Shop / Tools DIY powder coating?

Greg

Make RME Rockcrawling Again!
Admin

Greg

Make RME Rockcrawling Again!
Admin

H-K

INFIDEL
Supporting Member
Location
SLC UT, USA
I was today years old when I learned about fluidized bed powder coating!



You can buy a bucket hopper for $150! - https://www.powderbuythepound.com/spectracoat-2lb-constant-fluidizing-bucket-hopper-.html

Pretty neat idea, obviously you have to have a LOT of powder to fill your fluidized bed. Pretty neat that you can preheat the parts, dip them in the powder and if they have enough heat in them, the process is complete.
Greg, that pre-heating process is not unlike a lot of youtoob videos I've seen where people are heating a part with a blowtorch, then dusting or blowing powder on it. I planned on trying that method out to touch up gouges in powdercoated sliders/bumpers or if I need to weld a tab on a powdercoated item it can be re-coated. Seems to work ok in the videos...
 

Greg

Make RME Rockcrawling Again!
Admin
Greg, that pre-heating process is not unlike a lot of youtoob videos I've seen where people are heating a part with a blowtorch, then dusting or blowing powder on it. I planned on trying that method out to touch up gouges in powdercoated sliders/bumpers or if I need to weld a tab on a powdercoated item it can be re-coated. Seems to work ok in the videos...

I have wondered how well preheating with torch would work, seems like a digital temp gun would be a good investment to verify when the part was up to the needed temp. I have a torch and rosebud tip, I'll have to try it out one of these days.

I'd love to hear how touching up a powdercoated part worked out, I'm just wondering how the old coating would transition to with the heat & new coating.

I watched the video... I need to upgrade to the Eastwood powder coating gun, looks like it's a better setup than the HF gun.
 

H-K

INFIDEL
Supporting Member
Location
SLC UT, USA
I read in a forum somewhere about a guy to claimed to have attached two oil drums end to end, added some oven heating elements to make it a powder coating oven for bumpers. No idea if it was BS, but that's some serious DIY lol.
 

Hickey

Burn-barrel enthusiast
Supporting Member
I read in a forum somewhere about a guy to claimed to have attached two oil drums end to end, added some oven heating elements to make it a powder coating oven for bumpers. No idea if it was BS, but that's some serious DIY lol.
I can see that possibly working. What are the powder coating temps, 400 or less?
 

Greg

Make RME Rockcrawling Again!
Admin
I know a guy that took 2 ovens, put them side by side and cut the center out, welded the two up so they're one piece so he can heat up larger parts for coating. Looks ghetto, but works apparently.
 

Greg

Make RME Rockcrawling Again!
Admin
I welded up some tie downs for my trailer and was going to paint them black, then I remembered I could powder coat them instead! The gun was already loaded up with Gold from a previous project.... so out of sheer laziness, I left the Gold in the powder gun! They should stand up to the elements better than paint.... pretty awesome to be able to do this at home.



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Greg

Make RME Rockcrawling Again!
Admin
I decided to step up my powder coating game and buy an Eastwood Dual Voltage PC system, as they're on sale now for $99.

The gun and bottle seems like a much better setup then Harbor Freight unit, but to activate the electric charge you you use a handheld push button. Honestly it's more of a pain in the butt than the foot activated HF Powder Coat kit.

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Other than that, it seems like it functions a bit better and the coating goes on easier.

I had an old Crescent wrench laying around that looked pretty rough, so I cleaned it it up and coated it with a Chrome finish. It will be interesting to see how well the powder coat holds up up on a hand tool, I'm expecting it will start chipping off pretty quick but for now it looks great.

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Greg

Make RME Rockcrawling Again!
Admin
Another powder coating project, my wife is quite a book worm and has wanted me to build book ends for her. Cleaned up some scrap rail pieces, added a spike, set them on a plate and tacked the pieces together.

Powder coated them gloss black with powder from Eastwood and they came out great!

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