Powder Coating

[Silas (son of Silas)]

I made a post in the "Best way to cut metal" thread that had a link to various DIY projects from a magazine that was around in the US in the '50s. One of the links was for a curing oven

I am toying with the idea of doing some powder coating at home and although I know the preferred route is to acquire an old household oven, the problem I foresee is that I would want an oven just a wee bit bigger.

Using the plan attached as inspiration I'm considering knocking up my own oven. I wouldn't want anything too big, just big enough to squeeze a wheel into.

Does anyone here have any experience with home powder coating? If so, am I wasting my time?

Anyone got any thoughts?

 

[Lippyp]

Quite a few guys in the US on a chevy forum I frequent have done this, the hard part is getting a nice even temp. Next time I'm on I'll have a look and see if I can find any threads relating to it.

 

[rtbcomp]

If you're thinking of getting an oven maybe a fan oven will give you the even temperature? I got one free of charge from here http://www.freecycle.org/, Use the "find a Freecycle group near you" link to find a Freecycle group near you.

If the oven isn't big enough at least you'll have all the works to build into a bigger box.

 

[Bentleyboy]

home powdercoating.

If you are abe to utilise a domestic fan oven, you'll need to make sure that the fan isn't too strong othrwise it will blow the powder straight off the wheel that you've coated.

If it's an alloy wheel you need to de-gas it after shotblasting and before powder application.

You must have a lot of spare time on your hands. Chances are , if you have four wheels to do and you do them one at a time this way they'll all turn out different shades and if they're not fully cured then the powder will chip and peel off.

Use the professionals

 

[graffian]

Making an oven, or extending one, shouldn't be to hard. I got an oven off freecycle, but at a set point of 200ºC the temp varied from 120º to 240º[they did tell me it didn't work very well]! There is rather a lot of wiring in it, so I wired it up to a laptop, Just running the fan and fan element works fine and doesn't blow the powder off[I wondered about that]. My laptop was connected to a couple of thermocouples and was a bit over the top, but I scored a PID on ebay for 99p, holds the temp amazingly well and is really simple. I have a few parts to large to do in the oven and have a sheet of ali I plan on covering with insulation and sticking over the open door, to make a pregnant oven[you will see pics and description of them on coating forums]. The really annoying thing is I had an old sterilising oven from the local hospital dump, which I used for curing composites, I binned it as it hadn't been used for some years, it was probably three times the size of the domestic oven.