Harbor Freight Chicago Powder Coat System

[Gloomisman]

Has anyone used this system? I'm looking at purchasing one to spray heads, blades, and other stuff I've been making. Fluid beds are nice but for some reason I still use alot of paint and its time consuming to dip alot of heads.

[dlaery]

Has anyone used this system? I'm looking at purchasing one to spray heads, blades, and other stuff I've been making. Fluid beds are nice but for some reason I still use alot of paint and its time consuming to dip alot of heads.

I have one like it I bought from Component Systems, I gave $100 for it. It does fine for 1 color on jigs. It looks a lot like the Harbor Freight one.

I had trouble on nickle plated blades. but it worked real good for a long time.

I bought another form Columbia Coatings so I could do 2 coats, I gave 3 or 400 dollars for it. It was not any better. It was suppose to do 2 coats and never did work right. My fist one from Component worked 10 times better than the one from Columbia. soooo, I bought another from Columbia for $400 and it works good, 2nd coat can be tricky and I havn't tried any blades yet.

[SlowFISH]

I have one like it I bought from Component Systems, I gave $100 for it. It does fine for 1 color on jigs. It looks a lot like the Harbor Freight one.

I had trouble on nickle plated blades. but it worked real good for a long time.

I bought another form Columbia Coatings so I could do 2 coats, I gave 3 or 400 dollars for it. It was not any better. It was suppose to do 2 coats and never did work right. My fist one from Component worked 10 times better than the one from Columbia. soooo, I bought another from Columbia for $400 and it works good, 2nd coat can be tricky and I havn't tried any blades yet.

I have the "HotCoat" system I bought from Eastwood. Works pretty well as I use it for small motorcycle parts. Second coats are always a little difficult, you have to have a real good ground with it, but most of the time I just "hot flock" a second coat... which is heating the part to 300-400, then "spraying/blowing" the powder with the gun directly onto the part which flows out/melts as soon as it comes it comes in contact. I do my clear like this.

If you're not too worried about doing high end jobs, I'd think the HF unit would work, as you could always heat your parts and hot flock the first coat and not worry too much about it if need be.

One thing.... you WILL use more powder shooting than with a Fluid Bed as there is a ton of overspray. You can recycle the overspray if you capture it clean, but you always risk getting a little dust/dirt in the powder that way, which can mark a part on you.... but for jig heads, it may not be that big of a deal.

J

[yellowdawg]

for those of you shooting with electrstatic how are you racking your jigs for shooting? i've been looking but can't fin annything that would work. the way I understand it is anything not coverd gets painted so how do you keep the paint off the hooks?

[SlowFISH]

for those of you shooting with electrstatic how are you racking your jigs for shooting? i've been looking but can't fin annything that would work. the way I understand it is anything not coverd gets painted so how do you keep the paint off the hooks?

I haven't coated jigs, but when I do my small bike parts (bolts/hangers/stuff with threads) I cover with either aluminum foil or high temp tape. Another option would be to just wipe off areas you don't want covered, as the powder is just held by static, any type of blowing on it or touching/wiping will knock the powder right off.

J.