Reel Repair by Alan Tani

Looks really good, Joe —-

Looking forward to getting my PC project up and running.

Once a couple of other projects are completed —- I'll start up the line.

Just hard-wired the large oven with 220V last week, all encased in EMT conduit, RACO boxes, and 8 gauge wiring with a 40 AMP breaker in the sub-panel box —- last week.  That was the last piece of the puzzle needed to move forward.  I have a nearly new smaller oven, but wanted a larger one for volume and larger pieces.

Gonna be a lot of purple, red, orange, yellow, tan, grey, and other colored Cardinals, DQ's, Mitchell's, and Penns.

Best, Fred

I used the powder from Harbor Freight to paint jigs and it don't work as good as Pro-tec Powder paint ,it seem required more heat to melt and don't melt even

 As I am learning , there are a lot of powders that have different temperature cures and time needed to flow .  Then there is different powder makeup :   There are three main categories of powder coatings: thermosets, thermoplastics, and UV curable powder coatings. Thermoset powder coatings incorporate a cross-linker into the formulation.

I ordered up some powder from  " The Powder coat store "   I shot two 550 dams with Chrome for base coats .       The chrome does look like chrome , but if you want chrome they do say to put clear on top .   I did shoot some candy purple metallic on the ruff looking casting first .
 
Tomorrow I will try the candy red metallic .   There is a learning curve to get the second coat on with a cheap gun .

You are really getting this dialed in perfectly, Joe!

Looks excellent.

There are so many possibilities with powder coating —- particularly with rough old scratched up quality reels.

Best, Fred

Thanks for all your detailed info Joe & Dave, cheers Don.

Looking good Joe.

I lurve candies! You can also use them over other other colors too, not just chrome.  Candies over white works well, and candies over black can be spectacular - like a car show custom hot rod paint job.


I did notice than there was a lot of residue in in your cardboard spray booth.  There should only be at most a light coating left behind if everything is adjusted correctly.  A good pressure regulator (not the one built into your shop compressor) is important.  There should also be a mix valve on the gun, and voltage settings.  Getting these dialed in will allow for a light misting of the powder as you apply, and lower voltage settings can sometimes help with the Farady effect on those internal corners.  Trying a few sample coatings  on some scrap with different settings and coating thicknesses will help to get everything  dialed in.

For the second coat, sometimes lowering then voltage will help, but the main thing is to maintain bare metal to metal contact between the ground and the part.  Not going too thick on the undercoat can help too. I have had to resort to hot flocking on occasion, but as I get better at it, this is a less frequent situation.

To cut down on orange peeling and increase durability, you want a thick top coat, but only if it is applied very evenly.  This is where the light misting of the powder comes into play. A light cloud of powder around the part will result  in the the most even coat. And hanging the parts instead of resting on one side when coating and baking will make this much easier.

  Here is a simple hanging setup I use for coating lures



I have a larger toaster oven, so hanging the parts is not an issue. 

Please keep posting your progress.  This is fun!

-J

  I traded in my cardboard box for a plastic box .  I will and can clean each color now with no waste .  And it appears that the powder clings to the plastic box and then falls which is nice , no lingering cloud . 
  The gun I have now does have a tendency  to blow a lot of powder when you first pull the trigger , then blows a nice light cloud .   So I treat it like spray painting ,pull and then sweep into the  project .    This gun is single kv at 15 .  I did order another gun with multiple setting to try .

Now I will show you some pictures with some problems I came across . Base coat is nice chrome .   
   Shot the red candy metallic and had a big drip and some balding ,back ionization .

     Filed the drips down , reheated to 200 degrees and shot with no static charge .   Came out good looking .  I am still learning to dial in this type of gun . Practice ,practice .

    OH and I did shoot a new chrome Lakeland reel seat , witch came out real nice .

   Once I assemble the reels I will post pictures .   

Joe forgive me if I missed it but how do you strip the old paint off before you powder coat?

I have used Citristrip with good results.

 I drop them in a container of gasoline to start stripping .   Some reels are in for 30 minutes and the paint is off with a little brushing .   Than I move on to the sand blaster .

