My first shot at bead blasting/Powder Coating... (1 Viewer)

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...I received an awesome deal on 4 late model tacoma rims (16"), but they were in poor shape (thus the deal). Since they were in poor shape cosmetically, I decided I couldn't really hurt them more...

...so I bought a 40# media blaster (filled with glass beeds), built a blasting cabinet to accomodate the wheels, blasted the wheels, filled in the gouges/scratches with JBweld, blasted again for good measure, iron phosphated as the final prep, pre-heated wheels for about 15 min @ 400 degrees, coated with mirror black when surface temp was around 135-150 degrees, back in the oven for another 15-20 min...and WHOALA!!

http://kumar.cruizer.net/pics/wheels/

the center caps are plastic, so I used duplicolor black primer and gloss black paint. Came out to a near perfect match to the powder coat finish. The lug nuts were powder coated as well.

Here are some inline pics (more at site above):

011_tacoma_wheels.JPG

001_tacoma_wheels.JPG

012_tacoma_wheels.JPG

002_tacoma_wheels.JPG

003_tacoma_wheels.JPG

010_tacoma_wheels.JPG

021_tacoma_wheels.JPG

022_tacoma_wheels.JPG

023_tacoma_wheels.JPG


now to do some of the Mini engine parts :grinpimp:

later,

Kumar
 
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Who's oven do you get to use? Not in the kitchen, right?:)

Looks great though I like the satin finish ones in your site better.
 
honk said:
Who's oven do you get to use? Not in the kitchen, right?:)

Looks great though I like the satin finish ones in your site better.

I have a dedicated powder coating oven. The satin was nice, but the higher gloss items tend to hold up better to prolonged UV light. This is for the Wife's truck...she likes shiny...and she has other glossed black items that will match well.

later,

K
 
Looks like you could have a nice little side biz buying up beaten wheels and redoing them and flipping them on ebay.
 
inacoma said:
...I received an awesome deal on 4 late model tacoma rims (16"), but they were in poor shape (thus the deal). Since they were in poor shape cosmetically, I decided I couldn't really hurt them more...

...so I bought a 40# media blaster (filled with glass beeds), built a blasting cabinet to accomodate the wheels, blasted the wheels, filled in the gouges/scratches with JBweld, blasted again for good measure, iron phosphated as the final prep, pre-heated wheels for about 15 min @ 400 degrees, coated with mirror black when surface temp was around 135-150 degrees, back in the oven for another 15-20 min...and WHOALA!!

http://kumar.cruizer.net/pics/wheels/

the center caps are plastic, so I used duplicolor black primer and gloss black paint. Came out to a near perfect match to the powder coat finish. The lug nuts were powder coated as well.

Here are some inline pics (more at site above):



Kumar

Sounds like you were pretty thorough. My first comment is make sure that the part itself is at cure temperature for the recommended time, not that you put the part in the oven for the recommended time. Reason being, that the powder may not cure fully on parts with a lot of mass. Bigger parts will take longer to get to cure temp than small ones.

There are a lot of other things that can be done to improve finish and durability, but they involve spending some more money for monitoring equipment.
 
Off-Kilter said:
Sounds like you were pretty thorough. My first comment is make sure that the part itself is at cure temperature for the recommended time, not that you put the part in the oven for the recommended time. Reason being, that the powder may not cure fully on parts with a lot of mass. Bigger parts will take longer to get to cure temp than small ones.

There are a lot of other things that can be done to improve finish and durability, but they involve spending some more money for monitoring equipment.

I had some homebrew monitoring stuff going on. I used my fluke type meter to read me the temperature...I used one of those laser temp sensors to figure out surface temp of the part and I put all that in consideration making sure I had the accurate amount of time. I've put a process controller on my Espresso machine (PID that uses fuzzy logic), and it worked out great. I do have some extra SSR (solid state relays) and an extra PID ... I think i'm going to hook it up to my Powder Coating oven...it has huge drifts. I used Columbia Coatings (like most), and they were great deal of help when I had questions. It also helped that my pre-heat of the part (to ensure the cast had a chance to expel any gasses and to burn off any residual grease...finger prints at this point) , this way it came up to temp a lot quicker for the cure cycle.

sounds like you do this for a living???

Kumar
 
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rusmannx said:
nice work!
which powder coating setup you using?
what are you using for an oven?

i'm getting a powder coater in a month or so
http://www.eastwoodco.com/jump.jsp?...ODUCT&path=1,2,458,459,460&KickerID=68&KICKER
and am wondering what i'm going to do for an oven.

I'm using the new Craftsman gun. Has some features of the more expensive guns on the market, but I'm sure only designed for Home use. It worked great, very little waste. Even comes in a nice carrying case :)

I'm using the HF oven...temp drift on it's terrible, so I hooked up a seperate monitor and watched the swings carefully. I also used one of those laser temp guns (doesn't actually use laser, but i'm at a loss of words for the name). I probably will hook up some sort of process control unit to stabilize the temp better.

