When to add clear coat-beginner help?

[nuttyman Metal Finishing Guru Find all posts View Profile Close nuttyman]

I am a complete beginner with coating and have yet to find many resources to aid me, I just haven't looked to hard yet. Are you supposed to cure the color coat, cool & then add the clear? Or is it ok to add the clear on top of the color and then cure? I have yet to even try 1 piece so my 1st go will be interesting! thanks for any help.


nutty

[Hemi-T Amateur Metal Finisher Find all posts View Profile Close Hemi-T]

Hey Nuttyman! This forum is a great place to cut your teeth in powdercoating. It's pretty basic:

1). practice on a couple pieces of scrap metal first

2). sand blast your part(s)

3). hang from a wire and "dust" with powder (getting the right amount of powder on the part takes a little practice)

4). carefully move the part and hang in pre-heated oven to cure. Most Caswell powder cures at 400 degrees for 14-15 minutes. Other powders may vary.

5). open the oven door part way, and allow the part to cool slowly, maybe 10-15 minutes.

Put one color on at a time. Put a color on the part first, cure, then cool, apply the clear, and cure again. The first coat of color will not re-melt. If you missed a spot when coating the first color, just re-coat and cure again. Mixing powder is not like mixing paint (thanks Dale! ) you'll end up with speckles of both colors, but they won't melt together into a new color.

It's pretty easy, and has thousands of practical uses. The cost is so low, it's hard to find a reason *not* to powdercoat. You can figure ~ $90 for your powder gun, ~ $130 for a sand blast cabinet (Harbor Freight), a cast-off electric kitchen oven (free or dirt cheap), and a couple pounds of powder ~ $25. Don't use your wife's oven to cure powder, or your pizza will never taste the same again. Ask questions here. Good luck!

Hemi-T

[nuttyman Metal Finishing Guru Find all posts View Profile Close nuttyman]

Hemi-thanks for your reply. I really appreciate it! I love Harbor Freight-I just spent more money in there yesterday-there is a store about 10 minutes from my house! Is it absolutely necessary to sand blast or is heavy sanding/scuffing sufficient to give the powder a base to grab hold of?

nutty

[Hemi-T Amateur Metal Finisher Find all posts View Profile Close Hemi-T]

I've never sandpapered parts before, just sandblasted. I think sandblasting removes more oil and impurities that could cause problems in the powder. A sandblasted part is bare white metal, where sand paper leaves a lot behind. You could try it, but I don't know offhand how well it would work. Try on scrap metal first. Getting the corners, nooks & crannies would be very difficult with sandpaper. A benchtop sandblast cabinet at HF sells for $125, but you need a compressor too.

It's easy to spend a bundle of $$ on a trip to Harbor Freight

Hemi-T

BTW, don't buy your powder at HF. They get $9.95 for a 8 oz can ($19.90 per lb!). Caswell powder is much more reasonably priced, and comes with this cool forum to help you use it

[allcarfan New User Find all posts View Profile Close allcarfan]

I bought my sand blast cabinet brand new on ebay for $71 + $23 for shipping. I can fit a 15" wheel in it. They are all over on ebay.

shane

[Maxime_F New User Find all posts View Profile Close Maxime_F]

I don't find any for now

[Silverlex02 New User Find all posts View Profile Close Silverlex02]

How much of a difference does it make if you clear coat as oppose to not clear coating? TIA

[DALE Experienced Metal Finisher Find all posts View Profile Close DALE]

There are advantages both physical and cosmetic. Certain colors and textures are only available in a specific chemistry. For example if you use a Urethane color as a base and an Epoxy clear you will get a Urethane only color which has a lower hardness, and then an Epoxy which is about the hardest available. However Epoxy is not UV stable and will fade and brake down before say TGIC polyester would. Let us not forget that you can make the finish look deeper like a fine paint with the use of clear and it will also alter the shade just a bit.There are addatives that can give affects to the finish like prism powders and irredesent powders which mix nicely into the clear and then seem to be suspended above the color.
Mainly for the hobbiest it's personal preference.Usually based on appearence.
Confusing yet?

[Silverlex02 New User Find all posts View Profile Close Silverlex02]

There are advantages both physical and cosmetic. Certain colors and textures are only available in a specific chemistry. For example if you use a Urethane color as a base and an Epoxy clear you will get a Urethane only color which has a lower hardness, and then an Epoxy which is about the hardest available. However Epoxy is not UV stable and will fade and brake down before say TGIC polyester would. Let us not forget that you can make the finish look deeper like a fine paint with the use of clear and it will also alter the shade just a bit.There are addatives that can give affects to the finish like prism powders and irredesent powders which mix nicely into the clear and then seem to be suspended above the color.
Mainly for the hobbiest it's personal preference.Usually based on appearence.
Confusing yet?

No I am kind of confused. I am going to use a Silver Vein Metallic and a White Linen. Using those 2 colors would it really be nessary to put a clear coating on it? I also have one more question I haven't ever done this. My question is. Do I just have to sand black the peice of metal, apply the White Linen coating, bake it, let it cure, and hen i am finished? Thanks for any help you can give me.