Let's try economy powder coating at home

[griffindodd]

Economy Home Powder Coating Setup

I'm always looking for ways to increase my skill set and my tool set  so I thought I would have a go at creating an economical powder coating station at home that I could use to PC most common parts found on a cabinet. For me the largest part would be the frame of an over-under coin door.

Dedicated Powdercoating Gear
Powder Coating Gun Kit - $69 - 10-30 PSI Powder Coating System at Harbor Freight
Matt Black Powder Paint - $4.99 - 16 Oz. Powder Coat Paint, Matte Black at Harbor Freight

Stuff you may already have
Donor toaster oven for heating parts - $20 from any Walmart/Target etc


Steel Filing Cabinet 27"x14"18" - $10 I found mine on Craigslist

 
Air compressor of your choice capable of steady 30psi - Already owned


The Oven

The main problem for many people can be the oven, especially if you are doing longer pieces of metal as finding an oven they will fit in can be tricky. If you have the room and a 220v outlet in your garage then you can get hooked up with an old electric full-size oven for next to nothing from Craig's List or Freecycle.org in your area. But if you're limited for space and don't have easy access to 220v then you are stuck with plug-in appliances.

Toaster ovens are great for at-home powder coating if you are doing reasonably small pieces, but if your pieces start getting above 14" or so in length then you are out of luck as they are just too long to get in the small oven. This is the main problem I have been having trying to find an economical way to cure my parts such as the over-under coin door assembly and the metal trim parts that run the width of my cabinets.

- We're going to use the steel filing cabinet as my basic box and try to use the sliders and drawer frames to create a loading/hanging frame for the parts to be suspended by.
- I plan to insulate the area between the loading frame and the outer skin
- Next install all the heating elements and electronics from our donor toaster oven
- Finally make a side opening insulated door with thermometer to hing onto the front of the oven.

[Nephasth]

Why toaster ovens when you can get someone's used kitchen oven off CL for next to nothing?

[BadMouth]

so disappointed not to see a full size range in your backyard. 

[griffindodd]

Neph I covered that in the OP. (reading is fun )

Personally I don't have the space to dedicate to a full size oven so I need something more versatile. The hope is that I can actually turn this unit on it's end and have it be tall and slim, perhaps even wall mount it.

[rablack97]

Baking is fun, i use those little oven to bake solder masks for home made pcb's.....

 

While your at it, make you you tack on Ond's home made flocking technique as well, you might want to add some plushness on this thing on down the line.

FYI, in ---smurfy--- mood, guy on craigslist has a samsung sychmaster 204t for $10.00, bastard sold it while i was driving to get it.....

Oh yeah, looking forward to seeing you powder coat stuff, just wondering, wouln't an old grill on low heat do the same thing as an gas oven, plus it gives you more area space, just rig up a secondary rack....

[griffindodd]

While your at it, make you you tack on Ond's home made flocking technique as well, you might want to add some plushness on this thing on down the line.

FYI, in ---smurfy--- mood, guy on craigslist has a samsung sychmaster 204t for $10.00, bastard sold it while i was driving to get it.....

Oh yeah, looking forward to seeing you powder coat stuff, just wondering, wouln't an old grill on low heat do the same thing as an gas oven, plus it gives you more area space, just rig up a secondary rack....

LOL not familiar with OND's flocking  . Bummer on the monitor that sucks. Yeah you can use anything for a heat source, it's just keeping the temp reasonably stable for 20 mins or so that can be the challenge.

[rablack97]

He flocked the inside of his CP, you know, that fuzzy stuff that feels like felt, dude make his own flocking gun and everything, pretty interesting.

BS griff too many words and not enough photos....

[griffindodd]

BS griff too many words and not enough photos....

Yeah gotta wait for the kit to arrive, I could post a pic of the powder gun box sitting on my garage floor, that's pretty exciting.

[rablack97]

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,88912.640.html

Towards the bottom, kinda cool...

[griffindodd]

Lol, there's something very wrong with that man, he has the patience and focus of a serial killer. 

