It's hard not to be a bit of a zealot once introduced to the joys of powdercoating. I don't know why Eastwood insist on stainless steel wire. I've used copper, aluminium and steel wire and they all work fine. The low voltage setting on the power supply is to help get the powder into recesses and deep cavities. It's better at reducing the Faraday effect. Have you discovered the excitement of triggering the HV while holding the grounded part yet?
Ohhh, thanks for that info, Preso! I should have asked you first. 😄 I’ll make good use of that low voltage setting. The book did explain the Faraday problem, but did not explain how the low voltage setting will reduce it. I have not discovered that joy, but it’s been on my mind a lot. I did get the gun too close once and saw the arc. Gives one pause about the voltage flying around in there. 😳
I wonder if they insist on stainless steel wire because other kinds can corrode and form a skin that acts as a resistor to the ground connection. Completely guessing of course.
I've been wondering about Quinn's sample part, with the wire looped through the hole - whether the wire would create a shadow on the part. What about a tiny sheet metal screw in the hole, with the wire wrapped solidly around it?
If you are trying to get into recesses and the low voltage setting is still to much you can mist the coating in without hitting the voltage button at all. Once you put a little powder on the piece will keep a small amount of residual voltage and it will be enough. It is the opposite of painting, generally you try to mist the recessed areas first so you don't put too much everywhere else, powder is the opposite, cover the easy parts and then mist in the tricky spots.
What a wonderful tutorial on home powercoating! I knew that these kits were available, but I figured that they really couldn't be worthwhile, since the 'big guys' have such large and expensive ovens. Seeing is believing, and now I know that this kind of work is feasible in the small shop, and the results can be excellent!
I mean, powder coating is essen\tidally melting powdered plastic. It doesn’t seem like it should be too hard to get something functional. Getting it to volume mass production is an entirely different kettle of fish.
I know a guy that picked up a double oven free on marketplace. He cut out the center divider and connected the doors, it gave a big enough heating area to do small motorcycle frames.
My graduation project at the art academy was a cardboard tunnel that people had to crawl through on hands and knees. I left markers troughout the tunnel (it was pretty dark) so people could leave messages, and they did. It was like cave paintings. Pretty great. ^_^
Hey everyone! Yes, I did install the drip tray incorrectly. I swear I read the instructions but I missed that detail. 😊 Didn’t seem to hurt anything but I have since fixed it.
For smaller parts you can just degrees them then put them in a container with the powder and shake it to coat them. Lots of people who cast lead bullets powder coat their bullets this way.
@@bluebanana6753 I know nothing about casting bullets but am curious as to why they get powder coated? Also putting the item to be coated in a container with the powder, does that not affect the final coating thickness?
Just a suggestion you could try mixing some powder with acetone or lacquer thinner then dip your small parts or put it in a gun & spray then bake as per normal 👍.
Quinn, if the toaster doesn't quite have the stability or recovery time you need, there are conversion kits to turn them into PID-controlled, better insulated reflow ovens for SMD soldering. I did a Controleo3 conversion on a similar toaster to yours a while back and was fairly impressed with the results
I've done the same, only for bakng SMT PCBs. It's an excellent product. I can't remember if the hardware is open source, but the firmware definitely is.
Many years ago, I built a box containing an Omega PID controller and an SSR to control my small 120V glass kiln. The controller plugs into the wall, and the kiln plugs into the controller. Because it's designed that way, I can use the same box to precisely control a small toaster oven I use to cure Vitrea 160 glass paint, because if you overheat that stuff it tends to discolor pretty badly. I've also used the same controller, with a separate, dedicated-use sealed stainless-steel thermocouple, to control a hot plate I was using to make cheese at home.
Another recommendation for Controleo3. Great kit; works very well. In unrelated news: kitchen appliance cords are required (UL/ETL, maybe) to be no more than 3' and no less than 2' long, so a lot of stuff comes with a 2' cord now.
@@babyeatingpsychopath The reasoning behind the short cord seems to officially be as a way to prevent a tripping hazard. Another reason is that since current electrical codes require enough outlets in kitchens that a longer cord is unneeded. If you're aware of toaster bathing, it's far more likely that the driving factor comes from the bathroom electrical code and manufacturers covering their own butts from lawsuits stemming from the sudden desire to have toast while taking a bubble bath.
I use a black and decker toaster oven $35 and it works great. I also set it on the side so I can use longer pieces hanging and I can get 11 inches rather than 6 inches
Hi Quinn. I used to do powder coating on parts for medical braces. They were mostly all aluminum parts, but I also did some steel now and then. Just a couple of suggestions (based on my experience)... Fist is that some stainless steels aren't really good electrical conductors. I used to use steel wire (like the kind you would use to tie rebar with. You can get rolls of it at most any hardware store.) to hang my parts. That might improve your bad ground issue. The other thing is that I would pre-heat the parts before spraying them. The guy that taught me how to do powder coating said it helped getting the powder to stick to the parts before moving them into the oven. I think I was baking everything at only 350 degrees, and I never had any failures. I don't know what Eastwood would have to say about that, but it might be worth trying. -Andy T.
Yes. I used to work at a metal fabrication shop, and everything was powder coated. All the parts were hung on a large conveyor with hooks and then pre- heated, then painted and then back up into the oven for the final curing.
preheating works great. Also helps to eliminate any oils that may still be on your materials. I’ve even powder coated with a propane torch. You can spot repair with a torch too. Clean the effected area. Heat with torch. Spray with paint and keep hot enough for the paint to melt. Powder coat is awesome! Cleanup is such a breeze too!
For toaster oven stability, the polymer clay folks like to bring it up to temperature with a brick or a big ceramic floor tile in there. A nice, durable thermal mass can even out the temp swings from those door openings but won't off-gas anything.
👉What are the temp’s needed to cure it? Reason asked is I use a large Dehydrator unit for curing many of my hobby items. However the 🔝 temp is only about 160° Thx Lee
Good idea! My first thoughts on why the temperature bleeds prevent 425 degrees is because the electrical and wiring insulation will fail sooner at that higher temperature. So shielding that vulnerable side with refractory material makes sense as well as heat sinking, insulating, and thermal mass in all the right spots.
I use an old Harbor Freight gun and power supply. I picked up an old hospital food warming cart, and used the controls and elements from a household kitchen oven. It works great. I did have to add additional insulation to the food cart so the outside wouldn't get too hot. I've used this set up for about 12 years now. You can't beat powder coating. It is so much faster than painting, and as you said it is so much more durable. . . . Chuck
Yes, but absolutely horrible for pizza. I had to build my sideways oven into a rather unwieldy centrifuge to keep the melty cheese from dripping right off. The whole thing was a nightmare of trial and error. Test, scrape cheese, rebuild, test, scrape cheese… but in the end I got it dialed in just dandy. Of course, my wife hated it. “It takes up all the floor space in the kitchen, and half the dining room, and it scares the dog!”, she said. I swear, that woman just can’t envision the greatness of my ingenuity.
Nice tutorial, the only thing I like to mention is the time when curing white paint. When white paint is cured to long (or to hot) it tends to get yellow or brown. I have seen this often when at my workplace they stop the paint chain with white parts still in the oven when shift is over. The next day the parts are in a different shade of brown, depending on where they were at in the oven. Now they don't paint light colors at the end of the shift.
If you decide you need something bigger, Oster makes a french door toaster oven 'XL fits 2 16" pizzas' and has a pretty large interior space and is pretty tall which should make it a lot easier to put parts in. I managed to find a refurbished one at a decent discount and it is in the garage awaiting my first powder coat project.
I got into powder coating last year and the only thing i use to cure it is an infrared heat lamp. I heard of people using them on car body panels and didn't think it would be enough to cure it properly but after many tests i have found the durability to be no different than curing it in an oven. I just hold the lamp over it until the powder glosses and move over a little at a time while the gloss follows. the thicker the part the longer it takes to heat up but it works great on bigger parts. I rebuilt a welder generator and completely powder coated the whole thing with no problem. the hardest part was the cast iron engine bc it took about 5 min to heat up
A couple of things I have learned powder coating at home....Use old wire hangers bent into an "S" to save $. Always heat cast parts above the curing temp to "cook" out anything embedded in the pores before coating.
