100 did all of our own powdercoating last year, and I did a lot of the work myself. It's fair to say we made a lot of mistakes (especially in the offseason when we tried it for the first time), but I was very satisfied with the results overall.
When the pros do it, they can get a real thin even coat, but when we did it, we kind of just tried to get as much paint on there as the gun would give. This ended up being as little as 5 thou in places, and as much as 30 thou in others. I'd expect professionals to be around 3 thou, and even throughout the part.
Definitely only send out parts you're sure are right. Just test at fit everything together so you can be sure you're using your sponsors time on stuff that will work right. Also on that note, they probably don't want a slow trickle of parts as you manufacture them, they probably want one big set of parts all in one color.
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Originally Posted by craigboez
For teams that use a WCD chassis, do you make any specific allowances for the pockets in the siderail that the bearing blocks ride in?
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Yes, defiantly. We did the VersaTrucks thing last year, and we just masked over anywhere where the VersaTrucks was going to touch the frame. For you, I'd recommend masking over the hole, so the edges are just as they were milled. No one will see it, it's under where the wheel is.
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Originally Posted by craigboez
Has anybody weighed their chassis before and after powdercoating - how much weight should I expect it will add?
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Yes, we did. If you're less lazy them I am, you can search my past posts to find the real number (it's been a while), but if I'm remembering correctly, it's something like 3-5 pounds if you PC most of the robot. However, I'm sure that number would be very different for pro vs amateur PC and for different robot shapes, etc.
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Originally Posted by dradel
Keep in mind when powder coating you must use high heat masking tape. For masking holes I have found silicone tapered plugs work best.
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Yeah, we tried a bunch of stuff, a lot of it just burnt or melted into a disgusting goopy mess. Kapton tape worked well, it's designed for real high temperatures, and leaves a clean edge. It's a bit expensive, but you don't use that much and it's definitely the right thing to use for PC masking. I think you can get it on MMC.
In terms of surface prep, we did everything ourself. First, we did a wash with water and simple green, and then sand blasting, then another simple green wash to get the sand off. Then, we were ready to mask, spray and bake. Keep in mind that good prep takes a really long time, and you can get good results without it, but without solid surface prep, PC is real hit and miss. We ended up regretting most times we didn't prep well. Talk to your sponsor about what they want.