Powder coating at home?

[Tiha]

Anybody do this?

Where do you buy stuff?

Just starting to learn.

Have done fishing lures, coat them, throw them in the oven.

Looking at starting some larger projects this fall/winter. I have a bunch of toys from when I was growing up. Mostly tractors, farm equipment.
of course I played with them, left them outside, threw them around.

wanting to restore and wondering about powder coating.

Can I do it in my kitchen? Or does it stink too bad?
Will it destroy the oven?

Is the harbor freight gun good enough?

 

[tsm1mt]

Officially the fumes during curing are toxic, so avoid doing it in the kitchen or your house, or even breathing the fumes while in the shop.

HF gun works.

Columbia Coatings

 

[chaplinfj60]

i had on buddy who took apart an oven and build a little room to do bigger parts. like a 4x4 or 6x6 size comes to mind. but if i recall he used all the stove heating bit to heat up the baking room. and he was saying he did in the garage. it was just big enough for motor cycle frame. and from what i remember it was nothing fancy. almost shitty looking.

 

[Bacho]

I have a basic Eastwood kit. So far my results have been pretty good.

I have an old electric oven in my shop, I would not do it in the kitchen.

I find the basic kitchen oven to be pretty limited to what will actually fit in there.

 

[Motorcharge]

Looked into it at my old house but never got around to it before I moved. Didn't seem overly difficult until you started getting into stuff that was too big to fit into a cheap Craigslist oven.

 

[Tiha]

Great info, I will start watching for cheap ovens.

Anyone try a heat gun cure? it supposedly is possible.

So I wonder if reflowing is possible is using the correct coating. Thermalplastic vs thermal setting.

It is just toys. So nothing big. I think the biggest is a tonka crane. It will just be the body

 

[Penetrode Offroad]

Great info, I will start watching for cheap ovens.

I got one in my garage you can have for free if you get it before Friday.



Just over here in western Wa.

 

[Motorcharge]

Anyone try a heat gun cure? it supposedly is possible.

Could probably just build a little insulated box then use a heatgun as the heat source. I know Harbor Freight used to sell a little heating cabinet like that for powdercoating.

 

[Zg86]

I did a heat gun cure with cerakote once and it held up fine.

 

[Spudwrench]

We (son and I) use a HF gun, and an old oven the Garage. get pretty good results. at least good enough for us. Dont overlook double ovens, i found they are 2 identical ovens stacked on top of each other. disassemble and keep the unit with the controls.

 

[rockota]

Austin N-something-something in the you tubes does a lot of powder coating in his shop with a $60 Craigslist oven. I think he did a couple of how to vids at one point.

 

[Void_of_Light]

Ive got a HF gun, a small lab oven I got from work and a $20 double oven I got from the habitat store.

I get powder from Prismatic Powders.

It works good enough.

 

[Dead Pool]

No idea, we run a 5 stage wash, full booth, oven, dryoff, yadda yadda. Gema equipment, way better than nordson. But I don't think that's the scale you're looking for.

 

[Old Ugly 54 Chevy]

Columbia coatings powder coat spray gun, and powders for me. built a propane fired oven 4x4x8 with pid controller to regulate heat. works awesome. Do NOT use your house oven

 

[ExWrench]

Anyone try a heat gun cure? it supposedly is possible.

Expect frustrating heartache unless you're talking tiny parts.

It's not quite like drying or curing paint; you really want the substrate and your coating to all reach a given temperature range for (x) time. The full depth of coating needs to be in that temperature window for all the crosslinking magic to complete. With a heat gun, you're likely to create a believable looking skin but not cure all the way through.

Also, spotless prep. and a phosphate wash or conversion coating (or blasting to bare metal right before coating) are a yuuuge part of the success of your coating.

Full disclosure: I'm not a powdercoater, but I've spent over a decade helping figure out failure modes when it fails

 

[SomeGuyFromOlympia]

I started with a little set up
now I have a commercial gun, a 14' oven, and buy powder in bulk

be careful

 

[Tiha]

Expect frustrating heartache unless you're talking tiny parts.

It's not quite like drying or curing paint; you really want the substrate and your coating to all reach a given temperature range for (x) time. The full depth of coating needs to be in that temperature window for all the crosslinking magic to complete. With a heat gun, you're likely to create a believable looking skin but not cure all the way through.

Also, spotless prep. and a phosphate wash or conversion coating (or blasting to bare metal right before coating) are a yuuuge part of the success of your coating.

Full disclosure: I'm not a powdercoater, but I've spent over a decade helping figure out failure modes when it fails

That makes sense for a full cure.

Can you reflow it with a heat gun after wards if something is messed up?

I mean, does powder coating run?

