Powder Coat Experiment

[Max Headroom]

Powder coat is something I got interested in while I was still working for Halliburton. I saw a commercial powder coat operation for items that we were a reseller for. I recognizedthe commercial value of the technology an advocated that we buy a powder coating company. I was told that the technology was too far from our core business and we passed on the opportunity. However, I never lost interest in the potential of the process.

Fast forward to the beginning of this summer. I stumbled on the Eastwood website and ended up buying a diy powder coating system with four different colors of powder. A month or so later, I got a friend of mine to build me a smallish powder coating oven from a steel 55 gallon drum. It is heated with a propane burner. (More on that later)

Today I pulled out a set of aluminum Mickey Thompson valve covers that I have had for about 40 years. They came off an old 350 and other than wiping out the excess oil so they wouldn't make a mess, I never cleaned them. I put em up on a shelf and forgot about them. They are heavily oxidized, to the point where one of the corners is pretty badly pitted and covered in dried oil, dirt etc. Not something I would put on a motor. A perfect test subject for my first powder coating project.

Tomorrow, I will begin to post the process of cleaning and powder coating the MTs. It was both easier and harder than I thought it would be. I have some pics and will try to do a step by step process with comments on what did and didn't go according to plan and what changes I will make going forward.

 

[83StreetMachine]

Awesome. I've been thinking about doing my own powder coating for a while now and just haven't taken the leap.....

Looking forward to your experience

 

[81cutlass]

I have the eastwood kit. It works pretty good. I actually convinced my wife (fiance at the time) to split the cost since she wanted the kit to do some crafty stuff.

The eastwood powder is really expensive by the time you ship it. I think I got my stuff from Powder by the Pound.

We actually used a toaster oven to cure her mugs and my bracketry

My only comment is make sure you hold the part well in a way that you can transport it into and out of the oven without touching the powder, clean everything off with acetone or IP really well before you coat, and make sure you ground the damn electrostatic gun tip to the ground lug before you touch your part. 50,000 volts straight to the hands is a shocking experience you won't do again.

 

[Longroof79]

Also, make sure whatever oven you use is no longer used for cooking food. In other words, the oven is used exclusively for powder coating only.

 

[69hurstolds]

Also, make sure whatever oven you use is no longer used for cooking food. In other words, the oven is used exclusively for powder coating only.

Wait.....whut? 🙂

 

[Longroof79]

Wait.....whut? 🙂

I guess what I meant was,...I should've been more specific..... not to use the same oven that you cook food in to bake your freshly powder coated parts. It's probably not healthy. 🤢

 

[81cutlass]

To add to the 'don't use your cooking oven' list of reasons, the coating off gasses a bit and it isn't a pleasant smell. Unless you have a garage oven that you cook in, doing it inside IMO is a bad idea!

 

[Max Headroom]

Thanks for all the feedback. I went kind of a non-traditional rout on my oven.

This is gonna sound crazy but I looked for over a month and couldn't find a used electric stove for less than $225 anywhere near me. So I got a friend to give me a brand new, never been used steel 55 gal drum and had my best friend make my oven from that. He put in spacers and installed a liner inside the drum about one inch in. We lined it with an insulator and he built me an insulated top. For heating the oven, we took an old crayfish boil burner, set it on rollers and added an electric lighter. We installed a commercial thermostat that registers to 450* f and voila. The whole outfit set me back a little over $100 but it can be rolled outside to keep the shop from getting unbearable while its running.

He put in spacers and installed an liner inside the drum about one inch in.

We lined it with an insulator

.


he built me an insulated top.

For heating the oven, we took an old crayfish boil burner, set it on rollers and added an electric lighter.

We installed a commercial thermostat that registers to 450* f and voila.

I'm pooped so I'm gonna put it down for the night. I'll post some more tomorrow.

 

[kornball426]

You should probably pre heat anything made out of cast aluminum before powder coating. Cast aluminum can out gas when it's heated to the temperature needed to melt the powder, and ruin your powder coating. This is according to the shop I've had powder coat things for me in the past. They won't promise the results of the coating on cast aluminum parts. They promise they will do their best, but sometimes sh*t happens they can't control.

If you pre heat the aluminum then allow it to cool before you apply your coating hopefully any out gassing will happen before you apply your coating. But it's still not a guarantee.


Good luck and please take pictures of the progress of your project. I'm interested to see how well the home kit works.

 

[Max Headroom]

You should probably pre heat anything made out of cast aluminum before powder coating. Cast aluminum can out gas when it's heated to the temperature needed to melt the powder, and ruin your powder coating. This is according to the shop I've had powder coat things for me in the past. They won't promise the results of the coating on cast aluminum parts. They promise they will do their best, but sometimes sh*t happens they can't control.

If you pre heat the aluminum then allow it to cool before you apply your coating hopefully any out gassing will happen before you apply your coating. But it's still not a guarantee.


Good luck and please take pictures of the progress of your project. I'm interested to see how well the home kit works.

I only coated one valve cover so I will preheat the second one before coating. The first one has some issues that I thought were from not enough powder applied but may actually be from not preheating. Thanks for the post.