Powder coating oven was worth the wait

Metal Shop
#1

I took the class on Tuesday (great class for those folks that haven’t taken it yet) and powder coated today.

I powder coated 20 small parts and brackets for a 1953 Chevy pickup that I’m restoring. Pretty much everything went exactly like the class and 98% of my parts look amazing in gloss black (brought my own Eastwood powder). The 2% that don’t look amazing likely had to do with the ground that they had, the material (aluminum) and the wire that held them to the rack. Luckily they are not even visible on the truck and I powder coated them rather than rattle can them.

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Two things - 1) on Tuesday there was a can of Acetone handy to wipe of the parts, today it was no where to be found. Again, lucky for me I had wiped them off at home with acetone. 2) we seem to be out of the Swifter wipes to clean the cabinet (I think I used the last one). I then finished up with the water spray bottle and a clean shop rag that I had brought with me.

I love this oven and cabinet. We all waited a long time for this and it turns out that it was worth the wait!

PS. I made a paper sign that says that the oven is in use, don’t touch. Given how long it takes to heat, then cure the parts, then cool down, I wanted a sign to prevent someone from messing with it while I went to the restroom, the pantry, etc. When I was done I just turned it around and used a piece of magnet to hold it on the cabinet.

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#2

Looks Awesome! The Acetone was mine but it is a hazardous material and there is no place to store it properly around the powder coat area so I bring it and take it home. I thought there was a new box of wipes in the cabinet but I’ll check to be sure. Thanks for the heads up. A metal “In Use” sign might be useful. Good idea!

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#3

Part cleaning

I’ve had good luck with Zep purple degreaser (purple for petroleum, orange for organic fats) from Home Depot. Not as much trouble as solvents and seems every bit as effective. I usually wash with Dawn dish washing detergent first, though.

Booth Cleaning

I use the squegee to get most of the material off and then a damp terrycloth towel to get the rest.

Maybe we should stencil and powdercoat a sign :wink: as a project

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#4

Sounds like a great plan. We’ll need some additional magnets too. The small shards of magnet on the oven side barely held up my paper version…LOL

#5

Next week I have an oil pan (already de-greased and sand blasted) and a bell housing to do. Photos to follow.

#6

I have some maybe-too-stout hard drive positioner magnets. Failing that, https://www.kjmagnetics.com are great. I bought some plastic coated magnets with two countersunk screw holes to hold my tailgate ladder in place.

#7

I use purple and orange degreaser at home, learned that purple will take anodizing off aluminum bike parts. I don’t know if it was brand specific or the coating on the parts but to be safe I only use orange on aluminum parts.

Purple is for greasy chains, I use hot wax on my bike chains now so to clean them and remove wax you just boil a few minutes.

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#8

This conversation seems like it needs to be captured. I started a Source page:

https://source.dallasmakerspace.org/display/METAL/Powder+Coat+Booth+and+Oven

Very incomplete.

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