Model Engine Maker

General Category => Chatterbox => Topic started by: b.lindsey on May 09, 2019, 03:00:09 PM

Title: First attempt at powder coating.
Post by: b.lindsey on May 09, 2019, 03:00:09 PM
I had mentioned over in the shop renovation thread about having acquired the necessary tools/equipment for giving powder coating a try. The first candidate was the PMR #1 Oil Field Engine I built a few years back. It wasn't that I didn't like the color so much as it seemed that the brown I mixed in with the pearl white color was bleeding through and just didn't look good. Maybe you can see that in photo 1. Anyway I have disassembled the engine (photo 2) and have begun stripping all the parts to be power coated which I should finish up today. The new color is to be a mocha metallic from Eastwood. If that goes well I will ad back some pin striping perhaps in white so the net result will be almost opposite the original paint scheme. Will post more pictures as the process progresses. If anyone has done much of this, any tips/tricks or best practices are most welcome too.

Bill
Title: Re: First attempt at powder coating.
Post by: Don1966 on May 09, 2019, 04:01:42 PM
Cold Bill, but hey bud you got this! Oh and don’t forget the DVD I had sent you on pin stripping for reference.... :ThumbsUp:


 :cheers:
Don
Title: Re: First attempt at powder coating.
Post by: kvom on May 09, 2019, 11:14:22 PM
Did you get the vinyl tape to mask the areas you don't want to coat, as well as the silicone plugs for holes?
Title: Re: First attempt at powder coating.
Post by: b.lindsey on May 09, 2019, 11:19:56 PM
Hi temp fiberglass tape for masking and yes on the plugs, but doubt they are small enough for some of the holes .

Bill
Title: Re: First attempt at powder coating.
Post by: Tennessee Whiskey on May 09, 2019, 11:40:49 PM
Anxiously awaiting results

Cletus
Title: Re: First attempt at powder coating.
Post by: gldavison on May 09, 2019, 11:56:08 PM
Hi Bill,

For small screws (0-90  0-80 2-56)  I just used short screws and keep them in small container for reuse.

Gary
Title: Re: First attempt at powder coating.
Post by: b.lindsey on May 10, 2019, 12:35:43 AM
Great idea Gary. I have plenty of old screws laying about too in the sizes needed.

Bill
Title: Re: First attempt at powder coating.
Post by: Engineville on May 10, 2019, 02:30:48 AM
I look forward to your postings on powder coating for I too want to learn powder coating ... been keeping an old electric stove for this use.
Title: Re: First attempt at powder coating.
Post by: Kim on May 10, 2019, 05:34:13 AM
Looking forward to your updates on this!  Thanks for sharing Bill,
Kim
Title: Re: First attempt at powder coating.
Post by: AJW on May 10, 2019, 09:07:21 AM
I bought a kit and some powders at a show a couple of years ago - but still not plucked up the courage to use it!

Alan
Title: Re: First attempt at powder coating.
Post by: b.lindsey on May 10, 2019, 01:37:54 PM
Got the parts stripped down to bare metal yesterday. If all goes well I can mask them off and try some coating today.

Bill
Title: Re: First attempt at powder coating.
Post by: toolznthings on May 10, 2019, 01:57:17 PM
Following along to see how this work out .  :ThumbsUp:
Title: Re: First attempt at powder coating.
Post by: Doc on May 10, 2019, 10:37:09 PM
Got the parts stripped down to bare metal yesterday. If all goes well I can mask them off and try some coating today.

Bill
Once you have the parts stripped clean them good with acetone let them dry and do not touch them again with bar hands. I've done some powder coating and it is not to hard to do as long as you keep from touching. Did you make yourself a little paint booth. I just use a cardboard box with some smallish dia crs stock stuck threw to hang the parts on. I hook up the ground clamp to it. Try and keep the air pressure low I think I use around 3psi. Anyway good luck I'm sure you'll do fine. Eastwood does have some good videos on powder coating online.
Title: Re: First attempt at powder coating.
Post by: b.lindsey on May 10, 2019, 10:58:45 PM
Thanks Doc. Unfortunately didn't get anything done today, but was planning on using a box as you suggest. I do need to get some nitrile gloves though before handling the parts. Will do that in the morning. And a final wash in acetone too before applying the powder.

Bill
Title: Re: First attempt at powder coating.
Post by: gldavison on May 11, 2019, 12:46:01 AM
Bi

I've been using Dawn dish soap to clean my parts. Give them a good rise in clean water and like Doc said ,do not touch with bare hands. Has worked well for me, and less expensive than acetone.

