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As suggested, practice on a piece of scrap. There is a bit of a learning curve. You'll be in a world of hurt if you screw up the flywheel. It's a royal pain to get the paint off after.
Powder painting a flywheel
- Thread starter Brian Rupnow
- Start date
Help Support Home Model Engine Machinist Forum:
Brian, you probably know that the most effective way to learn is by researching and then putting that knowledge into practice. This process involves trying, facing failure, and then trying again. It seems like you've already done a lot of research, even more than I have. The next step is to actually give it a try. As long as you have a sand blaster, there's nothing to be concerned about. I'm including a photo of my third attempt at powder coating. ( Red and black tool rest) One piece of advice I can give is to preheat your parts to get rid of any remaining moisture. Good luck, although I don't think you need it.
P.S. I tried your paint booth idea, and it works really well. I don't use the fan while applying the powder coat, but it does help with the cleanup once the parts are in the oven. Thank you for posting.
Edit: Make sure you have a good ground on your parts ( Don't ask
)
P.S. I tried your paint booth idea, and it works really well. I don't use the fan while applying the powder coat, but it does help with the cleanup once the parts are in the oven. Thank you for posting.
Edit: Make sure you have a good ground on your parts ( Don't ask
)
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It's been an exciting, rewarding, and expensive August and September. For less than $800 I have a dedicated powder paint booth with fan, a powder paint kit including gun, s.s. wire to hang parts, a roll of heat proof masking tape, a selection of powder paints, and a selection of heat resistant rubber masking plugs, a bake oven (a new one is being shipped to me as I speak), a sandblaster, a cyclone separator, and a dedicated vacuum to use with the sandblaster and an angle iron frame to support the sandblaster. I purchased the main body of the sandblaster for $60, but have proved to myself after the fact that the body could have been built from one 4 x 8 sheet of 1/2" plywood---see the model. I have really needed a break from building miniature engines. This past two months has been exciting, exasperating, and a learning experience. Today I'm doing nothing, and enjoying it.
I spoke to Eastwood again today regarding the new oven they are sending me. Found out that the ovens are back ordered and won't be in until the end of November.---POOP!! This doesn't really hurt me too much. I guess I will go back to working on my model engines. I will keep you posted about how this turns out.---Brian
Have you checked the voltage at the supply receptacle versus the oven's recommended operating voltage? Low voltage could result in oven not reaching temp. Just a thought. Rick
Didn't you have a heat treat oven that you got a couple of years ago, why not try that for now.
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If my voltage supply was low enough to present problems with my oven, then all the other electrical things in my house would be acting weird---and they are not. The oven I bought a few years ago is lined with fire brick and is much to small to heat treat things in.
Congratulations, it sounds like you have the answer to your dilemma.
Today I absolutely HAD to try this out. Eastwood tells me they are sending me a new oven, no charge, but not until the end of November. The Eastwood oven I currently have only goes to 355 degrees maximum, not 400 degrees which the literature says is required. I have talked to numerous sources who tell me it will work okay with what I have. Having read everything I could find about the process, and talked to everybody I could talk to about the process, I had to "Try it and see what happens". The Eastwood gun works exactly like they say it will. The spraying pressure was 8 psi as recommended by Eastwood. I used the low voltage option as recommended by Eastwood. The electrical charge put out by the gun does indeed make the sprayed powder paint "wrap around corners" to fully cover the part. There are two pictures of the flywheel immediately after it was sprayed in the booth---the fan at the back of the booth is on its lowest rpm setting. There is one pictures of the flywheel and support jig setting in my Eastwood oven, and there is one picture of the overspray in the oven after the flywheel had been moved over to the oven---There was about 1 tablespoon of clean powder which I reclaimed back into the paint jug. I had wiped the booth down with a clean rag before any spraying, which kept things very clean so the overspray was not contaminated. The part is in the oven as I write this, and I am checking it every fifteen minutes to see if the powder flows out or not.
I just ran out to see what's happening in my Eastwood oven, and the powder paint is flowing out beautifully. In fifteen more minutes I will take it out of the oven and snap a picture of it. I will do the second flywheel later today, and if it turns out as nicely, I will call Eastwood and cancel the second oven.---Brian
Brian,
rockhann's suggestion of checking the voltage at the outlet was a excellent one. I will add that the voltage should be measured with the oven plugged into that outlet and operating. I have held a master electricians license since 1982 and can tell you that other electrical things in your house may well NOT be acting wierd even though voltage at one outlet could be low. Lower than rated voltage has a HUGE effect on devices with a resistance heating element. Items such as TV's and electronics usually have a pretty wide rated operating voltage.
Nominal line voltage in north America is 120 volts even though many people routinely refer to it as 110 volts.
Now for some ohm's law calculations ! Lets assume your oven is rated 120volts and 1500 watts. IF the voltage at the outlet was 110 volts that would reduce the power to 1260 watts, a 16% reduction in heat output. 110 volts would most likely not be even noticed elsewhere in the house.
