Powder coating DIY, your opinion?

[PoorOwner]

I already have a compressor, blast cabinet and powder coating gun, however just thinking if I should get into powder coating, pulling off little brackets and stuff off my car and powder coat them. Just need to find an oven now.

But I am finding that there is more needed.. for example. I also need some kind of spray booth, but I really have no space so will have to make do with some foldable cardboard box.

I also need a parts washer to soak oily things like valve cover right? Or a 5 gallon bucket with simple green and an aquairum pump would do?

OK bottom question is do you think it is worth it, we are talking about alot of space here needed for the prep work. I probably won't go crazy and build a trailer-sized oven with start coating people's wheels, bike frames.. this is just for my own use. If down the road I can coat a few parts for other car club members for a few dollars thats fine though.

 

[Antique Engine]

I started out small and over the course of a year, have gone pretty much whole hog PC shop. I have a large oven now so I can do stuff up to 6 feet long. It's been a good deal for me.

You don't need a spray booth. You can suspend the part from anything and shoot it. The overspray will land on the floor to be swept out or blown out later.

 

[LoneGunman]

It does take up a lot of space to powder coat PROPERLY. Sure you can coat some small stuff for your self pretty easily, the issue is when you start charging for your services. Good enough is no longer good enough for paying customers. Take for example the oven, if you are going to build one it makes no sense to build a small one, you need to exhaust the fumes from the curing powder, the oven needs to have the air circulated inside so you get an even cure rate. My oven is roughly 6' high by 2' wide by 3' deep, It is too small and I have lost work because of it. If you are going to PC for money build at least an oven big enough to cure truck bumpers.

Yes, you need a good way to degrease the parts and also you need a way to pretreat the metal (I use iron phosphate) if you are serious about good adhesion, that's another tank you need to buy. As I said, for your own parts you don't have to go all out, if the coating fails you can redo it and you are not out anything. It fails for a paying customer you are now loosing money. The RIGHT way to redo a failed coating is to totally strip off the PC that failed, we are now talking about yet another tank and more chemicals.

Let's talk about the gun, HF and other low end Chinese guns are notorious for wasting powder, so again if we are talking about paying customers, I wouldn't start with less than a Hyper smooth gun ($450) and preferably a King Coat ($1000).

You do need a spray booth or a good respirator, the powder is not toxic but it is so fine it will cause respiratory issues, without a spray booth you will have powder EVERYWHERE and it is hell to clean up, you also have a very good chance of contaminating your coating without one.

The good news is the booth does not have to cost a ton of money to make, mine probably ran me $200-$300 but I scavenged just about all of the materials.

Do you have the equipment and knowledge to polish parts to a mirror finish? A lot of people want the "candy" colors, they are nice but must be applied over a highly polished surface. Polishing is another "can of worms", it's beyond messy and requires a good amount of practice. I wouldn't want to use a buffer below 1hp and 10" wheels.
If you decide to go for it and need any help don't hesitate to PM me, I'll do what I can to help you out.

 

[benjamming]

Lone,

What do you use to etch the parts after degreasing & prior to iron phosphate? Degrease doesn't remove mill scale, rust, etc. That stripping tank could also serve as a rework tank. I would assume phosphoric acid but maybe something else. Or, do you get by with nothing?

 

[LoneGunman]

Ben, I degrease, sandblast, wash in reverse osmosis water, iron phosphate, rinse in RO water then powdercoat. If the part is going to be a candy color I Polish, degrease, rinse in RO water then powdercoat.

 

[Gearhead559]

wash, blast, baked, blast smooth, pc, bake....

it has turned out cheaper for me to take stuff to some one that does it main stream...to much time involved IMO...plus the more i take over ther, the more of a hookup i get


btw, baking it bofre coating, gets the grease out of the metal and you get stuff turning out much better without having to redo it..like aluminum valve covers, always bake them to get the oil out of the surface

 

[Bigrhamr]

Here's a forum where all those questions have been discussed in detail:

http://forum.caswellplating.com/powder-coating-questions/

 

[LoneGunman]

great point that I forgot about. Anything cast also gets baked whether it was greasy or not to help with the outgassing. Preheating large parts is also a good idea.


"btw, baking it bofre coating, gets the grease out of the metal and you get stuff turning out much better without having to redo it..like aluminum valve covers, always bake them to get the oil out of the surface"

 

[Gearhead559]

good point...like i said..its just easier for me to take it to the guy that know's how, and has every thing under the sun to do it. i know aluminum is bad about soaking up anything and every thing that comes in contact with it. hell the grease from your hands even

 

[mustangmccance]

I think it depends on what you want and why you are doing it. like lone gunman says if you are doing it for profit thats one thing but I bought a kit from eastwood just to see if I liked it, and I can tell you I think it is great. I bought the kit, got a used oven from a friend, last year I bought a blast cabinet and I have done quite a few things. it is fun and easy. the key as has been said is surface prep. but if I have a metal piece I would much rather powder coat it than paint it. it looks better and lasts longer. here are some pictures of a differential housing I did last year.



so it can be done in a small shop with minimal outlay of cash if you take your time and do the prep work well.

doubtless the quality of a professional shop will be better than my home efforts, but for my purpose and personal use I certainly enjoy it.

