Do it myself or farm it out?

[philipd]

Hi all.

I am new here and have a quick question. I have four pieces for my motorcycle I would like to have powder coated. The four pieces make up a backrest and luggage rack. The backrest and luggage rack are chrome plated and the support plates they attach to are pieced I made from scrap steel (painted).

It would be cheaper for me to get an old oven, a gun from Harbor Freight, some powder and do it myself. I don't know if I will ever need to PC anything again.

The best price I have found to have the items done locally is $175, which I think is high, but it should be a better job.

Your opinions and suggestions are needed and welcome.

Thanks,
Philip

[baz]

Hi all.

I am new here and have a quick question. I have four pieces for my motorcycle I would like to have powder coated. The four pieces make up a backrest and luggage rack. The backrest and luggage rack are chrome plated and the support plates they attach to are pieced I made from scrap steel (painted).

It would be cheaper for me to get an old oven, a gun from Harbor Freight, some powder and do it myself. I don't know if I will ever need to PC anything again.

The best price I have found to have the items done locally is $175, which I think is high, but it should be a better job.

Your opinions and suggestions are needed and welcome.

Thanks,
Philip

if your not going to do any more pc after these parts then it s probably better to send them out. if you buy a gun ,oven , powder, then you still need to prep the parts you might need to blast some parts also.
what about a compressor , if you have one do you have clean dry air ,
if you never powdercoated before you will have to practice on a few sample parts first .
so how much do you think you will save down the road

[CarWiz]

The best price I have found to have the items done locally is $175, which I think is high, but it should be a better job.

Sounds pretty cheap to me and you can get them back pretty quick. When you consider that $175 may not even get you started in powder coating, a one-time job can't pay for itself. There's a little more to it than a gun, powder and a kitchen oven. As Baz says, you'll need to prep the parts; especially the chrome parts.

[philipd]

OK, I have decided to shoot the painted parts with some Krylon and wait. Might do the PC next year or get them chromed.

Thanks for the responses.