I’ve found the not sponsored Eastwood store and staff in the Cleveland area to be very helpful for my non-automotive hobbies. I was totally ignorant until now about powder coating and assumed it would give Confectioners sugar coating. The box routine was a riot. Thanks for all.
Enjoying the switcher build, and very glad to see this one in particular. I've wanted to get a powder coating setup, but cost was an issue for most. This appears to be great for DIY'ers and armed with your testing and suggestions, anyone going this route would have less frustration. Thanks a lot.
For somewhat larger oven, keep an eye on any local auction houses. We have a local "public surplus" auction house not too far away that deals in surplus from stae agencies and I picked up a used lab oven (calibrated even) that goes up to about 240c (475f) for $26 USD. Well over $3000 new.
There is another technique that does not require a powder gun or a booth. Take a small bucket, put an air line into it at the bottom. Over it place a plywood disc with a bunch of small holes in it; the disc should also be covered with fabric. With the air line and diffuser in place, put a good amount of powder over it, but don't fill the bucket all the way. SLOWLY turn up the pressure until the powder starts to bubble, it would be almost like water bubbling in an aquarium. Preheat your part, then dunk it into this aerated powder. The heat will melt a tiny amount of powder that touches the part, coating it. Disclamer: while I have seen this technique give good results on an industrial scale, I have not tried this small-scale setup, so I do not know how good of a coating it will produce. I am mainly just sharing the idea.
I think that depends on getting air bubbles distributed to all nooks and crannies equally. If certain areas have dead airflow then you need to craft targeted streams to those dead spots.
@@gary.richardson True, it won't work for absolutely everything. But if you're coating simpler things then it'll save you from having to get expensive equipment. And to be hones, even that equipment struggles with some geometries.
This is awesome! I didn't even know it was possible to powder coat at home. Years ago, my mountain bike (don't ask. It's ancient) was so marked up I wanted to paint it but it's aluminum and I didn't trust myself painting it. I talked to a friend of mine that worked at an auto parts manufacturing company and after I stripped the paint off it, she carried my bike frame in the back and they powder coated it AND baked it on free of charge. Of course management didn't know they did this LOL! Still have the bike and the paint is near bullet proof. I managed to chip it once in accident with a tool made of hardened tool steel. I'm am idiot but the ladies at the factory are awesome!
Yes! Thank you for checking one of these out because I love how thorough you are. So many cool powders out there to play with. :D I have my old oven with a dead stovetop and another oven innard under a tarp outside to extend it. I can't wait to chuck a bike frame in it one day!
Yes, she does a good job. One of the reasons that I subscribed to her channel. That and I would love to see more ladies doing this sort of work. The girls can be great in the shop, they bring a different mind set to the work.
Using a screw into a threaded hole as the grounding point should give one of the best possible ground connections and a great place to attach the support wire(s). It would also serve double duty to prevent the powder coating from filling those same threads.
I bought a powder coating kit from Harbor Freight many years ago. I found a nice over/under double electric oven on trash day for free. I've powder coated a lot of car parts in it. You're correct, powder is pretty forgiving, and is very durable. I sand blast my parts before coating. The blasted surface texture gives the powder even more to stick to. You did a great job. Enjoy!
Looks like it's working pretty well, though seems like the air pressure might be a bit high. My powder gun is an ancient Eastwood setup, for small parts I always found it worked the best at far lower pressures than recommended... Basically you want a "breath" cloud of powder on the part, like if you asked someone to smell your breath. For larger parts (mostly car rims) I used the higher recommended pressures and the deflector.
Thank you, Quinn, for another useful video, you are wonder filled! Please excuse me if you or someone else has mentioned, that some ovens can be set on end, 90 degrees off it's intended posture, and that can help with hanging longer pieces. Again, thank you for all your efforts, insight, and humor! You are making the world a better place!
As a painter, a lot of people put too much etch primer on in my opinion. On Aluminium, brass etc. the best result is got from applying a mist coat just enough to cover the surface, but it should be see through, not fully solid. The way it's supposed to work is the primer is a boundary layer, it's not paint. The undercoat and top coats bind to the boundary layer making a contiguous coating on curing. Too much primer is actually weak and pulls off easily. I favour Alkyd enamels myself for levelling out and holding on around sharp corners and edges. And Penetrol is of great benefit too with any oil and turps based paints and varnishes adding flexibility and adhesion - although too much matts the finish off and colours will change with some pigment groups. Looks like powder coating is a great way of getting a really tough coating onto smaller parts and not that hard to do from what you and Preso have shown. Might have to level up from fluid coatings at last myself... :) Cheers from Oz.
What an interesting tutorial, I have often wondered what it takes for home workshop powder coating but dismissed the thought believing it to be impossible/ far too expensive. Thank you Quinn.
@Blondihacks Eastwood also makes a paint stripper that will remove powder coat. it's called Down to Metal Paint and Powder Stripper. it is the best paint stripper i have ever used. I restore old cars as a hobby and took a gas tank to be boiled out to get all the dirt and varnish out of it. the company that did work painted it with black epoxy paint when they were finished, even though i told them not to, since the tank is galvanized steel and was never painted at the factory. so, it makes it incorrect for the restoration. epoxy paint is incredibly tough to remove so i had to find a solution that would remove a tough paint, but not harm the zinc coating underneath. I can say that the Eastwood Paint and Powder Stripper did an outstanding job. they have a video on the net of it removing orange powder coat from a chrome valve cover. the stuff is amazing.
I watch a few restoration channels where they do powder coating and have seen quite a few of them using vertical electric smokers with a glass (or at least clear) door to watch what's going on inside. They usually have up to 4 racks in them that you can move around or take out to do larger hanging parts, and being 30" tall, but skinny, they'd take up less room on a table top, or some come with stands to set them on the floor. The channel "Rescue and Restore" shows one in use in every video.
I've cooked on top of an old electric kitchen griddle covered over with aluminum foil when some of my stuff wouldn't fit in my other toaster oven style lash ups. I was very happy with results despite all my half asz on the cheap hacks. Much more forgiving than one might think.
You can simplify your setup by using the large ground clamp to hold the wire you use to hang your project from against the horizontal bar. It eliminates the dedicated ground wire and two contacts that could fail. Thanks for all the useful content.
What a coincidence - I recently bought the same setup to powdercoat small control panels and had a similar "Well... that was easier than expected" experience. As long as you're already familiar with basic parts cleaning/prep work then powder coating is a breeze (at least for simple and moderately sized parts).
Good video ! I started powder coating my plasma table cut art and parts a couple years ago and have not used a rattle can since , One thing that really helps the finish is to bead blast before coating . I know ,more tools , but its worth it . Another thing if you lower your kv it actually helps with adhesion , just the opposite of what you would think .
The powder coater I used to use would take a quarter out of his pocket and strike the surface like a slightly annoyed bluegrass player. That caused the metal to show through and he coated new parts for me for free. Subsequently I would inspect incoming coated parts the same way. I never got a bad part from him again. Daily I pass by parts I had Kynar powder coated in the late 80’s. Those parts live outside in the weather and still look great today.
Very encouraging video. I have had that same kit stored on a shelf for over a year now... I also got a full size kitchen stove with an oven. A friend gave me the stove as one of the burners was bad and they got a new stove as a warranty replacement... so the oven on this stove had never been used... I definitely need to give powder coating a try...
ive been coating at home for over 20yrs n found that hot coating is best . plus dont check temp inside oven most powders need the part to be 200 degrees celcius . alot of powders you buy will tell you wat temp the part has to be .great starter video .cheers
I made an oven out of a metal trashcan with an electric element in the bottom and a rack from a grill. I used a powder coat machine from harborfreight and did some motorcyle parts in mirror black that came out amazing!! The trick though is to make sure no dust in the air clings to the part or you will see it in the finish.
