A couple of little projects

[Loyd]

In between working on some reels I took a break and piddled on a couple things. A friend of mine owns a gun shop and I thought I would take them and display them in his gun shop. The dog pic was from this forum and the other from Jason.
Loyd

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[AnotherDano]

Fine looking work, Loyd.

What is the finish on the second piece?

[Loyd]

Rattle can from walmart. Rustoleum textured finish. I delivered them today and everyone likes that finish.
Loyd

[AnotherDano]

Rattle can from walmart. Rustoleum textured finish. I delivered them today and everyone likes that finish.
Loyd

I have a small (residential oven) powder coating setup for my pieces. It limits what I can do but I'm not ready for the bigger stuff right now.

I use a LOT of the hammered-look powders - in that business they're called 'vein', like in a mine. The texture is wonderful for making small defects disappear, like those little dimples at the end of a lead-in.

Most of them come with a recommendation to add a clear coat. That works out great for sharp points like deer antlers. I worry about small hands that are always being rubbed over anything shiny.

Lookin' good, my friend!

Dano

[Loyd]

Thank you. I'll be glad when I have time to get my powder coating operation going. I was a plant manager at two different plants for 10 years. We built from scratch at the first plant a 1000' fully automatic powder coating line. It had 8 autos with 2 manual guns. I custom designed the line using ideas from several other plants that I toured. We got a quote from Nordson for a complete line which was 1.2 million dollars. We built a 27' long stainless booth that would handle our largest part which was 6' in diameter by 24" deep. We had a conventional oven with two banks of infrareds just inside the entrance. It would run aluminum parts @ 26 fpm and steel @ 12fpm.
Color change could be done by one person in 20 minutes. This was at a satellite antenna factory.
The second line I made was 375' long almost entirely by myself. Two of my daughters rebuilt the infrared oven panels, there were twenty panels that were 2'x5'. It was a manual booth with one gun the oven system was such that I could move the burners in and out to accommadate narrow or wide parts. we could paint parts the size of a small car on down. That was at a treestand (for hunting) factory.
Anyway....I was proud of both of the systems. As you can probably tell......
I have the metal and burners and a powder gun to build my own personal oven. I intend to make it large enough to do motorcyle frames. Mother nature has given me more work to do as my shed roof off my shop collapsed under 12" of snow. We are NOT used to that much snow at once....oh well.
Enough.....I am not an expert on powder coating but I have been around the block and offer any assistance if you need it.
We used around 120,000 pounds of powder a year at the antenna factory.
Loyd

[wl5044]

you must live near me as i found myself propping my shop roof up from the snow. what temp do you need to do powder coating

[AnotherDano]

you must live near me as i found myself propping my shop roof up from the snow. what temp do you need to do powder coating

The powders I use range from 340 to 400 degrees. Curing time is between 10-15 minuts at PMT; Part metal temp.
It desn't matter what the oven thermometer says, it's the temperature of the part that is the factor. I use a digital infrared heat sensor ($30.00). As soon as the part gets to the required temp, I set a timer and wait for the beep.

Take the part out of the oven, let it cool. After about 10-15 minutes, it's ready for bagging and sale!

[Loyd]

I live in North Central Arkansas. My temps and time were basically the same as Dano's.
Loyd