need help.....

[jcrpowdercoating]

I am currently using a pro style gun. I have kv control from 0-100 KVa. Everything I coat comes out with orange peel. Sometimes it is appears as a real tightly knit orange peel, other times it apperas as a wavey finish. I have tried averything I can think of, but nothing is working for me. My whole process went south almost immediatly. No idea why. I was getting real good results with the hobby gun then all of a sudden, I couldn't get anything to turn out correctly.

Any ideas?

I have tried to coat test pieces with what I thought was a light, medium and heavy coat but the finished parts still have a real bad orange peel to them.

Thanks......

[DALE]

Ok my first suggestion is start over at square one.<-- Meaning, go back to hobby gun and the very basics to see results. If it's perfect then procede. Orange peel is usually a coating thickness issue as you thought.
Suggestion 2 is how high is your oven temp? It's possible to bake powder fast enough that you don't get full flowout, check to see if your setting has moved.

I'll need exact details on your process to get further into it.

[jcrpowdercoating]

Dale....My curing cycle for heavy parts is 450 for 10 minutes then I back down to 400 for 20 minutes. I usually start with the oven at about 100 degrees. I used to bake parts at 375 for 15 minutes after run out but on larger parts, I was getting an under cure situation. I use a mix of Aluminum oxide and Red Garnett for my blast media. If the surface feels a little rough, I will wet sand with 220 grit sand paper.

What I don't get is that this all happened all of a sudden with no changes made. That is why I spent the $$ on a better gun and started playing with the cure cycle.

Thanks for the info....It is much appreciated.

[DALE]

OK I would start with the oven up to full temp. All this oven adjusting is just adding work and variations.At higher temps you can bake the powder to fast, it doesn't spend enough time in the wet stage. Definitely try fresh powder. Most of the time orange peel is too much or too little coating thickness. For heavier parts just bake longer. Am I correct in reading your post? The problem started prior to the new gun? One last thing, is the oven vented? Humidity affects finishes as well.

[jcrpowdercoating]

Unfortunately, for personal reasons I will be closing the biz down for awhile. Thanks for all the advise guys.

Good Luck.