DIY Powder coating. Who has done it?

miller · Post by **miller** » Sun Aug 10, 2003 9:30 pm

Hey Im just wondering what is involved in getting a diy Powdercoating kit. They seem to cost around 100 bucks and I was wondering if it was worth it. Does the chrome powder coat look good?

JC-ATL · Post by **JC-ATL** » Mon Aug 11, 2003 6:00 am

I've never done DIY powdercoat, but I've seen a bit of the chrome powdercoat, and it does seem to come out pretty well.

jus'buggin · Post by **jus'buggin** » Mon Aug 11, 2003 6:39 am

what about the chromacolor by por-15 anyone used that?

And if you do powdercoat yourself....dont use a gas oven(the fumes that are produced during this process are extremely flamable. And dont do this in the oven at home when you expect you wife home anytime soon.

Kubel Nick · Post by **Kubel Nick** » Mon Aug 11, 2003 8:12 am

Any powdercoating job, you need the system and an oven, oh and an air compressor. Highly not recommend to use the same oven you cook food in. So if you want to coat your rims, you need a big oven. UV lamps will work as well for frame/body part coatings. I built my own oven using sheet metal and toaster oven parts, big enough for 21" tires, for about $100.

You need a little practice to get a hang of coating. It's fiarly simple really, remove all contaminates and anything that can't stand 400 degrees in the oven for 20 minutes or so. Clip the charge clip from the coating system to the part to be coated, attach the air compressor hose (10-15psi) to the system and pull the trigger. The powder then clings to the part. Carefully put the part in the oven and cure for 300-400 degrees for 15-15 minutes (setting varies).

Chrome is not like regular chrome. Recommend using chrome with 2 layers of clear for best results.

After sandblasted and a single layer of Chrome powdercaot, looks more like cast metal then real chrome at this stage.

Chrome:

The colors are alot richer then paint, especially super glossy black.
They have translucent colors too:

With POR-15's Colorchrome, you need to apply that over bare or shiny metal since it's semi-tranluscent. So if you apply it over parts that has bad welding or body filler......

stkrmtr1 · Post by **stkrmtr1** » Mon Aug 11, 2003 9:52 am

I got the kit and the biggest limitation is the oven size. I Coated a set of sprint stars that I bought and they turned out great. I was surprised that the tape actually worked. I was sure the colors would bleed. The second coat(mirror black) was the deepest most beatiful coatings I had ever seen. Mine is the eastwood kit. I had the compressor and I found an oven at a used appliance shop for 45$. I have made it back many times over from doing parts for friends-SS

Kubel Nick · Post by **Kubel Nick** » Mon Aug 11, 2003 11:38 am

Here's my oven, I never took picts if it completed but I made dual sided doors to fit oversized parts like bike frames, etc.

Works great, does the job. I can control the temp up to 400 steadily and it's portable. Cheap to buy a used kitchen oven as well but they are bilky and you need 240v power supply to run them. Mine's not air tight so I keep a welding blanket to cover it while in use to keep the heat in as insulation.

If I were to do this again I'd use electric grille heatin elements instead of toaster oven heating elements. Easier to deal with IMO, just plug nad play, not rewiring to do.

miller · Post by **miller** » Wed Aug 13, 2003 8:31 pm

How did you build the oven agian. Did you just get a bunch of old toaster elements and plug em in or do you have some temperature control setup? how much did it cost for the powdercoating system and the oven total?

Kubel Nick · Post by **Kubel Nick** » Wed Aug 13, 2003 9:21 pm

The oven costed about $120, mostly in raw metal costs (bought it at Home Depot which isn't the cheapest place to buy sheet metal or angle iron) and $12 in used toaster ovens from the thrift store.

I used 2 toaster ovens and 1 electric grill. I prefer the grill, easier to use. I took apart the toaster oven and welded the heating element tubes together using a coat hanger. I used the bottom design on the pict below, 1 on the bottom and one on top of the oven.

Almost like this:

But for some reason it won't heat up as high when I reworked it so it wasn't getting hot enough so I bought a used electric grill instead and add it onto the bottom and did the trick.

Grill something like this but mine has a temprature setting.

I have an oven temp gauge in the oven and places to hook stuff on the roof of the oven.

Powdercoating systems vary in proce, from $80 and up. Check eBay. http://www.columbiacoatings.com/ is where I get most of my powder from and I would recommend them as well.