Ordered an Eastwood Powder Gun and Oven Kit

[Papa]

I want to powder coat my side louvers and a few other odds and ends. The powder coater I've used charges a minimum of $150, so I figured I'd just buy the tools to do the small stuff myself. Has anyone powder coated their side louvers (fully assembled ones from FF or **********)? Any advice on how to get a good result on them?

Thanks,
Dave

[Randy's]

Dave,

I purchased the Eastwood gun and their powder and have powder coated several parts. I did not powder coat the side louvers. I had never powder coated before but thought it looked easy enough. Turns out it was. For the best results (and Eastwood will tell you this) you should "cook" the parts then clean them before you powder coat them. The cooking burns away the impurities that just cleaning them does not remove. The only downside for me is that it can be time consuming. Cooking and cleaning takes about 30 minutes, applying the powder is pretty quick, then baking on the powder takes about 20 minutes then you have to let them cool. So it is close to an hour, which is not too bad but it can really add up if you want to powder coat several parts as you cannot fit a lot of parts in their oven. It's just too small. So if you have several small batches to do, it can take a chunk of time. One thing I learned the hard way; let the parts cool before you handle them otherwise you can dull the finish.

[Bob Cowan]

Prep them just like you would for paint. Used or worked parts that might have oil them should be baked to bring the oil to the surface. Then wash with your favorite degreaser and HOT water. Running them through the dishwasher works pretty good. Sometime you have to do that cycle a few times to get where you want to be; especially with used cast alum parts.

Polished and chrome parts do not PC well. Just like they don't hold paint well. The surface is too smooth to give the PC something to grab on to. I roughen up the surface a little with a green scrubby.

Heavy parts like wheels and intake manifolds should be heated before the powder is applied. And then then need to bake the full 20 minutes. Or maybe a smidgen longer. Thin parts like the louvers do not need to be pre-heated (unless your garage is really cold). And they need less baking time, like 16-18 minutes.

For a good shine, when the baking time is done turn the oven off and crack the door a little bit, about an inch or two. Allow the parts to cool slowly. If they cool too quickly, you'll get a dull finish.

My favorite technique is to put a translucent color over polished metal or chrome. You get a really deep finish that wears well and looks like deep candy. These air cleaner tops are done that way. The valve covers I did with near-chrome first, and then the translucent red; didn't come out very well.



I also did these chrome motorcycle parts with the same color





I have also done some blue and aqua parts, and they look spectacular. Unfortunately, I can't find any pictures of those.

[japollon]

Hey Dave, I ordered the same stuff as you from Eastwood. I have done my louvers and several other aluminum parts. I did the louvers in chrome with a clear coat over that. They turned out nice. Mostly I do gloss black on both steel and aluminum parts. It's a little time consuming but worth the effort and far less expensive especially for small parts. Prep is very important. I put the parts in my blast cabinet first and then, as others have mentioned, "cook" them to remove impurities. It took me a little trial and error to get the temperatures just right so that the powder flows out nicely and then bakes. Aluminum takes less heat than steel in my experience. I have a sheet where I have recorded the actual temps I have used for best results but unfortunately I am at SEMA right now and don't have access to it. If you are interested, let me know and I will share it with you when I get home. Joel

[ckrueger]

I have there stuff too. I just use an old oven for the baking. The wife was getting a little cranky when I suggested hers in the house. LOL

[Papa]

Thanks for the insight guys. Joel, I'd definitely like to see your notes when you have time. My stuff will be delivered today, so it will be a while before I give it a try. I'll play with some scrap aluminum first before trying it on the louvres. I ordered some gloss black and a metallic silver powder with the dual voltage gun and oven. I may try the chrome with clear and pick what I like better for the louvres.

[Railroad]

A couple of tips that might help. Practice placing and removing the items from the oven. It is no fun when you bump them before they are cooked. I removed one shelf from the oven and placed the single shelf at the highest point.
I strung a span of stainless wire to hang the items on for powdering. I made appropriate length hooks out of the same wire to hang them on the span of wire. If you will leave a tail of wire off the span you can hook your ground wire to it and ground all the items to be powdered with this one connection.
Put some kinks in your span wire to keep the items on hooks from sliding together.
If you are shopping for an oven, get the largest you can find and a glass door is nice. You can watch the powder cure. I pulled all the heating element eyes. Did not want to have an accident. Front controls are easier to use and monitor.

I put my pressure regulator on the powder gun, easy to adjust.

[Avalanche325]

Bob,
What kind of induction system is that on the Cobra?
Sorry, off topic. But I gotsta know.

[WarDamnEagle]

IF you are looking for a craigslist used shop oven you may look into a dual oven. My shop oven for powder coating is a stacked dual kitchen oven, so I can prep and coat parts while others are baking to double the through put

[Bob Cowan]

It's an 8 stack EFI system from Momar. Very trick,with billit throttle bodies. Ran it with a custom built Megasquirt ECU.

[Papa]

IF you are looking for a craigslist used shop oven you may look into a dual oven. My shop oven for powder coating is a stacked dual kitchen oven, so I can prep and coat parts while others are baking to double the through put

I bought the bench-top oven from Eastwood with the powder gun. The stuff showed up yesterday, but I haven't opened the boxes yet. I think for what I'll be doing, the smaller oven will be fine. If I need to do a little larger part, I'll sneak it into the wife's double oven when she's not home.

[SSNK4US]

Dave,

I’m not sure if your joking or not but DO NOT ever use an oven you will ever use for food!!!
You can find cheap ovens on letgo or Craig’s list for 40-50 bucks....
If your joking no big deal and funny.

But everybody.... powder coat = NO FOOD anymore...

Kurt

[Papa]

Dave,

I’m not sure if your joking or not but DO NOT ever use an oven you will ever use for food!!!
You can find cheap ovens on letgo or Craig’s list for 40-50 bucks....
If your joking no big deal and funny.

But everybody.... powder coat = NO FOOD anymore...

Kurt

Kurt -- It was definitely a joke. The big stuff will still go out to the pros.

After Joel's post, I went ahead and ordered some chrome and clear powders, too. This could be fun! I started searching Craigslist for a blast cabinet and may pick up one of those, too.

Dave