Gary
Title: Re: First attempt at powder coating.
Post by: Doc on May 11, 2019, 01:11:58 AM
Bi

I've been using Dawn dish soap to clean my parts. Give them a good rise in clean water and like Doc said ,do not touch with bare hands. Has worked well for me, and less expensive than acetone.

Gary
You'd have to make absolutely sure your parts are dry if you do use dawn and water. You don't need to submerse your parts in acetone just a wipe down will work. Moisture and water are enemies of powder coat make sure you don't get moisture into your powder it will ruin it. 
Title: Re: First attempt at powder coating.
Post by: b.lindsey on May 13, 2019, 10:37:00 PM
Running a day or two behind...what else is new :lolb:. Anyway got the masking done today, a tedious task. Maybe tomorrow I can get some powder on some of the parts at least and cure them. Added a couple of pics below. You can see a few sacrificial screws and silicon plugs in the cylinder especially. Just noticed....the flywheel bore will be plugged as well before coating.

Bill
Title: Re: First attempt at powder coating.
Post by: 90LX_Notch on May 14, 2019, 12:56:20 AM
I'm tuned in Bill.  Waiting for the next installment.

-Bob
Title: Re: First attempt at powder coating.
Post by: b.lindsey on May 14, 2019, 01:08:54 AM
Thanks Bob, hope it will be worth watching.

Bill
Title: Re: First attempt at powder coating.
Post by: b.lindsey on May 15, 2019, 09:47:15 PM
First attempt done and I am  pleased for the most part. Only had a few minor places that didn't get sufficient coated but for the most part will be hidden by the cylinder lagging, etc. I will be a bit more generous the next time with the powder. Another thing that will help is a more spacious coating booth. Will give that some thought. I was surprised that clean up was quite easy though this would be better done outside weather permitting.

Anyway a few photos.
1. Parts hanging from the oven rack.
2. Parts after coating.
3 Parts in the oven.
4. After cooling and with the masking removed.

Now to reassemble and get it running again.

Bill
Title: Re: First attempt at powder coating.
Post by: Ye-Ole Steam Dude on May 15, 2019, 10:04:15 PM
Hello Bill,

Looks real good. You may have already stated, but what color is that..black? Or a blend? Thanks for sharing this process and please keep us up to date.

Have a great day,
Thomas
Title: Re: First attempt at powder coating.
Post by: b.lindsey on May 15, 2019, 10:09:47 PM
Thomas it is called " mocha metallic". One of the available colors from Eastwood. I think it will look good once reassembled. Thanks for looking in.

Bill
Title: Re: First attempt at powder coating.
Post by: Don1966 on May 16, 2019, 03:13:13 AM
That came out great Bill and love the color scheme! So I guess I can start shipping the stuff I need to get painted to you right since you are now set up....... :lolb:


 :cheers:
Don
Title: Re: First attempt at powder coating.
Post by: Kim on May 16, 2019, 06:11:22 AM
Those look great, Bill!  Doesn't look too horrendously hard.
The color looks very nice too!
Kim
Title: Re: First attempt at powder coating.
Post by: b.lindsey on May 16, 2019, 01:13:02 PM
Thanks guys, it really wasn't and harder than their videos show and it is easy to tell when the powder begins to flow out. As with anything like this the masking off is a bit tedious but no more so than for regular painting.  I am hoping this will be a good durable finish. Will add another picture or two once I have reassembled the engine.

Bill
Title: Re: First attempt at powder coating.
Post by: Vixen on May 16, 2019, 01:25:35 PM
Hello Bill

Powder coating appears to be a tough durable finish and doable in the home shop.

 I understand how you need to bake it on, to melt the powder onto the surface.

What is not so clear to me, is how you apply the powder to the metal in the first place. Do you need some sort of spray gun adapted for powder and do you need electrostatics to attract the powder to the metal? Maybe I missed that part of the explanation somewhere in a previous post

Mike
Title: Re: First attempt at powder coating.
Post by: b.lindsey on May 16, 2019, 02:05:54 PM
Mike, take a look here and especially at the video down towards the bottom of the page. https://www.eastwood.com/hotcoat-powder-coating/powder-coat-guns.html

But to answer your question, yes it is a specialized gun where the parts are grounded and the powder is charged. Surprisingly though it takes very little air pressure 5-10 psi and volume so a small compressor works just fine. I think the video will show the process completely.

Bill
Title: Re: First attempt at powder coating.
Post by: Vixen on May 16, 2019, 02:49:05 PM
Bill

Thanks for the link to the video, it explains everything.

