Alright peeps, I need some guidance from all y'all powdercoaters out there.
So I put together this cheap powdercoating setup and I'm powdercoating in a highly inappropriate space but it's the best I can do given my living arrangements.
My process is:
- dry sand @220 grit
- clean with acetone wearing nitrile gloves
- put in cold small toaster oven (forgot to preheat) and use IR temperature meter to read the pedal surface temperature
- once the part has reached 200C (~400F) as measured by the meter, set timer to 15 minutes (the powder actually started to liquify at around 120C (~250F) and it took several minutes to reach 200C)
- when done, remove from oven and let cool down
Here's my first ever shot at it. Questions after the pics (taken with a cellphone camera with focus issues).
1.
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-tEdKrwJWF2Q/U2YM5f4XgRI/AAAAAAAABoQ/VHt5f4BsZ4E/w471-h772-no/DSC_0476.JPG)
2.
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-oyVPKw1q6rM/U2YM5ZZ21FI/AAAAAAAABoI/w6N0R94H0yQ/w884-h772-no/DSC_0479.JPG)
3.
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-g2ihTnRV9ac/U2YM5VLPHNI/AAAAAAAABoA/-bPbJbdOpWA/w688-h772-no/DSC_0480.JPG)
4.
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/Y2LhpAc5HRTxyiD96qqpKIoZTrnd19fEJoQ0WujrD3Y=w533-h772-no)
5.
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-sTlPwSFFmJg/U2YM5T2_iTI/AAAAAAAABno/dm_Q0qkBciY/w642-h772-no/DSC_0490.JPG)
6.
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Gdg5e8Xb73w/U2YM5bWgGeI/AAAAAAAABnw/5A0kmcTN3gk/w718-h772-no/DSC_0493.JPG)
7.
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-q-0Sav3I1qE/U2YM5YxxrWI/AAAAAAAABnY/0JOSwNodq2Y/w822-h772-no/DSC_0494.JPG)
In order of appearance:
Pic1. I did get a nice uniform gloss. Very happy with that one but the color is slightly darker than the powder itself. Is this normal and color-dependent?
Pic2. There's a lip forming at the bottom edge of the box. I assume this is from too much powder?
Pic3/4/5. There's a black line along all the edges. Powder seems to have pooled on the edge but not over it. How do I get uniform coverage? It looked fine when powdered, the coat separated some time during the curing process. I don't think it was lack of powder because in Pic4 you can clearly see that even the inside of the cover is amply covered with powder, not to mention that lip of excess powder (I'm guessing here). Why is the powder not sticking to the bottom edge when the top edges (Pic1) are covered just fine? Is it because the edges are sharper? Should I round the bottom edges some?
Pic6. there's also some powder pitting where there was no aluminum pitting. I checked the edges prior to coating and they were fine. Same problem as with 3/4/5?
Pic7. Again with the edges showing, now on the screw holes. Also, one major pit near the hole and one smaller. What could have caused that one?
All things considered, this turned out way better than I hoped. The enclosure is completely usable, I'm just nitpicking here. If possible I'd like to iron out these tiny imperfections and I'll be set to finally box some circuits. I can't believe how easy this actually is, even when conditions are far from ideal. ;D
Thoughts?
I can't answer your questions but that looks very good! I've never achieved results that good and that was your first one. Nice! What gun are you using?
I'm using this one here.
http://nordicpulver.dk/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=51
It's a tribo gun, not a corona. I'm given to understand it's the same technology Electrostaticmagic gun uses (no high voltage). That's not the reason I bought it, I bought it because it was by far the cheapest option shipped to my door.
For whom it may concern, the seller lives in Denmark, is very forthcoming and gave me a really good deal (just shipping from ESM almost surpassed the price of the entire gun from this guy). I was having some financial troubles putting the entire setup together and the guy kept checking in with me how the process was going and even shared some tips on ovens and air compressors and watertraps and fire hazard and such. I can highly recommend him.
Like I said, I'm really splitting hairs here. If this came in the mail from any of the powdercoaters, I'd be perfectly content with it. As it stands, I'd just like to iron out the wrinkles in the process if at all possible.
Right now I'm thinking (as there's nothing I can do about air contamination, I'm coating in my apartment building basement storage unit)
- way less powder
- take a dremel to the sharp edges and take the edge off
That looks great for first shot!
