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Adventures in cheap a$$ Vrod powdercoating

10K views 79 replies 28 participants last post by  Luvmy04VRod 
#1 ·
So A bunch of us checked out DrSwiger's thread about a Craftsman power coat gun that can be found for CHEAP. How cheap? SERIOUSLY cheap. Try $30 and $15 shipped. I ordered one from ebay Tuesday (I think it was Tues) and it was at my doorstep this morning.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/150808461371?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649

There's handfuls of these on eBay. The thing that got me about this was that it's COMPRESSORLESS! I'm in an apartment and don't have the luxury of having any of my old tools (that I gave away a couple of years ago). So I took it upon myself to make a craptacular paint booth with a way to ground and hang my items, and grabbed a toaster oven.

I'll give a run down in the images and let you judge of the quality. I think it came out good, but I did jack up the smallest piece because I wanted to see how well I could mask a piece, powder it, and peel the mask away. I wasn't familiar with how the powder coats and the durability of it from the time you finish painting it to when you're ready to throw it in the oven. Turns out it's easy to screw it up.

Also, I didn't realize the bushing in the clutch pedal was f'n PLASTIC and it melted out. Until I can find this part again, I've got some rubber sheets in it to take up the slack. It's working fine, but I'm going to see if I can order that bushing asap.

Cat not included


Gun with hole plugs, hooks, masking tape


Box with holes cut out for my grounding/hanging rod


Craptastic paint booth! Maybe later I'll get a filter and cut a hole in the back to plug in a vacuum cleaner hose


Black and Decker oven I chose. $40, biggest space I could find for the money.


Also, I got this one because of the raised sides. I wanted to drill hooks in the side wall.


Hooks drilled on side and bottom


First set I'll be doing. My clutch assembly but not the rod. It's too long to shove in my oven. It's plastidipped so I peeled it off (pretty easy)


Acetone'd these pieces


Threw the paint box in my bathtub. I'm not sure how random this powder is so I figured I'd start light and see how much of a control I can get with the spray. Also, the gun has a ground clamp connected to the wall socket. So no need to find a ground.
 
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#2 ·
First piece done. Checking out the texture.


2nd piece done


Closeup of 2nd piece


First piece glazing. Forgot to remove the painters tape so I pulled it out and kind of jacked it up. I didn't mind imperfections on this piece since it's super small.


Glazing


Finished texture


Piece 2 glazing. I scuffed up this piece too but it was on the edge that rotates with the peg so I didn't mind imperfections here.


Did my front brake lever as well.




 
#3 ·
Lever on the bike. Notice the rat Plastidip tank shell.







I learned a lot. And later on I might strip the clutch pieces down with some chemicals or blast em and redo em. But I learned that the most difficult part is if you have to mask a part and hang it in your oven. If you can set it down on a tray, you're golden.
I tried to scuff up the bottom of one of the parts and it seems to be solid as hell. There's so many bolt heads, shock pieces, and other random little things I'm going to be pulling off the bike to get blacked out.

Total investment
Craftsman Powder Coat gun $45 shipped
Harbor Freight powder $5 (I bought 3 colors but only using black here)
Black and Decker Toaster oven- Walmart - $43
Lowes storage container - $11
Lowes screw eyes and hooks - $3
Lowes 1"X3' 14ga square tubing - $17

For a grand total of $127
For me to get all these pieces and some others that I would pull off the bike, I'd estimate that I'd have to spend around $150 or so total. So for a buck twenty, I can do whatever I want in whatever color I want, and do stuff for friends... I'm happy with the results so far. I'll learn some more tricks and probably become more proficient at it and get cleaner results each time.
 
#4 ·
Very cool! Nice write up. I love it! Joe
 
#8 ·
This is Matte Black. They make gloss, you'd just have to see if they stock it locally. I got these at Harbor Freight. They only had white, yellow, red, and matte black. I grabbed all but white because I figure I've got friends that will want stuff in Red, Yellow and Black but not really in White.

I barely used any of this stuff. I filled the gun with a few ounces and put back probably 3/4 into the container after I was done. You can sweep up the excess and put it back in the canister, but there really wasn't a lot. I just rinsed it out. It doesn't stain either

In case anyone's wondering about how much it flows and gets all over the place, I didn't get a single bit outside of plastic box that I painted in. It might look like it's close to the edge but I found that the part sucked most of it up as the powder flowed past it. I was worried about the bottom not getting coated but that's what's great about it clinging from an electrostatic charge. I'd just spray it all around the part and it would cling any place that had exposed metal. Now it is a powder still so it's easy to touch it and get a smudge. But just take your time and you'll be good to go.
 
#9 ·
I'm no expert...but I have had a ton-load of stuff PC'd and every single time it has come back to me with the masking tape still in place. I know 'cause I'm the idiot peeling the stuff off.

My point...pretty sure you can leave the masking on through the baking so you don't mess up your job. :)
 
#13 ·
You got an INCREDIBLE matte finish on the cat! AWESOME job brother! :D I can never get the little bastards to hold still long enough in the oven at 400 F! :angeldev: :stilpoke:



In all seriousness, thank you for the review! Your items turned out really good and it is might cool of you to share. :)
 
#18 ·
I saw you were asking about chrome. I think it would be fine. I hate chrome, but I think I'll order a batch of it because I've got friends that will probably want some stuff chromed. I think it's hard to go wrong with this setup as long as you prep your part right, and don't touch it when you're transferring it from your paint area to the oven.


