Our Eastwood kit included...
Our Eastwood kit included the powdercoating gun and everything else necessary to get started, including hanging wire, plugs, high-temp masking tape, and several powder options.
The powdercoating process is relatively easy to perform, and the tools required are easy on the wallet. Yes, professional powdercoating shops have a lot of expensive industrial equipment-such as an oven large enough to fit your race car chassis-but by using a smaller household oven and sticking to smaller parts, you can easily do most of your powdercoating yourself.
One of the most popular options for do-it-yourselfers is Eastwood's HotCoat powdercoating system. To get you going as painlessly as possible, Eastwood offers what it calls the Elite HotCoat kit, which not only includes the powdercoating gun, but also just about everything else you need to get to work. The components are invaluable for getting quality results. They include the following: four bottles of standard powder colors, extra empty bottles and lids to facilitate easy color changes, high-temp masking tape, silicone high-temp plugs, a spool of stainless steel wire for hanging parts, and the Beginning Powder Coater's Handbook, among other things. The only thing you need to supply is clean compressed air (you need a steady flow at approximately 10-15 psi) and an oven for curing the powder.
We tested Eastwood's system with a medium-sized toaster oven that we scored at Wal-Mart for less than $50, and the results were quite good. The book included in the kit is quite helpful as it guides you through the entire process, from prepping the parts to cleaning your gun to get the best results. However, you need to use an oven that won't be used for preparing food anytime in the future. As some powders fluidize, they can sometimes release mildly toxic fumes. They aren't a danger to you in the normal powdercoating process, but you don't want to eat any food cooked in that oven.
The first step is to completely...
The first step is to completely clean and strip the piece you will be coating. For complex shapes that create impossible-to-reach areas for a sander, a small media blaster such as this unit from Craftsman works quite well. Just don't blast the metal too hard. Etching will show through the powder.
Oils and other contaminants...
Oils and other contaminants that remain on the part will show through the powder as dark spots. Eastwood offers a product called "Pre Painting Prep," which effectively removes grease, oils, and other contaminants from the metal's surface. Just spray it on liberally and wipe. Of course, from this step forward you should be wearing latex or nitrile gloves to keep from contaminating the piece with the oils from your skin.
The valve covers I wanted...
The valve covers I wanted to coat didn't fit into the toaster oven (they will wait until I score a used oven), so I used several small parts from a Pure Stock engine for testing. Here, one-coat gloss red is being applied to a pulley.
Here's the part ready to be...
Here's the part ready to be cooked. Note the silicone plugs used to keep powder out of the bolt holes. One useful trick is to use aluminum foil as a mask to keep powder out of the belt groove.
The gray powder on this fan...
The gray powder on this fan spacer is actually a one-coat chrome.
The finished products turned...
The finished products turned out surprisingly well for a first-timer. Although the Elite HotCoat kit from Eastwood can be had for less than $200, the results are very professional in both appearance and quality.
Crosslink Powder Coating - 704/660-1864
www.crosslinkpowdercoatnc.com
Eastwood - 800/343-9353
www.eastwood.com