Does it leave behind thin spots?

 

[Squamch]

That makes sense for a full cure.

Can you reflow it with a heat gun after wards if something is messed up?

I mean, does powder coating run?

Does it leave behind thin spots?

On some things, our guys struggle with build up on edges. We don't do a ton of it though, so it's a steep and slow learning curve.

 

[Tiha]

I was going to start with this because the pieces are bigger, easier to work with.

Maybe I should start with something else? Something I don't care about?

 

[Void_of_Light]

That makes sense for a full cure.

Can you reflow it with a heat gun after wards if something is messed up?

I mean, does powder coating run?

Does it leave behind thin spots?

It can be too thin and too thick. I doubt you can reflow it. I have had trouble parts where I would do a half cure, re coat it while hot then full cure. That seems to fix it most of the time. You can also do multiple colors by partial curing.

You need an oven, a heat gun isn't going to do anything but cause headaches.

 

[Void_of_Light]

I was going to start with this because the pieces are bigger, easier to work with.

Maybe I should start with something else? Something I don't care about?

Those parts would probably fit in a toaster oven from a thrift store.

 

[Tooheysmax]

No idea, we run a 5 stage wash, full booth, oven, dryoff, yadda yadda. Gema equipment, way better than nordson. But I don't think that's the scale you're looking for.

We just pay people at 2-4 dollars a foot not worth the trouble. Might be easier to make buddies with a local that does lots of powder work trade labor for parts painting save your space if you don’t have it.

 

[Thumping]

I did it for years in a home made oven that was 3'x3'x6'. The key to a good coating is just like paint, prep. I always used some 240 grit to prep the surface and then cleaned with carb cleaner. Make sure to use a cleaner that doesn't leave a residue.

I got my powder from Powder Buy The Pound | High-Quality Powder Coating Supplies

Bring up to temp for 10 minutes (that was with the powder I used. Some are different temps and time) and then turn it off and let it cool. Do NOT try to cool it off faster by opening the door or it will orange peel.

 

[Tiha]

Those parts would probably fit in a toaster oven from a thrift store.

I am seeing plenty of free ovens on marketplace.

 

[ExWrench]

Can you reflow it with a heat gun after wards if something is messed up?

I mean, does powder coating run?

All the powdercoating resins I'm familiar with are thermosets, not thermoplastics (i.e., they cook like eggs, not like butter) so reflow isn't a possibility.

Maybe I should start with something else? Something I don't care about?

Yes - test out your unproven new process on a test piece. Tonka history thanks you


EDIT: and if you're going to blast those pieces to strip them, be careful w/ air pressure. Blasting can stretch and warp thin sheet metal via peening or heating. Either way, you want bright spotless metal as a base for your coating job.

 

[Tiha]

EDIT: and if you're going to blast those pieces to strip them, be careful w/ air pressure. Blasting can stretch and warp thin sheet metal via peening or heating. Either way, you want bright spotless metal as a base for your coating job.

Actually been debating about that. I don't know what they were originally coated with. Wondering if I can chemically strip them rather than blasting.

Sand blasting is great but like you said it can cause it's own set of problems.

I will have to practice on the Oliver tractor I have. I have always hated it anyway. LOL

 

[SLOWPOKE693]

No idea, we run a 5 stage wash, full booth, oven, dryoff, yadda yadda. Gema equipment, way better than nordson. But I don't think that's the scale you're looking for.

Now we know who to call for chassis powder coating in the area.

 

[AKnate]

I hate powder coat. As it fails it traps water behind it and rots shit out.
Spent 2 days last week scraping and painting a flatbed frame that I thought was 99% good till found a "couple" tiny bubble spots that turned into huge 4-6" flakes holding water.
Had damn near half a 5 gal pail worth of powder coat flakes and rust by the time I was done.

Reminds me I need to look for some fenders to keep road spray off the flatbed.

 

[Dead Pool]

Now we know who to call for chassis powder coating in the area.

Can’t do chassis unfortunately. There are some size constraints. It was built around our products.

 

[SomeGuyFromOlympia]

I did it for years in a home made oven that was 3'x3'x6'. The key to a good coating is just like paint, prep. I always used some 240 grit to prep the surface and then cleaned with carb cleaner. Make sure to use a cleaner that doesn't leave a residue.

I got my powder from Powder Buy The Pound | High-Quality Powder Coating Supplies

Bring up to temp for 10 minutes (that was with the powder I used. Some are different temps and time) and then turn it off and let it cool. Do NOT try to cool it off faster by opening the door or it will orange peel.

I pull parts out with the forklift and drop them outside in the rain and they turn out fine with steam smoking off of hot parts . You might want to try a different brand or something That is weird