Sent from my Motorcycle iPhone app
 
#25 ·
Good job... Love seeing things done this way.:thumb:
 
#28 ·
:them:

Add me to list of those you are inspiring to do some of their own powdercoating. I was in a Harbor Freight the other day and stumbled upon their powdercoat section and was thinking... hmm... and then I see your thread... HMMmmm... :)

Great write-up!
 
#29 ·
I think this week I'll be doing the end caps that are on my V&H Black Widow slip ons, and my clutch lever if I can get the damn thing off. I need to throw some penetrating oil in there tomorrow to try to losen it up a bit.

I think I might have a way to get some bolt heads done so I might start striping pieces off a few at a time. I'd really like to tear apart my stock shocks and powder the chrome pieces, but I don't think I'd be able to reassemble it without a press or something. I'll keep all the work I do updated in this thread.

Oh yeah, I'm going to get a friend to waterjet me a license plate. I just have to see how clean I can get the bends so I can fold it in two spots. One for the axle to pass thru, the other to slap an LED above the plate to light it up.
 
#30 ·
I'll throw in my 2c about this. I've been doing amateur/semi-professional powdercoating (mostly for my own stuff, but I've done parts for others paid, and currently do onesey-twosey stuff for real paying customers of the company I work for) for 3 years now. I'm definitely no pro, and my setup is pretty basic, but you don't NEED a top dollar shop to get good results with powder. That's why it's awesome!

To start with, kcmc is dean-on about chrome powder. No matter what you do, it's never a mirror finish, as you can see in the picture. Different brands of chrome claim to be the shiniest, but they will always come out looking like satin silver.

As for masking, there's two approaches. If you have no high-temp tape, but a steady hand, you can remove your masking right after shooting. It's tricky, because if you slip, you're remasking and reshooting to cover the smudge you just made.

If you DO have high-temp tape, the best way to get nice edges is to mask, shoot, and bake JUST until the powder starts to flow out (looks like it turns to gel in the oven). Pull the part HOT and peel the tape off, then stick it back in the oven to finish the bake cycle.

Most powders will start to flow out when your part metal temperature (PMT) reaches around 260°F, but won't actually start to CURE until PMT hits 400°. Also, the average cure cycle is 10min @ 400°.

Overcooking will cause the powder to become hard and brittle, and it will usually discolor (the lighter the color, the more you'll see this). Your darker colors will lose their sheen and may appear lightly "charred". Undercooking will reduce the powder's bond to the part underneath it. Ideally, you want it exactly right, but MOST powders will have some "overbake protection" additives, so if you have to - err on the side of overdone. I strongly recommend a non-contact temperature gun to check your PMT during baking - it will be your best friend!

Lastly, the best thing you can do is store your powder in a cool, dry place. Heat will cause the powder to start to cure, and moisture in the powder will cause it to cake up and not shoot smoothly out of the gun. Shooting in a moist environment (even if the powder is dry) will cause micro-bubbles (from the water boiling during the cure) which will tend to dull the finish and just generally look crappy.

Anyway, that's probably enough. As I said before, I am by no means an expert, and there are plenty of forums dedicated to powdercoating (www.powderbuythepound.com and www.powder365.com both have excellent forums and are also great places to buy powder from), but if you guys have any other questions, feel free to ask in the thread or via PM and I'll do what I can to help you out.

Good luck!
 
#31 ·
Gavind, thanks for the input. That's some great info right there. I'll look into masking the way you described the next time I do some stuff. I'm planning on ripping a few things off this weekend to get done. Going to try to do some scrap pieces and screw them up in small ways to see what the outcome is. I think i wanna mix some of my black and red for a blood red color to see how it turns out too.

I'll check out those links later this evening.

On a side note I went to the dealership today to pick up the bushing/sleeve that I melted out of the shifter the other day. It's about $18 a piece. I can link the part number if someone else screws this up like I did.


Sent from my Motorcycle iPhone app
 
#34 ·
Got my brake pedal done up today. Came out pretty clean. I used painters tape because I wanted to see how it would hold up to the heat. The difference between that and the high temp stuff the gun came with? The high temp stuff shrinks a little and hardens, but is easy to remove. The painters tape burns and acts kind of like a charred flaky chip. It'll stick to the metal so you might have to light sand it off. I put the masking on the inside where that plastic bushing/sleeve goes and I had to sand a bit of it out. I remembered to take the bushing out this time. I actually cracked it trying to tap it back in but that's ok, I ordered two new ones from the dealership today on my lunch break. If anyone needs the part number for it, holla and I'll find it. I bought one to replace the one that melted the first time, and another just because I had a feeling it might break when I was putting the other one back in.

I tried to get some more closeups to give you guys an idea of the finished texture. The brake pedal came out pretty clean even where I masked and plugged the holes up. I also included a video because I've had a few people pm me asking about how controllable the flow from the gun is.











I sanded the painters tape out of the ID already








 
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