Has anyone tried POWDERCOATING parts?

I have a HF powder coating unit. Actually works quite well. Powder coating is my preferred metal finish, if it's applicable (see below). Baking the finish is the "hard" part. Coated some new (i.e., clean) steel parts for my SB Lathe (made a taper attachment) and the finish is tough as nails!

Here are some hints from my experience:
1. There are several commercial powder coating manuals free on the net. Got one from a German source, but can find it again. Here's another one:
http://www.interpon.com/NR/rdonlyre...B4-C0635A91B22A/192/GuidetoPowderComplete.pdf
2. Material prep and suitability is a big issue, i.e., probably can't coat my SB lathe parts because they won't fit and I probably can never get them clean enough to stop oozing oil out of the crevices. Also worry about inadvertent "heat treating" the CI in the wrong way. Might warp my lathe bed.
3. I got my non-HF powder from Caswell's (http://www.caswellplating.com/powder/). As mentioned, the epoxy powder really stands up to abuse (but not UV outdoors).
4. There are at least four different chemistries of powders (see the above manual), with different properties. Know what you're getting and use it appropriately.
5. Baking is the issue for me, for several reasons. First is size. I only have a toaster oven so am limited to small objects. Keep thinking about super-sizing it :-) There's plenty of heating capacity in it.
6. But temperature control and timing are important, too. I use both an IR (laser pointer) gun and a thermocouple gauge. The toaster oven thermostat is all over the place, 50-100ºF swing. Totally unacceptable. I keep thinking about replacing the thermostat with a cheap Type-K thermocouple digital power controller ($30 new from China on eBay), but haven't done so yet. May not need to -- I notice that the new crop of toaster ovens at Walmart, etc., have digital controls, which I suspect will be much tighter regulation. We'll see.
7. Coupled with the temperature swings is the issue of preheating large masses. One of my parts was made out of 1/2" thick steel plate. Stuck it in the oven, covered with powder, but cold. The powder got too hot in some places and overcooked before getting hot enough to flow out elsewhere. Need to sort out whether preheating or better temp control would solve the issue.

Having said all that, I really like powder coating parts when I can. The results are just so great, both in looks and durability.

HTH,

Mike
 
mikew67 said:
Need to sort out whether preheating or better temp control would solve the issue.
Mike
Click to expand...

I've never had the chance to powder coat but it would seem to me that you could get around this by incrementally bringing things up to temp. Set the oven at 150 degrees with the piece inside, wait a half hour or so, then bump it up another 50-100 degrees, etc. I don't know enough about the properties of the powder but it seems like that should work.

-Ron
 
I use 380 to 400 degrees F. I have a PID type controller for my oven, so it does quite well on its own. For an oven with poor control, I think it would be best to bring the oven up to temperature, maybe a bit higher. Then put the part in and turn off the oven. It is normal to run keep the part in the oven for about 20 minutes. At times, I have brought my oven up to temperature, put the parts in, then turned off the oven. This allowed me to leave the shop and come back later for the parts.
There are some hazards to using an oven that is to be used for food later on. This is especially true with the hybrid powders. Make sure you know the hazards before you use your kitchen oven.
 
I have the Craftsman gun and I like it for what I've done with it. I use a digital toaster oven I bought 8 years ago and never used so it was prime candidate to try out powder coating. I found preheating the items yielded the best results. Here is what I do.

1. Thoroughly clean all surfaces and finish with some soapy water.
2. Place in over to dry and preheat. Usually about 10-15min tops at 300*F.
3. Put plugs in holes and tape anything I don't want powder on.
4. Put in my makeshift cardboard cabinet and apply powder. You will see the powder start to flow from the heat on the part.
5. Place in over at 410*F for 10-20min. I wait for all the powder to evenly flow.
6. Then remove from over and let cool down.

I've gotten nothing short of excellent results doing it this way. The downside of the Craftsman gun is you can't put another layer of powder on for the exotic powders like the candies that require the chrome coat on first. I really would like a Columbia rig but I want to get a big oven first.
 
Old Iron said:
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.


Paul
Click to expand...

I would be interested in seeing them Paul.
 
I bought the eastwood dual voltage starter kit.. I caught it on sale.. It comes with some extra empty bottles, several types of silicon plugs, a roll of fiberglass tape, some stainless wire for hanging parts and a bottle of gloss black..
http://www.eastwood.com/dual-voltage-powder-gun-starter-kit-1.html


I bought 1 lb of chrome and 1lb of clear off ebay..

I bought an old stove for shop use only, planning on making 36"x36" 60" oven early this year..

I still need a decent sandblast cabinet...


Thats about as far as I've gotten, still need to wire the stove..
 
My eldest son has one of the Eastwood powder coating systems and another I don't know the name of. Last time I visited him he was converting an ocean container to make a large oven for curing. Hopefully he gets everything completed soon as I would like to get a fuselage from my 1946 Piper powder coated to complete the 8 year restoration it's been experiencing.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top