Has anyone tried POWDERCOATING parts?

Nelson

Nelson

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Administrator
HF I believe sells a powdercoating setup. Has anyone used it or a similar setup to powder coat parts that you have made or machine parts for a restoration?

Can you tell us your experiences?

Photos showing your setups and procedures would be awesome!


Thanks,

Nelson
 
I've never done it myself, but I've had literally tons of parts powder coated and love it. It's a simple process, and is very durable. Only drawback is lack of color choice. Some can be customized, but that complicates things. You have to allow for it in tapped holes, or any close fits, as it is fairly thick.

Automotive specialists product seller "Eastwood" sells a kit also that you use your houshold oven to cure. Overall, it's good. Oh....hard to do multicolors, and if you goof up, it's hard to get off after baking.
 
I've come real close to buying one of the Eastwood kits. About the only thing holding me back is the wife, she'd have conniptions if I used her ovens for that. :yikes: I got away with heating up some Harley shovelhead heads in there but I don't think it's in my best interest to push it any further. Speaking of which, what do you use for heat? (I know that it's not real bright to do it inside the house.)

-Ron
 
I have the HF kit it is the same as the eastwood only cheaper. I also converted a house oven to use it is ok but some times to small.

I've done a lot of Valve Covers for friends never got around to doing mine.:shrugs: Never took pictures either.

I build a booth that was 4' X 4' X 4' covered with plywood built the frame out of 2 X 2 X 3/16 angle. I cut a whole in the back and used a furness filter and a window fan to suck out the dust. Really needed a stronger fan but thats all I had at the time. I can get some pictures of the cabinet if anybodies interested.

I haven't used mine in about a year, So it has been a storage place for awhile I'll need to clean it out. Also built stands for things to sit on so I could rotate them. I got my powder off ebay lots cheaper!

Paul
 
I’ve used the HF powder coating gun but did not care for it. http://www.harborfreight.com/10-30-psi-powder-coating-system-94244.html It was hard to control the amount of powder coming out plus it needs a separate external air supply. To me the length of the gun and that air line were cumbersome when moving around the smaller parts I’ve done (parts that will fit into the wife’s old electric oven).

I found a Craftsman model I like better. http://www.sears.com/craftsman-powd...7288000P&pageInd=product&i_cntr=1319639273060
Got one off of Ebay for around $50. For me much easier to use and it has its own air pump. The gun’s trigger variably controls the speed of the internal air pump and amount of powder coming out. Sometimes it needs a shake or a bump to get the powder out but still better then the HF gun that is now stored with all the stuff I no longer use.

When we replaced the wife’s stove in the kitchen the old electric model was moved to the garage and dedicated to powder coating. Once you bake powder in it there is no going back….

Just my .02, hope this helps.
 
I have the Eastwood unit and have done literally tons of parts, we used a "junk" stove top burners didn't work who cares, my last job was a pair of pillow block housings they were machined from a block of steel and going into a paper mill that's why they wanted powder coating the ugliest green you have ever seen. As an aside Eastwood has a large variety of powders, the powder kit comes with a lot of silicon plugs for holes and fiberglass tape for threads, the worst thing that can happen is moisture in the air.
 
For the most part I use the Harbor Freight stuff. I get powders and supplied from Columbia Coatings.
Since I moved my shop, I found a Grizzly Sanding Table on Craigslist. I built a hutch to over the top so that it works well as a powder coat booth and sanding.
Here is a link to an article I wrote a few years ago.

http://homemetalshopclub.org/projects/powder.pdf
 
I never thought much about powder coating until a local guy started offering that service. I hate that he went out of business as he was really creating jobs for me. See, he got telling everyone that he could powder coat their pistols, and of course he could and did. He just didn't know about slide to frame fit.
Bobby
 
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