Powder coating - have you tried it?

[imagineer]

I make do with a HF gun and powder from Prismatic. For an oven, I have a retired Yamato DX400 lab oven. FWIW, I think the HF gun is lousy.

Like any coating application, preparation is key. My workshop is small, it's such a pain to set up the powder coat system and even more of a nuisance to clean up, I try to not have to do any repeat work. That said, I usually double up on the cleaning and pre-baking of parts before spraying any powder.

Last winter, I de-chromed my cruiser ('05 Suzuki C90), coating most of the chrome in satin black. In addition to powder, I also sprayed and baked Cerakote on the engine covers and exhaust and sprayed Rustoleum truck bed liner on the chromed plastic parts.

 

[frugalguido]

I make do with a HF gun and powder from Prismatic. For an oven, I have a retired Yamato DX400 lab oven. FWIW, I think the HF gun is lousy.

Like any coating application, preparation is key. My workshop is small, it's such a pain to set up the powder coat system and even more of a nuisance to clean up, I try to not have to do any repeat work. That said, I usually double up on the cleaning and pre-baking of parts before spraying any powder.

Last winter, I de-chromed my cruiser ('05 Suzuki C90), coating most of the chrome in satin black. In addition to powder, I also sprayed and baked Cerakote on the engine covers and exhaust and sprayed Rustoleum truck bed liner on the chromed plastic parts.

So, if you where going to replace that lousy HF gun what would you purchase?

 

[imagineer]

So, if you where going to replace that lousy HF gun what would you purchase?

Probably an Eastwood

 

[RJSakowski]

I haven't tried powder coating myself with the exception that I powder coar my fishing jigs. My experience with powder coating for exterior use has been that ir tends to lift off in sheets after a few years and rust builds up underneath. The equipment would have fared better without any coating at all. This has been observed on farm equipmrnt, trailer hitches , automotive parts, and other products exposed to water and/or road salt.

 

[C-Bag]

I haven't tried powder coating myself with the exception that I powder coar my fishing jigs. My experience with powder coating for exterior use has been that ir tends to lift off in sheets after a few years and rust builds up underneath. The equipment would have fared better without any coating at all. This has been observed on farm equipmrnt, trailer hitches , automotive parts, and other products exposed to water and/or road salt.

My experience has been that if the surface is not thoroughly prepped and cleaned and then coated and heated properly that kind of failure is common. Big pieces like farm equipment you have to have a huge oven and preheat the part then coat it. I'll bet they are not doing that because it's going to turn into more labor intensive that just spray paint. When I was shopping out the powdercoat I would hear back that parts of the coating had come off. But since I've been doing I've not seen any peeling. You could say there's a world of difference between being on the back of a string instrument and a farm implement, but there are guys who body chemistry is like they sweat acid. My buddy who taught me to play the bridge of his electric guitar was triple chromed and brass underneath. Where his hand rested on it, it ate all the chrome away and eaten the brass. I've had guys that the leather padding and rubber hose would be eaten away in weeks. But the powdercoat looks like new.

 

[RJSakowski]

The farm equipment was all smaller; wood splitters, chippers, rototillers, mower decks, etc. It may be that the powder coat is rigid enough that the difference in thermal expansion between it and the substrate caused the bond to break and the coat to lift. Anyone who has done body work knows that if moisture can get under the paint coat, it will rust out. It does seem to be a generic problem though. I nouiced on my trailer hitch and receiver that the debonding seems to start at sharp edges.

 

[C-Bag]

Having worked for several small manufacturers, none of them had the attention to detail to keep their parts truly free from flash rust necessary for a good powder coat finish. All made tons of sub assemblies that sat on pallets for sometimes months before being painted. They were all ag related. You can kind of get away with that with paint using a rust oleum primer. There is no such coating I know of for powder coat.

IMHO only boutique shops doing small runs can do powder coat like it should be done. My stuff is virgin laser cut steel that has been sanded on both sides and is wrapped is delivered in VIZ paper then transferred into sealed tubs with anti rust emitters. And are fairly small and I can put 8 units at a time one the my DIY racks in my old MagiChef electric oven.

One of the things you mention is the powder being thin on edges. This is part of the Faraday effect. I had a really nice Ariens zero turn mower and it had a lot powder coated parts notably the frame. And it suffered from the Faraday effect in several places like corners, sharp edges and like the valley where two pieces of square tubing were side by side. This is the major drawback. I don’t doubt over time the coating would have failed in those spots over time. The anti Faraday switch on my Kool Koat guns seems to stop that.