Excellent results Quinn, one small suggestion. Get away from stainless steel as a hanger or ground, use standard copper wire as a hanger and ground. You get better electron flow through copper than you will through stainless steel, and it's much easier to bend as a hanger. Also a cheap meat smoker will do the trick and give you more room to hang your parts. Other than that, it looks great. Cheers!
I started powder coating some years back so I could powder coat bullets. I liked the way it works but I didn’t get too addicted to it. At that time you could get a powder coating kit at harbor freight. Not sure about now. You did a great job on that piece.
I work for a structural steel fabricator and we use to outsource our powder coating. A while ago we came to the conclusion that we could do it cheaper and better than our vendor could so we installed our own powder coating system. Granted that system is for large structural steel parts, but some words of wisdom from what we learned. 1. You want your gun tip to be a little further away from the part. You don't want the air coming out of the gun to blow the powder off the part. 2. GROUND GROUND GROUND!!! You mention it in the video and I cannot say it enough. 3. Inside corners tend to not get good coverage due to the electric field. For the same reason, outside corners tend get get too much powder. 4. MBK is a chemical that is decent at removing powder coating and is available most places Acetone is. There are other dedicated powder coating removers, but they are rather caustic and not for the home shop. 5. Check the data sheet on the powder. The time and temperature is usually something like 400F for 20 minutes. That means the temperature of the part needs to be 400F for 20 minutes, not just in the oven. You covered this a bit, but for clarity, those numbers are the temperature of the part. This matters if you are doing dark colors vs. light colors. The color does affect heat absorption.
Welcome to the world of powder coating. Been doing it for several years with a Craftsman unit. It is self contained with a blower and the electrostatic parts. (No air compressor required) I also use a "toaster oven" but instead of relying on the knob to control it, I interfaced a PID controller with thermocouple, This also gives a display of the set and controlled temperature. Convenient and accurate. Also agree with you as any more if it is metal, powdercoat instead of paint:})
@@johnrussell6620 No, I have been lucky and as this is a common thing, I am careful to not break it. Haven't looked to see if there is a model to print. Maybe should do that to be prepared?
Thank you for making this video. You have answere# a lot of my questions about powder coating. The scratch test you did, as an amateur, convinced me that the coating is something I could do without wasting a lot of material getting everything set up.
Harbor Freight used to sell a powder coating oven that is about the size of a dishwasher. I got lucky and picked one up off Craig's list for $100. It's about the correct height to put a small blasting cabinet on top, which is also used for powder coating.
Tell me your a machininst without telling me you are a machinist! Proceeds to use a micrometer on a rough piece of shipping lumber. Awesome! Love the video!
I once powder coated some steel handles I made by heating the handle with a gas air torch and dipping them in the plastic powder then hanging them up to cool. worked just fine the thickness of the coating was a bit uncontrolled but was thicker rather than thinner and was almost impossible to get off.
Back in the day , there were many factories using that method. They used what was called a “fluidized bed” . They heated parts to the melting point of the powdered medium , the cool part was the powder was on a vibrating positively charged bed and that would make the powder airborne enough above the surface, and the parts were on a moving negatively charged grounded rod and the amount of vibrations and the speed of the conveyor would control the needed thickness .they would exit this setup into an oven to cure for a bit then come out done. Was trying to get my boss to do this ! We were powder coating at the time!!
The charge usually only strong enough for a certain thickness then some don’t stick due to the part being covered the bare metal is no longer shiny and exposed it has powder on it so subsequent powder usually falls off. So when you spray the charged particles stick at the same rate and flow around the part! To see the flow of powder from the positive gun to the negative part is pretty slick. In a spray booths we had a wire that we wore to kept the paint off us!! We had the same positive charge as the gun! then if the ground wire would fall of you(it clipped on) as you were spraying all of a sudden the paint would come right at YOU! Lol! Your charge would be too negative and the paint covered you! Powder coating is pretty even and the powder flows all around and under on its own going after whatever is negative in its path you do not need too much fancy movement like regular wet HVLP painting!
Real problem our system we has was, for some reason our humidity of something was causing powder jams in the gun! Powder would stop too much ! It was as they say a PITA!! Yes, cheap Chinese shit was starting to come to us then!!
Powder coating always looks great! As someone who knows nothing… 1) could you safely mount the microwave oven vertically with the controls at the bottom to give you more space when placing things in? Take away the worry off catching the powder coated items on the way in. 2) put it on something higher or maybe a trolley to make it easier for you when using it :) 3) in the booth, how about a turntable/lazy Susan with an arm on so you can rotate the part rather than picking it up and moving it. Less chance of dropping it.
Another temperature option might be a dedicated k-type thermocouple probe mounted through the oven wall with a compression fitting and a simple readout mounted to the outsideoftheoven. Both readily available on flea bay for around $20.
Awesome! I work on vintage airguns with diecast parts that won't take blueing and paint just chips off. I never thought to powder coat them because the frames are so small compared to items I usually see powder coated. Next time I need to refurbish a frame, I'll give this a try.
I've always wanted to get into powder coating, thanks for showing the full process! It gives much more confidence seeing it from start to finish in a hobby environment.
About fifteen years ago I bought a harbor freight powder coating gun along with a Craigslist kitchen oven. Honestly I was shocked at just how easy the whole process was! Ran out of space when moved and had to get rid of oven, but thankfully most of the things I coat are small, so just use a small counter top toaster oven like many others.
I’m really enjoying your videos. I got excited when I started powder coating also. It’s so convenient and so effective! I don’t miss old cans of spray paint with crusty nozzles sitting around the shop!
I also went down the Eastwood solution to power coating and did get one of their ovens. I have used to extensively in my antique car restorations. I have found I do need a bit larger oven, but the small parts work great. Also, I live about 5 miles from a major power coating dealer and getting power and other items very easy and I don't have to pay freight. I'm getting ready to purchase a 100k volt gun. Great information.!
First, love your channel. I bought one of those Eastwood ovens years ago to do some creracoating. I learned almost immediately that turning the oven on its side gave me a LOT more height. I just drilled some holes on opposite sides at the top and inserted some 1/8 inch rods for hangers. Works great. You should be able to do the same if you wish. I do have pictures if you like. Happy Trails...George
Another good way to get your height better is turn the oven on its side ! And while oven is cold you can affix a rod to hang parts from. Use some wood or something heat resistant to elevate the oveAnd a note on your edges. Use a good chamfering hand reamer m like my fav NOGA and break the edges before painting May solve that from happening ! Nice tutorial!!
I use a simular budget device to powder coat. To avoid the problem with hanging bigger pieces I use a metal bin lined with aluminium foil and an adjustable 2000W heat gun as a heater. It works good and offers 40cm/15 1/2" in diameter and 65cm/25" in height. I use a cheap bbq thermometre to check temperatures and meassure the time after reaching my threshold. This setup is not perfect but it is very cheap, works good enough for me and does not need a lot of room or any fixed installation.
I started doing some powdercoating a couple of years ago. I scored a free oven that needed a new element so that worked out well. I tend to do larger items and if you put in a large room temperature (ie "cold") object into an oven it will take a lot longer than 10 minutes to heat up. The item regardless of size acts as a heat sink so large objects are large heatsinks, you can't really jut rely on timings. I do recommend an infrared temp gauge, quickly open the door, take a reading of your workpiece and close the door asap. It can take ages to come to temp. About to discover the world of cerakoting.. love your channel.. :)
The coating setup is somewhat capacitive so it will It take a few seconds for the high voltage electrostatic charge to build up on the parts. Waiting a few seconds after turning on the high voltage before applying the powder should help even out the coverage. I only say should as I don't know that much about powder coating but I'm pretty good with electricity and how it behaves.🙋♂😉Love your work. I'm learning a lot.
I’m saving this for future reference. I know I’m gonna get into this, and you seemed to have synthesized all the tips and advice that I’d otherwise be spending forever collecting.
There is also a dip powder coat/paint system for making fishing lures. When I worked in a commercial powder coating facility we had straps made of thin bar stock with tight bend and bolt and nut and multi thickness plugs on the strap for tight fit on part
I did a fair amount of powder coating on airplane cockpits (small 1-6 passenger, general aviation aircraft), and it made the work we did much more professional and the equipment was nothing more than what was shown here, and a custom-built oven with a cheap PID temperature controller.
