Hey has anybody here tried to do powder coating on your own. Some guys that I work with are into old vehicles and stuff and we are thinking about getting a powder coat system and doing this at one guys house. We have seen some systems for under a 100 on ebay and other sites. The questions are: 1 - which system do we go with. 2 - what did you use for a oven. 3 - are there any thing we should be looking out for.
The web sites that we have looked at make this look very easy and simple to do. I would like to know if this is the truth or not.

thank you for any help,

RJK

 

Moved to bodywork where the people that know paint systems are.

 

The cheap units will work on small pieces but don't expect them to perform well on large parts.The professional set ups cost many thousands of dollars. The little ones you refer to are ok if you don't expect to much from them. They will be ok for brackets and such, maybe rims too. You can use an old electric oven to set the plastic coat. It needs about 400* to melt the plastic and allow it to flow. Do not use your oven in your house since the curing process gives off fumes that may be toxic.

 

When you talk about the cheap units are you refering to the ones around a 100 dollar range? There is 4 of us that are interested in doing this so we could probably spend a couple hundred apiece, I'm thinking. What I am getting at is if we spent a thousand and was able to get better results and do more with the unit then it would be worth the extra bucks. Is there any special one that we should be looking at?

When the ads talk about the efficiency of 80% is that good? Or should we be looking for a higher number?

As far as the oven we are thinking about making a oven that would completely fit a motorcycle frame into it. Thinking about a old oil tank cutting it apart putting on hinges and insulating it. Would have to experiment with electric heating units to get the heat even and all that. What do you think?

Any help is greatly appreciated..

RJK

 

Do the cheap units apply the coat as thick as the better ones? Is there a middle of the road version?

 

The cheap units are the ones in the 100 dollar range. We have one where I work that we experimented with on some suspension parts, A arms and such. The results were ok but I wasn't overly impressed with it. I don't remember the site but a while back I did a web search and came up with alot of info on powder coating units. The professional grade units operate with a much higher static voltage than the little ones. This I believe means that more of the powder can be transfered to the parts, giving a better coat. As far as an oven you could make your own any size that you want it. The trick is in heating it. The powder coat needs around 400* to flow.

 

The professional grade units put out a higher voltage? You wouldn't happen to know what that voltage might be? Also how much were the better units? Everytime I do a search I find the 100 dallar range and then the next step is tens of thousands. Can't go that high. Also what do you mean by not overly impressed with your results?

Any help is still greatly appreciated.

RJK