reclaiming powder

[ldangelo]

Can anyone offer advise on methods to reclaim powder? I am preparing to powder coat some car parts for an automotive restoration... to date I have powdered a few "test" parts to get the process down....

I have both an IR lamp and large oven for heat sources...

I have a make shift spray booth... Basically, it's a wardrobe box (from a recent move) with a wet dry vac attached and some lighting... (I know it's crude...) Anyway, I capture a significant amount of powder in the vac but don't know how to screen the powder for reuse... I have a screen to reclaim blast media... can I use it?

Any advice would be appreciated....

BTW) is anyone interested in starting a thread on building a powder spray booth?

-LeoD

[tomg552001]

I honestly wouldnt worry about trying to reclaim the powder if you are a hobbyist. Powder is pretty cheap, and the chance of cross contamination is high, which will just give you bad results. I too use a crude looking spray booth and in the beginning tried reusing powder. I found that it wasnt worth it because dust in the air would mix in with it and give a crappy result once resprayed.

[DALE]

Tomg is correct don't try to reuse the powder. It will be almost impossible for you to do without massive defects in the finish.

[non-stick]

I agree with these guys. Don't touch the stuff that gets trapped in the vacuum. So not worth it. The product that falls to the inside of the booth can be reclaimed and sifted though. Just lay some clean parchment paper on the bottom of the floor and (of course, you cleaned the booth before-hand so that it was just like a new box,right? thought so ) you may be able to use that. Keep your sandblast supplies and your powder supplies seperate and never the twain shall meet. Good luck with it....Russ