I've seen this thread http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/viewthread.php?tid=74872&page=2 but it doesn't tell me much!
I saw the DIY Powder coating guy at Stoneleigh and I was impressed. I do have a place that can do powder coating for me at a very good price but
it's a long drive to get there. And I have to do it twice.....
I'm thinking £99 isn't out of the way for a complete set-up and I could charge my chums a few quid to do little things for them. But what
bothers me, is the guy at Stoneleigh siad that you have to use an etch primer first on aluminium, and prime steel if it's to be used outside. I
asked specifically about alloy wheels and he confirmed that they have to be etch primed first.
So, what's the difference between the DIY stuff and the comercial stuff? None of my wheels that I've just had done were primed first.
Anyone actually used the DIY stuff
Cheers in advance, Owelly.
I used to work for a company that manufactured and powder coated water and gas valves for the water and gas companys.The valves were cast iron and
were heavily shot blasted before coating but were not primed at all, if not done correctly and coated immediately after blasting it tended to flake
off.I would think that if you could shot blast the items then it would work, but if not would just peel from ally.
Paul.
I'm sure we did this in high school, big box of black powder with a blower in the bottom. Then we dipped in heated metal parts and it can out all
coated and really smart, so easy. I did a dolphin key fob
I am going to be coating my own ali panels using my electrostatic magic kit and know about that advice to etch prime the panels. The way i see it,
aluminium wheels are getting blasted to clean them which provides a key for the powdercoating to adhere to. You probably dont want to be blasting the
high quality finish of your aluminium panels to get a key for the powdercoat to adhere to, so the etch primer just provides you with the key that you
need.
Put standard paint onto an unkeyed aluminium panel and it will just flake off after a while - so you would use an etch primer. Its no different with
powdercoat so i wouldnt worry about what happened with ali wheels, which are being prepared totally differently to give that key required to allow the
coating to stick after all.
I have known powdercoaters who will happily do what you say and just powdercoat an ali panel without etch priming. I also know of a company locally
that will insist on etch priming ali sheet before coating to ensure a long lasting finish and have seen then turn someone away who wanted to be really
cheap and skip the primer step
[Edited on 15/5/08 by Paul TigerB6]
^ If they offer any sort of guarantee on their work I'm sure they will insist
Mr Whippy - I did the same with a hacksaw! CDT lessosns - don't you just love 'em!
Yeah, i did a hacksaw!!
- Our teacher had made his own blower from a vacum cleaner, but i had been comdemed by H&S so we just had a catering sized baked bean tin and
shook it a bit while stuffing the hot metal into it.
However im not sure how this compaired to whats been talked about. I dont thing you can dip a hot chassis into a fluidbath of power to coat it!
However i sort of wonder why by the time you;ve cleaned and primed it you just dont paint or wetspray it with twopack polyurethene or somthing.
Daniel
quote:
Originally posted by Mr Whippy
^ If they offer any sort of guarantee on their work I'm sure they will insist
220 grit sanding will give it plenty to stick to. It's not getting the powder to stay that's the problem, it's the heating up to 400 f afterwards. It can't be done with a heat gun (tried that) because as you heat one section, the one next to it gets a rough surface on it that won't melt away. I used a BBQ to do small pieces that turned out OK, but for big ones, it really didn't work. You need even heat, and quite a bit of it. This is the major problem with the DIY setup.
I use to make small (2ft cubed) furnaces at home for odd jobs, simply out of stacked fire bricks with a steel lid on top again covered with more bricks. It was quite amazing just how hot it could get inside just with a propane burner. I'm sure something similar could be done for this.
My mate bought one of those several months ago - exactly the same one as at Stonleigh, it works really good for him had no problems and getting a
really good finish - he's getting a large list of parts from me he's going to have to do!! But he also bought a small shot blaster which he
cleans up all the parts with first but he definatly reccomends it!!