 

[PoorOwner]

wow, you have a lot of patience roasting that thing to cure.

 

[mustangmccance]

YEAH IT TOOK A WHILE BUT IT TURNED OUT REALLY GOOD. i HAVE AN OVEN TO DO SMALL PARTS AND THAT IS DIRT EASY. JUST STICK IT IN THERE FOR ABOUT 25 MINUTES AND THEN IT IS DONE WHEN IT IS COOL ENOUGH TO TOUCH YOU CAN PUT IT ON YOUR CAR. NO WAITING FOR THE PAINT TO CURE OVER NIGHT ANYMORE. i HAVE USED IT TO DO BRAKE DRUMS, SOME SMALL PARTS FOR MY HOOD LATCH ON MY MUSTANG A COUPLE OF INTAKE MANIFOLDS, i MIXED UP SOME CUSTOM TEAL COLOR FOR MY DADS INTAKE TO MATCH HIS CARS PAINT COLOR. i EVEN POWDER COATED A LITTLE PIECE OF SHEET STEEL AND SCREWED IT TO MY DAUGHTERS WALL SHE USES IT AS A MAGNETIC BULLETIN BOARD.

AGAIN i JUST DO IT FOR MY SELF. STARTED ON SOME JUNK VALVE COVERS JUST TO GET THE HANG OF IT AND I HAVE REALLY ENJOYED IT.

My dad thought when I bought the thing that it wouldn't work very well but he is just amazed at the quality of job I can get done with this little thing. since you already have most of what you need I would say try it out I bet you will love it.

sorry about the all caps I did not see the capslock was on.

 

[LoneGunman]

Nice work Mustang, if you have the standard cheap chinese gun (harbor frieght, caswells, eastwood ETC) you can get a LOT more out of the gun if you modify it a little, should cost you $20 or so, you'll save that in powder after the first few jobs. If you haven't done the mods let me know I'll post them up on here.

 

[mustangmccance]

yeah that would be great gunman. I just have the elcheapo gun from eastwood.

 

[LoneGunman]

Here's the two threads with instructions, it works AWESOME. If you ever upgrade to something like the Caswell 50k gun it works awesome on that to. The difference between the cheapie gun and the little better gun like the Caswell 50k gun with the mods is night and day.

http://forum.caswellplating.com/powder-coating-questions/8713-wish-i-would-done-along-time-ago.html

http://forum.caswellplating.com/powder-coating-questions/9297-you-idiot-if-you-dont-try.html

 

[LowEnergyParticle]

Many, many thanks for posting these links. I'm headed out to the shop to go try this. More consistent spray, shoot at any angle, lighter gun weight, and slightly easier cleanup. What's not to love?

Thank you!!!
Dave

 

[tcianci]

I bought the small Eastwood set up a couple of years ago at a show. The price was good and it included powder, wire, tape etc. It was all you needed to get started. I converted an old kitchen oven. So far I have only done one set of exhaust manifolds for my buddys old TransAm. They came out FANTASTIC and the high heat powder really works. They have stayed great! As others have mentioned, prep is everything.

 

[recklessnova]

I got into it about 6 months ago or so
Since then I have a 60 gal 5hp 20cfm@90 compressor
refrig air drier
4x4x4 blast cabinet one home oven converted for shop use and a 24x32x60 oven i built thats gas powered from a forced air heater
spray booth in the corner 4x4x8 made with two box fans and the fake wood panneling people used to use on houses I pulled out of a room.
So far my stuffs commning out great and have been doing a few jobs here and there I get all my powder from eastwood or columbia coatings
Im using a columbia hyper smooth gun and its the bees knees but they have a new gun out thats sposed be on par or better then that called the kool koat
im 25 In the USMC full time and do body work on hudsons and packards two to three hours a night
Check out columbia coatings web site There great to deal with and just redid the web site and its way nicer
for what its worth
Josh

 

[LoneGunman]

Yup, the Hypersmooth is a great gun. One tip, check out Powder By the Pound, I believe it is less money than Columbia and Caswell, is high quality powder and have a lot larger selection.

 

[recklessnova]

last i checked columbia was still beating pbp on the hypersmooth but I think no matter who you go with its a great gun. If I had the cash I cwould check out the new Kool Koat gun columbia has it comes setup for the fluidized hoppers.
OP should post some pics of what he has done id like to see them
Josh

 

[recklessnova]

last i checked columbia was still beating pbp on the hypersmooth but I think no matter who you go with its a great gun. If I had the cash I cwould check out the new Kool Koat gun columbia has it comes setup for the fluidized hoppers.
OP should post some pics of what he has done id like to see them
Josh