Excellent information. I think I will pick up that kit with the add-on book and an appropriate oven for my Christmas gift to myself, this year. Thanks for the upload, Quinn.
i used to work for a company that made powder coatings. they stuck the coating electro statically this gave an equal covering. one of the bosses did a BMW motorcycle frame, fuel tank and other accessories black with multi colours when you looked into the coating it was beautiful. i had 4 hub caps done white and a trumpet black and brass had to re solder the joints that was different and classy. a pushchair for someone methylethylketone was used to clean off the old paint the finishes were excellent. the company made money supplying coatings to the oil pipe coatings for the north sea platforms.
ive found with running our coating line that MEK is one of the better solvents for cleaning cured powdercoat from small area's, it also works well for making touch up paint out of the powder you used to coat with(great for the hook/wire points)
I’ve been powder coating lead bullets for years using the shake n bake process. Do your back a favor and move your oven on top of the work bench when using it. Thanks for the video!
Just a note, people that make fishing jigs often use power coating but you heat the metal piece with a small torch and then dunk it into a jar with the powder coating (because it's hot the powder sticks) and then heat again to finish the powder coating melt process.
Lol , sitting in the box was quite funny ! Always loved when a new fridge came to our home or a neighbours . That size box always ended up being a fort or army tank 😜 " Never too late to have a good choldhood " Cant wait to see you engineer your loco . You'll love it ! I have a 3.5" Friends Atlantic 4-4-2 . You're doing an amazing job Quinn 👌👌
When i did Metalwork st school here Sydney Australia in 1972 we plastic coated parts by heating the part to say 250 Celsius and holding the metal in a box with aerated plastic particles. So the particles landed on the hot surface and adhered to it. Maybe wr dipped the part into a nox of granulated plastic. It did work and left a heavy coat of plastic simlar to electrical linesman's pliers handles.
My cat also loved new card boxes... 😁 Powder painting visual finish is amazing, close to japaning, thanks for sharing! Just a remark about painting thickness evaluation, would (maybe) be more accurate (given the order of magnitude) if measuring the uncoated piece before coating, or after cleaning with solvent in order to avoid file scraping uncertainty...
Never let anything stop you from sitting in a box you want to sit in. :D Though due to the shoddy nature of modern box manufacturing, might I suggest a double wrapping of duct tape around the upper edge of the box next time. I find it really hel-- I mean, I _imagine_ it would really help maintain box integrity.
I work in a factory environment where our finished parts are powder coated. Our oven is 2/3 the size of my house and is gas fired. We use a chain conveyor that snakes from where the parts are hung through an acid wash bay then through our automatic coating booth then through the oven at 385 degrees F. Some of the employees wrap their lunch in foil to heat in the oven. Yes, the powder coat is very tough to remove and if defective is baked in another small oven at 800 degrees F, then cleaned up with flap discs and sand-blasting to recoat.
Thank you for making this video! I was very involved in industrial powder coating and always wondered about this kit from Eastwood. Eastwood is about one hour from my house, so I am very lucky.
I worked in a small custom shop that did ceramic and chemical coatings, (so all your discussion of surface prep, air drying, fume hoods, etc. was familiar) but we never did powder coatings. I know sport fighters in armor swear by the process, so it certainly survives metal flexing as well. Kudos on taking a risk and making it work! It certainly looks to my untrained eye like scale gloss paint!
We (at work) powder coat aluminium 9h a day 5 days a week. Sometimes have 2 systems running. We have a track with hooks and the parts go through a pre treat system. That cleanes the oil from the machines and etches the parts. That then gets dried. The hung on the paint line. Through the paint booth and into the oven. Even with small lugs a single hook is enough to get the ground we need. But industrial machines may make a difference.
I used top powder coat when I was a bit younger and the process was rather new. When we needed to strip a part, we sent it off to get dipped in molten salt. That really was the only way. Also just cranking the gun voltage can really cause issues. You are trying to match the charge voltage to the thickness of the powder you are aiming for, but that will vary with the powders. If the charge on the part gets too high, it will start rejecting more powder (same charges repel). Also, you can shoot powder with no high voltage power supply. It's called tribocharghing and uses static generation from the friction of the powder flowing through a gun of just the right material.
Powder coating works so well I got put on probation for my first set of parts because you could clearly see fingerprints and they matched them to me. Spent the rest of the day on sandblast duty...and taking flak for every single part, cleaned properly or not.
When I was at school more years ago than I care to say we did some powder coating. An old domestic oven. A wooden box that you plugged a vacuum cleaner into (blowing not sucking) that fluidised the powder in the box. Heat the item. Dip it in the fluidised powder box. Put it back in the oven to bake. Done. Please don't ask for more details than that, it really was a long time ago and the memories are badly faded 😢 Definitly no spraying of powder needed though.
Used to live 2 block from Papa's Powder Coating in Colorado Springs. They closed 2019. He would sell powder from his supply. Bought some powder but never purchased the setup. YTer DIY Phil has quite a sweet setup he built and rebuilt. He recently demonstrated that various cones on the output change power distribution. Easy 3d print I would think.
I’ve only powder coated a few small parts with toaster oven and an old craftsman electric powder gun with its built in ground. The gun opens up and holds a small amount of powder. It sprays the powder without using a compressor. Not really the best, but I’ll have to upgrade my system if I get deeper into this. BTW. Great information, really appreciate the detailed explanation in your tutorial
Being from Australia I was used to not being able to get cool stuff like this easily. But I was amazed when I moved to BC for a ski season that my dreams of being able to finally access cheap stuff from the US would remain just a dream! I had no idea there would be so many restrictions on shipping across a line on a map.
It’s gotten a lot easier than when I was growing up, but it’s still harder than it should be. Many Canadians these days use a Mail Drop south of the border to get stuff from our southern neighbours.
I learned how to powder coat a few years ago for my custom lightsabers by watching every UA-cam video I could find on the subject. Got the gun at Harbor Freight and the powders from Prismatic Powders and used an old toaster oven I had laying around.
When I was running calibration on drying ovens I would make a dedicated TC wire that I would run in the over that wouldn't affect the door. I saw a few spots in that oven where you would do that.
It's hard not to be a bit of a zealot once introduced to the joys of powdercoating. I don't know why Eastwood insist on stainless steel wire. I've used copper, aluminium and steel wire and they all work fine. The low voltage setting on the power supply is to help get the powder into recesses and deep cavities. It's better at reducing the Faraday effect. Have you discovered the excitement of triggering the HV while holding the grounded part yet?
Ohhh, thanks for that info, Preso! I should have asked you first. 😄 I’ll make good use of that low voltage setting. The book did explain the Faraday problem, but did not explain how the low voltage setting will reduce it.
I have not discovered that joy, but it’s been on my mind a lot. I did get the gun too close once and saw the arc. Gives one pause about the voltage flying around in there. 😳
I wonder if they insist on stainless steel wire because other kinds can corrode and form a skin that acts as a resistor to the ground connection. Completely guessing of course.
I've been wondering about Quinn's sample part, with the wire looped through the hole - whether the wire would create a shadow on the part. What about a tiny sheet metal screw in the hole, with the wire wrapped solidly around it?
If you are trying to get into recesses and the low voltage setting is still to much you can mist the coating in without hitting the voltage button at all. Once you put a little powder on the piece will keep a small amount of residual voltage and it will be enough. It is the opposite of painting, generally you try to mist the recessed areas first so you don't put too much everywhere else, powder is the opposite, cover the easy parts and then mist in the tricky spots.
If you have the space, I recommend finding a used electric wall oven. That's what I use for all my powder coating.
What a wonderful tutorial on home powercoating! I knew that these kits were available, but I figured that they really couldn't be worthwhile, since the 'big guys' have such large and expensive ovens. Seeing is believing, and now I know that this kind of work is feasible in the small shop, and the results can be excellent!
I mean, powder coating is essen\tidally melting powdered plastic. It doesn’t seem like it should be too hard to get something functional. Getting it to volume mass production is an entirely different kettle of fish.
