Nice Video from Hoss on how easy Powder Coating can be

Dec 27, 2011 // by Bob Warfield // Blog, Techniques // No Comments

Hoss is the master of quick instructional videos for hobby machinists. There’s always a lot of good tips in one of his videos. He’s a professional machinist, so there’s good material here for all skill levels. I am always fascinated by articles and information about finishing–vibratory finishing, polishing on a buffer, anodizing, parkerizing, bluing–the list is endless. There’s something about taking a finely machined part and applying a great finish to it to make it professional quality that just puts that little extra into your project.

Today’s post is about Hoss’s video on how he does powder coating on the cheap for some parts on a powered drawbar he’s making for his G0704 mill:

Hoss doing candy red powder coating…

He makes it look easy, with nothing more than a cheap Craftsman powder coating gun, a cardboard box “painting booth”, and a toaster oven to cure the powder coat. The parts sure do come out looking nice and glossy:

Hoss cand red powder coating

Tasty!

Hoss is getting his powders from a pro-supplier I’ve heard others recommend called Columbia Coatings. Check them out. Lots of cool translucent candy colors as well as solid colors and special effect “textured” colors.

Powder coating is extremely durable compared to just using paint. I’d be curious to hear how folks compare powder coating with anodizing. The latter is another process I want to play with. I ordered a Mastech power supply recently on sale (Christmas gift for the shop), so I will be giving that a try at some point.