Hard to guage color, opacity, and gloss via raw powder. They all influence final perception of color, and all change during the cure.
I think the bead and thin edges are from too much time in a ramping oven. So your powder is in the fluid state too long.
You probably don't need to sand, just degrease.
Preheat your oven, and bake your part before shooting powder, letting it cool first before shooting. This gets any moisture out of the metal pores.
Practice! Do a test piece or three with desired powder before shooting your box.
Hi Muddy!
Welcome to the fun world of powder coating! You did a great job for your first powdercoat. You are on the right track.
Looks like you did use a little too much powder. Too much and it will run just like if you were painting. The powder that I use cures at 385F. The infrared temp gun is cool but once you figure out what your oven is running at you can just set it there and forget it. Once the powder starts to "flow" or becomes liquid, then you can set your timer (or the oven) for 15 minutes.
Are you elevating your enclosure off the pan? You need to make sure the enclosure is floating somehow. If the bottom edges are sitting on the pan, the enclosure will stick and pool to the pan. I made a jig with screws and metal plates which raises the enclosure off the oven pan surface.
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/73135424/Madbean%20Forum/photo%20(6).JPG)
If you try and take that lip off with a dremel or sharp knife, you will mar the surface and it won't look like the rest of the enclosure. The really only good way to do it would be to strip it all down and start over. Either some good chemical stripper or a sandblaster will work for this.
Your process is pretty sound. Here is my process.
- Drill holes first if possible, this ensures you won't mar up the finish after powder coating during drilling.
- Wipe the entire enclosure down with acetone and a lint-free rag. Keep doing this until no more "black stuff" comes off the enclosure. I don't sand at all, no need really.
- Pre Bake the enclosure at the same temp you are curing at (385F) for 15 minutes. This allows any trapped gasses in the enclosure to escape. Let cool completely
- Ground your enclosures and apply powder. You want enough on there to ensure good coverage but not so much it runs. If you are worried about it you can go a little bit on the lighter side
- Carefully put your enclosure in the oven. Again, the metal plate rig with screws helps with this part.
- (optional) After the powder starts to flow you can wait about 5 minutes, remove the part and hit it again with the powder while it is still hot. This is called "hot flocking" and can work sometimes. It is best if you don't need to do this but sometimes its really hard to get uniform coverage if you don't. The sticky powder will attract the new powder and grounding the enclosure is useful but not really necessary. Hot flocking clear especially over chrome usually doesn't work favorably
- Bake for 15 minutes and let cool in the oven completely.
A better gun will ensure better adhesion, however I have heard that the best thing to do to improve your powder gun setup is to ensure you have a great ground. Most of the forums online say to do this, you can install a grounding rod in the earth which your powder coating rig is attached to. I haven't done this yet but heard it really increases powder adhesion.
A little practice and you will be popping out nice enclosures with a lot less hassle than spray painting.
Quote from: wgc on May 04, 2014, 03:48:04 PM
I think the bead and thin edges are from too much time in a ramping oven. So your powder is in the fluid state too long.
Preheat your oven, and bake your part before shooting powder, letting it cool first before shooting. This gets any moisture out of the metal pores.
First of all, thanks for chiming in guys!
Skinning the cat all over again, I see. ;D
The guy I bought the powder from told me to put it in a cold oven. Seeing the actual bead, it being liquified for too long makes perfect sense.
And the moisture in the metal pores (seeing how I didn't sand it much) makes sense as well, probably that's where the pitting came from.
More practice is in order, I need to find some scrap metal. Testing on actual boxes is prohibitively expensive although like I said, it's a perfectly usable enclosure with nice gloss to it. No orange peel whatsoever.
Quote from: rullywowr on May 04, 2014, 04:01:44 PM
Hi Muddy!
Welcome to the fun world of powder coating! You did a great job for your first powdercoat. You are on the right track.
Looks like you did use a little too much powder. Too much and it will run just like if you were painting. The powder that I use cures at 385F. The infrared temp gun is cool but once you figure out what your oven is running at you can just set it there and forget it. Once the powder starts to "flow" or becomes liquid, then you can set your timer (or the oven) for 15 minutes.
Yeah, I went in all guns blazing! ;D ::)
My storage unit has really crappy lighting and I couldn't quite make out if I missed a spot or two so I guess I piled it on too thick thinking it'd be a safe bet. Obviously I could have done with much less.
