Powder Coat System from Sears?!?!

[Not2B]

So... I'm doing some last minute shopping, and I'm in Sears. For whatever reason, I end up walking around the tool area... and look what I find:

Craftsman Powder Coat System

I would never have expected this. Does anyone know anything about this? Does it work? Is it any good? Did anyone else know about this?

OK, I admit, we don't need to powder coat anything - I just thought it was interesting.

[Greg Needel]

i have used one, we have one in the shop at RIT. The thing about powder coating is it isn't the powder or gun that is hard it is the cooking of your parts. I don't know about you but i don't have a spare oven for cooking parts and i am not going to put them in the one i cook with.

[John Gutmann]

If they are small enough parts like little plates or mounts you can buy a little convection oven maybe.

[Andrew Blair]

It was in an issue of PopSci a few months ago. From what they say, (and it makes sense) for small parts you can just use a toaster over, which is what I think sparksandtabs said. You could do some cool stuff with that...

[Dan Richardson]

Last time I visited a harbor freight they had a small oven for cooking powder coated items, it had a decent size inside, looked about the size of a small refrigerator that one might have in a dorm room. Wasn't too expensive if I recall correctly either, about $350

[Tom Bottiglieri]

I wonder why you can use a toaster oven but not a regular food prep oven.

[Veselin Kolev]

Originally Posted by Tom Bottiglieri

I wonder why you can use a toaster oven but not a regular food prep oven.

Just don't use a microwave

[KyleGilbert45]

I work at Sears and recently saw this item when I started working this Holiday Break. Looked pretty cool, but it didn't appear that anyone had bought one yet. If I think about it, on Saturday I'll ask one of our tool pros about the powder coater.

[Jay H 237]

The oven used for powder coating shouldn't be used for food because of the fumes and emissions as the powder cures.

I have a larger 6 slice toaster oven that I bought from Kmart for $40 for the powder coating system from Eastwood (auto restoration supplier). This is identical to the Sears one and you can use powders from either one. If I had the space I would get an old electric kitchen range. Getting a used kitchen range is cheaper than a powder coating oven. Whatever oven you use must be electric and not gas. You need 400 - 450 degrees for the powder to cure, the higher spike in tempature during the first several minutes of cooking to "flow" the powder out. The size of the oven dictates how big of parts you can do.

Generally the darker the powder the more fumes it releases as it cures. Once the parts cool off from the oven they are ready to be used. They look as if they are painted, it's not a very thick coating, but it's much more durable than paint. The powder is sprayed on from a special gun using an electrostatic charge to hold it to the part. Any powder overspray can be swept or vacuumed up. The trick is to not touch the part after you spray it. Thin metal wire works good for this. After being coated you can carry the part to the oven and hook it onto one of the racks so it can hang freely in the oven as it's baked.

[Greg Needel]

Originally Posted by Tom Bottiglieri

I wonder why you can use a toaster oven but not a regular food prep oven.

you can use a regular oven but until heat is applied the power is held on by an electrical charge, and during the process some excess is almost always going to fall off the part. Now imagine you made a cake in that same oven later that afternoon

[Billfred]

Originally Posted by Greg Needel

you can use a regular oven but until heat is applied the power is held on by an electrical charge, and during the process some excess is almost always going to fall off the part. Now imagine you made a cake in that same oven later that afternoon

I don't suppose some Easy-Off and elbow grease would rectify that problem, would it?

[Mike Schroeder]

what about a small room, and maybe a large Convection heater or forced air heater, if you insulate the room well enough would that work?

[Greg Needel]

I was thinking a good solution for this would be to go to goodwill, or the salvation army and buy an old crappy stove that still works. That way you will get the heat you need but don't need to worry about the powder getting on something you are going to use to cook food.

I have a buddy who has an old dishwasher in his garage that he uses for cleaning car parts...this would be kinda like the same thing.

[Bill Moore]

Originally Posted by Greg Needel

I have a buddy who has an old dishwasher in his garage that he uses for cleaning car parts...this would be kinda like the same thing.

Not at all "kinda like the same". Using a spare oven to heat the powder coating isn't going to break any laws, but using a dishwasher to clean car parts covered with oils and greases will. That is, unless he has a "closed loop" system, or collects and disposes of the water used as an environmental hazard.

I don't believe there is a water treatment plant in the country who wants to hear that its' customers are flushing down engine oils in any amounts. If there were, you'd have a dishwasher installed in every motor repair shop around.

Dean often talks about the people in the world who do not have access to clean water, but clean water is so familiar to us that we often don't even think about how poorly we treat it before we send it back out into the environment.

[Qbranch]

Originally Posted by Tom Bottiglieri

I wonder why you can use a toaster oven but not a regular food prep oven.

Just make sure you don't try to eat anything that comes out of your oven after you bake parts in it!!!!!

Basically, anything you bake in your oven after that will taste like it was injection moulded. I would suggest that you use the ever-popular toaster oven concept.

-Q