Teflon coating of metal - possible/practical for home shop?

Teflon (or generically fluoropolymer or non-stick) coatings have an appeal for certain jobs (like the inside of snowblowers and lawnmowers) where manufacturers have chosen not to put them. I've always assumed that the process is beyond small-shop capabilities, and gone in with paint and wax when the rust and sticking of stuff that should slide out is too bad. Is there some system that could work in a small shop, and is accessible to mere humans without DuPont licenses and/or giant heat-treating ovens?

Or particular (easily available) paints that do a better job of approximating the effect, without being members of that family...?

Reply to
Ecnerwal
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I think probably not, I tried a few years ago to get a photocopier fuser roller recoated, it involved blasting, polishing, powder coating, oven fusing in controlled conditions. I went for a new roller - expensive as it was. Charlie+

Reply to
Charlie+

There are commercial outfits that do it. The only time I tried it, I coated the screws of an extruder. The coating lasted about 10 seconds in use. I didn't expect it to last, but was hoping for long enough to run an experiment.

Something that did work was PolyOnd. That's Teflon bits embedded in a nickel matrix. Of course, the conditions in an extruder are extreme for a coating. Not as bad as the cutting edge of a tool, but lots of rubbing at 200+ C for 24/7 operation.

Pete Keillor

Reply to
Peter T. Keillor III

I've applied and used Teflon (At work) for years, the reality is that you can spray it at home and bake it in your own oven. The biggest problem is putting the coating on to thick and having it blister, Teflon is a nice but it just won't last through abuse. If I really wanted to protect something I'd be looking at Nylon powder coating, or Nylon/Teflon coating. Teflon scratches to easy and will never last. You can apply Teflon at home if you have a nice clean shop, sand blaster, and oven. Otherwise find a local shop and work something out, if your not in a hurry things can be done very reasonable. I'd be willing to pass on the name of the company in the Sarnia (Ontario) / Port Huron MI if you like.

Reply to
HotRod

We use the "slip-plate" type of graphite paint (sold at farm implement dealers for grain elevators & such) on the underside of our snowmobile chassis' to shed snow & ice... and I've used it on the business end of lawnmowers & snowblowers.

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It works well, but is kind of messy if you rub up against it... hopefully not an issue under mower decks or inside snowblower chutes! LOL David

Reply to
David Courtney

implement

snowmobile

I'd have to second that for Slip Plate paint. My dad tried a lot of stuff on his snow plow blade, Slip Plate worked the best to keep the snow from sticking. Applied it over a coat of Rustoleum, then masked off the black face and painted narrow diagonal yellow stripes on it. I never thought of using it under a mower deck, I'll have to try that. We used to get it from TSC, I'm sure other ag equipment dealers would probably have it.

Stan

Reply to
stans4

For the mower, if you have room, screw some 1/4 " UHMW in the wear areas. Besides being pretty slick, it is VERY resistant to abrasion. It has to be mechanically fixed in place, with bolts and plates or deeply countersunk holes, etc. But it will last longer than the mower deck above it. I know this really doesn't help with the coating problem the way you hope to solve it but teflon isn't durable enough for your application. Even teflon sheet would not work well for this. It's too soft and would just be pulled off the bolts. ERS

Reply to
Eric R Snow

To do it right, you have to clean like a suminagun, sandblast, zinc phosphate (or similar) to make a good surface for adhesion, coat evenly and bake evenly. Even then, it won't hold up all that well. Any hydroxide type solution including many soaps will start the peeling process. PTFE coating basically sucks.

Another option better for home application may be found at

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We've used their 9A product over the years as a corrosion protectant. It also seems to act as a reduced stick surface. I once had some sample parts shot-peened and many people assumed the surface was PTFE as it felt "slippery".

A LOT of people (including the military) use this on gun parts.

Koz

Reply to
Koz

We did some repairs on a local municipal snow plow truck a couple of months ago. I was suprised to see the blade area is just a frame with a large sheet of 1/2" uhmw providing the surface for deflecting the snow. Of course the blade is steel, but the open frame and plastic must reduce the weight and make repairs much easier.

Reply to
machineman

I have a need for a very abrasion-resistant coating on aluminum that will resist sticking of wet sugars under high compression. If a very high abrasion-resistance isn't available, then a re-coatable system would be acceptable, so long as I don't have to remove any base metal (more than a few tenths) to do it.

Any ideas? And are any of them home-shop do-able? (I'm willing to invest a couple of $K in hardware and chemicals, if so)

LLoyd

Reply to
Lloyd E. Sponenburgh

abrasion with what? if it's something soft like sugar cane, would anodizing work? it's not very abrasion-resistant by hard things.

Reply to
Charles Spitzer

teflon impregnated hard anodize

seem to recall it is commercially available.

Reply to
yourname

Hard coat anodize. Get it as thick as you can, about .005". This coating will be half way into the surface so that a .005" thick coating will only add .0025" to the surface. Hard coat is a ceramic coating and is very abrasion resistant. Not so resistant to alkaline solutions. I don't know what ph your sugar solution is. Wouldn't it just be easier to buy bags of sugar for your moonshine? Instead of squeezing it out of cane? ERS

Reply to
Eric R Snow

I'm not squeezing cane. I'm compressing powdered compositions that contain, among other abrasive things, silica.

LLoyd

Reply to
Lloyd E. Sponenburgh

I should've added that it's a process similar to sintering with the attendant VERY high pressures... tons per square inch. The sugars tend to migrate to the surface under plastic flow, and stick to the forming dies.

The system already works, but requires frequent cleaning (which is a chore).

LS

Reply to
Lloyd E. Sponenburgh

Hmmm... sugar-based sintering? For edible bearings, perhaps vacuum impregnated with coconut oil?

=:P

Reply to
DeepDiver

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