Powder-coating over acrylic art

[britpeace]

Hey everyone,

We just started using the powder-coating system and were wondering if anyone else hand-paints with acrylic over top of powder-coat and than clear powder coats over tops of the hand-painted design. Will this work, or has anyone been through this before and learned anything about it? Will it react weird or mess it up?

Any help would be greatly appreciated... I've got one hand-painted/ready but wanted to ask on here before we went ahead and clear-powdered it...

thanks!
-britpeace

[stecykmi]

i have never powder coated anything myself, but i imagine it will work since power coating is a fairly non-reactive process, it's basically just melting plastic to metal.

my one concern would be if the acrylic paint can handle the heat of the bonding process as some paints discolour in high heat.

if your art is particularly precious to you (ie, you'll never be able to reproduce it), you could, this one time, just coat it with regular clear coat from a spray can. either that or test on another enclosure that you've done the same stuff too, but that you don't care as much about.

[britpeace]

Yea, that's exactly what I was thinking too. I think we're gonna go ahead and try it out. I had a terrible mishap once with a really awesome hand-painted pedal, and I didn't take it too well, lol... but this is a fairly simpler design, I won't be too heartbroken. 

I'll post pics when it's done!

Thanks for the response..

-britpeace

[jimmybjj]

Why don't you try something you don't care about first, like just a box with just the acrylic and powder first so you don't end up ruining the artwork. If I recall I was experimenting with acrylic and took a heatgun to it and in my particular situation the heat darkened and yellowed the colors.

[britpeace]

Wow, it came out perfect!!! Here's a pic attached! 

[jkokura]

HOLY MOLEY THAT LOOKS AWESOME!!!!!!

I don't often shout like that, but I had to do a triple take. That's supreme man, I can't wait to see that one!

I think I'm gonna have to go back and do a post of all my favourite builds of the year, and I have a feeling this will be in there!

Jacob

[jimmybjj]

Wow, that really is amazing!!! i would buy an enclosure like that

I would venture to say that when completed that would be a contender for "build of the year"

[stecykmi]

very nice, be sure to post in the build report forum when you've got the circuit all boxed up.

[britpeace]

Hey, thanks so much guys! It's great to get such a positive response!!! 
Pics will def be posted when she's all boxed up! My boyfriend will post them I'm sure. I just paint 'em and photograph 'em n give him moral support ... the real beauty is how these things sound though!
Thanks again guys!!

-britpeace

[jimmybjj]

I like the pedals on your site as well, your artwork is very good.

[juansolo]

Wow, it came out perfect!!! Here's a pic attached! 

Absolutely love it!

[gtr2]

sweet 

[britpeace]

Thanks Jimmy! and thanks to everyone for the compliments as well!

[dwstanford]

That is a gorgeous pedal.  Ive got to get into powder coating.  Ive done hand painted pedals before, but i havent found a clear coat method that is very durable.  I know it costs a bit to get set up, but its obvious from your pics and from what ive seen from others, you can get some great results with the clearcoat.  Did you use any special arcrylics or just the standard craft store type? 

[britpeace]

That is a gorgeous pedal.  Ive got to get into powder coating.  Ive done hand painted pedals before, but i havent found a clear coat method that is very durable.  I know it costs a bit to get set up, but its obvious from your pics and from what ive seen from others, you can get some great results with the clearcoat.  Did you use any special arcrylics or just the standard craft store type? 

Hey, thanks a lot!!!   As far as clear coat, we normally would use (up until now) Rustoleum's Ultra Cover 'gloss clear' and that was def our favorite. We literally just got into powder-coating and this was our first one. It is pricey, but well worth it if you plan on doin it for a while like we do. I mean, one coat of powder color, super fast curing, apply your art/design, one coat clear powder and another fast cure and bam! you've got a professional quality, super durable paint-job on your pedal! Sorry for ranting... haha. Anyways, I just use standard, cheap craft store acrylic, although I have 2 or 3 nicer ones that I found in the clearance bin marked down from $11 to .97 cents!! Can't beat that!