Mike
Title: Re: First attempt at powder coating.
Post by: crueby on May 16, 2019, 02:54:21 PM
Thats a great kit setup, including the oven. Did you get the original or the dual-voltage version of the gun? And the tape they have for masking can stay in place during the baking process?
Title: Re: First attempt at powder coating.
Post by: b.lindsey on May 16, 2019, 03:00:40 PM
Chris, I got the dual voltage just in case. Gives you another option at least for not that much more. Yes the tape did stay in place. I did make one mistake and that was to wipe the parts down one last time after the tape was in place. It worked but next time I will complete the cleaning first and use gloves while installing the masking tape.

Bill
Title: Re: First attempt at powder coating.
Post by: bent on May 16, 2019, 04:05:03 PM
Yup, that will look nice assembled, and even better with white pinstripes (like you said, inverting the original color scheme).  I see how having the parts suspended from the rack makes it easy to shift the powdered parts into the oven.  One thing that might help (?) is to have an easy way to rotate the rack while coating, so you can get to all sides of the parts.  Though lifting the rack and rotating on the cardboard box probably works well enough?  The commercial guys have a lifting eye on the center of the parts racks, so they can be suspended from a hook with a rotation bearing.
Title: Re: First attempt at powder coating.
Post by: Ye-Ole Steam Dude on May 16, 2019, 04:14:01 PM
Hello Bill,

Super nice video, I assumed that the process was much more complicated, thanks for sharing.

Have a great day,
Thomas
Title: Re: First attempt at powder coating.
Post by: b.lindsey on May 16, 2019, 06:13:46 PM
Bent...yes I will come up with something like that before doing much more of this. The ability to rotate would be a huge help and insure better coverage.

Thomas, the process is no more difficult than conventional painting and easier in some ways ( like getting I to tight places without overspraying and the resulting running as with paint). I am still in the learning stage but really pleased thus far.

Just as info, I would guess this project took about 3oz of powder front an 8 oz. bottle of powder.

Bill
Title: Re: First attempt at powder coating.
Post by: 90LX_Notch on May 16, 2019, 09:51:04 PM
That looks good Bill.  Can a matte or flat finish be obtained or is a gloss finish the only option?


-Bob
Title: Re: First attempt at powder coating.
Post by: kvom on May 16, 2019, 09:55:02 PM
Lots of finishes from flat to shiny.  For shiny finish like chrome you need a base coat first.
Title: Re: First attempt at powder coating.
Post by: b.lindsey on May 16, 2019, 10:02:21 PM
Bob, you can see what Eastwood has which is a good basic assortment. I am not yet familiar with other suppliers so maybe someone can add them here. I have gotten a few other colors to have on hand for future projects.

Bill
Title: Re: First attempt at powder coating.
Post by: 90LX_Notch on May 16, 2019, 10:46:09 PM
Bill I checked it out and they do offer flat black and satin.

-Bob
Title: Re: First attempt at powder coating.
Post by: toolznthings on May 17, 2019, 01:08:16 AM
Good looking job on the parts.  :ThumbsUp: Thanks for sharing the process.

Brian
Title: Re: First attempt at powder coating.
Post by: 90LX_Notch on May 17, 2019, 03:11:56 AM
Sorry CHP, but I was referring to Bill's parts from the previous page.  I had my daughter's concert last night and couldn't respond to Bill's pictures yesterday.  I only had time to respond to a question in my build thread.

-Bob
Title: Re: First attempt at powder coating.
Post by: Steamer5 on May 17, 2019, 04:23:41 AM
Hi Bill,
 Now you are getting me excited to get on & have a go with the kit I brought some years ago!

For a spray booth, go to your local washing machine repair outfit, see if you can scrounge up a whole machine, take the back off rip the guts out & throw that lot away! I did this for my both, spray paint the inside, the one I got was just gav, makes the inside smoother to clean up. Cut & fit a top & bottom to give you 5 sides, job done. The other thing I did was put a small Lazy Susan bearing, you know the ones for the rotary table in the center of your table for all the stuff that for meals used at restaurants, I put mine on the outside to fit a piece of something to that with a hook hanging down you can then turn with the part hanging from it.
Now if you want a delux Model, make the timber bit on the top of the bearing a pulley, fit a stepper motor & your rotary table stepper driver & bobs your uncle!  You can also fit up a vacuum cleaner  in take to the bottom of the cabinet to remove the over spray.......& on it goes!
I brought a 2nd hand laboratory oven which gets just hot enough to cure the powder.

Looking forward to more results!

