New to power coating and in need of help

[mik32176]

I have a powder coating gun and now I would like to do some powder coating but I was wondering about surface treatment of the steel. How clean does it have to be and whats the best way to clean it. the parts Im making are about 4 feet long, I have been using a cleaner/ degreaser and some paper towels but this is not very effecient. any thoughts? I know I have to cook it also.

mike m

[Cyclone]

Degreaser cleaners will leave a film residue and this will affect your finish, orange peel, bubbles etc..... Best recomended procedure is to glass bead or sandblast pieces and wipe down with Laquer thinner solvent. Bake part for 15 minutes to remove any solvent or moisture from part that would "gas out" during powder baking creating nasty bubbles in the finish. Prior to spraying do not handle the parts with bare hands which could also leave an oil residue. Bake coated parts at 400 degrees for 30 minutes and let it cool down before handling and....thats it!

[Cncjunkie]

One trick I used was to get the part almost to finish heat and then power coat it. You can get it to layout like reg. paint and then i would stick it back in the oven. I know it cut down on the bumpy texture you get somtimes.

[vladdy]

local place here does powder coating on tractor front end loaders, pretty simple, but industrial end use finish, so small imperfections are acceptable on these, anyways,
they chip the big welding slops [most of them anyways, with a pin type muffler gun chipper], sandblast overall, then into the bake area for maybe 10 minutes,
back out , spray the power on, and back in for [I think] 1/2 hour just over 400 degrees..
turns out not bad at all,
I had them powder coat an 18 foot tandem axle car hauler trailer last summer, and it's working well, colour is holding but the paint is a lttle on the brittle side, gravel chips it off on the front of the fenders, nowheres near as fast as regular tremclad
no idea of brand of powder or application equipment, comes in 45 gal drums..
It was done in BF Red, pretty..

[mik32176]

Im talking about production, it would take me forever to sandblast every peice before I painted it, is there no other way? maybe a dunking tank? some sort of acid? kind of like preping for cromeplating? Im just rambling on I have no clue about plating or anything like that but I have heard things. also what about one of those big ultrasonic cleaners? Ideas?

[Switcher]

I looked into powder coating a while back, I saved the links here. The first one , someone is offering a free e-book (posted as of today + you have to sign-up in that forum)

(1) http://forum.eastwoodco.com/showthread.php?t=2052

(2) http://forum.eastwoodco.com/forumdisplay.php?f=9

(3) http://www.eastwoodco.com/jump.jsp?i...ORY&itemID=458


Maybe one of those guys can help ?


.

[vladdy]

The trailer that I had painted took maybe 20 minutes to sandblast, the loader frames take less than 5 minutes..
they are [roughly] 3x12 tubing about 10' long, a pair of those plus associated crossmembers, etc..
I think the only thing they complained about was the time to reprocess the used media through the dryer and screens... real humid days slowed the whole line down..

[l u k e]

Lots of good info here> caswell

[Switcher]

l u k e,

Very cool website!

Everyone check out the Photo Gallery on that site!

When I build my CNC, It will be podercoated (Only)!

Forget, paint that will just scratch off.

---------------------------------------------------------------
Sample Photo on that site (Check out the finish)

(Click on Open)
http://forum.caswellplating.com/phot...k.php?file=499
.

[zeus01]

Here is a link to a place that helps people with powder coating. They do it for you or they can sell you the powder and supplies to do it your self. I've talked to them on the phone and they have been really helpful. It is www.absolutepowdercoating.com you need to hit the shop online button to get to their store.