Home Powder coating systems

enjenjo · April 20, 2005, 10:29:30 PM

Any one with experience on how this holds up? I know Eastwood, and harbor freight both have systems, is one better than the other? Clue me in guys

Dusty · April 20, 2005, 11:33:27 PM

Frank...
I have helped a Buddy of mine. He bought the Harbor Freight model, but we wound up going to the Easterwood powder. It is a whole lot nicer finish that the HF powder. He has parts on a 39 Studebaker truck that have been on 3 years, and still look good. Most of the parts are under the hood, and the brake & gas pedals, so they are not exposed to weather all the time. The HF gun works fine, it's just the powder is not so good. We rigged up an oven out of one of his rent houses. It really worked good..

Jbird · April 21, 2005, 12:37:34 PM

I've been using the Eastwood cheapy kit for about eight years now. it's holding up way better than I am. For a durable long lasting finish powder coating is the way to go IMHO. I've been playing with mixing the powders to come up with some otherworldly effects. I'll have to get a pic of the jewelery box I made for my oldest grandaughter. My sister thinks I should satrt making them for crafts fairs. The only problems I have with powder coating are the amount of wasted powder and metals with chemical impurities, oil, coolant etc. I've got a few pieces I need to coat today, if anything comes out special I'll post a pic.
Jbird

Mr Cool · April 21, 2005, 01:07:33 PM

Anyone got any details on where these are avail from?
Ive been paying out quite a bit on powder coating and still have alot more to do.

moparrodder · April 21, 2005, 08:29:49 PM

Quote from: "Mr Cool"Anyone got any details on where these are avail from?
Ive been paying out quite a bit on powder coating and still have alot more to do.

Chris, Go to www.eastwood.com and on the front page there is a panel with the hotcoating section click on it and you're there. It is a nifty machine and the guys I've talked to that have one say they really like it especially for the small brackets and such, even carbs. Hope this helps. Bill

Crosley.In.AZ · January 22, 2006, 12:22:35 AM

where did we end up?

HF powder coat system good, powder bad?

Eastwood powder is good ?

ONE37TUDOR · January 23, 2006, 12:10:39 AM

I use the eastwood cheep gun and their powder, I started with an old electric oven. It worked but was almost impossible to control the temp. I now have the HF powder coating oven. It works better but it is so small I cant get a lot of my parts in it. I have managed to get the front control arms from my 61 galaxie in the oven but I knocked enough powder off that the look bad in places. I have found that if I only do one side then bake that then do the other side of a part I have better results.

My complaint with the cheapie system it that I can't seem to get the coating thickness uniform, it can be to thin in places and to thick in others and it will sag if it is to heavy.

Scott...

Scrap Fe · January 23, 2006, 07:14:37 AM

Quote from: "ONE37TUDOR"I use the eastwood cheep gun and their powder, I started with an old electric oven. It worked but was almost impossible to control the temp. I now have the HF powder coating oven. It works better but it is so small I cant get a lot of my parts in it. I have managed to get the front control arms from my 61 galaxie in the oven but I knocked enough powder off that the look bad in places. I have found that if I only do one side then bake that then do the other side of a part I have better results.

My complaint with the cheapie system it that I can't seem to get the coating thickness uniform, it can be to thin in places and to thick in others and it will sag if it is to heavy.

Scott...

Scott,

Try preheating the part to 175 degrees, painting and put back into the oven to cure. The preheating should get the powder to gel upon contact and avoid the thin areas. My powder coater suggested preheating my frame before painting to get a thicker dry film coating.

sedanman · January 23, 2006, 02:57:19 PM

The key to getting more uniform coating with powder is similar to wet paint. "practice" Also a tip. Powder guns charge the powder with the negative ion of the DC current. The part must be earth grounded for the powder to attract to the part. In area's that are recessed the powder does not want to go in there because of a factor known as the faraday cage effect. You should coat those area's first... like cutting in with a wet gun. after those area's are coated look at whats left and coat them accordingly.

