DIY powder coating anyone here tried?

[area51_for_psx]

Hi guys

I am hopefully going to try and start doing some DIY powder coating. I am planning to build my own oven for the curing and get a cheap powder coating system. I am planning just to use it for doing car alloys and some other smaller parts.

Just looking to know if anyone on OCUK has gave it ago. I might do a build log if anyone is interested?

Will hopefully be starting to get all the stuff together next month as I'm off work for a few weeks.

 

[R B Customs]

I'll be interested to see how you get on.

It's not something I've ever considered doing myself as it's pretty cheap to have done and there's plenty of places that do it.

I don't know a lot about wheel coatings in particular but I would have thought it would be cheaper to setup a wet-spraying system than powdercoating, and the finish is better too (I couldn't tell you which system is better for wheels though!)

 

[area51_for_psx]

Im thinking about the powder coating due to being able to do posts,gates etc. shouldnt be too expensive talking around £150-200 for powder coating system. Big challenge is building the oven

 

[Dogbreath]

I have a powder coating gun that I bought from a kit car show a few years back. The gun itself works very well but when I tried using a hot air gun to cure it (as advised by the people selling the system) it was useless, it melts the powder but because the underlying material doesn't get hot enough it doesn't stick. I think using a proper temperature controlled oven would give good results though.

 

[pepsilol]

Just pay someone who has the decent equipment to do it?

 

[area51_for_psx]

Just pay someone who has the decent equipment to do it?

I like a challenge why pay someone else if I could do it myself

 

[Will]

Unless you have a lot of parts you want to powdercoat I think its difficult to make sense of doing it yourself from a cost point of view, I've had a few small parts powdercoated lately and its all been pretty cheap. If the experience and satisfaction of doing it yourself is key then go ahead, but there are some very cheap commercial powdercoaters out there who are happy to take on odd jobs for cash.

 

[pepsilol]

I like a challenge why pay someone else if I could do it myself

Check out my car garage thread. I'm all up for DIY, but you've gotta draw the line on this type of DIY.

 

[scaza]

Lad a work did exactly this and powdercoated a lot of his kit car at the time of putting it together. Cars gone now though but he still powder coats as a foreigner.

Good luck!

 

[area51_for_psx]

Well after a lot of work I finally have made a powder coating oven.

I bought a powder coating gun the eastwood dual voltage one

I got an old washing machine and oven, The washing machine was stripped and insulated and a door made to place the items in and the element from the oven was placed in and is controlled by a Rex c100 PID controller and a solid state relay.

Have only had time to coat one item and its not the best as I missed a few bits but practice will make perfect. Pictures below

The home made oven

The controller and wires for it

And my first powder coated item (Yep i missed a few bits )

http://i.imgur.com/LobjWfl.jpg

 

[danza]

Bloody norah, that's a lash-up of a lash-up!

Impressed that it seems to have worked though, props due IMO.

 

[area51_for_psx]

Doesnt work pretty but works and because of the PID controller it keeps the temp solid

And mostly made for free from bits of scrap

 

[Maccapacca]

That's awesome.

Have you powder coated using commercial stuff or is this a pure first go?

Just big enough to do loads of bike bits

 

[area51_for_psx]

This is a first go never done anything like this before but wanted to try