Wanted: Powder Coat Oven and Gun Tutorial

We have a small regulator some where at the space that we can use. The wiring has to be redone into the larger enclosure. Also we want to add a fan. Ideally a convection oven fan would do the job.

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If the powder coating will work on copper and if it is something tha
can be done safely by someone with vision issue, I would love to
'learn how to do it

I need to learn new things

I have an enclosure that will work as a new control box. I just completed a scratch build oven that can accommodate a 3’x3’x5’ piece so I pretty much have the wiring down. I did mine a little differently but very happy with the outcome. There are a few things that I think should be changed in the wiring at the Makerspace.
Copper can be powder coated. In fact, I think any ferrous metal can be coated and there are tricks to even coat glass. Eastwood has videos of the process. It is amazingly simple. Worst part is keeping everything really clean and not touching anything oven hot!

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I would like to learn how to powder coat and I am willing to help in anyway that I can to get this equipment up and running.

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We love volunteers! Chuck Graf @dallasmagna is the point of contact for that equipment, and it is far easier to catch him at DMS personally than on here. Tell him your plan and get the OK to start working on it. I’m sure he’d appreciate someone getting this into usable shape! Don’t forget to give some train-the-trainer classes so that we can get classes started, even if you don’t want to be the person giving them.

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A couple of relevant threads, in roughly chronological order:

https://talk.dallasmakerspace.org/t/powder-coating-at-the-space/1752

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just for general info, this mentions metals are easily powdercoated as they can be electrostatically charged, which is the heart of powdercoating. However, things which can withstand the temperatures (~400F) can be done even if they can’t be elctrostatically charged by preheating.

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I’ve spoken to Chuck G. and he has the powdercoating oven on his list. Once it’s up and running, I’ll be able to put on some classes, tools & supplies suggestions, and etc.

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I would also like to learn how to Powder coat

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I have something that I’d like to be powder coated (if brass can be powder coated).

This says it can.
Dunno if there are any tricks…

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Subscribed. I am interested in the powder coating!

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just FYI Chuck has started work on the controller rebuild. It’s coming along but I’d give him a week or two of peace and quiet. Barring any other issues with the system the time frame is “soon”… but not necessarily. Bottom line is that something is being done.

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Any updates? :plasmacam_smiley:

Chuck is still working on the control box. It is mostly done and I think just needs to be mounted and wired in. I think Chuck wanted to add a circulation fan so that might be the holdup. Through a series of horrible misunderstandings, Eastwood shipped me two dual voltage powder coat guns… I have tried in the past to do the right thing and return the unintended freebie and for reasons no one can explain, returning a mis-shipped extra is nearly impossible to do. That being the case, I have donated the extra to the space. Chuck has that and is guarding it. The dual voltage is a nice thing to have for difficult items or for double coating. The Eastwood has its own quarks but is at least comparable to the Harbor freight and in some ways easier to use. So there is movement, but not sure of a completion date. Just FYI.

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I would be interested in a powder coating class

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I primarily use that exact gun (eastwood dual voltage) for my stainless steel cups and do the job just fine. But when it does automotive wheel it has issues. We also need a good ground, like the one the cnc plasma cutter has.

When I Powdercoat, my parts are always grounded to the floor and not back to the eastwood device.

Found this searching around https://toemat.com/powder-coating/, thoughts?

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@dallasmagna is one of the SME. We also have a newer powder coating gun that was donated.

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I would be interested in a class on this also. I have no experience with it but willing to learn and help out in any way I can if we can get all this together