Now, I may be wrong about this but this is what I understood from what I read on various forums... liquid powdercoat is no indication that the curing process has started. The actual part needs to be up to the curing temperature of the powder (200C in my case) and only then does the proper bonding happen. It seems to be a problem with car parts coating, where there's significant difference in material thickness and thin parts can overbake while thicker haven't completely cured. In my case, powder started liquifying at 120C already and it was in liquid state for a good 5 minutes until the actual box got up to 200C. Nice heatsink, aluminum is. ;D I don't know if there's anything to this but I've read it more than once...
So I'm guessing less overall curing time is needed and/or I need to preheat the oven to minimize the time spent in a liquid state (flash heat it, so to speak instead of a gradual ramp).
Quote from: rullywowr on May 04, 2014, 04:01:44 PM
Are you elevating your enclosure off the pan? You need to make sure the enclosure is floating somehow. If the bottom edges are sitting on the pan, the enclosure will stick and pool to the pan. I made a jig with screws and metal plates which raises the enclosure off the oven pan surface.
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/73135424/Madbean%20Forum/photo%20(6).JPG)
If you try and take that lip off with a dremel or sharp knife, you will mar the surface and it won't look like the rest of the enclosure. The really only good way to do it would be to strip it all down and start over. Either some good chemical stripper or a sandblaster will work for this.
I have a contraption very similar to yours (I'd take a picture but it's in the oven down in storage now), screws holding the object up. You can even see the four screwmarks on the box lid ;D
Although I'm satisfied with this box, I'm gonna try stripping it just to see how that goes. Stevie told me to leave it overnight in a bucket of acetone, can't hurt trying. Sandblasting is not an option and I don't even want to think about handsanding all this off. ::)
Now, about your contraption... How do you get it to stay white and have a green part on top? When I sprayed it, the entire metal structure got yellow and is now nicely baked as well. ???
Quote from: rullywowr on May 04, 2014, 04:01:44 PM
Your process is pretty sound. Here is my process.
- Drill holes first if possible, this ensures you won't mar up the finish after powder coating during drilling.
- Wipe the entire enclosure down with acetone and a lint-free rag. Keep doing this until no more "black stuff" comes off the enclosure. I don't sand at all, no need really.
- Pre Bake the enclosure at the same temp you are curing at (385F) for 15 minutes. This allows any trapped gasses in the enclosure to escape. Let cool completely
- Ground your enclosures and apply powder. You want enough on there to ensure good coverage but not so much it runs. If you are worried about it you can go a little bit on the lighter side
- Carefully put your enclosure in the oven. Again, the metal plate rig with screws helps with this part.
- (optional) After the powder starts to flow you can wait about 5 minutes, remove the part and hit it again with the powder while it is still hot. This is called "hot flocking" and can work sometimes. It is best if you don't need to do this but sometimes its really hard to get uniform coverage if you don't. The sticky powder will attract the new powder and grounding the enclosure is useful but not really necessary. Hot flocking clear especially over chrome usually doesn't work favorably
- Bake for 15 minutes and let cool in the oven completely.
Yeah, your process is almost the same as mine. A few points, though...
- when you hotflock 5 minutes after it started to flow, do you bake for additional 15 minutes making it a total of 20? Do you normally bake for 20? i see your temperature is somewhat lower than mine but the guy I bought the powder from told me to bake it at 200 for 15-20 minutes. He unfortunately didn't specify whether that's 15-20 after the part got up to 200, or whether it's cold or preheated oven. Which, you'll agree, makes a world of difference. ;D
Also, do you just turn off the oven and let it cool or do you open the door to speed up the cooling?
So right now, I'm thinking
-clean with acetone
-prebake at 200, let cool
-preheat oven, spray box while waiting
-put in oven, wait till liquid
-15 minutes, take out
Quote from: rullywowr on May 04, 2014, 04:01:44 PM
A better gun will ensure better adhesion, however I have heard that the best thing to do to improve your powder gun setup is to ensure you have a great ground. Most of the forums online say to do this, you can install a grounding rod in the earth which your powder coating rig is attached to. I haven't done this yet but heard it really increases powder adhesion.
