Those of you who do your own powder coating….

[SVSooke]

Because of this thread I picked up an Eastwood powder coat gun.The place here just had the guns not the kitsSo I'm now looking for some silicone plugs and heat resistant masking tape that won't cost mega bucks to ship to Victoria.

[tkent02]

Any one have a technique for cooling fins? Looks good from the top or at an angle like you would if it was on a bike, if you look from the side the powder never got to the inside of the fins, way back in there. There must be some way to do it right, this is OK for a DIY on a daily rider bike but if someone was doing it for a customer it wouldn't cut it.

Any ideas?

[metalfab]

How is the learning curve? I have an engine I'm rebuilding now, and a couple complete bikes that need to be rebeautified.

I do my own paint, I'm getting pretty good at it.

Can I just buy the Eastwood gun and go to town or will there be a lot of ugly parts made before the good ones start to happen? I know it's all in the prep like anything else, but is it tricky? Any down side to it?

I'm sitting on the fence between doing this now and continuing with spray cans of epoxy paint, engine paint, caliper paint.

It seems like with these projects lined up, now is a good time to start. I have a toaster oven to use, and there's a full sized electric kitchen oven down the street for free….

Or do I need something better?


This bike would have looked a lot better If I had powdercoated everything…



Of course it would have looked a lot better if I had painted all those parts, too.

The powder coating is great. Bake the hell out of the parts first. They do what is called out gassing. If that happens after the powder coat is on then it can show up in the finish. For engines there is some other stuff you should look into too. It is expensive, but it sprays on with a HVLP paint gun. It is Cerakote, I use it all the time on guns, and engines. It is a catalyzed ceramic matrix coating, really tough. It bakes on too, you do have sand blast the surface before application. It is great for engines, for frames I would use powder or epoxy paint. Cerakote sticks like nothing else I have seen. You can look on You Tube there are people beating on it trying to scratch it. Those videos give you an idea how tough it is. They also have a non bake on product "Type C" for high temperatures.

[tkent02]

Been doing this for a couple years now, experimented on scrap parts and done some good ones, but these are my first cylinders. Pressure washed them thoroughly, some paint remover and pressure washed again. No out gassing, so I'm happy with the results, but have you got any advice about the cooling fins?

[metalfab]

Been doing this for a couple years now, experimented on scrap parts and done some good ones, but these are my first cylinders. Pressure washed them thoroughly, some paint remover and pressure washed again. No out gassing, so I'm happy with the results, but have you got any advice about the cooling fins?

Cooling fins are tough, you need a fan pattern, and use the fan to get between the fins. By fan I mean have the spray pattern where if you briefly pulled the trigger it would make a vertical stripe, and not a round pattern. Then stand the cylinders up and use small shots to get between the fins and make the coverage. Cast aluminum doesn't anodize very well, but you could black anodize the head and cylinders. You have to coat the inside of the cylinders with something during the process.

[tkent02]

Cooling fins are tough, you need a fan pattern, and use the fan to get between the fins.

That would work spraying paint, but the powder just kind of falls out of the gun in a cloud which attracts itself to the metal by it's static charge. It doesn't really shoot out like paint. It attracts itself to the tips of the fins and doesn't make it down into the deep valleys between them.

It's good enough for this bike but I just want to know if there's a better technique for next time.

[jsandidge]

That would work spraying paint, but the powder just kind of falls out of the gun in a cloud which attracts itself to the metal by it's static charge. It doesn't really shoot out like paint. It attracts itself to the tips of the fins and doesn't make it down into the deep valleys between them.

It's good enough for this bike but I just want to know if there's a better technique for next time.

Look on youtube. There's a video out for a liquid powdercoat. Don't know if it's just for touch up or not.