Group Buy for a Powder Coating gun

[anaxagoras]

I'm not sure if this is the right board for this but:

I've been looking to get into powder coating and want to get the best gun I can afford, and this looks like a great gun, but I can't afford it for it's retail price of $999.00. It looks like the same gun as the King Coat with Hopper, I think it's from the same manufacturer. It's a great gun from all the reviews I've read on popular powder coating forums like powderbythepound and caswellplating, there are also videos of it in use on youtube. It's a hopper based gun and not a cup based, so you will have a much more even powder flow, less issues with surging and clumping, it has 3 air meters so you can set it for maximum atomization.

I'll be getting it direct from the manufacturer in China, over seas shipping is a killer on the deal. It'll end up being $720 via paypal (gotta cover those paypal fees), and $700 via cash/check.

If anyone else is interested in this gun now is the time to grab it for a great price.

I need to get at least 5 people in on this, so 4 more plus myself.

If you are interested head over to my groupbuy page: Click here to join this group buy

 

[mikeyr]

this is great if you want to get into powder on a pro or semi-pro level but its a lot of gun for the weekend guy.

I started out with the cheap Eastwood gun and moved up to their $500 pro gun, made good money with that gun, its all I need. For your price of $700 I might have moved up to that but its a lot of gun for the occasional user.

Good luck...interested in seeing how it works out.

 

[anaxagoras]

Good luck...interested in seeing how it works out.

me too, lol. It is a lot of gun, but after doing a lot of research on various powder coating forums it really seem to be a great peice. Especially seeing videos of it in action compared to more entry level guns. The general concensous seems to be to stay away from the less expensive guns due to lack of adjustments that make getting a good even coverage more difficult. And I've always been a person to get more than what I think I'll need now in case I'll need more later. It seems to have served me well for the most part.

I looked into all the stuff I have that I want to powder coat, and how much it will cost me to pay somebody, and I figured it would essentially pay for it self vs paying somebody else to get it done. I just got a free electric oven off of CraigsList. Of course I'll also end up coating stuff that I never had any serious intention of doing. I also already have 2 friends who are lined up to be my first "customers" for some valve covers and brake calipers.

 

[tcianci]

I was wondering about the smaller Eastwood guns. I have I guess what is called the original Eastwood gun and I have only done a pair of exhaust manifolds. The came out great but I'm sure some of that was due to the fact that cast iron is not a very smooth surface and minor imperfections wouldn't show up too much. Does anyone have any suggestions on getting good results with this simple gun?

 

[anaxagoras]

from what i've read, the best tips for getting good results are pateience and SURFACE PREP. lol.

Non adjustable guns should give fine results as long as you are doing single coats, doing multiple coats might get a little hairy and may require you to powder the part when hot.

 

[tcianci]

Thanks for the info, tell me more about powdering the part when it is hot. I will be taking my truck apart soon (all the fabrication is done) to put the final finishes on some of the stuff like the black grille, bumper brackets and small stuff. They will mostly be satin or gloss black. I have a converted electric kitchen oven and a thermometer inside it so hopefully the temperature is right.

 

[anaxagoras]

it's called "hot flocking" if you have problems with the powder sticking due to the electro static charge a cheap trick to do is heat the part and apply the powder when it's warm around 150 degrees F. The part will be hot enough that the fresh powder should melt slightly and stick.

It's usually used with basic guns when applying a 2nd coat and it won't stick (because of the lack of adjustments), or to help beat the faraday cage effect, if you have complex pieces sometimes you get a Faraday cage effect in certain areas (channels and tight bends) and you can't actually coat certain nooks and crannies because there is an "invisible shield".

 

[mrb]

how are you importing these? Are you doing air freight or putting them on a boat? It seems like you are getting killed on the shipping.

 

[anaxagoras]

I am getting killed on shipping, the company says they only ups air for small quantities.

 

[Vinko]

I am getting killed on shipping, the company says they only ups air for small quantities.

where are they based? What port?

 

[35mastr]

Any reason that you can not buy it here in the USA from a distributor?

 

[anaxagoras]

They are based out of Hangzhou China.

As far as a distributor there is not one I can find, I can only find it from an internet retailer. I actually found the manufacturer was from China because of a forum post the retailer made saying they were getting a new gun to demo from China, so I started my internet sleuthing to try and locate them. I will double check with the Mfg though and see if there is a distributor.

 

[mikeyr]

Ok, don't mean to throw cold water on this but...

It sounds like these are not a common gun in the U.S. and since they were brought directly from China without the benefit of a importer/retailer, how are you going to service these for parts and repair ?

Not saying a importer/retailer would be any good at fixing them or getting parts but it would be a concern for me after getting into this group buy.

mike

 

[anaxagoras]

That's a good point.

I'm just trying to organize a group buy, I'm not in this for a business of selling powder guns. I just trying to get this gun for $750 (700), instead of $1,000. It's about $150 a unit shipping from China, if I knew somebody there who could potentially ship it cheaper, I'd grab it up in an instant. The gun appears to be a knockoff the GEMA gun which is one of the top of the line units.

Not getting service/repair is a valid concern, it's obviously not one I can address other than by contacting the manufacturer directly and seeing what they say. It is a dose of cold water, but based on what I've read of the king gun (same gun) there don't seem to be many, if any, problems with it. Of course that's never a problem until you get the thing and it breaks on you. Even if you got the equivalent gun from King http://www.powderbuythepound.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=21&products_id=1794 it looks like they offer the same 1 year manufacturers warranty. I"m not sure if they act as a middle man or just point you to China.

 

[ForceFed70]

Unless you plan to go into business with it, this is way more gun than you need.

I have the $50 cheapy caswell gun and it works fine. Yes, you've got to give it a "shake" here and there and it doesn't have enough "juice" for multiple coats so you have to spray subsequent coats while the part is still hot. But it will still give you a beautiful finish in the end.

Invest the money saved into a larger oven. You'll need the larger oven more than you'll need the fancy gun. The oven pictured below cost me about $300 to build.

 

[mad57]

If one was interested what kind of guarantee do we have on actually getting the item from china? kinda sounds too good to be trueya know?

 

[BlackLead]

The original post is nearly two years old. Why'd we bring this up again?

 

[ForceFed70]

The original post is nearly two years old. Why'd we bring this up again?

Weird. Looks like it was my post that brought it back. I was just browsing the forum, it was on the 1st page of posts. I wasn't searching old threads of anything like that, have no idea why it got listed with the recent threads.

 

[isaac338]

Weird. Looks like it was my post that brought it back. I was just browsing the forum, it was on the 1st page of posts. I wasn't searching old threads of anything like that, have no idea why it got listed with the recent threads.

Well, now that you're here, how about some more info on that oven?

 

[ForceFed70]

Well, now that you're here, how about some more info on that oven?

Check out this thread for more info on the oven: http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=74527

 

[Spam16v]

Built a big one myself