The Faraday effect is like putting two like poles of a magnet together, they repel each other. You have to over come this by moving the gun closer in these area's and forcing it in. The common mistake is to coat the whole peice and then try to get those area's which causes non uniform coating.

Sedanman

ONE37TUDOR · January 23, 2006, 06:42:41 PM

Thanks for the tips, some of this confirms what I have learned and some I suspected (need more practice) but I would also like to know if the more expensive powdercoating guns have a way to help these situations? Not that I am going to spend the mony to get one but it would give me an excuse for my poor efforts :oops:

Crosley.In.AZ · January 23, 2006, 10:19:28 PM

pre-heat and cutting in the tight spots. good idears.

thanks..

Bib_Overalls · January 24, 2006, 12:33:30 AM

I messed around with a friend's Eastwood base model. It is OK for small stuff. Very sensitive to air pressure. And it is not cost effective when you have a lot of stuff to do.

We have an industrial powder coater nearby that also does a lot of race car stuff. For stock colors, which he buys in large quantities, his prices are reasonable. Cheaper than the cost of a comparable amount of powder from Eastwood.

For small stuff I do my own prep work. For larger items, like wheels, I have a professional sand blaster do the prep. I do my own prep because it saves money and I am willing to spend the extra time to get the details right. Also, the powder coater is only set up to use aggressive sand blasting. And I can bead blast or use a finer medium on small parts like alternator cases.

The powder coater has a large oven, it will take complete chassis, and it is expensive to run. So he tries to do large runs of a single color. He may not do my desired color for several weeks. On a day when the powder coater is doing my color I'm waiting at the door when he opens up. We hang the stuff and I go to the cafe for breakfast. The stuff is usually ready when I get back, or shortly thereafter.

sedanman · January 24, 2006, 07:53:59 AM

Quote from: "ONE37TUDOR"Thanks for the tips, some of this confirms what I have learned and some I suspected (need more practice) but I would also like to know if the more expensive powdercoating guns have a way to help these situations? Not that I am going to spend the mony to get one but it would give me an excuse for my poor efforts :oops:

ONE37TUDOR, I never used one of the cheap units that Harber or Eastwood has. We use an expensive unit built by Ransburg Corp. These units have many adjustments on them. Powder flow in grams per minute, voltage adjustments, defusser air adjust and fuidization air adjust. The guns also have different tips you can change out for specific work. These settings allow the coater to adjust to almost any geometry of part.

Sedanman

ONE37TUDOR · January 24, 2006, 09:31:59 PM

Thanks again, that is out of my league but where I live there are no powdercoaters that have lasted for more than a few months so I have started to try to do some of the small parts myself. I would definitely take it to the pro if I could.
One thing I have noticed is that parts sandblasted with black beauty appear to cover better and more uniformly that those blasted with #3 or #4 blasting sand? The blasted texture between #3 sand and the black beauty appears to be about the same but the surface with the black beauty covers more easily and uniformly using the same gun techniques?

Scott...

sedanman · January 25, 2006, 07:54:39 AM

Quote from: "ONE37TUDOR"Thanks again, that is out of my league but where I live there are no powdercoaters that have lasted for more than a few months so I have started to try to do some of the small parts myself. I would definitely take it to the pro if I could.
One thing I have noticed is that parts sandblasted with black beauty appear to cover better and more uniformly that those blasted with #3 or #4 blasting sand? The blasted texture between #3 sand and the black beauty appears to be about the same but the surface with the black beauty covers more easily and uniformly using the same gun techniques?

Scott...

Scott, In the coating industry thats what we call a metal profile. The sand blast of different media's leave a different profile on the surface. Powder is more forgiving and hides the profile better then liquid coating. Powder really likes a smooth phosphated surface, but will work well over a media blasted surface also.

Vic...