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Basicly it needs to be tore down to get ALL the powder out of it...

The powder is ultra fine... When you spray it will fog and drift away in the wind, so wear a dust mask.

The electrode in the gun will maintain some attraction. So you unscrew the front and remove a cone. THen need to blow out the inside of the tube. Also the holder/hopper...

You will see when you get into it ;)

what needs to be done when cleaning out the gun?

Oh ya...

It doest pay to just do one or two little parts...

If you can do a large batch each time.

Providing you prep it by sandblasting and follow the cure directions you should be fine, dont worry about it.

Cleaning the gun out takes a good 15-20 minutes. Probably longer your first time...

Yeah I think Ryan about covered it. Nothing else really comes to mind.

If you do need some stuff done, and you don't want to do it yourself let me knw. I have a good friend that ownes a powder coating shop. So I can get you in touch with him if you need.

Powder coating works wonders for grill inserts. Thats how I finished the grill on the S10, and it still looked new after 3+ years.

cool thanks Ryan!

We got an old oven too, that's why I've been wanting to do this.

Never even thought about doing bike parts. Maybe I should take some parts off the ol XR and see how they turn out too.

Yeah.... what he said^^^ I was just thinking maybe it would be like painting and maybe you could take a short cut and not have to sand blast it.

But, i guess i just shouldnt of said it cause all the things i have seen powder coated were all sand blasted prior :attitude

Actualy I have done some powder coating. Well actualy a few of us around here have.

I powder coated numerous pieces on my motorcycle, all black:
[img]http://caraudiocentral.net/ryan/images/bike/bike1.jpg[/img]
[img]http://caraudiocentral.net/ryan/images/bike/bike2.jpg[/img]
[img]http://caraudiocentral.net/ryan/images/bike/bike3.jpg[/img]
[img]http://caraudiocentral.net/ryan/images/bike/bike4.jpg[/img]
[img]http://caraudiocentral.net/ryan/images/bike/bike5.jpg[/img]

My Uncle did the jugs (cylinders) of his 86 Harley in Gold Vein. Its a black wrinle coat like- but where the wrinkles are its gold! Pretty cool!

My Dad, well he did his 4 rims on his 69 Camaro. Just a plain grey, but they came out really good.

[url]http://www.eastwoodco.com/jump.jsp?itemID=845&itemType=CATEGORY[/url]

All the Powders we use come from there.

Metal prep is a huge thing. We Sandblast as its available to us, its easy and it takes off everything. If your surfaces have any gouges, etc. you want to sand them smooth to hide them. Your surfaces must be dry, clean to the metal and grease/oil free.

Make sure you ground the electrode and dont touch that shit, it zaps hardcore ;)

Its cool as you can see the fog dust attract to the metal. When you release the trigger the HF gun has a tendency to dump powder, so pull away from your part before you stop. You can spray about 2" away from the part...

Ummm...

Also when you tear it apart to clean it, clean it very very very very very good. Otherwise the powders will get mixed when spraying the next part.

Oh ya and the money saving tip. Coat over cardboard. The stuff that doesnt make it to the part can be gathered and reused.

Tip #2, if it doesnt spray on right just wipe it off and do it again :)

Cooking the item is another treat...

We have an old kitchen oven that is used in the garage. The stuff stinks a decent amount so dont do it in your house. Some people use the radiant propane heaters... They may work but dont provide the uniform heat like the oven does.

Just follow the cooking/cure time directions to a T and you should be fine.

[quote="swimmerdude"]Powder Coating is kind of a thinner layer so usually you need to take the piece down to bare metal. If the underneath color is going to the be same as the powder coat, you could try and take a short cut and spray the powder coat over it, after taking nessecary steps to prep it, proabably either scuff paded or lighty sanded. It could be taken down to bare metal by sand blasting or sanding, but you would need an orbital sander to do that otherwise it would take a long time by hand.[/quote]

My dad used to have a sand blaster, might have to see if I can find it.

Know of any good places to get powder?

Found some FAQ's on the topic, you do need to remove all the paint.

Gonna have to give this a try sometime this summer.

Powder Coating is kind of a thinner layer so usually you need to take the piece down to bare metal. If the underneath color is going to the be same as the powder coat, you could try and take a short cut and spray the powder coat over it, after taking nessecary steps to prep it, proabably either scuff paded or lighty sanded. It could be taken down to bare metal by sand blasting or sanding, but you would need an orbital sander to do that otherwise it would take a long time by hand.