powder coating setups
- Thread starter Gary WA
- Start date
BRENT in 10-uh-C
Well-known member
Well I had to go back to photos from about 20 years ago to show you these...
Back some 20+ years ago, we used a simple Eastwood Powder gun and good quality powder from Tiger-Drylac. It worked reasonably well, -and especially for what we had invested. That still holds true for today, that to have any type of efficiency you will need to spend thousands to purchase a quality gun. Likely that will be your deterrent too.
For us, we started simple and stayed with that and just outsourced bigger items such as Frames, Wheels, etc. Here is how we built our set-up. We made a small Coating Booth out of 2x4s and some Masonite where we hung parts and individually coated them. All this did was help contain the messy powder overspray. It is not needed in the grande scheme of things.
We also built an Oven using some 11 gauge sheetmetal, some 2"x2" Angle iron, and a cannibalized Oven I found on the side of the road. The insulation on the exterior was just basic commercial roofing insulation. The type that is used on commercial building that have flat roofs that the rubber membrane and tar is poured over top of. We place the insulation over the sheetmetal and then drilled 1/8th inch holes thru the insulation and the sheetmetal. We inserted a nail with a large washer to keep head of the nail from pulling thru the insulation as it was held tightly to the metal. On the inside, we just welded the nails to the sheetmetal and then cut the rest of the nail that was protruding. The Door seal was the graphite coated rope-looking seals commonly used in a Fireplace Insert to seal them to the Fireplace bricks. The switchbox housed all of the switches used to control the electric burner eyes and elements. There was an element located in the bottom (-as seen, and one in the very top under the roof). We had forgotten a few times and left the eyes & elements on and it would easily reach over 600°, but we generally regulated it between 350-400 degrees. We would preheat the parts to around 200° and then coat the parts. The ledges inside the oven held ½ EMP Conduit and the parts were suspended from that. You can likely see the Oven Thermometer suspended inside. Generally speaking, about 20 minutes at 350° was enough. Sometimes we would do a partial bake at 400° for 8-10 minutes and then sand the powder with 80 grit to fill pits prior to re-coating.
The bottom line for us was the overall quality and longevity was not there, -even when using the most expensive powders, and so we went back to using single-stage urethane instead of powder. The only benefit I can see by using powder-paint over sprayed catalyzed urethane is the powder-painted process does not have the Isocyanates to deal with. Best wishes if you decide to give it a try.
Back some 20+ years ago, we used a simple Eastwood Powder gun and good quality powder from Tiger-Drylac. It worked reasonably well, -and especially for what we had invested. That still holds true for today, that to have any type of efficiency you will need to spend thousands to purchase a quality gun. Likely that will be your deterrent too.
For us, we started simple and stayed with that and just outsourced bigger items such as Frames, Wheels, etc. Here is how we built our set-up. We made a small Coating Booth out of 2x4s and some Masonite where we hung parts and individually coated them. All this did was help contain the messy powder overspray. It is not needed in the grande scheme of things.
We also built an Oven using some 11 gauge sheetmetal, some 2"x2" Angle iron, and a cannibalized Oven I found on the side of the road. The insulation on the exterior was just basic commercial roofing insulation. The type that is used on commercial building that have flat roofs that the rubber membrane and tar is poured over top of. We place the insulation over the sheetmetal and then drilled 1/8th inch holes thru the insulation and the sheetmetal. We inserted a nail with a large washer to keep head of the nail from pulling thru the insulation as it was held tightly to the metal. On the inside, we just welded the nails to the sheetmetal and then cut the rest of the nail that was protruding. The Door seal was the graphite coated rope-looking seals commonly used in a Fireplace Insert to seal them to the Fireplace bricks. The switchbox housed all of the switches used to control the electric burner eyes and elements. There was an element located in the bottom (-as seen, and one in the very top under the roof). We had forgotten a few times and left the eyes & elements on and it would easily reach over 600°, but we generally regulated it between 350-400 degrees. We would preheat the parts to around 200° and then coat the parts. The ledges inside the oven held ½ EMP Conduit and the parts were suspended from that. You can likely see the Oven Thermometer suspended inside. Generally speaking, about 20 minutes at 350° was enough. Sometimes we would do a partial bake at 400° for 8-10 minutes and then sand the powder with 80 grit to fill pits prior to re-coating.
The bottom line for us was the overall quality and longevity was not there, -even when using the most expensive powders, and so we went back to using single-stage urethane instead of powder. The only benefit I can see by using powder-paint over sprayed catalyzed urethane is the powder-painted process does not have the Isocyanates to deal with. Best wishes if you decide to give it a try.
05snopro440
Junior Member
I was just looking the other day at the Eastwood setup. https://www.eastwood.com/hotcoat-pcs-250r-benchtop-booth-and-oven-powdercoating-kit.html If you're doing brackets and small parts the kit comes with a countertop booth, an oven that can be oriented horizontal or vertical, and a dual-voltage gun. The US price is pretty reasonable, it's more than double up here and I'm still thinking about getting it.
For building a car and doing small stuff, it sounds like a fast and easy way to get it done.
For building a car and doing small stuff, it sounds like a fast and easy way to get it done.
Gary WA
Well-known member
Thanks for the info Brent!! Great!
Gary WA
Well-known member
Thanks for info! great!
05snopro440
Junior Member
That said, I've had really good luck with getting nice finishes on brackets and small parts with a spray can by putting the spray can in hot water for 20 minutes before spraying, so I'm not sure that I'll justify the $700 CAD for the Eastwood powdercoat setup right now.
I forget where I got the simple powder coat stuff I bought, but the OVEN is in an electric stove that came from a house that burned. I told the man at the local trash collection location WHY I wanted an electric stove with a big oven. A month late I had it. Insurance companies will NOT allow reuse of an electric stove that was in a house that burned EVEN IF IT WAS NOT THE CAUSE or burned. Nice to have one for small pieces. It was probably from Eastman's.