Cheers Kerrin

PS, check out powder coating fishing lures, those guys spray multi colors, they vacuum off colors as they go....
Title: Re: First attempt at powder coating.
Post by: b.lindsey on May 17, 2019, 01:11:46 PM
Thanks for the ideas Kerrin. Had just gotten the appliances in for the new house a couple of weeks back, now I wish I had saves at least one or two of those big boxes :-[

Bill
Title: Re: First attempt at powder coating.
Post by: b.lindsey on May 17, 2019, 04:12:11 PM
I think I found a workable solution.
https://www.eastwood.com/ew-paint-and-powder-coating-stand.html

It folds up for storage, and that arm at the top can be interchanged with the oven rack too. (See the short video in the link).

Not sure I can make anything better for $48.

Bill
Title: Re: First attempt at powder coating.
Post by: crueby on May 17, 2019, 04:36:31 PM
Good looking rack, should work great.


Pretty soon you should have the website up for "Shop Elves Powder Coating"    :Jester:
Title: Re: First attempt at powder coating.
Post by: b.lindsey on May 18, 2019, 12:49:50 AM
Thanks Chris. Looks bear perfect to me and stored easily when not in use. Thinking I can add a little shelf to mount the guns electrical box too.

I did get the engine reassembled today.  Will take some better pictures tomorrow. Still have to do the pinstriping though, but shouldn't require total disassembly again.

Bill
Title: Re: First attempt at powder coating.
Post by: kvom on May 18, 2019, 02:02:59 AM
For coating flat parts, my auto shop buds have a good solution.  They use a clean steel table with the oven rack on it and the part on the rack.  Then when coating, the excess powder sticks to the table.  After the rack is removed, the powder on the table can be re-used.
Title: Re: First attempt at powder coating.
Post by: Admiral_dk on May 18, 2019, 11:20:56 AM
I had mixed emotions about the color when I saw the painted parts - but the whole engine assembled looks fantastic now  :praise2:
Title: Re: First attempt at powder coating.
Post by: b.lindsey on May 18, 2019, 01:46:37 PM
Admiral, its not quite as dark as it looks in that last photo. It is a nice deep mocha color in reality. AS noted will get some better pictures today and may even get around to the pinstriping. It should look better when mounted on its base again too which I was also refinishing.

Bill
Title: Re: First attempt at powder coating.
Post by: Dave Otto on May 18, 2019, 04:29:33 PM
That turned out very nice Bill!

Dave
Title: Re: First attempt at powder coating.
Post by: b.lindsey on May 21, 2019, 02:56:34 PM
Here are a few pictures after remounting the engine on it's base. Still have to get the pinstriping paint but leaning towards a nice tan color rather than pure white.

Bill
Title: Re: First attempt at powder coating.
Post by: Jo on May 21, 2019, 03:12:12 PM
Looks good  :)

Still have to get the pinstriping paint but leaning towards a nice tan color rather than pure white.

How about a gold to complement the brass cladding?

Jo
Title: Re: First attempt at powder coating.
Post by: Ye-Ole Steam Dude on May 21, 2019, 03:40:16 PM
Hello Bill,

Sure looks good after assembly. The color shows well in the last photo in the direct light.

Have a great day,
Thomas
Title: Re: First attempt at powder coating.
Post by: b.lindsey on May 21, 2019, 05:09:18 PM
Jo that is a possibility too.  Thomas, thanks for looking in.

Bill
Title: Re: First attempt at powder coating.
Post by: bent on May 21, 2019, 05:50:31 PM
Hmm, gold pinstriping sounds good too, but it also looks pretty darn good as is.  Does the powder do a good job of covering the cast finish, no tendency to leave the peaks of the finish bare?

Title: Re: First attempt at powder coating.
Post by: b.lindsey on May 21, 2019, 09:20:16 PM
Bent, yes it did a nice job of covering the irregularities of the casting and as I had noted in the original build thread, these castings were pretty rough. I am thinking the electrostatic charge imparted to the powder helps in achieving this coverage. Got into all the little nooks and crannies to. Having now put this thing back together and removed and replaces some screws a few times, I am really pleased with how durable the coating it. Even tightening a screw directly against the finished coating doesn't peel it away as often happens with paint. I am fast becoming a believer in powder coating for model use. Usual disclaimers :)

Bill
Title: Re: First attempt at powder coating.
Post by: b.lindsey on May 24, 2019, 12:54:08 AM
The stand came in yesterday and I put it together today, a simple task. Added two pictures below, one showing it holding one or the oven racks, the other showing the long arm supplied with it for hanging heavier or larger parts. Nicely made and look forward to giving it a try. I have a few things I can try it out on.

Bill
Title: Re: First attempt at powder coating.
Post by: Don1966 on May 24, 2019, 01:35:21 AM
Cool Bill makes life a lot easier don’t it. And hey bud the paint job looks great but the brass ....... :lolb:
Just kidding but she looks great. Don’t see any pin stripping yet!


 :cheers:
Don
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