DIY Powder Coating Guns and Equipment

[gavuk]

Sparked from a recent question on using a domestic oven to cure powder coating, are any of the diy kits any good ?..a quick google brings up..diy powder coating ....i'm interested in what people are using? and their experiences?all views welcome

 

[Fergus]

I've got one of the Electrostatic Magic kits and think it's brilliant.

 

[gavuk]

Any pics of finished projects?....how far does the powder go?...how much powder is needed for a wheel for example?....what are you using for an oven ? having used a kit like this is there anything you would change or buy differently ,we used to get machines powder coated so i've seen the industrial kit but if i ever get around to rebuilding my kit car it could be useful for smaller items .....many thanks

 

[Fergus]

Lets just say I wish I'd bought it before I rebuilt my kit car. The company reckons a .5kg bag of powder will cover five car wheels and I wouldn't disagree with that.

I'm using a standard domestic oven which does the trick.

A pedal box I modified for a balance bar and coated in satin black powder..

A BSA Meteor cylinder again in satin black

A Sheridan CO2 pistol body in bubblegum pink for a lady shooter.

The rocker cover on the Midas in textured black.

 

[gavuk]

Many thanks Fergus , looks great ,i will certainly be looking into powder coating more seriously ,shame i will have to pay to get the chassis done professionally..

 

[madkayaker]

looks really interesting has anyone used halogen infra red heater to cure or does it need an oven type arrangement thinking landy wheels, axles and maybe even engine

 

[Fergus]

I believe the pro coaters use IR heaters on stuff that won't fit in an oven.

 

[madkayaker]

how durable is the finish

 

[Fergus]

Day to day it's very good, stuff like the rocker cover looks as good now as when it was done a 18 months ago. It's no good as a bearing surface though and will wear off quickly, best to think of it as tough paint.

 

[Coo]

On the site for electrostatic magic kits - some people are using hot air guns !

Get the piece upto 180 degrees for 10 mins - then cool.

 

[madkayaker]

i did see that (after my question) would take time to do an axle that way

 

[rtbcomp]

I've not done any powder coating but have gritblasted parts that have been powder coated and noticed in some cases one face is much tougher than the other, so I would guess it was heated by radiation rather than in an oven, so at another guess I would say an evenly heated oven would be the best bet.

 

[madkayaker]

that would make seance

 

[graffian]

I am using the PC-03[I think it's what electrostaticmagic flog]. My main problem is orange peel, I can only get an orange peel free finish on a heavily contoured surface.
I think the voltage may be low, it only shows a complete spark on a 3mm gap and maybe the powder is to thin? Another problem could be due to it being a fan oven? If you have one[a similar gun] I would love to know what sort of gap it can spark across?
If you get one of these guns pull the ali bit out of the barrel and streamline the back of it, it stops the build up of powder and prevent big spurts of powder now and again.
How durable is this stuff. I powder coated part of a vintage oil pump, and after reassembling it I knocked it off the top of my lathe[wise place to put it?], it hit a few things on it's journey to the concrete and, amazingly, shows no signs of it at all! But I let a mudguard stay knock against a sharp edge and it chipped;-(

I started priming and filling items. I used JB weld as filler, well I had some so I tried it and it works. The zinc rich epoxy leaves a rough finish that needs sanding but seems to be pretty tough. I have filled both sides of epoxy and there is no sign of it. The primary cover below was hammered out pretty good but some filler was needed where it had previous welding and where another cover had fretted into the steel. No sign of the filling; The outside of the cover had 4 coats of epoxy primer[lot was sanded off] and a single top coat. normal masking tape works fine, it does burn but it works, when I first used it I was removing it before putting it in the oven but forgot one time and it worked.

The oven is a standard domestic oven, it came from freecycle and the temperature control was really wild. I had a look and there were two many wires, not knowing the first thing about what element should be on I stuck a 99p controler[from ebay] on the oven and just wired the fan element.
Heat control isn't bad, the controler has an old type N thermocouple which is near the middle of the oven[it's loose so I can move it around[it's the white bit hanging down in the pic above]. I also have a chunk of metal with a thermoucouple bolted to of it which I hang in the oven[in the pic above it's the green wire going underneath the part, I just stuck it on the steel support the part is on], I look at the meter connected to this as probable/maybe the part temperature and use it for starting and ending the cure cycle.
This pic was taken during the cure cycle, wonder if either of them are correct;-)

Last time I bought powder I went to a coaters and bought a kg or so of epoxy and gloss black, the bloke wanted a fiver for both and said if I wanted more to give him a few days and he would get an old box down and test it, I think he might well be intending on letting me have it for nothing. He said they don't use old powder.

 

[gavuk]

found this pdf review of a diy gun ....from fast ford

 

[brightspark]

found this pdf review of a diy gun ....from fast ford

good stuff just googled electrostatic magics site more info bigger pictures verry interesting

 

[Shox Dr]

From the bit of reading I done, You need a gun, with adjustable power output, the ones without this you cannot adjust thickness of powder to be applied or to add further coats after wards, ie clear coat.

 

[madkayaker]

good find they seam to like it

 

[brightspark]

From the bit of reading I done, You need a gun, with adjustable power output, the ones without this you cannot adjust thickness of powder to be applied or to add further coats after wards, ie clear coat.

keep reading and gen up on it and let us all know the outcome .im interested on the spec s

 

[madkayaker]

i wonder how it would cope with a rought surface e.g. landy axle