Why powder coating is for garden furniture...

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I must be in the minority here as I have had many frames and ancillary parts powder coated and never had a problem
I always do all my preparation
I have various blanks and studding to blank off headstocks etc also I have heatproof masking tape that I got from a powder coaters
I once had a bottom yoke powder coated silver and it had originally been red
I left a little bit of red in the casting under the yoke and it ran into the silver making a pink streak!!!
 
Why is powder coating the go to for industrial applications? Because of the EPA. No need for thermal oxidizers on the roof. No need for hazardous waste removal for clean up solvents and unused reduced and catalyzed paint. A great appearing finish for a bargain price.
Keep in mind that one great drawback of powder is it has relatively poor chemical adhesion to bare metal. So when you grind off that coating or there is any exposed bare metal (crack, gouge, etc.) rust and corrosion will easily spread beneath the polymer film and cause flaking. Premium powder applications will use a primer to improve adhesion, but most of the industrial coaters won't bother as they are more interested in a tough, attractive film rather than long life (planned obsolesence?).
I'm not proposing you don't powder coat your frames, that's your decision, you just should know the pros and cons of powder.

A common way to get the power coat to provide a good adhesion is to get the frame shot blasted first. This is the way I had my frame and alloy wheels done.
 
A common way to get the power coat to provide a good adhesion is to get the frame shot blasted first. This is the way I had my frame and alloy wheels done.
Absolutely! This is a must. In the coating industry there are two types of adhesion, chemical and physical. Both are necessary for a good chip resistant film. Blasting takes care of the physical adhesion, but the chemical adhesion is why epoxy primer is often used in DTM (direct to metal) and it is often recommended to topcoat within 24 hours in liquid coating. This is usually omitted in powder coating. There are some instances where primers are used in powder coating (ask Harley Davidson!), but not usually in standard commercial powder coatings.
 
I have been using powder coating for 30 odd years, I have powder coated items from when I first used it and they are still black and the yokes are still silver, no flaking and no rust. I have tried maybe 6 powder coaters but only stuck with 2, the other 4 were failures for different reasons, orange peel being one coaters downfall.
 
The place I went in Front Royal was a DOD contractor and so he had the phosphoric dip before coating and he also blasted it before the process. But he was also very helpful in letting me do the masking, he was a rather small operation, maybe 10 people. He'd never seen a Norton, but had done some HD cylinders and wanted to do mine. No thanks on the cylinder. The other place I looked at in Manassas was more industrial and said they had done lots of HD's, but were in no interest to let me do any masking nor did they think it was necessary. I skipped on that one.
Please provide details or PM me. I would happily drive to Front Royal to get frames done. Everything else I do in-house, but I don't have an oven to fit frames. To me, the place in Manassas is impossible to work with and ridiculously expensive.
 
marsh,
Coatings USA, Front Royal VA, 116 Success Road, 540-636-7911. A few miles north of FR off 540 behind the Penske Truck Rental. http://coatingsusa.com/ looks like the same group of people are still there. Go in and talk to them, tell them you want to mask parts. They gave me a helper and they had all sorts of plastic masking in circles, sheets and plugs. They will probably want to do the blasting themselves. Make sure you get everything done at once. Single off pieces will cost extra. I used 'Chrome' for the forks and black for the rest. The road off 540 looks like a service road, but it does take you there. Yeah, that place in Manassas was full of themselves.
 
I had all the black frame parts powder coated in 1998 on my ‘72 750. 21 years and over 35,000 miles since - doing well.
 
I purchased from Old Britts the masking kit of hardware. My frame is due to be ready next week and I was wondering how to remove the hardware without screwing up the coating. Do I scribe a line around each washer with a craft knife?
 
Useful article - only thing it skips over is where to get that high temperature masking tape - I've never come across this and the powder coaters I've used don;t seem to know about it. Does it have a name?
See https://www.eastwood.com/hotcoat-powder-coating/accessories.html I mostly use the Fiberglass tape because it is flexible. The Polyester is better for larger areas but it is like thick cellophane tape so is difficult to curve around things when needed. Also, Amazon has many choices for "high temp tape".
 
I purchased from Old Britts the masking kit of hardware. My frame is due to be ready next week and I was wondering how to remove the hardware without screwing up the coating. Do I scribe a line around each washer with a craft knife?

Yes.
 
I tell you that OB kit is a pain in the rear. Plus they don't tell you about the rear axle, unless I missed something. You better put all that stuff on before it's blasted (which is counter to what you want) so the oil on the hardware doesn't mess up the new P/C. I had all that stuff ready put on and the coaters told me to get it off. They gave me that thick cellophane stuff after it was cleaned and blasted and it worked great. I think the P/C doesn't stick to that stuff so there's no worry with it. That stuff is made for P/C work and it comes in all sizes.
 
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