[Nephasth]

Got a feeling this is going to turn into another one of those electrolysis experiments...

[griffindodd]

Got a feeling this is going to turn into another one of those electrolysis experiments...

A logical assumption

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[rablack97]

Got a feeling this is going to turn into another one of those electrolysis experiments...

Leave the man alone, you might learn something....

Read my profile quotes............

I'm sure skeptics said the same thing to the caveman that put round stones on his cart instead of the square one.  Oh there's carl again putting those odd shaped stones on his cart again...

Is there a thread for skeptic timeout?

[Nephasth]

Got a feeling this is going to turn into another one of those electrolysis experiments...

Leave the man alone, you might learn something....

I learn from other people's mistakes whenever I can.

But I'd love to be proven wrong in this case.

[yotsuya]

I didn't know there were cavemen named Carl? 

[yotsuya]

Griff, I'm curious. How do you plan to join the two units?

[griffindodd]

Griff, I'm curious. How do you plan to join the two units?

Mostly with spells and some fishing twine

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[griffindodd]

Don't worry about Neph RaBlack



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[yotsuya]

Griff, I'm curious. How do you plan to join the two units?

Mostly with spells and some fishing twine

You're gonna need a bigger boat.

[Nephasth]

Let's hope they do in this case...

[PL1]

Griff, I'm curious. How do you plan to join the two units?

Given that he deliberately searched out a toaster oven model with controls below the door, he'll probably:

1. Cut a hole in the right side of one just above the lower sliding rack support
2. Cut a hole in the left side of the other
3. Push them together to create a single heating chamber
4. ? ? ?
5. Profit   


Scott

[yotsuya]

Griff, I'm curious. How do you plan to join the two units?

Given that he deliberately searched out a toaster oven model with controls below the door, he'll probably:

1. Cut a hole in the right side of one just above the lower sliding rack support
2. Cut a hole in the left side of the other
3. Push them together to create a single heating chamber
4. ? ? ?
5. Profit   


Scott

I get THAT. It's the ? ? ? that I am curious about.

[PL1]

I get THAT. It's the ? ? ? that I am curious about.

That is where after preheating, you open the doors, thread the long powder coated piece through the hole (the trickiest part), and hang it from some hooks to bake.

It will be easier to use if the hole extends all the way through the front edge, leaving a C-shaped side, with a metal flap added to cover the gap between the doors.


Scott

[griffindodd]

leaving a C-shaped side, with a metal flap added to cover the gap between the doors.

And this is why Scott wins all the internetz points, this is exactly what I plan to do.

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[yotsuya]

No, I GET all that. I can visualize that. Scott can keep the Internet points. I'm just curious how YOU plan to do it. Wishes and twine are cheap, but I figure you would go one better.

I tell you what, I'll just shut up and wait for you to post the photos of the final results.

[griffindodd]

No, I GET all that. I can visualize that. Scott can keep the Internet points. I'm just curious how YOU plan to do it. Wishes and twine are cheap, but I figure you would go one better.

I tell you what, I'll just shut up and wait for you to post the photos of the final results.

Lol. I'll have to wait until the ovens arrive and then assess the options. I think I will split the casing sides horizontally and then bend them up/down to form a bridge top and bottom. Maybe rivet them and aluminum heat tape to seal. Then I'll have to fabricate a back to the chamber and something to bridge the front two doors to make one.

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[jennifer]

   Jennifer pokes her nose in here all curious... Im just going to grab a cookie, and take a chair in the back.

[yaksplat]

I'll vote for an oven chamber built from the two toasters that has a conveyor belt built in.

Now wouldn't that be interesting?

[griffindodd]

I'll vote for an oven chamber built from the two toasters that has a conveyor belt built in.
Now wouldn't that be interesting?

It would be great, but you need flow out time before curing which seems to be better done at a slightly lower temperature than curing temp from what I have managed to learn so far. Typically about 5 mins of flow out at about 300 degrees f follwed by about 20 mins of cure at 350-400 f. Obviously different situations and applications require different approaches, especially when you start getting into dual stage coatings etc.

