Harbor freight powder gun

beginner mistakes -- actually a nice tool. need to turn the dial on gun for max flow (duh).

just baked one -- pretty nice but DO NOT like breathing that crap.

have a headache (and was wearing a mask).

need to build a bigger chamber and don't know why you couldn't put a small cfm fan toward the back to suck powder to the back?

Depending on the parts you are coating (particularly hangable small parts) a fluid bed may be a better option than an air gun.

P.S. For DIY designs for fluid beds look into tackle making. Mostly jigs and spinner baits.

Yup, I got a cheap one and have similar results. It gets maybe 50% of the powder on the part, the rest is all over the place.

A friend of mine has a 50 KV powder system, and it does a lot better than my supposedly 25 KV unit.

Jon

Higher charge voltage makes a difference, BUT it will also cause greater problems in corners and in areas around holes. My all time favorite gun was a Ransburg/GEMA 701 with 90 kv internals. If you want a gun that really works well and can find one they are really nice.

max flow (duh).

fan toward the back to suck powder to the back?

When I worked in a sheet metal shop the paint was all powder. The booth was 6 feet deep and had multiple fans and filters to suck the excess powder. The painter still had to wear a mask.

What's a "fluid bed" ?

Fluidized bed. You blow air through a container with a layer of powder at the bottom so the powder starts to behave like a liquid almost. Heat the part up and dip it into the "fluid" and it sticks to the part like sh*t to a blanket.

You can coat many, many parts at once if you hang them upside down and dip them.

Interesting -- ever seen a DIY setup for this or is that out of the question?

Off to youtube to see myself.

Ah -- so basically you can create a liquid plastic, heat your part, dip it and you're done ? ! This sounds too good to be true. Do you use the regular powder coatings and just mix with water and aerate gently ?

This sounds cool -- sure don't like that damn dry powder.

God I hate this new groups format -- my replies don't show up.

so this is regular powder that you liquefy with water and gently aerate? then heat the part and just dip it? sounds great !

heat the part and just dip it? sounds great !

no. a fluid bed is just dry powder. when you blow air into it, the powder acts like a fluid because there's little friction between the particles.

Not quite.

Powder paint is actually nothing more than very finely ground thermoset plastic. A fluidized bed uses air coming through the powder to make it act just like a liquid paint. You can use them for a few things. In this situation you can either preheat the part, dip it then bake it OR you can charge the bed ground the part and dip it that way, then bake.

The first option gets used by a lot of DIYer because it takes less equipment and does a good job, the only problem is that it will give you a thicker coat which actually isn't a good thing as thick powder likes to chip easily.

You do NOT add any liquids to powder coat. Doing so will ruin the powder unless you have a way to dry and sift it back to powder.

The measly $75 price tag would seem to take most people's thoughts away from DIY.

-- Make awkward sexual advances, not war.

you're done ? ! This sounds too good to be true. Do you use the regular powder coatings and just mix with water and aerate gently ?

Here ya go, mkr5000:

-- Make awkward sexual advances, not war.

Where can you get a fluidized bed powder bath for $75???

The hard part seems to be to get sufficiently random and even air flow out of the diffuser.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

No water. The airflow through the powder makes it *act* like a liquid, but there is no real liquid.

You'll still have dry powder. Sorry.

Good Luck, DoN.

What new format? The format you see it in is a function of who your news server is and what newsreader you are using. There is no global format -- there are thousands of news servers around the world, each carrying copies of the articles.

Your experience can be blamed on Google pure and simple. Get a subscription to a real news server, and get a real newsreader, and stop trying to use a web browser for the purpose.

And your replies may well show up after some time. Google is infamous for a long delay before what you have posted becomes visible to

No -- if you add water, it would cool the workpiece off too fast to melt the powder. It is *just* regular powder and airflow -- no liquid added. The airflow makes the powder *behave* like a liquid.

Good luck, DoN.

you're done ? ! This sounds too good to be true. Do you use the regular powder coatings and just mix with water and aerate gently ?

Ayup. Lots of handy uses for it. And it beat the hell out of the old :"stick it in boiling water and then shove it on the plyer handles" gizmos that were around about the same time. Usually a dark red semi transparent pair of grips.

Klein makes them today as do several other manufactures.

One bleeding-heart type asked me in a recent interview if I did not agree that "violence begets violence." I told him that it is my earnest endeavor to see that it does. I would like very much to ensure

- and in some cases I have - that any man who offers violence to his fellow citizen begets a whole lot more in return than he can enjoy.

- Jeff Cooper