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What type of powder coat system do you use?

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svtmikey

svtmikey

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I am looking for a powder coat system, and was wondering what types have been used by the members here.
There seems to be a lot of different types out there from many different places like Northern Tool, Harbor Freight, Eastwood, Summit Racing and just about everyone else!!!
Anyone have any recommendations?

Thanks muchly!!

Mikey
 
I have the HF setup, based on advice from Fred Thomas (who said he liked it better overall than the Eastwood setup).

But I don't have enough experience with it to really say either way. Based on my very limited use, I'm tempted to try to turn the voltage up, in hopes of getting the powder more strongly attracted to the part.
 
Randall,

Thanks for the input.
So the HF system works pretty good eh!
Any downsides to it that you see.....has it be reliable?

Mikey
 
TR3driver said:
I'm tempted to try to turn the voltage up
Click to expand...

I recently upgraded to my new 1500 KV, powder coat, super collider power supply.

I don't even need a bake cycle! :banana:

tesla50.jpg
 
TR3driver said:
I have the HF setup, based on advice from Fred Thomas <span style="color: #FF0000"><span style="font-weight: bold">(who said he liked it better overall than the Eastwood setup).</span>
</span>
Click to expand...

Why? Did he say?
 
Sorry, Paul. I'm sure Fred told me why he liked the HF better, but I don't recall what he said. At the time, he was doing a lot of PC work, even had a separate shop setup for it, so I just took his word for it. On Team.Net, Fred is the undisputed king of PC.

Running a PC gun is a strange experience for me, it's a lot different than normal paint. The gun basically emits a cloud of powder, that you hope sticks to your part, but at least for me, most of it doesn't. I'm sure that eventually it will seem familiar, but I haven't done enough to reach that point. I also have a hard time remembering to keep the tip far enough away from the part to avoid shorting out the power supply.

I've only used it 2 or 3 times, but so far the HF unit has worked every time.

One other thing, the gun wants very low pressure air (4-6 psi as I recall). To avoid having to reset my shop air regulator every time, I used a separate regulator in the line to the PC gun; plus a disposable paper element water filter after the second regulator.
 
I have both the EW basic gun and what they called their "PRO" gun that they no longer sell. The basic gun is about the same as the HF gun, whichever is cheaper today will do the job.
 
Can a static charge setup be used with powder coat? You know, pos and neg from gun to part? If it could and would work, it would probably save a lot of the powder. Isn't this process used commercially? PJ
 
AFAIK, all the PC systems use static charge to get the powder to cling to the part. Typically the part is grounded, and the gun imparts a negative charge to the PC particles.

But the voltage used and means of propelling the powder from gun to part vary. The low cost hobbyist guns all seem to use a relatively low voltage (under 20kv) and low pressure air to move the powder, but apparently some professional models use considerably higher voltage (100kv) and ionize the air to move the powder.
Eg, https://www.redlineltd.com/alphaportable.htm
 
Wow, at $849.00 it's a nice setup, but kinda pricey. Need to do some commercial work to pay for it, but for someone who enjoys it, it'd be a good investment.
 
I have a guy up the road. Cost a little more but the garage stays cleaner
 
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