spills

iTrader: (9)

Im finally about to get some $$$ for my shop. Gettin 60 gal compressor, sand blast booth (small), and also thinking about a cheap used oven and one of those home powder coat kits. Has anyone here used one like the Craftsman one? My sis is selling her old oven for $75, plus another $100 for the powder coat kit (I think?), I could probably make my money back after only doing a few parts. Any opinions?

archemedes

a couple guys on nastyz28 have used the eastwood one, and it worked fairly well for them (they all raved about how great it looked) just make sure the oven is electric not gas

fireeagle43

I have one from a company in Tn. that works good for me. Just have to keep the air pressure down to around 5 psi or you'll blow the powder everywhere. I spent $150 for mine and get three 1/2 pound containers different colors, the plug and seal kit and three rolls of heat resistant tape for that price.

You can make your money back in one good order if you clean and prep their parts, I've done some for local farmers in the area and have with mine.

spills

iTrader: (9)

sweet, maybe you can answer this for me. Let's say that you're powdercoating a wheel. You take out the oven grille and set the wheel on it. Powdercoat the wheel, cure it, and take the wheel out. Wont you have lines/grooves on the underside of the wheel from where the grille was? Would you be able to apply a small 2nd coat to the backside of the wheel and re-cure it without ruining the first application?

One more thing, how hard is it to polish fins that have been powdercoated? Like on a Stealthram or Miniram manifold. Sanding block with 400 grit and some time do the trick, or is it reeaalllyy hard once cured?

ntomsheck

iTrader: (1)

for something that would be seen from both sides by other people than you, I recommend suspending it from an oven grate instead of placing it on it. Just hang it and set the oven rack on the top shelf (be carful of it swinging obviously).

For fins, you can use a rotary hand tool (like a dremel) and it's polishing equipment to get in there. Most of the tools they have will fit in there nicely.

spills

iTrader: (9)

schweet, I think Im sold on this already! Have you heard any pros/cons of using the air powered versions as opposed to the electric guns?

Mathius

A toaster oven can be used for small parts. TPI383 should chime in here at some point. He has a small powder coating business.

I _think_ this is his site: http://www.cecoatings.com/index2.html

Mathius

FSTFBDY

iTrader: (33)

You will do fine with a home based one if you only plan to do small batch parts.
Dont wast your $ on the sears gun, or sears powder.

Hand things if you don't want rack lines.

as for polished fins. Mask em off 1st. Ive done a few minirams and other combos of powder/polihing
http://www.cecoatings.com/images/coa...FrankGTAParts/

http://www.cecoatings.com/images/coa...almostdone.jpg
http://www.cecoatings.com/images/coa...0MINIRAM/3.jpg
http://www.cecoatings.com/images/coa...am/Engine1.jpg
http://www.cecoatings.com/images/coa...MiniRamRed.jpg


Shoot me an email if you do get something. I'll give ya some tips on how to do what when you run into questions.

spills

iTrader: (9)

thanks guys, and thanks TPI383 for the advice, Im wure Ill be shootin ya few emails once I get it all set up.

So which gun do you prefer for my type of application, Eastwood? I seen that they have 2 or 3 different models available

FSTFBDY

iTrader: (33)

How much volume/parts do you plan to do?
Just automotive pieces? industrial stuff? Lof of color changes,etc?

1-10 parts a week? or something like 1500 brackets every other week like I do?

Id say since your just getting into this buy the eastwood starter kit for under what $200 or something like that. You get powder, Gun and tape like the guy above said.

It works good for small batch stuff. I have one as a backgun gun for if I have problems with my $4k nordson pro gun.

Then once you get the hand of PC/ing. Maybe step upto a Eastwood PRO gun or a caswell Gun. use them for awhile and then if your still doing it and get more volume in product get a industrial gun.

I have people call/e-mail all the time from the boards who do home based pc/ing and ceramic coating. So shoot me some quesion when ya got em.

Few good links.....
http://www.pcoating.com/Content/Default.aspx
http://www.powdercoatingonline.com/index.html
http://www.pfonline.com/

spills

iTrader: (9)

thanks man,

for now I only intend to PC my own parts and maybe a few friends pieces here and there. Im not lookin to make any money off of it right now (I got school, so Camaro time is already at a minimum).

Is it possible to PC heads? Just curious, basically the only thing on the car that you cannot PC that Ive heard of are headers.

FSTFBDY

iTrader: (33)

Ive done heads/blocks/etc..

