Several years before I retired, the company I was working for was thinking about buying a company that supplied us with certain parts. I was one of a small team sent to look them over. Part of their manufacturing process used powder coating and I was fascinated by how powder coating was applied. Fast forward several (about 10) years to the middle of last summer. I was browsing the Eastwood website and saw their DIY powder coat system. Read some reviews and ordered the basics and some colors. Looked for over a month for an old stove and couldn't find anything under $150 (they are usually sitting at the end of half a dozen driveways less than three blocks from the house. go figure) Buying a manufactured one showed me how crazy some people are about what stuff is worth.
Anyway, I decided to build an oven myself. Got a brand new 55 gallon steel drum from a friend and had another friend help me line it and add insulation. We also built and insulated top from the lid. Putting an electric stove element in it was looking to be expensive and problematic, so we took and old crawfish boil propane burner and mounted it under the barrel, which we put on a rolling stand. I had read that gas was not a good way to cure powder coat so I kind "eased" into my first attempt.
I followed the prep and temp directions to the letter and was not thrilled by how the first piece came out. No shine or gloss from what was supposed to be a gloss black powder. On my second attempt, while the piece was already in the oven heating, my wife decided that life simply could not go on if I didn't immediately go get her a Smoothie. Not wanting to have to repeatedly explain how I got a big black eye from a 5' tall woman, I turned off the heat and went to get said Smoothie. The oven was at 240 degrees when I turned the heat off. This is just over 75 degrees less than the instructions call for. When I got back to the oven, the temp had fallen to about 140 degrees. I opened the oven to see how the piece looked in preparation for reheating it. To my amazement, the piece was perfect. A nice smooth surface and a great gloss.
So, I found out two things. The first one is that all of the posts you read about powder coating says not to use gas heat. (bull crap) The second thing is that you are much better starting at a lower heat than they tell you and checking your results during the process. Different materials to be powder coated have different heat levels to achieve the best results but none of it is set in stone and every oven acts differently. So far, I have powder coated about 5 pieces and they all came out better at a lower temp than I was given to expect. Also, using gas is not a problem, as long as your part doesn't hang to close to the burner/heat source.
I am now making a larger oven because the barrel just isn't big enough for most of what I want to coat. I will post some pics tomorrow and explain how I a m going about making it and what I hope the outcome will be.
Anyway, I decided to build an oven myself. Got a brand new 55 gallon steel drum from a friend and had another friend help me line it and add insulation. We also built and insulated top from the lid. Putting an electric stove element in it was looking to be expensive and problematic, so we took and old crawfish boil propane burner and mounted it under the barrel, which we put on a rolling stand. I had read that gas was not a good way to cure powder coat so I kind "eased" into my first attempt.
I followed the prep and temp directions to the letter and was not thrilled by how the first piece came out. No shine or gloss from what was supposed to be a gloss black powder. On my second attempt, while the piece was already in the oven heating, my wife decided that life simply could not go on if I didn't immediately go get her a Smoothie. Not wanting to have to repeatedly explain how I got a big black eye from a 5' tall woman, I turned off the heat and went to get said Smoothie. The oven was at 240 degrees when I turned the heat off. This is just over 75 degrees less than the instructions call for. When I got back to the oven, the temp had fallen to about 140 degrees. I opened the oven to see how the piece looked in preparation for reheating it. To my amazement, the piece was perfect. A nice smooth surface and a great gloss.
So, I found out two things. The first one is that all of the posts you read about powder coating says not to use gas heat. (bull crap) The second thing is that you are much better starting at a lower heat than they tell you and checking your results during the process. Different materials to be powder coated have different heat levels to achieve the best results but none of it is set in stone and every oven acts differently. So far, I have powder coated about 5 pieces and they all came out better at a lower temp than I was given to expect. Also, using gas is not a problem, as long as your part doesn't hang to close to the burner/heat source.
I am now making a larger oven because the barrel just isn't big enough for most of what I want to coat. I will post some pics tomorrow and explain how I a m going about making it and what I hope the outcome will be.