Also, this is the second oven you had that failed to make its rated temperature. Very suspicious indeed. I know it would really rock your world if the new oven being shipped did the same thing !
Once again, I don't have a horse in this race. Your voltage at the outlet might be perfect, or not......
edit: hopefully the oven is plugged directly into a outlet, no extension cords.
rockhann's suggestion of checking the voltage at the outlet was a excellent one. I will add that the voltage should be measured with the oven plugged into that outlet and operating. I have held a master electricians license since 1982 and can tell you that other electrical things in your house may well NOT be acting wierd even though voltage at one outlet could be low. Lower than rated voltage has a HUGE effect on devices with a resistance heating element. Items such as TV's and electronics usually have a pretty wide rated operating voltage.
Nominal line voltage in north America is 120 volts even though many people routinely refer to it as 110 volts.
Now for some ohm's law calculations ! Lets assume your oven is rated 120volts and 1500 watts. IF the voltage at the outlet was 110 volts that would reduce the power to 1260 watts, a 16% reduction in heat output. 110 volts would most likely not be even noticed elsewhere in the house.
Also, this is the second oven you had that failed to make its rated temperature. Very suspicious indeed. I know it would really rock your world if the new oven being shipped did the same thing !
Once again, I don't have a horse in this race. Your voltage at the outlet might be perfect, or not......
edit: hopefully the oven is plugged directly into a outlet, no extension cords.
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Brian . Glad to see that you got the paint to flow , was that moving it to a different outlet ?
I can check your voltage next time we get together .
Bill
I can check your voltage next time we get together .
Bill
WOWZA!!!---It doesn't get much better than this. This is the flywheel that I just powder painted and baked in the Eastwood oven. This is everything I had hoped for. In about fifteen minutes I am going to powder paint the other flywheel. Sparky--I have a good friend who is an electrician---I will have him bring his voltmeter the next time he comes into town and have him check my outlet voltage on my house circuits.
Without using a calibrated thermometer, the temperature measurements you are making may not be accurate.
I have been fooled by this on a scale, when weighing sand and other materials.
.
I have been fooled by this on a scale, when weighing sand and other materials.
.
As far as calibration on the thermometer is concerned.--I put the thermometer in my wife's kitchen oven and set the oven for 400 degrees. After 20 minute the thermometer read 400 degrees. That is all the calibration the thermometer needs.
Technically speaking though, you are using a questionably calibrated oven setting to verify a questionably accurate thermometer, and so you may not really know whether you are getting a accurate reading or not.
I suppose a modern oven may have a pretty accurate microprocess/thermocouple, but that is just an assumption.
At any rate, it would appear that your paint system worked, and perhaps at a lower temperature than is thought to be required.
Very nice coating on the flywheel, and those coatings are pretty durable too, based on what I have seen on some industrial equipment.
You are on a roll !
.
So there we are boys and girls--my very first powder coated items. They turned out beautiful!! The powder coating is not difficult to apply at all. The hard part is coming up with the $700 or so that it takes to buy the powder paint gun kit and the bake oven (in Canada). You can save $230 for the bake oven if you buy an old kitchen range with an oven that goes up to 400 F, but they are all 220 volts and I didn't have an extra 220 volt outlet in my garage. Some make do with a toaster oven that runs off 110 volt--I tried to do that but couldn't get consistent temperature results. For some reason that is as yet unknown to me, the highest temperature I could get out of my Eastwood oven was 355 degrees F, but it still worked fine at that maximum temperature. (all the Eastwood literature calls for 400 degrees F) I have a friend who has a voltmeter and he will come by my house next week and check the voltage at my outlets. This pretty well concludes my summers work, which consisted of bringing my powder paint "online" and building a sandblaster set-up with a dust collector and vacuum system. The Rupnow fortune has taken a hard hit this summer, but it got me away from model engines (I really needed a break away from them). Thank you to all who followed along and offered helpful suggestions.----Brian
Make sure your friend measures the voltage at the plug with the oven running on that outlet ! It is the load that makes the voltage drop. The more the load the more drop. All things proper the voltage drop is minimal with a load near the circuit rating. FYI 20amp circuit is 2400 watts max and a 15 amp circuit is 1800 watts.
The measurement is mostly worthless without a load.
The measurement is mostly worthless without a load.
Your flywheels look great. Don't know about your red but some powder colors change significantly after being cured. The brass powder I have looks like pumpkin orange before cured and matches brass very well after curing.
One I have not tried but want to is a clear powder. That would be nice for things like aluminum or brass where you want them not to tarnish or stain.
One I have not tried but want to is a clear powder. That would be nice for things like aluminum or brass where you want them not to tarnish or stain.
Brian,
Good to see that it all worked, the flywheels look great, the powder looks like it flowed out great. I would like to get into this as well, but I just don't have the room.
Cheers
Andrew
Good to see that it all worked, the flywheels look great, the powder looks like it flowed out great. I would like to get into this as well, but I just don't have the room.
Cheers
Andrew