This makes sense for a corona gun where you actually have ground potential and an electric field that charges the powder. From what I gather, tribo works without electricity because the powder gets charged by friction while travelling through a ptfe plastic tube that ionizes it. The only "ground" potential is the one connecting the metal body of the gun and the metal of the object being coated. That's my understanding anyways, that and a dollar will hopefully get you a cup of coffee... ;D
(http://i.imgur.com/bDnPcxV.gif) (http://imgur.com/bDnPcxV)
Quote from: muddyfox on May 04, 2014, 06:34:51 PMNow, about your contraption... How do you get it to stay white and have a green part on top? When I sprayed it, the entire metal structure got yellow and is now nicely baked as well. ???
Haha. I just threw that neon green one up there as an example. The last one I baked was white. There are layers upon layers of different coatings under there. I just sand the tops of the screws from time to time to ensure a good ground.
LOL Clay! ;D Never seen that gif before...
So, situation update... just came back from my storage unit where I coated my second box, again a 1590A, same yellow powder.
Much better! I used way less powder (maybe could have used a smidgen more) and there's no pooling to be seen anywhere. I also preheated the box until the oven reached 200C (I'm guessing the box was at 150Cish when I took it out), left it to cool and than sprayed it. When I put it back in the oven, the oven was down to roughly 100C or so. No pooling and nice edge coverage.
More dust this time, though. It looks fine when powdered, imperfections come out when cured. They are tiny protrusions and I'm pretty sure it's dust. Nothing I can do about it, it's a storage unit, not a pro shop. ::) That said, even the boxes I got from Banzai had some bumps to them so I may not be doing all that badly! ;D It's gonna get covered with a decal and a coat of envirotex eventually anyways so I'm just being too sensitive.
Will try white tomorrow!
Oh wow... Thats from an OLD Apple ad. THe guy is all grown up and when he found out it's a popular gif, he remade a current one of himself. Regardless... My point is - well done!
Nicely done! You may want to try hooking up a shop vac near where you are spraying to suck up any excess powder and dust in the air.
There's really just a few key things and then its all practice
For me the key things are, not necessarily in order
Good ground
Clean parts, degreased
Prebake parts
amount of powder
Cure schedule, with attention to ramp time
Properly stored powder
Quote from: wgc on May 06, 2014, 01:15:10 AM
Cure schedule, with attention to ramp time
Is it ok (since the oven is still somewhat hot from the prebaking) to just keep the oven on and put freshly powdered pedal in there (so basically no ramp time, straight to the max heat)? Would it help or make things worse?
Quote from: rullywowr on May 06, 2014, 12:14:43 AM
Nicely done! You may want to try hooking up a shop vac near where you are spraying to suck up any excess powder and dust in the air.
It's just a tiny storage cubicle (already jam packed with crap), really no space for a shop vac. I also got some grief from the neighbors yesterday because I ran my tiny air compressor at 9PM for three minutes just to store enough air for one pedal. A vac that's constantly on would get me banned from the storage unit so I'll just need to live with the dust. I have a decent mask and really there isn't all that much excess powder (except when cleaning up ::) ). Another point is that a vac would likely stir up the air in the storage unit, making it even more difficult to get a dust-free coat...
Also I'm told that vacs could possibly pose a fire hazard with plastic dust. I'm sure there's not nearly enough with my spraying volume for that to happen but since it's an underground storage unit with virtually no ventilation, I'd rather play it as safe as possible. ;D
That's a pretty good first attempt muddy. Seriously you should have seen mine :o
I was considering getting a pc fan with low CFM to gently presude the excess dust away from the enclosure and....ahhh....into a bag!? Or possibly even a dust buster. Cut out a slot in the plastic tub that I spray into and turn it on before I start spraying. Then off again when im finished. Im paranoid about dust as both my cars have been totally covered in it a number of times and its an absolute PITA to remove it from the cars bonnet as the bonnet heat kind of melts it and it sticks! That was back when I was ultra careless / clueless with pc'ing though.
Quote from: muddyfox on May 06, 2014, 05:44:59 AM
Quote from: wgc on May 06, 2014, 01:15:10 AM
Cure schedule, with attention to ramp time
Is it ok (since the oven is still somewhat hot from the prebaking) to just keep the oven on and put freshly powdered pedal in there (so basically no ramp time, straight to the max heat)? Would it help or make things worse?
It takes a few minutes for the metal to hit cure temp. So I set the oven to cure temp and the part goes in at that temp. With wrinkle powders, I set it hotter to account for opening the door, and then reset to cure temp once it's in. You lose some heat opening the door, arranging the part, etc and wrinkles don't like extended ramp times.
