Micro-scale powder coating

[rocketbob]

I'm a big fan of powder coating small parts, but it becomes a huge PITA when doing one-off individual parts of different colors.

So I decided to try using a small airbrush-type sandblast gun I have, along with heating the part with a heat gun. The amount wasted powder is minuscule, considering there is no electrostatic charge apparatus.

In a nutshell, heat part with heat gun, spray powder on, heat and spray repeatedly to desired coverage. Works perfectly. No powder gets blown off by the heat gun using this technique.

Below is pic of a lathe cutoff I picked up and tested this on, so quality was not a concern.

[BillL]

Only I can not see the second picture, but recently saw my fishing neighbor just heat his leads, then dip in the powder, they looked fantastic. The parts would need to be small.

I like the heat-spray technique.

[az_gila]

What curing temperature is needed?

Perhaps a cheap oven might help for our small parts -

https://www.walmart.com/ip/BLACK-DEC...3000G/51800328

[Aluminum]

Fabulous! This will cover sharp corners and insides too, trouble spots for electrostatic adhesion. Better thickness control too. I'm ordering mine right now.

Combine with Seek Thermal infrared camera, no guessing if it will stick.

P.S. The second photo showed on my phone but not in my desktop browser.

[rocketbob]

Originally Posted by az_gila

What curing temperature is needed?

I don't know but I probably spent less than 30 seconds heating the sample part initially. Just a takes few seconds gets the powder to melt on subsequent applications of powder and heat.

[noelf]

Different powders and different suppliers specify different temperatures. The ones I use specify 425*F for 25 minutes. I also use a small toaster oven that just does reach the required temperature that I check with a remote sensing handheld IR unit.

I really do like the OP's approach to one-off small parts.