Did you really trademark "Sproing"?? Genius!
I did some just by blowing some on a flat piece and using a heat gun to melt it, worked great
I know a guy that picked up a double oven free on marketplace. He cut out the center divider and connected the doors, it gave a big enough heating area to do small motorcycle frames.
The only thing keeping people from powder coating is fear.
I did an old clock in a toaster oven, if you're interested in seeing the results.
Seeing Quinn sitting down in the box just warmed my nostalgic heart
❤
I'm going to build myself a cardboard fort for old time sake
I really got a chuckle, when a minute after destroying the box, you point out that a big cardboard box would make a good paint/powder booth…
That was so awesome ❤ I fell in love a little bit...
She has a new title to add to her resume, "shop kitty".
My graduation project at the art academy was a cardboard tunnel that people had to crawl through on hands and knees. I left markers troughout the tunnel (it was pretty dark) so people could leave messages, and they did. It was like cave paintings. Pretty great. ^_^
@@theothertonydutch sounds amazing
Hey everyone! Yes, I did install the drip tray incorrectly. I swear I read the instructions but I missed that detail. 😊 Didn’t seem to hurt anything but I have since fixed it.
For smaller parts you can just degrees them then put them in a container with the powder and shake it to coat them. Lots of people who cast lead bullets powder coat their bullets this way.
@@bluebanana6753 I know nothing about casting bullets but am curious as to why they get powder coated?
Also putting the item to be coated in a container with the powder, does that not affect the final coating thickness?
Just a suggestion you could try mixing some powder with acetone or lacquer thinner then dip your small parts or put it in a gun & spray then bake as per normal 👍.
Can you turn the oven on its side to get more interior height? IDK, just asking.
You owe Sprocket a box. 😂
Quinn, if the toaster doesn't quite have the stability or recovery time you need, there are conversion kits to turn them into PID-controlled, better insulated reflow ovens for SMD soldering. I did a Controleo3 conversion on a similar toaster to yours a while back and was fairly impressed with the results
I've done the same, only for bakng SMT PCBs. It's an excellent product. I can't remember if the hardware is open source, but the firmware definitely is.
I suppose a HotShot 360 would be overkill.
Many years ago, I built a box containing an Omega PID controller and an SSR to control my small 120V glass kiln. The controller plugs into the wall, and the kiln plugs into the controller. Because it's designed that way, I can use the same box to precisely control a small toaster oven I use to cure Vitrea 160 glass paint, because if you overheat that stuff it tends to discolor pretty badly.
I've also used the same controller, with a separate, dedicated-use sealed stainless-steel thermocouple, to control a hot plate I was using to make cheese at home.
Another recommendation for Controleo3. Great kit; works very well.
In unrelated news: kitchen appliance cords are required (UL/ETL, maybe) to be no more than 3' and no less than 2' long, so a lot of stuff comes with a 2' cord now.
@@babyeatingpsychopath The reasoning behind the short cord seems to officially be as a way to prevent a tripping hazard. Another reason is that since current electrical codes require enough outlets in kitchens that a longer cord is unneeded. If you're aware of toaster bathing, it's far more likely that the driving factor comes from the bathroom electrical code and manufacturers covering their own butts from lawsuits stemming from the sudden desire to have toast while taking a bubble bath.
I use a black and decker toaster oven $35 and it works great. I also set it on the side so I can use longer pieces hanging and I can get 11 inches rather than 6 inches
Hi Quinn. I used to do powder coating on parts for medical braces. They were mostly all aluminum parts, but I also did some steel now and then. Just a couple of suggestions (based on my experience)...
Fist is that some stainless steels aren't really good electrical conductors. I used to use steel wire (like the kind you would use to tie rebar with. You can get rolls of it at most any hardware store.) to hang my parts. That might improve your bad ground issue.
The other thing is that I would pre-heat the parts before spraying them. The guy that taught me how to do powder coating said it helped getting the powder to stick to the parts before moving them into the oven. I think I was baking everything at only 350 degrees, and I never had any failures. I don't know what Eastwood would have to say about that, but it might be worth trying.
-Andy T.
Yes. I used to work at a metal fabrication shop, and everything was powder coated. All the parts were hung on a large conveyor with hooks and then pre- heated, then painted and then back up into the oven for the final curing.
preheating works great. Also helps to eliminate any oils that may still be on your materials. I’ve even powder coated with a propane torch. You can spot repair with a torch too. Clean the effected area. Heat with torch. Spray with paint and keep hot enough for the paint to melt. Powder coat is awesome! Cleanup is such a breeze too!
For toaster oven stability, the polymer clay folks like to bring it up to temperature with a brick or a big ceramic floor tile in there. A nice, durable thermal mass can even out the temp swings from those door openings but won't off-gas anything.
Bread and pizza folks do it similarly. 😎
👉What are the temp’s needed to cure it? Reason asked is I use a large Dehydrator unit for curing many of my hobby items. However the 🔝 temp is only about 160°
Thx
Lee
Good idea!
My first thoughts on why the temperature bleeds prevent 425 degrees is because the electrical and wiring insulation will fail sooner at that higher temperature.
So shielding that vulnerable side with refractory material makes sense as well as heat sinking, insulating, and thermal mass in all the right spots.
For the crumb tray there should be a slot underneath the door it goes in. The "pan" will hang underneath the rack and helps catch the drips.
+1 for this one, the way it's now is blocking the bottom heaters
Oops, you’re right! ☺️
Your COMMENTING POLICY is spot on. Now I know I need a shop oven too. I enjoyed that, will be back.
I use an old Harbor Freight gun and power supply. I picked up an old hospital food warming cart, and used the controls and elements from a household kitchen oven. It works great. I did have to add additional insulation to the food cart so the outside wouldn't get too hot. I've used this set up for about 12 years now. You can't beat powder coating. It is so much faster than painting, and as you said it is so much more durable. . . . Chuck
A toaster oven turned on its side is an awesome tool to cook some larger parts
Wow, such a simple idea.
Yes, but absolutely horrible for pizza. I had to build my sideways oven into a rather unwieldy centrifuge to keep the melty cheese from dripping right off. The whole thing was a nightmare of trial and error. Test, scrape cheese, rebuild, test, scrape cheese… but in the end I got it dialed in just dandy.
Of course, my wife hated it. “It takes up all the floor space in the kitchen, and half the dining room, and it scares the dog!”, she said. I swear, that woman just can’t envision the greatness of my ingenuity.
Nice tutorial, the only thing I like to mention is the time when curing white paint. When white paint is cured to long (or to hot) it tends to get yellow or brown. I have seen this often when at my workplace they stop the paint chain with white parts still in the oven when shift is over. The next day the parts are in a different shade of brown, depending on where they were at in the oven. Now they don't paint light colors at the end of the shift.
If you decide you need something bigger, Oster makes a french door toaster oven 'XL fits 2 16" pizzas' and has a pretty large interior space and is pretty tall which should make it a lot easier to put parts in. I managed to find a refurbished one at a decent discount and it is in the garage awaiting my first powder coat project.
It's amazing to me that this is possible at home. Very cool to see, even if I'm not personally quite ready for this kind of plunge.
I got into powder coating last year and the only thing i use to cure it is an infrared heat lamp. I heard of people using them on car body panels and didn't think it would be enough to cure it properly but after many tests i have found the durability to be no different than curing it in an oven. I just hold the lamp over it until the powder glosses and move over a little at a time while the gloss follows. the thicker the part the longer it takes to heat up but it works great on bigger parts. I rebuilt a welder generator and completely powder coated the whole thing with no problem. the hardest part was the cast iron engine bc it took about 5 min to heat up
The Eastwood book mentions that this is possible for larger parts. Good to hear it works.
A couple of things I have learned powder coating at home....Use old wire hangers bent into an "S" to save $. Always heat cast parts above the curing temp to "cook" out anything embedded in the pores before coating.
I’ve found the not sponsored Eastwood store and staff in the Cleveland area to be very helpful for my non-automotive hobbies. I was totally ignorant until now about powder coating and assumed it would give Confectioners sugar coating. The box routine was a riot. Thanks for all.