You CAN use HI TEMP POWDER on headers but I dont recomend it. Ive done it because "thats what the customer wanted" but I try and use only ceramic.

yo can do Plastic also. Ive done LS1 intakes, FCR's etc..

bradley23150

iTrader: (10)

how are you supposed to bake the plastics tho?

spills

iTrader: (9)

I was kinda wondering that as well, I would imagine only some plastics that are made to withstand hi heat (intakes I would imagine are such plastics).

And if you were to chip the powdercoating a year or so later, or even a month later, can you re-coat and re-bake the piece without stripping off the first coat of coating?

FSTFBDY

iTrader: (33)

certin plastics can be done.

and Id strip it and redo it if its that long later. You can't touch up one little spot that easy. (you can but its a pita)

LilJayV10

iTrader: (5)

deadbird did my GTA rims, oil pan and timing cover. I can't get a hold of him on here. I think he moved or something.

I am pretty sure he used eastwoods stuff. He was pretty damn sharp on this type of stuff. If you can get a hold of him I am sure he can help. If you do get a hold of him, tell him Jason needs a lot of stuff powder coated.

spills

iTrader: (9)

thx mods

Im about to sink some money into a 60gal air compressor, and after that Im getting one of the Eastwood kits. Ill have to try out a few test pieces first, then Im gonna try to PC my fan box, Ill post pics of the progress along with some feedback about their products. Thanks for the info guys!!!

spills

iTrader: (9)

holy crap! Ive found the Holy Grail for home powdercoat questions!!!!

Caswell Plating Forums

Theyve got everything from how to make your own custom sized PC oven, to tips and tricks on PC, plating, you name it! This just made my night!!

FSTFBDY

iTrader: (33)

There are a TON of sites out there..

Ive got a list of em I'll dig out and PM ya...

Blue-Beast

I started doing this a long time ago for use on my own projects.
I took advice from a couple of "do-it-yourselfers" and screwed up a few times. The first items I coated chipped easy, they werent baked long enough. I now have it down pretty good.
I purchased a small gun from Harbor Freight (chinese crap) that was on sale, and thought I didn't have anything to loose. I purchased a used double kitchen oven (the biggest I could find) and started experimenting.

My bike parts came out flawless. I beadblasted all my parts, gave them an initial baking to vaporize any impurities and shot on the powder. Couldn't resisting having the spokes chromed, all the black parts are coated (except for the tank):




My truck got new Centerlines. My Weld car wheels are a pain in the a$$ to keep clean, so I knew that these would be too. I used "sugar sand" to blast off the polishing and used the same technique as the bike.






I did invest in a lazer thermometer to gauge the heat in the part. You can't go by actual oven time, I use the temp of the actual part to figure the amount of baking required. I've had excellent results with 375* @ 45 min, then a slow cool-down.
Click on each pic for the full album.

make sure you practice first.
Good luck.

i_love_thirdgen

iTrader: (3)

**subscribe**

spills

iTrader: (9)

hopefully Ill be putting up some reviews within the next few weeks. Ive been slowly piecing my air system together, and I finally got all the leaks fixed so Im gonna start blasting sometime next week, and hopefully coating not too long after

spills

iTrader: (9)

alright fellas, Ive sucessfully coated a set of 13" CRX rims, DSM valve cover, a diesel piston ashtray, 4L60E trans pan and an air cleaner cover. All in all Id have to say the Eastwood kit is awesome! The only thing that kinda sucks is that the deflector tip kinda "fogs" the powder to it makes it a little more difficult to get it into small tight corners (i.e. wheels) I ended up finding a 30" drop in oven for $12 from a friend of mine. Im now trying to make a track setup to hang parts in the oven rather than suspending them from the rack, which is a pain in the ***.

If anyone has some extra money and some space, I would highly recommend this kit. Just think about all the mounts, brackets, calipers, pulleys, anything you can fit in an oven you can coat yourself. I love this kit!! My next project is coating a HSR with a silver vein base and put a candy blue topcoat. Pics upon completion!

What powders are you using? Im mainly using Roseys powders and most of theirs cure at ~400 degrees for 10 mins, Eastwoods are about 400-425 for 15 mins

John S

Spills:
Since no one else has already mentioned it I would suggest that you spend some time on Eastwoods forum. The powdercoating section is a wealth of information such as modifying the hobby gun you have for a better fluidizing in the cup to help eliminate powder delivery problems. You'll also find information on Farraday Cage Effect which makes getting powder into tight spots difficult.
This is just a couple of the tips you'll find there.