K
 
Josh83 said:
Looks like you could have a nice little side biz buying up beaten wheels and redoing them and flipping them on ebay.

That did cross my mind, but I have a ton of projects already. However, I'm already thinking of selling these and trying to hunt down some 17" toyota rims to put on instead. I already ordered some 16" nitto terra gapplers to go on them, so I would have to sell the lot before I invest in more wheels. My shop is filling up with tires and rims!!!!

Kumar
 
inacoma said:
sounds like you do this for a living???

Kumar

It doesn't pay all the bills, but I am a coating engineer by trade and have been running a side business powdercoating for a few years. Sounds like you have things pretty well under control.

My setup includes a Nordson Surecoat gun, 5 hp IR rotary screw compressor with refrigerated and dessicant dryers plus particulate filters, a 6'x6'x6' propane fired oven that holds +/- 5 degrees, a small blast cabinet for now, and a homebuilt spray booth with explosion proof fan and lighting in case I feel like spraying paint too.

Just be careful with the powder spray and cleanup of it, because airborne powder can be explosive in the right situation. You should consider a spray booth if you plan on doing a lot of this, so you can manage the powder.
 
Off-Kilter said:
It doesn't pay all the bills, but I am a coating engineer by trade and have been running a side business powdercoating for a few years. Sounds like you have things pretty well under control.

My setup includes a Nordson Surecoat gun, 5 hp IR rotary screw compressor with refrigerated and dessicant dryers plus particulate filters, a 6'x6'x6' propane fired oven that holds +/- 5 degrees, a small blast cabinet for now, and a homebuilt spray booth with explosion proof fan and lighting in case I feel like spraying paint too.

Just be careful with the powder spray and cleanup of it, because airborne powder can be explosive in the right situation. You should consider a spray booth if you plan on doing a lot of this, so you can manage the powder.

I've drooled over those refridgerated water seperators, maybe one day ;)

I've read that you should only use electric ovens. Is your propan catalytic convertor based?

Kumar
 
How much powder does it take to do a set of wheels? I picked up some 4 runner 16" Limited rims this weekend, and am selling the tires off the Lexus rims and was going to do something like this with those. Or just spray paint them if I get cheap and lazy, but these look so cool!!! Nice work.
 
Walking Eagle said:
How much powder does it take to do a set of wheels? I picked up some 4 runner 16" Limited rims this weekend, and am selling the tires off the Lexus rims and was going to do something like this with those. Or just spray paint them if I get cheap and lazy, but these look so cool!!! Nice work.

It took between 1/2 - 1 pound. I would order 1 pound to be safe. Keep in mind that I only coated the front surface and front lip, I left he rest of the wheel alone. I do have some leftover, but 1 pound of Powder Coat is not terribly expensive, make sure you get some quality stuff though.

As far as the wheels go...I would check the weight rating on the 4runner rims before you put them on your 80 series.

Kumar
 
PKP80 said:
let's see them on the rig

tires came in yesterday while I was walking out the door for a business trip. I don' get back till next Wed...hopefully can get them mounted up that day and shoot of a few pics. In the mean time, I also finished powdercoating the 22re two piece intake. Looks sharp.

kumar
 
inacoma said:
I also used one of those laser temp guns (doesn't actually use laser, but i'm at a loss of words for the name).


Infrared...they use the laser for sighting

Geoff
 
inacoma said:
I had some homebrew monitoring stuff going on. I used my fluke type meter to read me the temperature...I used one of those laser temp sensors to figure out surface temp of the part and I put all that in consideration making sure I had the accurate amount of time. I've put a process controller on my Espresso machine (PID that uses fuzzy logic), and it worked out great. I do have some extra SSR (solid state relays) and an extra PID ... I think i'm going to hook it up to my Powder Coating oven...it has huge drifts. I used Columbia Coatings (like most), and they were great deal of help when I had questions. It also helped that my pre-heat of the part (to ensure the cast had a chance to expel any gasses and to burn off any residual grease...finger prints at this point) , this way it came up to temp a lot quicker for the cure cycle.

sounds like you do this for a living???

Kumar
Kumar, would you mind posting pics of your powdercoating equipment setup? I'm intrigued by the thought of eventually emulating your homebuilt rig (well, maybe not the HAL 2000 coffee machine--I don't want mine talking to my wife's hair dryer while I'm in the tub...)?
 
psfpilot said:
Kumar, would you mind posting pics of your powdercoating equipment setup? I'm intrigued by the thought of eventually emulating your homebuilt rig (well, maybe not the HAL 2000 coffee machine--I don't want mine talking to my wife's hair dryer while I'm in the tub...)?

I've been traveling a lot lately, so haven't had a chance to work on the PID yet. As far as "setup". Just have the harbor freight powder coate oven, crafstman gun (check out columbiacoatings.com), and a bunch of powder/plugs/hangers. Did you want to see my two temp gauges?

oh, i updated my pics to show the finished product on the truck. Finally got around to getting them mounted and such.

later,

Kumar
 

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