Powder Coating

[JasonGotaProblem]

I was kinda hoping the after pics would show that area up close. Unless you're... Hiding something.

[Midway Tommy]

This is a 440 n .  When you look real close , you feel the casting parting lines and this reel ,the side cover was big all the way around .      While still fully painted  , I used a flat file to knock down all the high spots .  Wrinkle paint hides a lot of this .

   Shot it the basic Matt black .   Also did a 440 ..

That's exactly why I've never been fan of spinning reels coated with wrinkle or textured paint, plus they're tougher to clean and keep looking nice when being used a lot.

[oldmanjoe]

Joe - those look great.  How "forgiving" is powder coating?  Where you filed down the rough edges on the DAM, you could clearly see the file teeth.  Do you have to do a finer sand to smooth out (as one would with paint) or does the powder coat just fill in all the roughness? - john

I was kinda hoping the after pics would show that area up close. Unless you're... Hiding something.

   Well here we are with another experiment .   Normally I would file the rough spots , than follow with a sanding drum .  I than polish with a Cratex bits for a smooth finish .   I did not do that here .

I went to the sand blaster as is.   Now I use Black Beauty "coal slag " in the cabinet .    This reel was shot with slap worn out grit .  The casting usually has a look of 320 sandpaper , this one does not .

 When I  started to shoot this reel ,I was going with Matt Black than follow with Bourbon Street.
     Well the bourbon street never got shot .

      How "forgiving" is powder coating?    You can do quite a bit of fudgework .   I can coat heavy in one area versus another without worry of paint drip. I can still repaint this reel without stripping.

         The rotor pictures show this .        If I shot the next coat , this would be gone "Casting porosity"  . The original paint hid most of this .

    One thing I should mention also ,This coat of black is shot very light because it makes the second coat easier to stick with static charge .   I should have stuck to the Plan !
           

[jurelometer]

Joe - those look great.  How "forgiving" is powder coating?  Where you filed down the rough edges on the DAM, you could clearly see the file teeth.  Do you have to do a finer sand to smooth out (as one would with paint) or does the powder coat just fill in all the roughness? - john

To add on to Joe's response on this question, you actually don't want a smooth substrate. What you want is a a uniform, very rough surface. Think matte paint magnified.


Powder coat is paint. It is just not delivered in a liquid solvent that evaporates.  Instead, as it is heated, the powder melts and cross links, turning into what is more or less gooey melted plastic.  On a smooth surface, it just sorta lies on top, but on a rough surface, the melted powder flows itself into all the nooks and crannies, creating a much stronger mechanical bond.

When I was powder coating reels, I blasted the parts in a cabinet with garnet media, which is very aggressive stuff that is normally used to as a first step to remove paint and corrosion from old parts.  Despite the rough metal surface, the powder coat would come out glass smooth, give or take a bit of unrelated orange peel from pilot error.

As long as you can't see a scratch or other defect after blasting, there is no additional prep needed.  If you do see anything, you should sand or fill as needed then blast a bit again.

Which reminds me.  I am going to experiment with some of my jig molds to build in the equivalent surface to a garnet plast.  It will hopefully do a better job of holding the paint on the jig longer.

The first photo is what a garnet blasted part looks like.

The following photos are a couple of my parts that were blasted and then powder coated.  On the spinning reel, you can still see the original artifacts from the mold eject pins, but the overall surface is quite smooth.


-J

[oldmanjoe]

Ok I had a couple more reels to shoot the same colors .  So I did take apart the 440 N to finish the plan , "burry the casting flaws "

 This is the line up 330 n 440 n and a 550

[oldmanjoe]

Durability ?    I had changed the grit in the sandblast cabinet with coarse black beauty .

     I had this 2052 Shakespeare that I did when I first started shooting powder , It has a blem on the foot and it look like it did not fully cured or orange peel look to it . It`s been laying around , because I don`t have all the guts for it .

   So I put it the sand blaster to reshoot it .  This is what it looks like after blasting . Dull finish .  It does not blast off easy by any means , it would have to be chemical stripped .   Washed it clean with dawn .   Though I had more of the purple metallic , what I had was box sweepings of purple and chrome in a baggie  ,more chrome than purple .
 
Not bad looking ,I did not take a picture , but I said what the hell shoot Candy Red Metallic on top and see what happens .

Many times I have slipped with the knife cleaning up tolerance areas and did not cut into the powder coat , Passes the drop test many times . when I thought it was going to leave a mark !!