Question to those who do powder coating

[Chris705]

Hope I put this question in the right area...

I have been looking at a very highly price auction house (Morphy Auctions) signage auction and that got me to wonder; can enameled signs still be made to replicate old signs...so the interweb told me that the materials are available like those used to enamel jewelry and such, but the melting point is very high, most melt at over 1000 degrees. So I wondered if perhaps powder coating could be used?

So my question to those who powder coat do you think different colors can be laid down using various templates or stencils and when put in the oven would the lines of different colors stay put or will they melt into each other? OR could the different layers be built up? Does this even sound remotely possible?

 

[Chris705]

Bump...

 

[Kevin54]

Check with CudaChick1968 and she will tell you all you need to know. She is our resident powdercoater. You can find her to PM her in #14 of this thread if she doesn't pop up here shortly http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=318817&highlight=powder+coating

 

[Brad J.]

Powder wouldn't look any different than painting them.

Painting would be a lot easier in my opinion. If powdered you'd do one color/bake/tape or stencil. Try removing a stencil with powder on it that will fall into the base color. Then you try and blow it off and **** would go everywhere. At least that is my experience with powder.

Not sure about bleeding colors in the oven. Haven't tried it.

And you know with old signs any touchup can hurt the value.

 

[Kevin54]

Powder wouldn't look any different than painting them.

Painting would be a lot easier in my opinion. If powdered you'd do one color/bake/tape or stencil. Try removing a stencil with powder on it that will fall into the base color. Then you try and blow it off and **** would go everywhere. At least that is my experience with powder.

Not sure about bleeding colors in the oven. Haven't tried it.

And you know with old signs any touchup can hurt the value.

CudaChick can do it and it doesn't bleed. Che has quite a few examples on her site. http://phoenixspecialtycoatings.com/gallery-of-work-samples.html

 

[Chris705]

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction Kevin...

She does very nice work...I will reach out to her.

Brad, thanks for your input...I have no experience with powder that is why I wanted to ask.

 

[Antique Engine]

I use a sign cutting machine for powdercoat stencils often. This bike I did is all powder and Oracal brand vinyl used for stencils. White basecoat, stencils, two different colors of powder, then a clear topcoat. The secret is knowing when to full cure and when to do a quick partial cure. Any custom coater will have that figured out.









Basically, you apply the base color and full cure it, then apply stencils and shoot second color and only do a quick partial cure before removing from oven and removing the stencils, then a full cure to nail down the top color. Any slightly irregular edges where you pulled the stencil will heal during the full cure. Then apply a nice gloss or flat clear topcoat to smooth out the edges.

That bike above was a particular challenge due to the two different topcoat colors.

I'm currently beginning to delve into replicating vintage signs using this exact method. Not commercially by any means, just to make cool random vintage looking signs to hang on my wall.

 

[Chris705]

I would be very much interested in seeing your results of sign making and if you could document some of the steps along the way it would be very helpful!

 

[9GUY9]

https://scontent-yyz1-1.**.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xtp1/t31.0-8/10483263_342502479251836_1438982114853079785_o.jpg

As has already been said, yes Powder can be used to do multi color signs. I made this sign for my sisters yoga studio. Its a aluminum blank with 4 different colors.