First Spin: Powdercoating Test Run!

[Areomyst]

Hello friends,

My name is Josh, and I've been a lurker here for quite some time. I have owned eastwood co's powdercoating kit for a while, but have not had the means to try it out... I need better electricity in my garage, I can't operate my oven, and I didn't have an air compressor that worked... Well, I picked up a good compressor for cheap, and I had a real bad itch to test out the coating system! My blast cabinet is a floor model from Horrible Freight, and has been good to me. I'm using Aluminum oxide to blast, and the colour used here is Vermillion or Chevy Orange, whichever you prefer to call it. This is my first spin with coating, so go easy on me. I used a toaster oven to coat the part, since I don't have the power to operate my larger oven.

I'm a hardcore scooter enthusiast and my primary interest in coating is to customize my work by coating blocks, wheels, and other misc. parts. I run a forum that can be found at www.scooterinvasion.net. A duplicate of this thread is located there. Anyway, without further ado, here is my first go-around! Any tips questions or suggestions are welcome!

Finally! I've got a working compressor, so I was able to sand blast the rust off of an old hook that I found laying around. I don't have the electricity in the garage up to snuff yet, so the big oven isn't usable yet... so I used a toaster oven. It was just a test run for fun anyway.


I had two rusty hooks that I've been hanging on to for just this purpose. The clean one was blasted with aluminum oxide, and then cleaned with brake cleaner and allowed to dry.

Edit: The original post was photo heavy. A mirror post with all the pictures can be found here: http://www.scooterinvasion.net/forum...opic.php?t=304

Any questions, suggestions, or comments are more than welcome. I'm new at this, and want to be skilled with it... seems pretty easy for the most part, but every little bit of knowledge gained from experience or otherwise helps!

Excellent forum you guys have here.

Cheers!

~Josh

[Areomyst]

I decided to try out "Chevy Orange" on the hook. The toaster oven didn't have anything I could hang the part on, so that's what the ugly rusty thing is going to be for... Then I have my roll of safety wire to the right... Someday I might have to try actually using it for it's intended purpose instead of hanging stuff! :P


I drilled a hole in the ugly rusty tube, and I'm going to put a bolt in it for now... it doesn't have to be pretty at this point, I'm just excited to see the coating work!

[Areomyst]

After I got the bolt in the tube and fit it in the oven, I practiced putting the part in, and removing it without letting the part touch anything... and without me touching anything either, since the oven will be hot when I put the part in.

[Areomyst]

It's not pretty, but who cares? It works. I'll make a proper rack in the future...


Getting set up.

[Areomyst]

Here the part is grounded... and ready to coat with powder.


See? I've already got mad skills. I can powder coat and photograph at the same time!

[Areomyst]

It's really chalky. I later realized that I could have gotten better coverage than this. Next time will be better.


Pop it in the oven...

[Areomyst]

When it goes from that flat chalky look, to glazed, the coating is "flowing" and that's where you begin letting it cure for whatever time particular powder calls for. In my case, it was 20 minutes at 400 degrees. It sound so silly, but I was absolutely thrilled when I started seeing a shine on the part!

[Areomyst]

[Areomyst]

The finished result, compared with the old one. I'm really tickled to finally be able to at least to something with my blast cabinet and powder coating equipment! Perhaps I'll try a carburetor or something soon, we'll see. A kick start lever would also be a good candidate.

So what do you guys think? I can't wait to get the 220 volts in the garage so I can actually do wheels, CVT covers, and engine blocks.

~Josh

[JTW37]

I know the feeling. When you finally get to actually fire up "something-anything" just to see what it come out like. Well when you get ready to build your oven, this is the place to be. Lots of info here. Make the mod to your EW gun, it should work better and then down the road, upgrade to a Caswell 50KV gun and make the mods to it and you be in like Flynn. I use them both, but down the road, I'll probably be looking into something more pro-ish. Have fun!