Which Home powdercoater : Eastwood ,Sears , Harbor Freight or ????

Hi

we want to get a cheap powder coat set-up to do small parts , brackets etc ,
But which set-up should we buy ? And which ones to stay away from ?

And what do you use to prep the parts ? just sandblast them ?
or can you burn the old paint off in the oven you will be using to powdercoat in ? (or we could have 2 ovens as they are cheap or free ! )

Please let me know what you love or hate and why ,

Thanks for your help

Beaulieu

 

I use eastwood's. There is not much to the gun, just some nylon tubes and the electrode. The only problem I have had is the metal handle rotating in the main nylon body tube, but thats easily fixed with a firm push and twist.

The eastwood kit came with silicone plugs which I use every once in a while, some hi-temp masking tape which I have never used, stainless wire that I constantly use, and a drier for the gun. I believe it also came with a choice of 2 or three powders. When I added it all up the difference in price was not far off from HF's.

I have only used the Eastwood powder and it seems to work fine. The only problem I have been having is with their reflective chrome. It needs to be topcoated with clear and looks great before the clear and loses some reflectivity after the second coat. I'm going to try the single stage chrome and see if that helps.

 

^yep. same experience with Eastwood, it's cheap easy to use, easy to clean, simple enough that a dumb gorilla like me had a real nice flat black tombstone taillight powdered and cured within an hour of opening the box (read the directions about discharging the electrode though, ouch) and for home use I have no complaints. I score free beers off my buddies by letting them use it too. I too didn't like Eastwood's 'chrome' powder, but really is there any substitute for the real thing? good luck.

 

mine was from eastwood also.
their customer service is great too, should you need any help down the road.

 

which model of Eastwoods gun ?

They seem to have several ones ,

Also can I get powder from my local powder coating shop ?
is it the same as Eastwoods ? or maybe a little better ?

thanks

Beaulieu

 

the 99 dollar one of course! hotcoat i think it is called. I always used the Eastwood powder, ordering is easy and they have lots of coupons, sales and free shipping promotions. i would not be afraid to use any other powder in mine though.

P.S. I hear tiger coatings has the GOOD powder, but i have not used it.

 

Go to the forums on Eastwood's site and there is a ton of discussion about different brands and colors of powder. I can only comment on Eastwood's, but I doubt it would be any different from a local supplier.

 

HF's guns work well, but thier powders are "off in color". But the gun shoots powders fine.

 

I see the cheap guns are 15kv , but there are 50kv guns on Ebay ,

Does the larger voltage make any difference on the stuff we would do ?
a rim would be a large piece

thanks
Beaulieu

 

The largest part I did was the finned Buick covers for my front brakes, They came out fine.

 

I have used my Eastwood for YEARS. I have run several different brands of PC thru it, makes no difference. Am very careful about that dischage warning.

 

For what it's worth, I bought a powdercoating gun from Sears a couple of weeks ago for $47 on clearance. They don't sell well and I wouldn't be surprised if there were still a bunch there.

I haven't had a chance to use it myself but a couple of "pro" powdercoaters I've spoken too were familiar with that model and said it wasn't that bad.

 

Eastwood basic kit works fine. Like anything, a little practice makes it better.
Try the clear over color looks great.
Mike

 

Hardest part is convincing the woman of the house to use the oven to bake a bunch of car parts LOL

 

pyroimpala wrote:

That's why I bought a nice used kilm. Did not want to get on the wrong side of females in the house. Would have been real ugly.

 

We have the oven thing licked if you can use gas ovens ,

If you HAVE to use electric ovens then we will have to look for a couple on craigslist

Beaulieu

 

I was wondering about ovens also. I see there is also some type of heat lamp for curing. Has anyone tried one of these? They certainly would take up less floor space than an oven. Are most of you just using an old electric stove?

 

I have the gun kit from Caswell ( http://www.caswellplating.com/ ) Great guys to deal with. Plating, powdercoating, anodizing, it's all they do.

 

I have a Eastwood hotcoat gun for about 8 yrs know and it works great. do not like the hand control. I also have an Caswell and Harbor Freight ( they are the same) like the foot control.

 

I have harbor freight it works good. I use the eastwood powder though. I've done brackets, intakes, headers, valve covers they all came out great. Use electric oven for safety reasons.

 

ive used the eastwood one to do rims and tons of brackets, bike sidecovers, ect. no probs so far

 

I've had the Eastwood system for a while, but don't use it much. I also got the larger heat lamp, works great, the only problem I had with that was faulty wiring in the shop (fixed it). I also would have to say that I don't care for the control style of the gun, I did figure out a way to hold everything in one hand but somthing more solid would be great.
Just my .02 hope everything works out for you.

 

Thought I'd bring this back from the dead instead of starting a new post. Any more opinions on which is the best powder coat system to buy?

 

My Sears powder coating gun works ok.

Finally hooked up a wall mount electric oven in the garage, but it's really too small to do anything but small brackets.

The oven is the limiting factor in the practicality of these home pc systems.

 

Try Prismaticpowders.com. They have so many colors it will make you dizzy. Priices are great and service is great usually ships the same day. They are located here in southern Oregon. Cure time on a lot of powder is shorter than anyone else. I used Eastwood a lot as that is where I bought my gun 10 years ago but found great results and great customer service from Prismatic. They supply a lot of prof powder coating business's.