Enjoying the switcher build, and very glad to see this one in particular. I've wanted to get a powder coating setup, but cost was an issue for most. This appears to be great for DIY'ers and armed with your testing and suggestions, anyone going this route would have less frustration. Thanks a lot.
For somewhat larger oven, keep an eye on any local auction houses. We have a local "public surplus" auction house not too far away that deals in surplus from stae agencies and I picked up a used lab oven (calibrated even) that goes up to about 240c (475f) for $26 USD. Well over $3000 new.
At this point, I'm mainly here for the narration. The cat/box interlude was hilarious! 😀
There is another technique that does not require a powder gun or a booth. Take a small bucket, put an air line into it at the bottom. Over it place a plywood disc with a bunch of small holes in it; the disc should also be covered with fabric. With the air line and diffuser in place, put a good amount of powder over it, but don't fill the bucket all the way. SLOWLY turn up the pressure until the powder starts to bubble, it would be almost like water bubbling in an aquarium. Preheat your part, then dunk it into this aerated powder. The heat will melt a tiny amount of powder that touches the part, coating it.
Disclamer: while I have seen this technique give good results on an industrial scale, I have not tried this small-scale setup, so I do not know how good of a coating it will produce. I am mainly just sharing the idea.
I think that depends on getting air bubbles distributed to all nooks and crannies equally. If certain areas have dead airflow then you need to craft targeted streams to those dead spots.
@@gary.richardson True, it won't work for absolutely everything. But if you're coating simpler things then it'll save you from having to get expensive equipment. And to be hones, even that equipment struggles with some geometries.
This is awesome! I didn't even know it was possible to powder coat at home.
Years ago, my mountain bike (don't ask. It's ancient) was so marked up I wanted to paint it but it's aluminum and I didn't trust myself painting it. I talked to a friend of mine that worked at an auto parts manufacturing company and after I stripped the paint off it, she carried my bike frame in the back and they powder coated it AND baked it on free of charge. Of course management didn't know they did this LOL! Still have the bike and the paint is near bullet proof. I managed to chip it once in accident with a tool made of hardened tool steel. I'm am idiot but the ladies at the factory are awesome!
Yes! Thank you for checking one of these out because I love how thorough you are. So many cool powders out there to play with. :D I have my old oven with a dead stovetop and another oven innard under a tarp outside to extend it. I can't wait to chuck a bike frame in it one day!
Don't forget about "hot flokking" to lay the powder down thicker to cover the minutiae. ;)
Yes, she does a good job. One of the reasons that I subscribed to her channel. That and I would love to see more ladies doing this sort of work. The girls can be great in the shop, they bring a different mind set to the work.
Using a screw into a threaded hole as the grounding point should give one of the best possible ground connections and a great place to attach the support wire(s). It would also serve double duty to prevent the powder coating from filling those same threads.
I bought a powder coating kit from Harbor Freight many years ago. I found a nice over/under double electric oven on trash day for free. I've powder coated a lot of car parts in it. You're correct, powder is pretty forgiving, and is very durable. I sand blast my parts before coating. The blasted surface texture gives the powder even more to stick to. You did a great job. Enjoy!
Looks like it's working pretty well, though seems like the air pressure might be a bit high.
My powder gun is an ancient Eastwood setup, for small parts I always found it worked the best at far lower pressures than recommended... Basically you want a "breath" cloud of powder on the part, like if you asked someone to smell your breath.
For larger parts (mostly car rims) I used the higher recommended pressures and the deflector.
Thankfully I've never had someone ask me to smell their breath!😂
Thank you, Quinn, for another useful video, you are wonder filled! Please excuse me if you or someone else has mentioned, that some ovens can be set on end, 90 degrees off it's intended posture, and that can help with hanging longer pieces.
Again, thank you for all your efforts, insight, and humor! You are making the world a better place!
As a painter, a lot of people put too much etch primer on in my opinion. On Aluminium, brass etc. the best result is got from applying a mist coat just enough to cover the surface, but it should be see through, not fully solid. The way it's supposed to work is the primer is a boundary layer, it's not paint. The undercoat and top coats bind to the boundary layer making a contiguous coating on curing. Too much primer is actually weak and pulls off easily. I favour Alkyd enamels myself for levelling out and holding on around sharp corners and edges. And Penetrol is of great benefit too with any oil and turps based paints and varnishes adding flexibility and adhesion - although too much matts the finish off and colours will change with some pigment groups. Looks like powder coating is a great way of getting a really tough coating onto smaller parts and not that hard to do from what you and Preso have shown. Might have to level up from fluid coatings at last myself... :) Cheers from Oz.
What an interesting tutorial, I have often wondered what it takes for home workshop powder coating but dismissed the thought believing it to be impossible/ far too expensive. Thank you Quinn.
@Blondihacks Eastwood also makes a paint stripper that will remove powder coat. it's called Down to Metal Paint and Powder Stripper. it is the best paint stripper i have ever used. I restore old cars as a hobby and took a gas tank to be boiled out to get all the dirt and varnish out of it. the company that did work painted it with black epoxy paint when they were finished, even though i told them not to, since the tank is galvanized steel and was never painted at the factory. so, it makes it incorrect for the restoration. epoxy paint is incredibly tough to remove so i had to find a solution that would remove a tough paint, but not harm the zinc coating underneath. I can say that the Eastwood Paint and Powder Stripper did an outstanding job. they have a video on the net of it removing orange powder coat from a chrome valve cover. the stuff is amazing.
I watch a few restoration channels where they do powder coating and have seen quite a few of them using vertical electric smokers with a glass (or at least clear) door to watch what's going on inside. They usually have up to 4 racks in them that you can move around or take out to do larger hanging parts, and being 30" tall, but skinny, they'd take up less room on a table top, or some come with stands to set them on the floor. The channel "Rescue and Restore" shows one in use in every video.
I've cooked on top of an old electric kitchen griddle covered over with aluminum foil when some of my stuff wouldn't fit in my other toaster oven style lash ups. I was very happy with results despite all my half asz on the cheap hacks. Much more forgiving than one might think.
You can simplify your setup by using the large ground clamp to hold the wire you use to hang your project from against the horizontal bar. It eliminates the dedicated ground wire and two contacts that could fail. Thanks for all the useful content.
What a coincidence - I recently bought the same setup to powdercoat small control panels and had a similar "Well... that was easier than expected" experience. As long as you're already familiar with basic parts cleaning/prep work then powder coating is a breeze (at least for simple and moderately sized parts).
The box - this is the quality content I’ve subscribed for.
Good video ! I started powder coating my plasma table cut art and parts a couple years ago and have not used a rattle can since , One thing that really helps the finish is to bead blast before coating . I know ,more tools , but its worth it . Another thing if you lower your kv it actually helps with adhesion , just the opposite of what you would think .
The powder coater I used to use would take a quarter out of his pocket and strike the surface like a slightly annoyed bluegrass player. That caused the metal to show through and he coated new parts for me for free. Subsequently I would inspect incoming coated parts the same way. I never got a bad part from him again.
Daily I pass by parts I had Kynar powder coated in the late 80’s. Those parts live outside in the weather and still look great today.
Very encouraging video. I have had that same kit stored on a shelf for over a year now... I also got a full size kitchen stove with an oven. A friend gave me the stove as one of the burners was bad and they got a new stove as a warranty replacement... so the oven on this stove had never been used... I definitely need to give powder coating a try...
Quinn, over the years I have seen you come up with some very creative solutions but it was nice to see you thinking 'inside the box'.
ive been coating at home for over 20yrs n found that hot coating is best . plus dont check temp inside oven most powders need the part to be 200 degrees celcius . alot of powders you buy will tell you wat temp the part has to be .great starter video .cheers
It's a nice and compact kit, good for hobbyists. If you have a bit of extra space and do this more often, fluidised dip coating is another option.
Yeah, I took the same path you did some years ago (Eastwood, cheap toaster oven from Walmart). I love it. I powder coat all my tube amp projects.