I'm not a pro but I never heard of coating your part and putting in a cold oven. Makes no sense.
Also I'd avoid a vacuum while spraying in a small space, the exhaust will probably just create a mess, esp if you don't have a hepa filter in place. Powder is flammable so watch for any source of sparks or flame. Honestly you might be better off outside if not too windy! But I know the challenges of tight living conditions well.
But soon enough you'll want to powder coat everything! Might be a way to get the neighbors good side too if you can pc something for them.
Quote from: chromesphere on May 06, 2014, 06:25:47 AM
I was considering getting a pc fan with low CFM to gently presude the excess dust away from the enclosure and....ahhh....into a bag!?
Did you actually go through with this? This would be kinda doable.
Since you coat in your garage and with cars in I'm sure it's not pharmacy clean, how do you keep the crap out of the finish? Last movie of yours I've seen you were spraying into that big metal bucket, not much finish protection?
Quote from: wgc on May 06, 2014, 12:30:09 PM
It takes a few minutes for the metal to hit cure temp. So I set the oven to cure temp and the part goes in at that temp. With wrinkle powders, I set it hotter to account for opening the door, and then reset to cure temp once it's in. You lose some heat opening the door, arranging the part, etc and wrinkles don't like extended ramp times.
I only have access to plain RAL colors but I'll try to remember this. Makes sense.
Quote from: wgc on May 06, 2014, 12:30:09 PM
Honestly you might be better off outside if not too windy! But I know the challenges of tight living conditions well.
Not doable... it's an apartment building and I don't see anyone taking kindly to me schlepping the compressor from the storage just to make a mess up front for everyone to enjoy. ;D
Quote from: wgc on May 06, 2014, 12:30:09 PM
But soon enough you'll want to powder coat everything! Might be a way to get the neighbors good side too if you can pc something for them.
It's a bunch of old geezers, noone would have any use for my mad koatin skillz. But you are right, I do find myself eyeing what's a good candidate for pc once I get the hang of it! ;D ::)
awesome job, muddy!
Thanks man!
Hopefully I'll get the little things sorted out soon. Nothing really wrong with them as they are now (as the second one is much better than the first one in the pictures), I'm just a bit OCD about certain things when it's obvious they can actually be better with a little more effort. ;D
Alright here's tonight's effort. One B and one BB in some undefined white color (got some sample powder when I bought the gun), done at the same time. Got pretty cramped in that tiny oven but worked out fine.
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-ynHmoRKn4iY/U2lO475zrUI/AAAAAAAABpo/9tPIkz9rKuI/w587-h772-no/DSC_0489.JPG)
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-xcXaQlPBHHY/U2lPGAEHqcI/AAAAAAAABpI/qkJDHFcI-iE/w534-h772-no/DSC_0490.JPG)
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/L3y3T1V0owtsAxAFEQUdBvcBLQtnE7bx_AxkI3O1jmY=w969-h623-no)
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-aNiut8xWEF8/U2lPLfrp9fI/AAAAAAAABpg/K_n0ZarkofA/w950-h610-no/DSC_0497.JPG)
Observations:
- Preheated the enclosures for good 15 minutes before coating. Honestly didn't notice any difference in coat quality. If anything, there's two suspect dimples on the B box that look exactly what I imagine escaping gas trapped under liquid powdercoat would look.
- Cleaning the boxes with acetone is a PITA. However much I scrub, there's always black stuff coming off. Anything better to degrease/clean with? Naphta? Brake cleaner? Isopropyl?
- there's definitely dust in my oven. There was no debris in the powder yet a few specks in the final finish. That said, I think I may be overreacting. They ARE pedals that live on the ground, get tossed into bags, and get stomped on. Not sure that a pristine finish is all that important to start with! Once the label is on there noone will be able to tell a dustspeck here and there. I'm actually amazed there's so few of them, given where I work.
- put the parts in the fully preheated oven, waited till powder turned to liquid and baked for 15 minutes. No issues with the process itself.
- no pooling on the bottom and nice edge coverage. Liking it a lot.
- the coat is obviously thinner than the first two pedals. I might try some more powder to get a thicker layer. More experimentation in order.
The box is predrilled to host Jacob's testing rig. It will probably take a while to box but I'll hopefully get there in a month or three. ::)
Nice white paintjob! I recently drilled something very similar...
