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Posted by: ninefourteener May 8 2006, 12:06 PM

So yesterday I was in Sears getting a new wheel for my lawnmower (don't ask)..... and I came across a powder coating gun for like $130 (ish) dollars.

Plus, I saw the little "packets" of colored powder for next to nothing..... and I thought to myself... "Is it really this easy and cheap"???

Am I missing something? I really know nothing about powder coating, other than the awesome final product. Is it really this easy? Am I missing something?

I thought about powder coating the original wheels on the WRX in a satin black.... is a $130 gun, and a few packets of "black" all I need???

----confused.....

Posted by: zymurgist May 8 2006, 12:26 PM

You need an oven that you won't be cooking food in any more. At least that's what the Eastwood instruction book says. I got my powedercoating oven for free by advertising at work.

For best results on parts, you may want to use a bead (or sand) blaster to rough up the surface. I sandblasted a lot of steel and cast iron parts... the steel parts almost all turned out nice, but the cast iron parts seem to have a bit of rust bleeding through (even though I thought I had blasted all the rust loose).

Posted by: StratPlayer May 8 2006, 12:29 PM

I have the same powder coating gun. I bought it just a few months ago. Yes it is easy the hardest part is preparing the piece that is to be coated. A wheel will fit into a standard house stove oven. I didn't buy any of Sears powder, I bought my powder from Columbia Coatings. You can buy as little as 2 oz. of powder at a time from them, their powders are excellent. I have a thread about the first things that I coated. http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=46185&hl=powder+coating

Posted by: TonyAKAVW May 8 2006, 12:48 PM

I have a gun that I bought at Harbor Freight and it works fine. I live near the beach, and I can really tell a difference on a humid day. The static charge dissipates over a shorter distance.

Baking the parts is really the most tricky step. I use a propane space heater and some pieces of sheet metal to form a quasi-oven and it seems to work well with some patience and attention. I'm probalby not getting the exact 400 degrees for 20 minutes, but it is close enough. Occasionally I will over heat the parts and th powder can look a little burned.

Surface preparation like with any other coating is really important.

-Tony

Posted by: ninefourteener May 8 2006, 01:26 PM

Obviously there was one crucial step I didn't know about powder coating......... BAKING.

Yea..... My wife almost shot me when I used the kitchen sink to clean car parts....... I can imagine what would happen when she finds a wheel in the oven--LOL

Posted by: Engman May 8 2006, 01:33 PM

Keep in mind that 90% of any painting is the surface prep.

M

Posted by: yarin May 8 2006, 02:26 PM

Is $130 for the gun that doesn't requite a compressor?

I bought the kit off columbia coatings two years ago. I finally used it to coat my intake parts. Here are pics: http://www.flickr.com/photos/infinitelydigital/sets/72057594124768996/

I bought a Walmart GE Oven for $50, worked perfectly. You need a small compressor to push about 10psi.

I sand blasted all of the parts first. Prep is the most time consuming part.

Posted by: davep May 8 2006, 05:10 PM

About all I remember of the prep part of the powder paint line I worked on is that it was a multi step process. I think there was a phosphating section and a rince or two. The parts have to be superclean, sandblasting is not enough.

Posted by: dweymer May 8 2006, 06:13 PM

QUOTE(TonyAKAVW @ May 8 2006, 02:48 PM)