I ordered an Eastwood powder coating gun today. My question concerns the oven. I will get an old dedicated garage oven for curing the powder. But, would a smaller toaster oven work too for smaller parts ? I figured this would save heating the big oven up all the time for little brackets and pulleys and the like. Second, can I powdercoat something in stages assuming I masked it properly ? Say for example, do the back of a wheel, then after it's cured and cool, shoot the front and bake it again to cure the front. Thank you, Kevin
I use a pretty good size toaster oven, that I bought at the local Restore for $15.00, for small parts and it works great! I'm not an expert , by any stretch, but I think that biggest problem in stages would be the masking.
I got the craftsaman setup and bought a used $20 full size electric oven of craigslist. I wait to do a whole batch so the toaster oven was out of the question for me. I have done coating in stages though, and black and clear seem to come out fine, but when using the colors or the chrome ( with or without clear over it) they sometimes tend to "mismatch" in color, although it is very slightly. Probably has something to do with the thickness of application or technique, but none the less it is noticeable.
Instead of masking parts, I use the foam tipped 'paint brushes' that you find and the local home center and dip them in water to remove powder from the areas I don't want covered. For instance, you can coat and bake a finned valve cover with one step chrome and after it has cooled, powder it with black, use the brushes to clean the fins and expose the chrome powder. Hope that made sense.
You guys should post pictures of some of your stuff. The toaster oven thing sounds great to me. Since heating elements come in all shapes and sizes I've wondered if anyone has played around with home built ovens for larger items.
A buddy of mine got an old chemical storage cabinet and insulated the inside -- it works great. I forget what type of heating elements he used. PM me if you want more details and I can put you in touch w/ him.
if you google "home made powder coating ovens" you get several links to people who have built their own ovens of varying sizes and power, some even give vendors and part numbers.
several powder coat forums have this same topic, and more we have an industrial oven, so not much help on building a home unit. powderbuythepound.com eastwood forum powdercoatingonline.com all great resources!
I was just woundering,what tempeture is needed for doing powder coating? I have a big oven for my composite work, and was thinking of maybe doing some stuff.
Most powders cure between 3-400'F Lower tempeture= more time Also cure temps are the part piece temp, not the oven temp. Need powder coating? Call me 262 573 4511 SE Wisconsin
Hi, I bought the Craftsman setup on sale and I picked up a toaster oven at the church white elephant sale for 5 bucks. It works great for brackets and pulleys and such. The kit I have suggests using 400 degrees as the "cooking" temperature. Rick
the powders from eastwood say to bake at 425 or 450 deg. (I can't remember which right now) untill the powder melts and flows out, then bake at 400 deg. for 15 min.
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