(oops, removed double-post)
Hey Muddy,
Still haven't worked that one out yet. I always end up with some dust / crude on the surface. Its usually only slight so I don't fuss too much over it though. I don't outgas, I just wipe the enclosure with a dry clean cloth to make sure there isn't excess dust on it then blow some air over it. I still get some dust particles though. Like you said, its a garage :D Haven't tried the pc fan or dustbuster sorry. Its actually probably unnecessary as far as overspray goes anyway. I'm pretty careful with the pc dust these days and apply it at a more controlled flow rate instead of bellowing clouds :D
That metal tub was a dumb idea. I mention it in my 'powder coat update' video. It causes deflection which prevents the powder from clinging to the sides of the enclosure. Don't even place your enclosures on a metal tray when your spraying. in fact You want as little grounded metal as possible near your enclosure when your spraying it. A different issue ("deflection") to what your having but that lesson was the biggest for me to learn so I thought I would explain it.
Paul
Looks good! Make sure that if you acetone after pre baking that you leave enough time for it to evaporate. It can suck into those nice empty pores from pre baking and then cause little craters during cure. Acetone and powder don't like each other.
Might be worth putting back in the oven for a few mins after acetone.
Sometimes I think the dust is from whatever you're wearing and happens while placing in the oven. Any residual charge (corona?) on your clothes would make a grounded box really appealing. I get it sometimes too.
You can sand it with 1500/2000 grit and then polish but I never do. If you're using a decal and envirotx might be worth it.
Love seeing the other tips here, lots of great info!
I thought the whole point of prebaking was to get rid of excess moisture, acetone included. For this white run I acetone'd (is that even a word? :) ) the box, prebaked it and then sprayed right after it was cold enough to handle. So I guess I was kinda hotflocking it?
So this time I prebaked it and put the powdered box in a hot oven. Like I said, no visible difference in finish to my last yellow attempt when I didn't prebake and put it in a cold oven. This kind of fuzziness to input parameters messes with my mind. Is nothing sacred in this process? ;D
Do all y'all use acetone for cleaning/degreasing?
Also, I've found that nitrile gloves do help with oil stains but they also pick up box dirt like there's no tomorrow. I start cleaning the box and the gloves pick up so much crap that it just gets right back on the box from all the handling. I'd need a dozen gloves just to get all of it off! Maybe presoak in some other solvent?
Yeah, that's right- I read it that you used acetone after prebaking.
I tend to use simple green for degreasing, with a brush or scotchbrite pad.
I spray at room temperature unless I have a hard time with faraday or a two part and the second coat just doesn't ground that well. Keep in mind one of the great things about powder is if you are not hot flocking, it's easy to remove powder and respray before it goes in the oven.
There are times when you break all the rules and it comes out fine. There are also times you can follow all the rules and it's screwed up. Keep in mind that it might look fine but be more prone to chipping.
Best thing you can do now is practice on scrap parts, soda cans, etc and arrive at a process that works for you and your equipment.
...And have fun with it! :)
Yeah, I hear that's what it's all about! ;D
About chipping, time will tell. I've already dropped them a couple times ::) and no marks so far.
Thanks for the input. I guess I need to stick to a procedure and see if any problems occur down the line, act accordingly.
You're well on your way, most people would be overjoyed to have results like this!
A lot of it IMHO is developing an eye for defects, and learning to ID them. You're halfway to fixing them at that point.
Meantime, here's something that I found pretty helpful:
http://www.peridiumpowder.com/tech_info/troubleshooter.html
Most of these apply to a corona environment and it's particulars, my gun is a tribo gun.
Some good info there though on the physics of it all, thanks!
I guess I need to get me some more projects in need of boxing, nothing like practicing on the real thing! ;D
One more thing...I don't know if it's already been mentioned or if you have one but you should have an inline air/water trap attached right to your gun. They are cheap (like $5 bucks or less) and ensure you don't get water from your compressor spitting in your powder. Attached to the gun is the best bet as water often resides in the air line.
Also, never shoot clear over a hot enclosure. Let cool completely and then then apply. If you have trouble with coverage after it cools you can bake it until it "flows out" and then apply more while it is hot.
I'm powdercoating a dormant purple right now...mmmm. Then after it cools it requires clear for it to "pop!"