powder coating at home?

[Rondog]

Does anybody here do their own small-parts powder coating at home? If so, does anybody use an old kitchen range oven?

I have a freebie oven I just scored, works fine, wife just wanted a prettier one. But I'm being told that I need a convection oven, one that moves the air around. I think that guy's just overthinking this, but I'm looking for other opinions, and especially experiences.

Just wanting to do small car and mc parts, and probably some lead bullets too.

Thanks!

 

[fitz11]

I use a regular oven and have had great results. As long as it's electric and not gas you are good to go.

 

[henry29]

I do a lot of powder coating at home with a small toaster oven.
I've used heat lamps and heat guns, don't see any reason a regular oven wouldn't work.

 

[purevil115]

I use a regular electric stove easy todo and comes out great.

 

[RandyL]

My electric range works perfect also. Has a glass in the door and the clock and timer work...nice bonus. Just did a 12 HP Briggs motor for a friend..wanted to do it to learn a bit about recesses, fins, and the like.

Randy

 

[MFolks]

http://www.eastwood.com/paints/hotc...=41895475140&gclid=CILRi-zNor4CFUpp7AodtiwAXA

 

[tcianci]

I have been using a plain old electric kitchen oven for years (don't tell my wife) It works perfectly

 

[gball]

yup, home elec. oven when wife isn't home, but she always comes in and says "i smell chemicals"... just play dumb. i don't smell anything...

 

[MFolks]

I got my wife's OK when I use our electric oven to bake painted parts(just open the window to remove the fumes, and no, I don't paint in winter). For my use, 300 F for 30 minutes, makes a tough finish.

 

[2xs]

Hey Ron why don't you go find our own forum ! Welcome and check out this thread this what I was referring to on the ar forum.

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=214642&highlight=powdercoating&page=3

 

[CudaChick1968]

Ohhhhhhh boy, here we go again! Without rewriting history here, I have a couple points to add.

DO NOT COAT IN YOUR HOME OVEN whether your wife is home or not. The chemicals released by curing powder are extremely toxic and, once you've cured parts in an oven, it is no longer ever suitable for cooking food.

Unless you have plans to just do a few things now and then, check around for a supplier other than Eastwood. Whatever you can buy from them you can find somewhere else under its own manufacturer's label, and it's always cheaper (typical mark up is 30-40%!!).

Finally, forget the online powder coating forums. So many people are doing this on their own now -- thanks mainly to Eastwood's "Own Your Own Business for $100!" marketing ploy saturating the industry over the last decade -- that they miraculously turn into an "expert" almost immediately ... and most are all too willing to share their [totally lame and wrong] advice with everyone else. The blind lead the blind right into bankruptcy ...... and back to their day jobs.

Okayyy, the bitchy redhead's off her soap box now. Carry on gentlemen.

 

[RandyL]

I love it when you talk like that!!!

Thanks for taking the time to write the post.

I use my shop oven for powder coating, and some vac forming...the window is important to me when getting forming plastics to the perfect rate of stretch before hitting the mold.

NO food goes in this thing......... Never...ever.........

Randy

 

[tcianci]

Ohhhhhhh boy, here we go again! Without rewriting history here, I have a couple points to add.

DO NOT COAT IN YOUR HOME OVEN whether your wife is home or not. The chemicals released by curing powder are extremely toxic and, once you've cured parts in an oven, it is no longer ever suitable for cooking food.

Unless you have plans to just do a few things now and then, check around for a supplier other than Eastwood. Whatever you can buy from them you can find somewhere else under its own manufacturer's label, and it's always cheaper (typical mark up is 30-40%!!).

Finally, forget the online powder coating forums. So many people are doing this on their own now -- thanks mainly to Eastwood's "Own Your Own Business for $100!" marketing ploy saturating the industry over the last decade -- that they miraculously turn into an "expert" almost immediately ... and most are all too willing to share their [totally lame and wrong] advice with everyone else. The blind lead the blind right into bankruptcy ...... and back to their day jobs.

Okayyy, the bitchy redhead's off her soap box now. Carry on gentlemen.

Well since I started the home oven joke, I guess I will have to apologize for it:

I was, of course, only kidding when I joked about using the oven the the kitchen for curing power coats. Re-purposed electric kitchen ovens make fine powder coating ovens for stuff that will fit in them. Please follow all the powder coating manufacturers instructions for using their products.

Sometimes I forget the breadth of the audience I am responding to here on GJ. And though I have done PLENY of non recommended activities in the past, usually I know which ones were uber stupid and typically don't brag about them on here

 

[Fueler]

Cudachick touched on something indirectly.
I have a couple of those 100 buck wonders. They work fine for what I use them for around the shop and projects. HOWEVER to reach the quality that Cuda and other pros achieve takes time, study, tools, technique and a desire to be the best. Just like any other field. No shortcuts.

I do Ok with it within my capabilities but haven't done a piece yet that is perfect. There is always something I see that needs improved on. You have to choose your battles and this is one I would lose. Just not that into it enough to spend the extra time and money.
If I need show quality I pay someone that will do it twice if they have to.

Once in a while someone asks me about doing something for them. Now I know they are expecting magazine OH WOW show quality. Nope, not gonna happen. Here is a list of folks that do it for a living and this is where you can get your own stuff to be a pro.

Other than that they are kind of a neat tool to have around for brackets and such.

