FAO home powder coaters

[stevie1556]

After a bit of an eventful time trying to get a bunch of enclosures painted up thanks to work and being called in for what ended up being a 26 hour shift), I finally managed it today. However, I knew my powder coating gun has had issues for quite a while, but I think it's getting to the point of being unusable soon, so I'm currently looking for a decent replacement.

My current one is by a company called Electrostatic Magic and doesn't have a need for an additional power supply, which is a big plus. However, the trigger had been playing up for a while and now doesn't seem to do anything, and the only way to regulate the air flow is by the air flow screw in the base of it. Also, I've found coating the lower part of the sides hard with this gun, and I'm assuming it's either because of the faraday effect, or more likely, because it works by generating x amount of electrostatic electric which isn't powerful enough (I think this is the most likely answer).

I'm currently looking at either the Harbour Freight one or the Eastwood Hotcoat dual voltage. I'm leaning towards the Eastwood, but they won't have anymore stock until the 10th Feb, I'm not sure if the UK stockist will be the same date or not though.

Does anyone have any experience with either of these systems or any other recommendations?

[gordo]

I had nice results with the Harbor Freight.  I trashed the basement a few times and it came down to either the powdercoat system went or I did.  Never mind the fact that I found a nice toaster oven at a garage sale and my boxes looked very nice.  This was a battle I wasn't destined to win.  And I hated the cleanup.  The Eastwood does look nice and their colors look crazy nice.

[stevie1556]

Thanks for your input there.

With regards to you trashing your basement, have you seen those little spray booths you can buy? It opens out to create a spray capture area, it has a fan in the back that's attached to a long outlet tube, and had a little turn table so you can spray what you need at all angles? Those little toaster ovens are great aren't they? I've got 2 then I run when I paint up boxes, can get 4x 1590A, 1590B and 125B enclosures with their base plates in them, or 2x 1590BB with their base plates.

That's one of the issues with my current gun, so much powder is coming out of it, more goes on the makeshift work bench then on the boxes! If I was doing it inside, then I would have trashed my dad's barn! Luckily, I had 2 stands with some wood across the top of them to use as a table just outside the barn as it was a nice day, albeit a bit cold.

I found another gun, apparantly it's rated at semi professional, for about £100 more then the Eastwood. However, I've read a few horror stories about it, and apparantly it doesn't have any CE or other safety marking on it. It's the Redline EZ50.

Due to the above mentioned issue with the powder, I'm thinking the variable voltage of the Eastwood is worth paying the premium for. When I powder coat the enclosures, I use a block of wood covered with foil, then place the enclosure onto that using screws in the screw holes to lift it off the wood. I've always struggled to get a decent coating on the sides, and after watching a load of YouTube videos I think it's because of the faraday effect, which I'm hoping the Eastwood gun will minimise.

I've found 1 UK company that sells the Eastwood and they are hoping to have it in stock on Tuesday. The other 2 options both mean import tax, and since our mail service got taken over a lot more packages get hit with the import tax.

I've got 24 more enclosures that I need to get painted up so that will be a good test for the new gun when it arrives.

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