Powder coating...?
#1
Powder coating...?
I was at sears the other night and bought this do it your self powder coating thing...i was wondering if anyone has used it...? it looks easy and anyone can do it but i didnt know if anyones tried it....
#3
Re: Powder coating...?
ya a guy at my work is bringing me in his over he just replaced...it still works but one of the top burners doesnt and thats cool cause i wont need them....i just thought that it looked like a cool idea....it only takes 20mins @ 400 in the oven....plus im in the middle of duing over my F4i right now and its gonna save me a lot of money doing it my self...i take it everything worked out fine with yours...?
#4
Re: Powder coating...?
The Sears guns work just fine, the thing that matters is getting good powders to use. Definently use a spare oven as it will make the oven stink like **** and you would never want to cook anything in it again ( like you ever did anyways). Have fun and you'll save yourself a TON of money doing it yourself. :YEAH
#6
Re: Powder coating...?
yeah I got alot done with a sears gun and basic oven. like fiddy said get quality powder. oh and while your at it mine aswell buy a sandblast gun and make you a box . its a must! ya gotta get that **** clean. then hang it up and spray it with really good brake cleaner and blow it with compressed air. super simple and last forever. and for an idea get hightemp gloss black and spray your header if its faded. that **** bugs me when a bike is blinging lookin good with a gray faded *** header.
#10
Re: Powder coating...?
thats silvervain with candy red over the top.....
i was powdercoating for a shop for 2 years....the trick is prep just like painting it has to be clean. prebake anything that has grease on it.like a rim...bake it at 400 for a few minutes to get the grease to burn off.then blast it,blow it off,and coat it.
i was powdercoating for a shop for 2 years....the trick is prep just like painting it has to be clean. prebake anything that has grease on it.like a rim...bake it at 400 for a few minutes to get the grease to burn off.then blast it,blow it off,and coat it.
#11
Re: Powder coating...?
uhh those are prob some of the sickest rims ive ever seen. im really thinking about investing in a powdercoating set up cuz i been reading up on this **** and it sounds pretty easy and not real expensive, i just dont know where the **** id get an oven big enough to fit a frame in without paying money out the ***.
#12
Re: Powder coating...?
powder coating is all about prep work, it has to be prep'd better than something you are painting because as soon as the parts are heated up, contaminants will come out of the metal under the powder and leave defects.... on a stunt bike I guess it doesn't really matter, but it still wont be as durable as a professionally done job. most of the small parts on a bike you can get away with cleaning them well with acetone and then blasting them in a small cabinet with glass bead or soft aluminum oxide..... glass bead is not the best thing to blast with because it doesn't leave you with "virgin metal" after it has stripped the paint off, it takes the top layer of metal and folds it over into itself (on a microscopic level) so any oil based contaminants are still in the metal and will surface once baked. bike rims are the worst since they are so porous. if you cant find someone local to blast them, and they must be blasted with 80 mesh or finer aluminum oxide at low pressure (40-80psi).. get a small pressure pot blaster from HARBOR FREIGHT, I paid $40-$50 for mine and a blasted wheels with white sand from Menards. If you do this, use a good respirator when blasting, Im not sure what the silica content is of white sand, you don't want to breathe the dust! I use a chemical to treat aluminum before I powder over it, it costs about $50/gallon but its reusable, once the parts are properly blasted, you could wash them with DAWN, rinse them well, bake them to 375F plus, and coat them while they are still hot.
the big picture to look at here.... is it worth it? once you buy the necessary things to do a low budget job..... even if it looks awesome.... was it worth the money and the hours of your time? you may buy $250 worth of stuff to do this in your garage, and spend 10 hours prepping it (first time) when you could have taken it to a professional shop and spend the same amount of money, and not wasted 10 hours of your time. (been there, done it, wasn't fun)
the big picture to look at here.... is it worth it? once you buy the necessary things to do a low budget job..... even if it looks awesome.... was it worth the money and the hours of your time? you may buy $250 worth of stuff to do this in your garage, and spend 10 hours prepping it (first time) when you could have taken it to a professional shop and spend the same amount of money, and not wasted 10 hours of your time. (been there, done it, wasn't fun)
#13
Re: Powder coating...?
uhh those are prob some of the sickest rims ive ever seen. im really thinking about investing in a powdercoating set up cuz i been reading up on this **** and it sounds pretty easy and not real expensive, i just dont know where the **** id get an oven big enough to fit a frame in without paying money out the ***.
there are guys on ebay selling small ovens, still gonna cost you a couple thousand.
when I got into powder coating I started off with $25,000 worth of equipment, the part that I fucked up the most on was not researching the sand blasting aspect. I thought I could rip most things out in a blast cabinet. Time is money! I consider myself a pro with a blast cabinet, my first couple sets of bike wheels took me about an hour and 15 minutes each to blast, now I'm down to about 45 minutes each.... which is poor!!!!! in a professional blast room, which I now own, I can completely strip a bike wheel in about 2 minutes as long as it has the OEM paint.... powder coat takes longer to remove and in a blast cabinet its damn near impossible. I spent just under $1000 on an 80 gallon/5HP air compressor to power that small blast cabinet and it barely kept up, when I bought the small blast pot from Harbor Freight, I used an old shed for a blast room, worked out OK for what it was, but my Air compressor couldnt keep up, Id crack the valve on the blaster at 125psi and within seconds it was down to under 100psi and in about a minute the whole system was down to about 50-60PSI......I stripped a set of bike wheels with that setup, took me about 10 minutes per wheel, but that wasnt including down time refilling the pot and waiting for the compressor to pump back up. the white sand with the pressure pot left a premo finish for powder coating!
I let a place blast some parts for me, they were using "amber blast" its a mix of sands,glass, and slag...... the retards destroyed every aluminum piece I took them, which included 3 bike wheels. when I said WTF!!!!! these are aluminum!!!!! the dude says, OH, those were aluminum??? yeah *******! you do this for a living and you dont know the difference? liar!
#16
Re: Powder coating...?
you can make a oven with metal and the element and controls out of regular house ovens. Ive seen it done. not sure what kind of box they made but im sure you could make it cheeper than a hundred bucks. just thick metal and mabe insulate the outside of it . after you buy your set up your gonna spend a few bucks on powder.. with 12 dollars worth of orange powder I got a ton of parts done. outside the pic I got all levers and I still got half the coffee can left. cant paint any easyer or cheeper.. I think its the coolest **** . you just cant **** it up. if you cook it a little to long it will get a little more glossy thats all.
#17
#18
Re: Powder coating...?
I play around with powder coating but my biggest problem I have is trying to figure out how much powder to use. sometimes I use to much and it pools up or when I dont use enouge and leave some of the metal showing. Can any one tell me how to gauge the thickness I need to use?
#20
Re: Powder coating...?
I play around with powder coating but my biggest problem I have is trying to figure out how much powder to use. sometimes I use to much and it pools up or when I dont use enouge and leave some of the metal showing. Can any one tell me how to gauge the thickness I need to use?
what gun are you using? for small parts.... spray it from a distance of 6-10 inches, let the powder collect on the part, when you cant see any metal ITS GOOD! with some powders, when you start getting it on there heavy, the powder will start to look real fluffy like fresh snow..... stop spraying! if you have bare metal showing, scuff the part up good with 400 grit paper and put a second coat.