 

[MScott]

I use a regular oven and have had great results. As long as it's electric and not gas you are good to go.

Can someone explain why not gas? Is there something flammable or explosive? Just curious since I've seen this warning before but never an explanation.

 

[Fueler]

Can someone explain why not gas? Is there something flammable or explosive? Just curious since I've seen this warning before but never an explanation.

Think Paint in a fine, dusty talcum powder form. Given the right condition, go boom.

 

[steve308]

Just a reminder that when your powder coating using the oven when the wife is out it's the perfect time to run your greasy wrenches and socket thru the dishwasher. I recommend using the steam setting to really deep clean the caked on crud. If you are going to take a bullet it might as well be a big bullet.

 

[fitz11]

Think Paint in a fine, dusty talcum powder form. Given the right condition, go boom.

Exactly!

 

[RandyL]

Cudachick touched on something indirectly.
I have a couple of those 100 buck wonders. They work fine for what I use them for around the shop and projects. HOWEVER to reach the quality that Cuda and other pros achieve takes time, study, tools, technique and a desire to be the best. Just like any other field. No shortcuts.

I do Ok with it within my capabilities but haven't done a piece yet that is perfect. There is always something I see that needs improved on. You have to choose your battles and this is one I would lose. Just not that into it enough to spend the extra time and money.
If I need show quality I pay someone that will do it twice if they have to.

Once in a while someone asks me about doing something for them. Now I know they are expecting magazine OH WOW show quality. Nope, not gonna happen. Here is a list of folks that do it for a living and this is where you can get your own stuff to be a pro.


Other than that they are kind of a neat tool to have around for brackets and such.

That pretty well lays it out........ I'm a hobby guy, and if you want a hobby part/////// I do things for the guys at works and learn from every one of them. Helps me for my stuff later.
I just did some fertilizer spreader parts for one of our lube guys...I don't think that gloss was the issue!

Randy

 

[MScott]

Think Paint in a fine, dusty talcum powder form. Given the right condition, go boom.

Exactly!

OK. Thanks. Thought that might be the problem.

 

[Rondog]

Just a reminder that when your powder coating using the oven when the wife is out it's the perfect time to run your greasy wrenches and socket thru the dishwasher. I recommend using the steam setting to really deep clean the caked on crud. If you are going to take a bullet it might as well be a big bullet.

Oh hey, wives also love it when you run nasty, greasy old military rifle stocks in the dishwasher too! Helps to get that ancient oil, grime and cosmoline out of the wood ya know.

Thanks for all the info and participation everyone! I appreciate it! Looks like I'm going to be powdercoating Willys Jeep and Harley parts soon, as well as lead pistol and rifle bullets.

 

[frankie3555]

Here is an oven I made from a store display and three black and decker hot plates, 500w each. Two on the base and one on the back wall. Insulated it with 1" a/c duct board and built a grill to support the parts. It will reach 450 degrees in about 15 mins. I had a lot of the stuff but could be duplicated for under
$50. I have done a steel wheel as well as a lot of small parts, just using a Harbor Freight gun.

http://cougarrestoration.weebly.com

 

[CudaChick1968]

Welcome to the forum frankie! I don't see the grill you mention there in your pics. Did it sufficiently support the steel wheel or did you only coat one side so it wouldn't permanently bond to the grate?

 

[panknuckshovel]

The harbor freight unit is great to learn with. Even though they only have four color choices, red, yellow, white and flat black, at $4 a pound with coupon it takes the sting out of wasting it. A one pound bottle of the gloss red was enough to put 2 coats on 16 pinball machine legs.

We used a thrift mart oven at 350 and once the powder looked glossy or wet, drank a beer for cure time, turned oven off and let cool to touch. The pieces came out perfect and tough as nails. The bottle and all the online advice say a temp of 400-425 and we tried this, but at 350 there is ZERO odors and so far everything is working perfect.

The pics show a swingarm and fender struts i did in silver with clear over. This powder i got from eastwood. The outlet boxes and covers were the first thing done and are in the harbor freight flat black.

 

[Chris Stapley]

Have a good friend doing a LOT of commercial work with an oven he built out of two range oven controllers and elements etc.. from two scrapped kitchen stoves. He can do two full sized motorcycle frames at a time in his unit or hundreds of hot rod chassis brackets at a time, works amazing..

 

[CudaChick1968]

Here's mine when it was almost finished, 7 feet tall, 4 feet wide and 3 feet deep. Four broiler elements and a fan keep things hot and well circulated.



It took a few months to build every night after work but I no longer have to refuse a job because my oven was a half inch too small. It's been the best business decision I've ever made and will be in operation for five years this coming August.



We all have to start somewhere.

 

[StingRay]

I have use an old kitchen oven but upgraded the temp control to a PID with a thermocouple and a contactor. It is very accurate and pretty reasonable to do. I use a Powder By The Pound powder system which is above the entry level Eastwood stuff. I have very good results with it all too. I'm still a beginner with lots to learn. I plan on making a bigger oven some day and will just move the controls over to it.

 

[frankie3555]

CudaChick..I actually made two grills the first is just expanded metal with bolts holding it up off the burners, the second is another store fixture grill similar to an oven rack its much sturdier. There were a couple of spots on the back side of the rim that didn't get coated, but I just coated it to see how it would come out. BTW Harbor Freight powder is junk, Eastwood much better quality.