Love the tube amps. 😎👍
I made an oven out of a metal trashcan with an electric element in the bottom and a rack from a grill. I used a powder coat machine from harborfreight and did some motorcyle parts in mirror black that came out amazing!! The trick though is to make sure no dust in the air clings to the part or you will see it in the finish.
Excellent results Quinn, one small suggestion. Get away from stainless steel as a hanger or ground, use standard copper wire as a hanger and ground. You get better electron flow through copper than you will through stainless steel, and it's much easier to bend as a hanger. Also a cheap meat smoker will do the trick and give you more room to hang your parts. Other than that, it looks great. Cheers!
And way cheaper along with aluminum being pretty good as conductor go unless you have some GOLD rods kicking around!!????lol!
I started powder coating some years back so I could powder coat bullets. I liked the way it works but I didn’t get too addicted to it. At that time you could get a powder coating kit at harbor freight. Not sure about now. You did a great job on that piece.
I work for a structural steel fabricator and we use to outsource our powder coating. A while ago we came to the conclusion that we could do it cheaper and better than our vendor could so we installed our own powder coating system. Granted that system is for large structural steel parts, but some words of wisdom from what we learned.
1. You want your gun tip to be a little further away from the part. You don't want the air coming out of the gun to blow the powder off the part.
2. GROUND GROUND GROUND!!! You mention it in the video and I cannot say it enough.
3. Inside corners tend to not get good coverage due to the electric field. For the same reason, outside corners tend get get too much powder.
4. MBK is a chemical that is decent at removing powder coating and is available most places Acetone is. There are other dedicated powder coating removers, but they are rather caustic and not for the home shop.
5. Check the data sheet on the powder. The time and temperature is usually something like 400F for 20 minutes. That means the temperature of the part needs to be 400F for 20 minutes, not just in the oven. You covered this a bit, but for clarity, those numbers are the temperature of the part. This matters if you are doing dark colors vs. light colors. The color does affect heat absorption.
Welcome to the world of powder coating. Been doing it for several years with a Craftsman unit. It is self contained with a blower and the electrostatic parts. (No air compressor required) I also use a "toaster oven" but instead of relying on the knob to control it, I interfaced a PID controller with thermocouple, This also gives a display of the set and controlled temperature. Convenient and accurate.
Also agree with you as any more if it is metal, powdercoat instead of paint:})
@@johnrussell6620 No, I have been lucky and as this is a common thing, I am careful to not break it. Haven't looked to see if there is a model to print. Maybe should do that to be prepared?
The first time I actually read the information of one of your videos. (usually watch on my TV) Thank you for your effort.
Thank you for making this video. You have answere# a lot of my questions about powder coating. The scratch test you did, as an amateur, convinced me that the coating is something I could do without wasting a lot of material getting everything set up.
Harbor Freight used to sell a powder coating oven that is about the size of a dishwasher. I got lucky and picked one up off Craig's list for $100. It's about the correct height to put a small blasting cabinet on top, which is also used for powder coating.
Tell me your a machininst without telling me you are a machinist! Proceeds to use a micrometer on a rough piece of shipping lumber. Awesome! Love the video!
I once powder coated some steel handles I made by heating the handle with a gas air torch and dipping them in the plastic powder then hanging them up to cool. worked just fine the thickness of the coating was a bit uncontrolled but was thicker rather than thinner and was almost impossible to get off.
Back in the day , there were many factories using that method. They used what was called a “fluidized bed” . They heated parts to the melting point of the powdered medium , the cool part was the powder was on a vibrating positively charged bed and that would make the powder airborne enough above the surface, and the parts were on a moving negatively charged grounded rod and the amount of vibrations and the speed of the conveyor would control the needed thickness .they would exit this setup into an oven to cure for a bit then come out done. Was trying to get my boss to do this ! We were powder coating at the time!!
The charge usually only strong enough for a certain thickness then some don’t stick due to the part being covered the bare metal is no longer shiny and exposed it has powder on it so subsequent powder usually falls off. So when you spray the charged particles stick at the same rate and flow around the part! To see the flow of powder from the positive gun to the negative part is pretty slick. In a spray booths we had a wire that we wore to kept the paint off us!! We had the same positive charge as the gun! then if the ground wire would fall of you(it clipped on) as you were spraying all of a sudden the paint would come right at YOU! Lol! Your charge would be too negative and the paint covered you! Powder coating is pretty even and the powder flows all around and under on its own going after whatever is negative in its path you do not need too much fancy movement like regular wet HVLP painting!
Real problem our system we has was, for some reason our humidity of something was causing powder jams in the gun! Powder would stop too much ! It was as they say a PITA!! Yes, cheap Chinese shit was starting to come to us then!!
Powder coating always looks great!
As someone who knows nothing…
1) could you safely mount the microwave oven vertically with the controls at the bottom to give you more space when placing things in? Take away the worry off catching the powder coated items on the way in.
2) put it on something higher or maybe a trolley to make it easier for you when using it :)
3) in the booth, how about a turntable/lazy Susan with an arm on so you can rotate the part rather than picking it up and moving it. Less chance of dropping it.
Excellent timing on this subject, and remember, crazy is good.
Another temperature option might be a dedicated k-type thermocouple probe mounted through the oven wall with a compression fitting and a simple readout mounted to the outsideoftheoven. Both readily available on flea bay for around $20.
The best 'how-to' I've ever seen!
You're a natural, and the film/edit crew are very good.
I'm fired up, will chase this down.
The “crew” is all just me so thank you very much. 😊
Awesome! I work on vintage airguns with diecast parts that won't take blueing and paint just chips off. I never thought to powder coat them because the frames are so small compared to items I usually see powder coated. Next time I need to refurbish a frame, I'll give this a try.
I've always wanted to get into powder coating, thanks for showing the full process! It gives much more confidence seeing it from start to finish in a hobby environment.
About fifteen years ago I bought a harbor freight powder coating gun along with a Craigslist kitchen oven. Honestly I was shocked at just how easy the whole process was! Ran out of space when moved and had to get rid of oven, but thankfully most of the things I coat are small, so just use a small counter top toaster oven like many others.
I’m really enjoying your videos. I got excited when I started powder coating also. It’s so convenient and so effective! I don’t miss old cans of spray paint with crusty nozzles sitting around the shop!
I also went down the Eastwood solution to power coating and did get one of their ovens. I have used to extensively in my antique car restorations. I have found I do need a bit larger oven, but the small parts work great. Also, I live about 5 miles from a major power coating dealer and getting power and other items very easy and I don't have to pay freight. I'm getting ready to purchase a 100k volt gun. Great information.!
First, love your channel. I bought one of those Eastwood ovens years ago to do some creracoating. I learned almost immediately that turning the oven on its side gave me a LOT more height. I just drilled some holes on opposite sides at the top and inserted some 1/8 inch rods for hangers. Works great. You should be able to do the same if you wish. I do have pictures if you like. Happy Trails...George
Another good way to get your height better is turn the oven on its side ! And while oven is cold you can affix a rod to hang parts from. Use some wood or something heat resistant to elevate the oveAnd a note on your edges. Use a good chamfering hand reamer m like my fav NOGA and break the edges before painting May solve that from happening ! Nice tutorial!!
I use a simular budget device to powder coat. To avoid the problem with hanging bigger pieces I use a metal bin lined with aluminium foil and an adjustable 2000W heat gun as a heater. It works good and offers 40cm/15 1/2" in diameter and 65cm/25" in height. I use a cheap bbq thermometre to check temperatures and meassure the time after reaching my threshold.
This setup is not perfect but it is very cheap, works good enough for me and does not need a lot of room or any fixed installation.
Here I was just about to say that Sprocket must be jazzed at all these new boxes to play in 😊
I started doing some powdercoating a couple of years ago. I scored a free oven that needed a new element so that worked out well. I tend to do larger items and if you put in a large room temperature (ie "cold") object into an oven it will take a lot longer than 10 minutes to heat up. The item regardless of size acts as a heat sink so large objects are large heatsinks, you can't really jut rely on timings. I do recommend an infrared temp gauge, quickly open the door, take a reading of your workpiece and close the door asap. It can take ages to come to temp.