[Drnick]

@ Yaksplat, that sounds like one of these

http://www.cateringplus.co.uk/pimg/product/640x640/1736401_l.jpg

There you are at Breakfast, out comes Toast, Toast, Toast, Powder Coated Box Part, Crumpet, Muffin, Powder Coated box Lid

[PL1]

The ovens are 1500W = 120V * 12.5 Amps each.

Are you planning to run them off two separate circuit breaker feeds?


Scott

[spoot]

1. Cool, didn't know powder coating could be done at residential oven temps
2.
3. Wonders where my cookie went

[jennifer]

 Jennifer wipes some cookie crumbs off her lap.... Well first off,  The temps on those toasters are not even, cook a pizza in there and you will see what I mean, half of it is burnt and half of it is still cold...So may I suggest a circulation fan (High temp for obvious reasons) probably with a filter, and a temp gauge...Cause when this thing goes, your going to want some kind of reference point to keep the powder within its specs,@ an even temp...Edit, But not something to big as where you blow the powder off the object.

[griffindodd]

The ovens are 1500W = 120V * 12.5 Amps each.
Are you planning to run them off two separate circuit breaker feeds?

Yep this is a concern that I'll have to look at, who knows maybe if I use a circulation fan I can get away with using just one element, or I wonder if there is a way to wire them in series to disperse the watts/amps between the two and stay at 12.5A

[selfie]

While we are talking ovens...

We blow moulded some dome windows for a mate's 70s era show van in a BBQ

[yotsuya]

Please tell me there is fuzzy carpet or wood paneling in the inside of your mate's van!

[rablack97]

See told you BBQ GRILL!!!!!

Yes dammit, there a Carl back in the stone ages.....

LOL, griff is going to make a portable convection oven...........

Spells and twine ay?  Loving the ingenuity....

[PL1]

See told you BBQ GRILL!!!!!

Hmmm . . . I wonder how well something like this would work:

- Steel 55 gallon drum like this turned upside down -- Check CL, there are some used ones here in Omaha for only $5!   

- Propane burner from grill in bottom, fuel fed thru the smaller bunghole (cue Beavis and Butthead chuckling) and air from a hairdryer/fan/metal hose through the larger one for a circulation fan/oxygen supply
- Layer of lava rocks/bricks to block flames from touching work pieces
- Large door cut in the side w. hinges/latch
- Outer frame with several inches of high-temp insulation on all sides
- Thermometer
- Variety of hooks to hang work pieces
- Wheeled base for portability so you can fire it up outside and not burn down your house.   


Scott

[rablack97]

The minds are working.........

Your gonna have yourself a real nice moonshine steel that doubles as a powder coat convection oven in your backyard for ya know it Griff....



Yes sir....real LAWLESS like

[Ond]

Lol, there's something very wrong with that man, he has the patience and focus of a serial killer. 

Why does there have to be something wrong with someone to have patience and focus?
I may not be as verbose as some (you won’t see my post count climb above 1000 for quite some time) but I watch this forum like a hawk.  I watch it for signs of creative genius, great art, innovation and insight from other members. Every now and then someone comes along who surprises me along those lines. It’s one of the best things about the forum for me anyway.  You joined quite some time after Pixelhugger was working on his epic cab project, but your statement about patience and focus on the forum made me think of this.  The man building a vacuum pump to shape parts for his project.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,13118.msg1098680.html#msg1098680

The other day I attended an art exhibition by a guy named Thomas Demand, this guy creates amazing full size dioramas out of nothing more than sheets of paper.  Nothing to do with arcade building I know but everything to do with patience and focus.

This is one of his works, made from 900,000 sheets of cardboard in layers only.  He builds these dioramas’, photographs them and then destroys the original construction.


 
It sure put my thinking into perspective, I stood looking at these images of his incredible works and thought “wow, so much for any patience I might have compared to this guy ”.  It's all relative Griff, some people dream big.