Recommendations for Powder Coating

[borris]

Hello All:

We have a small farm shop where we manufacture CNC Signs and Misc. small parts usually Agricultural or Lawn and Garden related. Recently installed a 5 x 7 x 3 walk in paint booth which is equipped for wet spray or powder coat. Looking to move from wet spray paint to powder coat. Need some recommendations on best powder oven which we are thinking 4' x 4' x 6'. We have single phase 240V 50 Amp circuits available. Also recommendations on a smaller scale powder coat gun. We need something that is easy to use and change colors without spending the day cleaning the gun. Also, we many only do one or two parts per week with the rest of the shop time on repairing or maintaining our own farm equipment. Any help or recommendations appreciated.

[AREA]

I do powder coating on a very small scale for myself and have an older small industrial oven approx. 3'x3'x4' interior I picked up at an auction. I am not familiar with any of the actual powder coat ovens, haven't even looked as I know they are our of my budget. One thing I will say is that if you are only doing one or two parts a week I would get an oven that is no bigger than you need because it takes time to heat these up and its the bigger it is the longer it takes and the more energy wasted. I am glad mine is small.
I use the Eastwood powder coat single voltage gun which is very basic and not for professional day long use but it works fantastic for me and is cheap enough that I have 2 of them. One I keep satin black in all the time which is what I spray 90% of the time and the second one is for any other color I want to spray but usually has gloss white in it most of the time. Cleaning is pretty quick anyway, just blow it out with air but this is what I do and it works great. I can get better results than most of the parts I have had "professionally" done in the past and i sandblast everything before coating for a ultra durable finish.

[acourtjester]

There are many Videos on YouTube showing building your own oven, I built a small one it is not that hard to do. The parts needed are easy to find on eBay. Here is an interesting gun with a fair price. https://www.columbiacoatings.com/KKQS-01.aspx
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNV8F5v13Vc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7lps1KZ9i4&t=1230s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SL-JKQILyM

[AREA]

Great videos, thanks Tom

[Miaamelia]

There are many Videos on YouTube showing building your own oven, I built a small one it is not that hard to do. The parts needed are easy to find on eBay. Here is an interesting gun with a fair price. https://www.columbiacoatings.com/KKQS-01.aspx

Hello. Did you have a frame powder coated in Plymouth? I see Hadley Powder Coatings advertised and wondering what quality of work they turn out and prices etc. Any general preparation tips would be appreciated, seems that some want you to mask everything and others nothing, never had one done before.

[adbuch]

There are many Videos on YouTube showing building your own oven, I built a small one it is not that hard to do. The parts needed are easy to find on eBay. Here is an interesting gun with a fair price. https://www.columbiacoatings.com/KKQS-01.aspx

Tom - thanks for posting those videos. I am still in the planning stage for my power coat setup, and am always looking for more ideas along my journey.
David

[34by151]

Id recommend looking at an alternative to electric elements

You cant have too small a heater but you will find you are very limited with electric elements
Regardless of the oven size you want to get your parts to temp as quickly as possible

I have 3 phase 415v with 65amps per phase and I switched to a dual stage diesel heater

My small oven 2x2x2 is powered with 3 2500w elements
My bigger oven 8x4x4 was powered with Propane GAS heater (40kw)
Replaced it with a with 2 stage diesel heater (Riello 40) 120Kw max

The propane "turbo" heater needs a large vent on the oven otherwise you are blocking the heater airflow
This slows down you heat up time
The propane unit got the oven to temp in 18mins (empty)

The advantage of the 2 stage diesel heater is it works as a heat exchanger
So the the air in the oven is in a closed loop moving from the heater to the oven and back to the heater
This allows me to have a very small vent

Most of the parts I coat are 10-16mm thick
The diesel heater gets the oven up to temp in 3-5mins (full) and 2 min empty

[J-SIG]

I have a old 250 gallon fuel oil barrel we made into a oven that uses 2 oven burners and is insulated with 1" high-temp Insulation!
Takes about 30-45 minutes to get to temp but only about 1-2 to return to 400deg F after putting parts in! Total cost was less than $125 not including the 20ga door I cut and powder coated "Rally Blue" as 1st part in the oven! Hinges and latch were made with scraps in the shop!
I can powder coat parts from less than 1 sq inch up to 3' x 5.5' ! With the 3 row rack I've done as many as 52 parts at a time in multiple colors! The barrel was free and the oven burners were free from a local appliance dealer (ovens take up to much space so it sometimes cost them to dispose of them, we got 4 for nothing! I purchased the 2 controls w/couplers on Amazon for $40 and the High-Temp Insulation was from McMaster-Carr for $70
I use a "Turkey pot" thermometer at the top to check temp, about 3.5' above burners!
The cart that holds the rack was from a friend that brought a steel Bunkbed frame over to through in my scrap pile! Casters off a old microwave table!
The rack was supposed to be temporary to see if oven worked then make a better one! That was 4.5 years ago!
Feel free to ask more! I have a little more about the rack and pics in my post here-- viewtopic.php?f=6&t=34964

Thanks!
Jeff

[plasmanewbie]

Great oven idea Jeff, well done.