DIY Powder coating kits

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Wed Dec 15, 04 10:18 am

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... Track=true

Any thoughts chaps? Got to pay for itself pretty quickly, right? Or are these trash?

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Wed Dec 15, 04 1:04 pm

Alistair,
not wanting to insult you, but how much do you know about powder coating? It`s a fairly specialist application process more suited to industrial type application raher than the hobbyist. The kit may be OK but what about all the ancilliaries required, such as compressor, spray booth, extraction, etc, not to mention where will buy the powder paint (at a reasonable price)?

Trust me I know all about it, as I been employed in this business for 18 years!!!

If you`re interested I can post some links re; powder coating and it`s applications.

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Wed Dec 15, 04 1:13 pm

I have a compressor. I have no idea about the H&S implications of using the stuff but can it be any worse than 2 pack paint?

I have no idea about powder coating. I take my stuff to the back door of an industrial unit, give the bloke some cash and pick it up again a week later.

I considered looking up RAL charts and such for ideas of getting fancier, but black or matt silver is all I got as far as so far.

I have no idea where I'd buy the powder from to be honest. I guessed thered be someone in yellow pages under metal finishing or some such section.

No idea what the consumable costs are either.

Any information you have - either as a guide to getting started DIY or to help me appriciate what goes into having a pro job done would be great.

Final one - where is powder better than 2 pack, as 2 pack is reckoned by a lot of people to be better than powder for a lot of applications...

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Wed Dec 15, 04 3:37 pm

H+S implications, you definitely need some form of extraction capability or you`ll end up with more powder on yourself than the article you are spraying, as the powder is elecrostatically charged and attracts to any grounded object

I think above all obstacles, the main problem an individual would have, is the curing process. You will need a big powerful oven to melt and and cure the powder onto the substrate as powder bakes at typically 180-200c. Powder is easy to apply but is very unforgiving and difficult to rectify if paint defects, short of totally overcoating which can lead to other problems.

With regard to quality, powder coating is pretty tough, can either be in epoxy (underhood/body/chassis parts), or polyester (exterior durable) or even acrylic (used for a lot of alloy wheels in the US). You need to choose the right paint for the application. The surface needs to be clean, degreased, or preferably chemically pretreated (iron or zinc phosphated) prior to the one coat paint application, then baked to cure.

The link below will tell you just about everything you would want to know about powder coating, including a video of manufacture, application and use.

As I said before, it`s mainly an industrial process, so you would be better off quizzing your local applicator about what he does to your stuff. At least you could go along with a more informed attitude.

http://www.interpon.com/guidetopowder/completeguide.asp

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Wed Dec 15, 04 4:01 pm

Thanks for that. Seems like getting bits of chassis in the oven when my wife's not looking would be the prinicpal problem...

Shame the only person I know with a kiln in their garage lives 300 miles from me.

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Wed Dec 15, 04 4:25 pm

talking of putting stuff in the domestic oven, reminds me of a time we tried to to develop a high heat resistant coating - so we paint this baking sheet and one of the head honchos here decides to take it home to try out.

Result - it fills the kitchen with an acrid smoke and ruins his chicken dinner

needless to say we weren`t flavour of the month

MrNorm · Post by **MrNorm** » Wed Dec 15, 04 7:11 pm

Hey, it's good to know we have a pukka powder coater on board. Neil, I take it epoxy is the toughest then for chassis parts? 'Exterior durable' (polyester) otherwise sounded like what I wanted for my suspension parts - I take it that has a specific meaning in Powder coating parlance?? Durability is more important than finish in this application

FWIW, I think they have sold a lot of hobby machines in the US. Eastwood seemed to pioneer it http://www.eastwood.com/jump.jsp?itemTy ... itemID=458 and I've heard pretty good things from those who have used them. Get a electric kitchen oven from the dump, bobs your uncle!!
Whether they have a different powder composition to make it easier or something I don't know, but I think there is a fair bit of info on their site and on the web in general.

I've no idea how it compares with a pro job, never seen any home results. I'm planning to get mine done locally, but it would be interesting to know what the home kits are like anyway.

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Wed Dec 15, 04 7:26 pm

Something else I can make a big mess in the garage with, you know I wanna have a go

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Wed Dec 15, 04 7:28 pm

I`m your man for powder knowledge, been formulating, manufacturing and trialling the stuff for years.
Did you know the current Dodge Durango has a powder primer coat under the base/clear?
Powders definitely gaining interest in Automotive OEM`s and quite a few US OEM`s are using them now - mainly driven by emmisions legislation.
The beauty of powder is it`s possible to utilise >90% of the paint as overspray can be recycled and used again in an auto application set up, so is also economical.

Epoxy is the stuff to use underbody as its the hardest (toughest) and best for anti-corrosion. It can also be applied direct over shotblasted surfaces with good effect. Basically for anything underhood or body.
Polyesters are used for improved durability (read UV resistant), typical uses B-pillars, roof rails, window trim, etc.

Thus endeth todays lecture - cor talk about a busmans holiday

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Thu Dec 16, 04 9:58 pm

I might be talking total nonsense here, but the thing that puts me off poweder coating suspension parts, is, say a wishone which has a bush in it. Where the bush goes in will need masking to prevent making the hole smaller. Yes??

How resistant is the coating to corrosion creeping under the suface from the edge?

Im currently intending to paint the bits with conventional 2 pack, which is far tougher than the standard black primer, but doubtless not as tough as some powder coating.

Did some train footsteps in yellow powdercoating a few years ago. Gets trample all over everyday and it certainly stood up well. Seem to remember it was polyester, but it was a long time ago!

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Fri Dec 17, 04 11:04 am

I don't think powdercoat is going to be any thincker than a coupe of good coats of primer followed by a couple of coats of chassis black paint.

MrNorm · Post by **MrNorm** » Fri Dec 17, 04 12:07 pm

Fair question about corrosion creeping (neil!) but wouldn't you have the same prob with paint - you couldn't paint the inside of a bushing surface either. Or would you paint it after the new bushing was in?

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Fri Dec 17, 04 3:04 pm

The thickness will depend on what type i suspect. The footsteps i did had a very thick coating, but some front struts i bought were EPC coated, whatever that is, and that was quite thin, almost like paint.

As far as bush holes are concerned, i would at the very least etch prime the bore, to reduce the chanes of corrosion. I wouldn't use chassis black though, just a straight black 2K paint.

Wheres Nige?

Mick · Post by **Mick** » Fri Dec 17, 04 9:13 pm

There is zinc powder coating for weather resistance.
Alistair, i have gates powdered sometimes so if you need anything doing i might be able to get you a better price through me and it will be local.
Mick

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Fri Dec 17, 04 9:24 pm

Ok guys, with respect to film thickness a typical powder coating is applied as a single layer of typically <80microns. To get this type of film build with wet paint, usually requires at least 2 or 3 coats. Powders generally have very good adhesion to the substrate and better edge protection. Wet paints tend to run away from edges when applied unless a special high build product is used. I think the point was already mentioned, it doesn`t matter which paint is used re fitment of bushes - they won`t if the gap is too small.
Regarding zinc primer powder - it will still need overcoating as they are epoxy based. They offer the same kind of benfits as wet zinc primers.