Anybody Else Here Powder Coat Out of Their Garage?

-
harrisonm

harrisonm

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 16, 2005
Messages
5,785
Reaction score
8,105
Location
Topeka, KS
I have been Powder Coating for about 20 years now. I started with a cheap Eastwood $100 setup. I got pretty good at it. I have NEVER had any intent to do it as a business, but I have made some money over the years by word-of-mouth inquiries. I have never chased customers, but if someone calls me, I will work with them. I realize I will NEVER be on the par of someone like our own lovely @CudaChick1968, but I have never tried to be. Her work is amazing, and I have the greatest respect for her. She found something she liked and made a successful business out of it. If you want something powder coated, call her! By the time I started powder coating, I was too old to try and turn it into a business. I just powder coat because I like it, and I do make a few dollars here and there to support my Mopar obsession.

Anyway; we have so many people on this forum who are so talented with certain aspects of working on cars. Some of you can do major restoration bodywork, some paint cars, some are electrical experts, and some of you seem to know just about everything about Mopars. Anyway, I would like to know how many of you are doing your own powder coating out of your garages? Share your Powder Coating hobby with the rest of us, and post a few examples of your work. Here are a few pictures of my work.

Peacock1.jpg


glass05.jpg


chair2.jpg


07.jpg


EM7.jpg


IMG_0100.jpg


VC02.jpg
 
Dfr360cuda said:
The lamp is pretty cool.
What is the thing you are using as a junction box ?
Click to expand...
Thanks. It is the front half of a water valve. I have to take the valve apart and pull out any parts that would melt. They are then converted into being the on-off switch. The blue base part is the flywheel from a lawn mower engine. I had a customer who made them and sold them at craft fairs. They sold like hotcakes. He took custom orders for them; mostly school colors, but I did a few Harley Davidson (Black and orange) and John Deere (Green and Yellow) ones. The blue and red one was a KU Jayhawks lamp. He had to have his customers purchase and install the stickers. He did floor lamps too. I probably coated at least a hundred for him. Unfortunately, he died unexpectedly two years ago. I still make them for people here and there, but I don't know how to convert the water valve into a switch. No problem. I just use an inline switch in the cord near the lamp.
 
Looks like some nice work! I've thought about trying it, but like everything else, I'd screw it up.
 
Thanks for the awesome compliments @harrisonm! You have everything to be proud of!!

We all started somewhere.

Now in my 24th year, the first 8 were as a hobbyist restoring smalls for my '68 Barracuda in my little 1-car garage in California while earning a living at law firms. I split for Louisiana in 2003.

Getting relocated to BFE Tennessee -- thanks to getting there just in time for Hurricane Katrina :elmer: -- is the only thing that turned a fun hobby into a career. The closest lawyers who needed someone to do actual work versus merely answering a phone were 2 hours away. I could commute the rest of my life away or play with metal.

That was 17 years ago. I've never looked back. Straight up as always though, being a one horse show isn't nearly as lucrative as law firms were ... I'm an anal Virgo perfectionist who cares more about quality over quantity.

Getting to have a little hand in some of the coolest projects on the planet provides inexplicable personal satisfaction that's out of this world though!

If not for so many of you who had confidence then and now, I'd be in a car sitting in traffic instead of turning your ideas into reality. You're never unappreciated or taken for granted FABO!!!

A few happy memories from The Way Back Machine ...

FB_IMG_1656693133984.jpg

8727477_orig.jpg

20220525_133351.jpg

Screenshot_20220709-112804_Facebook.jpg

FB_IMG_1643664280270.jpg

FB_IMG_1647363509004.jpg
Of course I saved that label :rofl:

No matter what you're truly passionate about, let it run! You never know where it may lead.

20220404_130913.jpg


20220721_144147.jpg
 
Last edited:
harrisonm said:
I have been Powder Coating for about 20 years now. I started with a cheap Eastwood $100 setup. I got pretty good at it. I have NEVER had any intent to do it as a business, but I have made some money over the years by word-of-mouth inquiries. I have never chased customers, but if someone calls me, I will work with them. I realize I will NEVER be on the par of someone like our own lovely @CudaChick1968, but I have never tried to be. Her work is amazing, and I have the greatest respect for her. She found something she liked and made a successful business out of it. If you want something powder coated, call her! By the time I started powder coating, I was too old to try and turn it into a business. I just powder coat because I like it, and I do make a few dollars here and there to support my Mopar obsession.

Anyway; we have so many people on this forum who are so talented with certain aspects of working on cars. Some of you can do major restoration bodywork, some paint cars, some are electrical experts, and some of you seem to know just about everything about Mopars. Anyway, I would like to know how many of you are doing your own powder coating out of your garages? Share your Powder Coating hobby with the rest of us, and post a few examples of your work. Here are a few pictures of my work.

View attachment 1716112595

View attachment 1716112596

View attachment 1716112597

View attachment 1716112599

View attachment 1716112600

View attachment 1716112601

View attachment 1716112602
Click to expand...
@harrisonm What are you using for an oven? I've only done a few parts, and they've all just been satin black brackets and pulleys. I started in a toaster oven and now I've graduated to a full size household oven.

I thought about converting a 3-door commercial freezer into an oven, that way I could do off-road bumpers and other large items, but that idea never got off the ground.
 
Righty Tighty said:
@harrisonm What are you using for an oven? I've only done a few parts, and they've all just been satin black brackets and pulleys. I started in a toaster oven and now I've graduated to a full size household oven.

I thought about converting a 3-door commercial freezer into an oven, that way I could do off-road bumpers and other large items, but that idea never got off the ground.
Click to expand...
I used a household oven for about 4 years. I was able to do a lot of things in it. Then people started asking me to do bigger items. I did a Google Search and found a place called Ted's Fabrication. He makes big PC ovens that cost (at the time) about half as much as everything else I found. I talked to Ted, and he said that his Ovens were just a big double wall sheet metal box with two heating elements, a control unit with thermostat and a temp probe, and there was NO reason for them to be so expensive. I think it was about $2000 with shipping about 12 years ago. Interior dimensions are 3' wide, 3' deep and 6'high. I have done Bike Frames, off-roar truck bumpers. rear axle housings, etc. I have a decent sized blasting cabinet from TP Tools with their extension on it. I rarely have to have people get their items blasted elsewhere. Check with Ted's. If you have the expertise to build your own oven, that is great. When I bought mine from Ted, It was reasonable enough that I didn't even think about building my own. At one time, I had so many people asking me to powder coat stuff for them (all word of mouth), I seriously thought about doing it full time. But I had a really good job at the Federal Home Loan Bank here in Topeka that I was not going to walk away from, and I was only a few years away from retiring. I retired in 2015. Stick with it. I really like doing it.
teds fabrication
 
Last edited:
Thanks! I'm definitely considering just making my own -- I already have most of the electrical components, including a PID controller. The freezer I was going to use was simply taking up too much space and my list of projects is longer than my arm, so it got the axe.

Those ovens from Ted's are really nice, and considering the cost of materials and labor, reasonably priced.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top