About to discover the world of cerakoting..
love your channel.. :)
The coating setup is somewhat capacitive so it will It take a few seconds for the high voltage electrostatic charge to build up on the parts. Waiting a few seconds after turning on the high voltage before applying the powder should help even out the coverage. I only say should as I don't know that much about powder coating but I'm pretty good with electricity and how it behaves.🙋♂😉Love your work. I'm learning a lot.
I’m saving this for future reference. I know I’m gonna get into this, and you seemed to have synthesized all the tips and advice that I’d otherwise be spending forever collecting.
There is also a dip powder coat/paint system for making fishing lures. When I worked in a commercial powder coating facility we had straps made of thin bar stock with tight bend and bolt and nut and multi thickness plugs on the strap for tight fit on part
I did a fair amount of powder coating on airplane cockpits (small 1-6 passenger, general aviation aircraft), and it made the work we did much more professional and the equipment was nothing more than what was shown here, and a custom-built oven with a cheap PID temperature controller.
Excellent information. I think I will pick up that kit with the add-on book and an appropriate oven for my Christmas gift to myself, this year. Thanks for the upload, Quinn.
You really are excited with your new toy, like a kid that has tried ice cream for the first time!
Nice to see you so happy.
i used to work for a company that made powder coatings. they stuck the coating electro statically this gave an equal covering. one of the bosses did a BMW motorcycle frame, fuel tank and other accessories black with multi colours when you looked into the coating it was beautiful. i had 4 hub caps done white and a trumpet black and brass had to re solder the joints that was different and classy. a pushchair for someone methylethylketone was used to clean off the old paint the finishes were excellent. the company made money supplying coatings to the oil pipe coatings for the north sea platforms.
ive found with running our coating line that MEK is one of the better solvents for cleaning cured powdercoat from small area's, it also works well for making touch up paint out of the powder you used to coat with(great for the hook/wire points)
The only problem is MEK is difficult to find at retail. It’s at the top of my solvent hierarchy though!
I’ve been powder coating lead bullets for years using the shake n bake process. Do your back a favor and move your oven on top of the work bench when using it. Thanks for the video!
Just a note, people that make fishing jigs often use power coating but you heat the metal piece with a small torch and then dunk it into a jar with the powder coating (because it's hot the powder sticks) and then heat again to finish the powder coating melt process.
Lol , sitting in the box was quite funny ! Always loved when a new fridge came to our home or a neighbours . That size box always ended up being a fort or army tank 😜
" Never too late to have a good choldhood "
Cant wait to see you engineer your loco . You'll love it ! I have a 3.5" Friends Atlantic 4-4-2 .
You're doing an amazing job Quinn 👌👌
When i did Metalwork st school here Sydney Australia in 1972 we plastic coated parts by heating the part to say 250 Celsius and holding the metal in a box with aerated plastic particles. So the particles landed on the hot surface and adhered to it. Maybe wr dipped the part into a nox of granulated plastic. It did work and left a heavy coat of plastic simlar to electrical linesman's pliers handles.
My cat also loved new card boxes... 😁
Powder painting visual finish is amazing, close to japaning, thanks for sharing!
Just a remark about painting thickness evaluation, would (maybe) be more accurate (given the order of magnitude) if measuring the uncoated piece before coating, or after cleaning with solvent in order to avoid file scraping uncertainty...
I’m willing to bet that Quinn didn’t think about it until after, because I KNOW I wouldn’t have!
Never let anything stop you from sitting in a box you want to sit in. :D
Though due to the shoddy nature of modern box manufacturing, might I suggest a double wrapping of duct tape around the upper edge of the box next time. I find it really hel-- I mean, I _imagine_ it would really help maintain box integrity.
I work in a factory environment where our finished parts are powder coated. Our oven is 2/3 the size of my house and is gas fired. We use a chain conveyor that snakes from where the parts are hung through an acid wash bay then through our automatic coating booth then through the oven at 385 degrees F. Some of the employees wrap their lunch in foil to heat in the oven. Yes, the powder coat is very tough to remove and if defective is baked in another small oven at 800 degrees F, then cleaned up with flap discs and sand-blasting to recoat.
Thank you for making this video! I was very involved in industrial powder coating and always wondered about this kit from Eastwood. Eastwood is about one hour from my house, so I am very lucky.
I worked in a small custom shop that did ceramic and chemical coatings, (so all your discussion of surface prep, air drying, fume hoods, etc. was familiar) but we never did powder coatings. I know sport fighters in armor swear by the process, so it certainly survives metal flexing as well. Kudos on taking a risk and making it work! It certainly looks to my untrained eye like scale gloss paint!
We (at work) powder coat aluminium 9h a day 5 days a week. Sometimes have 2 systems running.
We have a track with hooks and the parts go through a pre treat system. That cleanes the oil from the machines and etches the parts. That then gets dried. The hung on the paint line. Through the paint booth and into the oven.
Even with small lugs a single hook is enough to get the ground we need. But industrial machines may make a difference.
I used top powder coat when I was a bit younger and the process was rather new. When we needed to strip a part, we sent it off to get dipped in molten salt. That really was the only way. Also just cranking the gun voltage can really cause issues. You are trying to match the charge voltage to the thickness of the powder you are aiming for, but that will vary with the powders. If the charge on the part gets too high, it will start rejecting more powder (same charges repel).
Also, you can shoot powder with no high voltage power supply. It's called tribocharghing and uses static generation from the friction of the powder flowing through a gun of just the right material.
Powder coating works so well I got put on probation for my first set of parts because you could clearly see fingerprints and they matched them to me.
Spent the rest of the day on sandblast duty...and taking flak for every single part, cleaned properly or not.
When I was at school more years ago than I care to say we did some powder coating. An old domestic oven. A wooden box that you plugged a vacuum cleaner into (blowing not sucking) that fluidised the powder in the box. Heat the item. Dip it in the fluidised powder box. Put it back in the oven to bake. Done. Please don't ask for more details than that, it really was a long time ago and the memories are badly faded 😢 Definitly no spraying of powder needed though.
Love that you play with the cardboard box.
Quick tip for placing the thermo-couple. Put a bulldog clip wherever you need it and thread the wire through the holes.
Used to live 2 block from Papa's Powder Coating in Colorado Springs. They closed 2019. He would sell powder from his supply. Bought some powder but never purchased the setup. YTer DIY Phil has quite a sweet setup he built and rebuilt. He recently demonstrated that various cones on the output change power distribution. Easy 3d print I would think.
I’ve only powder coated a few small parts with toaster oven and an old craftsman electric powder gun with its built in ground. The gun opens up and holds a small amount of powder. It sprays the powder without using a compressor. Not really the best, but I’ll have to upgrade my system if I get deeper into this. BTW. Great information, really appreciate the detailed explanation in your tutorial
Love the new to the gear, guidelines mixed in with honest evaluations. Happy to subscribe.
Thank you for clarifying about threads - that could have caused discomfort (but a great story at parties).
Being from Australia I was used to not being able to get cool stuff like this easily.
But I was amazed when I moved to BC for a ski season that my dreams of being able to finally access cheap stuff from the US would remain just a dream!
I had no idea there would be so many restrictions on shipping across a line on a map.
It’s gotten a lot easier than when I was growing up, but it’s still harder than it should be. Many Canadians these days use a Mail Drop south of the border to get stuff from our southern neighbours.
I learned how to powder coat a few years ago for my custom lightsabers by watching every UA-cam video I could find on the subject. Got the gun at Harbor Freight and the powders from Prismatic Powders and used an old toaster oven I had laying around.
They make very accurate low air pressure gauges for racing karts. Excellent video.
When I was running calibration on drying ovens I would make a dedicated TC wire that I would run in the over that wouldn't affect the door. I saw a few spots in that oven where you would do that.
Quinn, I think that big tray is the crumb tray that slides in under the door under the heater elements.
would be interesting to see a powdercoat vs anodize comparison for home/hobby shops. ty for the vid, cheers !