the service. It could very possibly be that they had more industrial coming in and they needed the tank capacity to fill those orders.
Hopefully Ford's and another one or two will see enough demand come in to hang in there and even branch into offering more finish choices. But I can see the day when we don't have much option if a manufacturer doesn't offer it. They can get a couple hundred FCGs (or whatever) done. Us just sending in one or two is going to be a heavy lift down the road.
I've used Mahovsky's a couple of times and he's a fraction of the price of Robar. He does nickel or hard chrome. Never had a problem, other than he's a little hard to contact sometimes.
http://www.ccrrefinishing.com
These guys haven gotten more expensive but they did a helluva job on a P226 many years ago. Highly recommend them.
These guys haven gotten more expensive but they did a helluva job on a P226 many years ago. Highly recommend them.
I have one in to Mahovsky now. As of 8/8/19 their quoted turnaround time was "30 to 40 days."
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