DIY Powder Coating

[99ishVR4]

I want to introduce myself, I write for a a DIY powder coating site. I have been powder coating for several years now and I just made the site to make it easier for other new powder coaters to get started.

I started powder coating parts for my cars restoration and the results have been amazing. My car looks 10x better because everything is powder coated.

Anyways, if anyone else here is interested in powder coating or already is into powder coating, you might want to check the site out. http://www.powdercoatguide.com/

I just finished an article on How to build your own powder coating oven.

Also, feel free to ask me any powder coating questions, I would be happy to answer them.

[99ishVR4]

Here are some random parts I coated for my car.

[99ishVR4]

[boredom.is.me]

I like.

[LucidMomentum]

Looks like I have a new project to start working on...

[99ishVR4]

Originally Posted by boredom.is.me

I like.

Thanks

Originally Posted by LucidMomentum

Looks like I have a new project to start working on...

Lol, hope you have some free time. It gets addicting.

[99ishVR4]

More random parts that I coated:

[toast]

I found a $25 oven on Craigslist just for this. I've powdercoated everything on my motorcycle, haven't done much on the car yet.

Just FYI, if you are going to get an Eastwood gun, get the one with two voltage settings, it works SOOOOO much better than the single setting gun. Lets you really put the coating on thick.

[toast]

You will also want to get a blast cabinet...

[99ishVR4]

Originally Posted by toast

I found a $25 oven on Craigslist just for this. I've powdercoated everything on my motorcycle, haven't done much on the car yet.

Just FYI, if you are going to get an Eastwood gun, get the one with two voltage settings, it works SOOOOO much better than the single setting gun. Lets you really put the coating on thick.

Yeah, I'm using a craigslist oven too. About to buy another one and join them together to do some bigger parts. I'll see how it works out. If someone is looking for a powder coaitng gun that is similarly priced tot he Eastwood gun, check out the Redline EZ50.

Originally Posted by toast

You will also want to get a blast cabinet...

Yeah, all of my parts are blasted first. I tried to get away without an air compressor at first by using the Craftsman airless powder coating gun, but I really needed to media blast my parts before coating. So I got a compressor and HF blast cabinet and re-did all my earlier parts.

[toast]

Geez, that is a hell of a step up in voltage. I keep meaning to pull my original Eastwood gun apart and see what the circuit looks like inside - shouldn't be hard to crank it up. I found a Caswell variable voltage unit (30-50 kV) on Amazon for half the price of that EZ50 gun.

[99ishVR4]

Originally Posted by toast

Geez, that is a hell of a step up in voltage. I keep meaning to pull my original Eastwood gun apart and see what the circuit looks like inside - shouldn't be hard to crank it up. I found a Caswell variable voltage unit (30-50 kV) on Amazon for half the price of that EZ50 gun.

Having adjustable voltage is a great feature, its one of the things I like about the EZ50. I haven't heard too much about the Caswell gun though. I'd really like to get my hands on every gun out there, short of the pro guns and do a review on the site, but that will be some $$$.

[Poodles]

Be careful powder coating wheels, or other critical parts made of aluminum. Not very hard to anneal the metal and cause failures.

[99ishVR4]

Originally Posted by Poodles

Be careful powder coating wheels, or other critical parts made of aluminum. Not very hard to anneal the metal and cause failures.

I have seen a few cases of this being reported and I would like to do some tests at some point. Powder coating temps shouldn't ever exceed 450 degrees and from what I have researched, aluminum shouldn't anneal below 600 degrees.

Out of the millions of powder coated wheels out there, I have only seen a handful of reports saying that the wheels were weakened by it. I have to think that the wheels that broke after powder coating either were either defective before the powder coating, or that the coater baked them at temps that were way too high.