Looking for a guide for DIY Powder Coating

[adrianc]

I am looking for a guide for powder coating some parts that I have, Had them painted last year, but its starting to wear off in places.

How difficult is this to do in comparsion to the spray painting method and what equipment do I need to get started for the DIY jobs.

[Dirtcrasher]

OMG - I think it's even easier than spray paint!!

The biggest work is the sandblasting, and wipe it off with acetone. then you just need a full size oven for larger stuff or a small counter top oven to do small items. Cook it at 400 degrees for 20 minutes and your done....

Powder is cheap and there is never overspray!

Look a few posts down to see the guards I PC'D.............. http://www.3wheelerworldforums.com/showthread.php?t=95329

I never touched the stuff till about 9 months ago!!

EDIT - My buddy Jeff (HONDA250SX) was the 1st guy to PC that I was dealing with. We may have started talking because we were both 250SX fans.... Then he told me how "easy" PC was, but I was still hesitant. I'm the type of guy that likes to do his homework before jumping into anything. So, I bought a PC gun on sale for 80$ (they are everywhere) and some powder and then it took me almost a year to get a free Cragslist oven and set it up for PC.

Then I tried my first parts..... I overcooked them because when my dial said 400, the temp was about 550. So, I dialed it to 275 and got the desired 400 degrees. Since then I've bough a ton of powders and a cabinet sandblaster and built a rack to coat and cool off on.

All and all, it is very easy. The PREPERATION is the biggest issue. When you weld or dent or braise or have scarring, it shows up fiercly in the PC result. Thats why I go nuts with prep so my end result is nice. No different than bondo on a car, do it well and you can barely tell. Do it half arse and it looks like crap.

Powder is NOT the end all coating, it does chip, it can come off with some fluids. There are better powders, fuel resistant powders and now we have chrome, transluscent and other crazy stuff. I'm thinking of mixing colors, or tossing some dust on them half way through a cure just to see what they do!! But, it blows the doors off of spray paint!

You can get started for about 200$ and you'll love it. It's nearly impossible to make PC run like you can with spray paint.

The other night a member wanted to see what my Pepsi Blue looked like. Not wanting to go outside and sandblast, wipe down and get the gun and compressor out. I took a 19MM nut, threw it in the plastic bottle of powder, shook it around, hung it on a coat hanger and stuffed it in MY KITCHEN oven for 15 minutes. No gun, no blasting, no prep and it still came out great :lol: and the PC didn't run either :D

[racerxxx]

Adrianc,

I just got my gun about 2 weeks ago or so and here is what I've done so far. I used to single stage alot of car parts but I'll never do that again, if it fits in an oven it's gettin PC. I bought my gun from eastwood, got a free range from a local appliance guy who scraps the old ones, my total investment is 140 for the equipment and some powders. It is WAY easier to do than liquid paints, far less clean up and chemicals. Follow this link and scroll down to the middle of the page or so and look for Racerxxx

http://www.3wheelerworldforums.com/showthread.php?t=88801&page=30

I am not a pro at this but you can see with good prep you can get great results. I bead blast my parts at work, and from the time I opened the box read the instructions figured everything out I had parts out of the oven in under 2 hours(probably 1.5 hours). I'm still in the learning process but the more I do the better I'll get!

I read some links by DC and honda250SX(jeff) and a few other great guys on the boards to learn a little bit and also some other websites like caswellplating.com

Good luck

Racerxxx

[honda250sx]

OMG - I think it's even easier than spray paint!!

The biggest work is the sandblasting, and wipe it off with acetone. then you just need a full size oven for larger stuff or a small counter top oven to do small items. Cook it at 400 degrees for 20 minutes and your done....

Powder is cheap and there is never overspray!

Look a few posts down to see the guards I PC'D.............. http://www.3wheelerworldforums.com/showthread.php?t=95329

I never touched the stuff till about 9 months ago!!

EDIT - My buddy Jeff (HONDA250SX) was the 1st guy to PC that I was dealing with. We may have started talking because we were both 250SX fans.... Then he told me how "easy" PC was, but I was still hesitant. I'm the type of guy that likes to do his homework before jumping into anything. So, I bought a PC gun on sale for 80$ (they are everywhere) and some powder and then it took me almost a year to get a free Cragslist oven and set it up for PC.

Then I tried my first parts..... I overcooked them because when my dial said 400, the temp was about 550. So, I dialed it to 275 and got the desired 400 degrees. Since then I've bough a ton of powders and a cabinet sandblaster and built a rack to coat and cool off on.

All and all, it is very easy. The PREPERATION is the biggest issue. When you weld or dent or braise or have scarring, it shows up fiercly in the PC result. Thats why I go nuts with prep so my end result is nice. No different than bondo on a car, do it well and you can barely tell. Do it half arse and it looks like crap.

Powder is NOT the end all coating, it does chip, it can come off with some fluids. There are better powders, fuel resistant powders and now we have chrome, transluscent and other crazy stuff. I'm thinking of mixing colors, or tossing some dust on them half way through a cure just to see what they do!! But, it blows the doors off of spray paint!

You can get started for about 200$ and you'll love it. It's nearly impossible to make PC run like you can with spray paint.

The other night a member wanted to see what my Pepsi Blue looked like. Not wanting to go outside and sandblast, wipe down and get the gun and compressor out. I took a 19MM nut, threw it in the plastic bottle of powder, shook it around, hung it on a coat hanger and stuffed it in MY KITCHEN oven for 15 minutes. No gun, no blasting, no prep and it still came out great :lol: and the PC didn't run either :D


Lmao, anyone that knows DC know's this is true... He was hesitant, meh I dunno man, is it really that easy? I just dunno man. haha. Went on for a while. Then finally he did it. And well there is no turning back.

I have done bunches of things bunches and bunches.

Just got a new EXTRA large counter top oven for small parts.
http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i151/brauerpower/DSCN3693.jpg


Some of my handy work:

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i151/brauerpower/tri-z%20project/DSCN2943.jpg

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i151/brauerpower/tri-z%20project/DSCN2947.jpg

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i151/brauerpower/tri-z%20project/DSCN2953.jpg

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i151/brauerpower/tri-z%20project/DSCN3159.jpg

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i151/brauerpower/tri-z%20project/DSCN3675.jpg

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i151/brauerpower/DSCN3492.jpg

Old counter top oven:
http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i151/brauerpower/DSCN2485.jpg

Little prep work action:
http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i151/brauerpower/DSCN2481.jpg

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i151/brauerpower/DSCN3302.jpg

[adrianc]

Thanks for all the advice guys, looking forward to getting the equipment and giving it a go.