storing powder

[holeshot87]

can i put the powders in a fridge ? this would keep the powders around 70 to 75. warn weather is coming and when i leave my powders in the shed the powders get hard or is there a better way to store them? thanks

[mbeaver]

Unless your powders have an anti-caking agent the best storage my company uses is to store in the dryest enviroment I can find...which by the way when you live in Arizona isn't hard to find. I do have a friend who does small powder coating whereas he puts his powder in a 5 gallon bucket and argon gas pumps creating a zero enviroment. Hope this helps. Michael

[holeshot87]

thanks for the help.

[defed]

my brother has a fridge he is getting rid of, so i plan to use it for storing powder. i figure if the door seal is good, and i put moisture absorbing medium in there, it should be 'dry'...until you open the door again.

i have also read somewhere that if you wire the bulb to stay on all the time, it will be enough to maintain some temperature inside the fridge in the winter. haven't tried it yet, but if i do, i will wire the light separate so i can unplug the rest in the winter.

[hbracing]

I have a commercial glass door fridge that has flourecent lights inside that stay on all the time. It keeps the BEER and pop from freezing in the winter and also works great for a night light. The only thing is the temp difference of the powder when you take it out of the fridge, "Condensation". What I have done in the past is right as you take out of the fridge put it in a zip lock bag and let it come up to room temp before you open it. This helps to keep the condensation to a minimum. This works for me untill I get an airconditioned shop which means it's going to have to work for a long time. I have done the light in the fridge thing and a 25watt works great put in the bottom so the heat can rise. Can't go wrong with that setup..............

[defed]

glad to hear the bulb will in fact supply some heat.

i heave heard of ppl who use digital cameras outside in the winter will put it in a ziplock bag before bringing it inside so it does not condensate internally. never thought of using the same method on power. good idea.

[hbracing]

Photography is exactly where that idea came from. Hope it works for you...

[holeshot87]

thanks everyone. the light sounds like a good idea. also the zip lock bag i will also try. thanks again

[bpickell]

if moisture is the problem, wouldn't the better solution be vacuum bagging the powder. You can pick up a cheap vacuum sealer for around 30 bucks.

[defed]

the problem w/ the moisture isn't so much in the storage (at least as far as this thread was going), but in the fact that if you pull the powder from a 70 degree fridge into a 80 degree room, the moisture in the air can condensate onto the colder item. if you put the item into a 'air tight' bag while it acclimates to the new temp, the moisture in the air will accumulate on the bag.

the vacuum sealer may work as well, but i'm not sure if the bag should be at room temp already when putting the cold item in. i guess if it is already 'air tight' in its vacuum bag, moisture can't get back in.