Have a real queston now!

[jhoyda]

I think I have a pretty good grasp of the whole process now. My questions regard the booth and the coating of aluminium and magnesium.

Since I only plan on coating motorcycle parts my booth can just be a deal that you stick your arms in right? There needs to be a grounded plate in the booth somewhere, but how big does it need to be, and how do you ground the part?

How do you coat aluminium and can you coat magnesium?

Thank you in advance

[etyrrany]

Hi,

Welcome to the board!

Regarding your questions:

Your spray booth doesn't need to be big. Something with 5 sides should be good enough. An exhaust fan to suck out the excess powder is a nice addition but isn't necessary if you're in the hobby stage of powder coating.

The extra metal in your spray booth is there to catch the excess powder while spraying. The idea behind it is that is is alot easier to clean it off the metal rather than cleaning it out of your entire spray booth. This extra metal has to be connected to the ground. This is done by attaching it to the ground wire from your gun.

For coating aluminum just read the tips and tricks thread. Theres also more threads that deal with specific issues. Magnesium you can also powder coat but you have to watch out for the temperature when curing. The last thing you want is a magnesium fire in your oven.

I'm pretty sure more people will chime in with some ideas.

etyrrany

[non-stick]

Glad to see you're getting interested. I only have a few things to add to what etyrrany said. While it's true the immediate benefits of putting some sort of sacrificial metal in the booth helps keep the powder focused for easier clean-up, the true purpose is to take stray electron flow away so it doesn't make a nasty little symptom called "back ionization" happen to your part. You'll know it's happening when the powder gets too thick and it leaves little craters "popping" off of your part. It looks like orange peel in a powder form just to help you recognize it.

Also.... go to the Tips and Tricks thread and look up the post on outgassing. It basically has what you are looking for to deal with coating aluminum and magnesium.