 J what gun are you using in the picture ?     I have this one coming soon .
https://www.homedepot.com/p/SVOPES-50KV-Electrostatic-Powder-Coating-System-Complete-Kit-with-Spray-Gun-Nozzles-Powder-Cups-for-Home-DIY-Commercial-Use-JDFMPTJ50KV4SPYOKV1-0819/332848396

    This one has 5 kv settings , and looks to have the same style gun as the harbor freight gun .
  Looks like we are using the same size toaster oven , I am on the lookout for a bigger oven . Not to big , otherwise anything that fits in is fare game to get shot .

 Finished photo of reels .
  I am going to sink a 10 foot ground rod next to the garage door , to see if that is going to help any .  The next batch of reels will be 330 ..

Man, that cherry red DAM is a beaut!

A beauty indeed.  Nice work.  Dominick

Quote from: oldmanjoe on November 21, 2025, 01:08:33 PMJ what gun are you using in the picture ?    I have this one coming soon .
https://www.homedepot.com/p/SVOPES-50KV-Electrostatic-Powder-Coating-System-Complete-Kit-with-Spray-Gun-Nozzles-Powder-Cups-for-Home-DIY-Commercial-Use-JDFMPTJ50KV4SPYOKV1-0819/332848396

    This one has 5 kv settings , and looks to have the same style gun as the harbor freight gun .

That looks a bit like mine. Like mine, the charge pedal is not ideal, as it doesn't occupy your free hand like the safety switch that is becoming  more common, so a higher risk  of accidentally shocking yourself.

  I have a lower end Eastwood that they don't appear to sell anymore.  The voltage is adjustable from around 20K to 40K.  There is a mixer knob on the handle.  I believe it controls the amount of air that gets diverted to the cup, with the rest going directly out the nozzle.  My guess is that you need the right ratio to get fluidization in the cup and propellant force out the nozzle, and that is going to change with the  amount of air pressure and maybe the amount of powder in the cup. 

But even if I am wrong as to why it works,  adjusting this knob has a huge effect on getting a well dispersed powder cloud.

Looking at your parts with second coat issues, it looks just like the  symptoms that I get from time to time. Some powders are less friendly than others.   Ink black seems to always be up for a fight as a second coat. Using a fresh hanger wire and removing any paint on the part where it touches the wire contact point, and trying a lower voltage usually fixes second cost issues.

But once you fail to get a second coat to stick, you can end up with an electrostatic charge on the  part that gives the whole part a faraday cage.  Or something like that:).  Even if you have fixed the original problem, the second coat still won't stick. At this point you either have to wash and dry the part or heat it in the oven for a bit, and then try again.

Also that deflector on the tip can be moved back and forth or removed to adjust the spray area.  With no deflector and lower air pressure- maybe 5-6 PSI, you can get a smaller cloud useful for small detailed parts. A good air pressure regulator is key here.

I never tried running a fresh grounding rod just  for powder coating.  My outlet is near the service box/grounding rod already, and I figure if the first coat always works fine, then insufficient grounding is probably not an issue.  I am interested to see what you find out.

QuoteLooks like we are using the same size toaster oven , I am on the lookout for a bigger oven. Not to big , otherwise anything that fits in is fare game to get
shot .

I was exactly the same way when I started powder coating!  If it was metal, fit in the oven, and not bolted down too heavily, it was getting powder coated.  I had access to a walk in powder oven for awhile, so the spouse had to convince me that we really didn't need a candy apple red washing machine.

My toaster oven is the largest non-digital model  that I could find.  Probably 1.5 to 2 CF.  For customizations, I just used some high temp tape on and around the glass door to help even out the temperature. I don't use the built in thermostat, since I already have a portable PID controller that I had built for some other projects.  The PID controller controls the flow of electricity to the oven and has a mode where it learns how to maintain a more steady temperature in addition to being more accurate.  In your case, just using an oven thermometer for awhile to learn how hot the oven actually  is at a given setting will probably be plenty close. 

The ideal small portable setup is an old scientific lab oven and a PID controller.  Fixer-uppers show up on the auction sites for pretty short money from time to time.  I have been tempted.  If you have the space and the time, and old electric kitchen  oven would be pretty cool to have.

Keep us posted.  You are making good progress, and I hope to learn from your experiences.

-J