Is At-Home Powdercoating Worth It?

If the title was too vague and cryptic for you, we are doing some powdercoating today. we try a DIY method to powder coat at home with a regular household oven and parts from your local hardware store. if that wasn't enough, we take a trip to visit a professional powder coating shop and take a look at all the fancy shiny tools that Zach Jobe doesn't get to use. sure, a blast cabinet, chemical stripping tank, and $9000 powder coating gun would be helpful, but when have we ever made Zach's ife easy? Nevertheless, Zach is stacking his DIY powder coating skills up against the pro for your enjoyment. ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED!

thanks to Velocity Powder Coating for their help with this episode!

HERE IN MY GARAGE…
Curious what we use in the shop on a daily basis? Check it out below. And if you purchase these tools from these links, you’re helping support Donut. We appreciate it!

Milwaukee - 48-22-0125G - 25 ft. Magnetic Tape Measure - 2-Pack

Milwaukee 48-59-1880 M18 REDLITHIUM HIGH OUTPUT XC 8 Ah Lithium-Ion Battery and M18 /M12 Charger Kit

Milwaukee Angle Grinding 2781-22 M18 Fuel 4-1/2"/5" Slide, Kit

Milwaukee 2735-20 18V Li-Ion Flashlight

Milwaukee 2557-20 M12 Fuel 3/8" Ratchet

Milwaukee 48-11-1880 M18 REDLITHIUM HIGH OUTPUT 18v 8.0 Ah Lithium-Ion Battery Pack

Milwaukee 2125-21XC M12 LED Underhood Light Kit

Milwaukee M18 FUEL 3/8" Compact Impact Wrench with Friction Ring

Adenna Dark Light 9 mil Nitrile Powder Free Exam Gloves (Black), Large - Box of 100 (DLG676)

Scott Shop Towels Original (75143), Blue, 55 Sheets / Standard Roll, 30 Rolls / Case (10 Bundles of 3 Rolls), 1,650 Towels / Case

Zep Cherry Bomb Industrial Pumice Hand Cleaner - 48 Ounce (Case of 4) ZUCBHC48CA

AIDEA Microfiber Cleaning Cloths-100PK

Barrow 52 in. Brown Large Rectangle Wood Coffee Table with Lift Top

Barrow 52 in. Brown Large Rectangle Wood Coffee Table with Lift Top

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[shresthshivashankar]

I love how you guys are so honest, even including the failed powdercoat attempt. This is what gives donut its shine over other car youtubers!

[robcrockerracing]

Chris is my cousin in law, and he’s put an insane amount of time and effort into growing his business from its humble roots as a side project in the garage. Super stoked to see his hard work pay off!!

[daltonmiller]

I've been doing powdercoating at home for a while now, Eastwood makes a fantastic powdercoating kit that comes with everything you need including masking tape, plugs and 1lb of powder. Pair that with a used oven and a harbor freight sandblast cabinet and you have a setup that will allow you to get good results for years. I highly recommend it for anyone who maybe has multiple projects that they want to paint themselves. Cameron Nimela has a great video showing how to do it well

[Daisukiu]

Thank you for this episode, i was planning to paint the valve cover on my mx-5, but did not know professional powder-coating was so cheap, It's clearly a WIN for the pro in my opinion !

[kangarutan]

Zach's reaction to the fact that getting the valve cover powdercoated was already cheaper than what he'd pay to DIY it immediately got my like. Nearly killed me.

[THEUrinalCake]

I'm forever impressed by Zach's willingness to scrap everything during a project and start over if there's been a mistake or other factor that's going to lead to a flawed result. I think most folks would go "eh fuck it close enough" and press onward instead of rolling back and starting again. You can tell he's really dedicated to showing the level of quality that is possible in DIY but also how much effort it takes to achieve it. He's really giving it his all to try and match the professional grade result but also giving a fair appraisal of what is and isn't worth it in terms of effort and cost. I know that's the whole point of this segment but still. Exceptionally well done.

[joesutton]

A few points here from someone who runs a big commercial line.

That final rinse should be RO/di water. This ensures that any hard minerals in the water from the tap are rinsed off. It’s the stuff that you can’t see that will cause bad adherence and flaking years down the road

The pre bake is technically called out gassing, this is especially critical with aluminum. This step removes impurities deep inside the metal. With out a pre bake, it will out gas with the powder on it and cause bubbles and bad adhesion, leading to failure of the coating.

Powder coating it’s more technical that it is made out to be. There is a ton of science involved. Small projects like this are absolutely possible for the small guy.

[ThatCarGuyYT]

The issue you had with too much powder is because you don’t want horizontal laid parts. The powder in excess must be able to go away and the part need to catch the powder it needs thanks to grounding, also you can build an agitator with a simple rc motor and something that makes it unbalanced and cause vibration. I’m not a pro but I do a ton of power coating for my off-road builds and no one in my area does powder coating so I have no choice. Also steeling the hold dish washer from your wife and buying her a new one helps a lot in the cleaning process😂😂😂😂

[amdstrollo]

For a 1 time job, the pro was definitely way more worth the time, money and effort, but if you want to build a setup to continuously do more jobs, the DIY is clearly the winner.

[FrostD]

Powder coating is super fun and forgiving. Next time you see over spray in a small spot you can just give it a light blow and the excess usually just flies off. Another solid tip is to start with the weird corners and crevices and end with light spraying over the entire part. Yours looked my great for a diy set up! Keep these types of videos coming!!

[MrGman]

The DIY process also doesn't account for the cost of a good compressor, which can be costly for those that don't have one.

[thor]

Pro powder coating is priceless especially when you get wheels done

[arp]

I used to powder coat throttle bodies, valve covers and other random things on GM as a side business with my dad. Definitely something that requires the at home person a lot of rinse and repeat in order to do it well.

[FelixUmbra]

2:05 Powder coating is an Electro-static adhesion of powderized polymers such as Polyester, Urethanes or even Epoxies.
An electrical charge is applied to powder as it leaved the spray gun to be applied to an electrically grounded part.

As a Powder coater I can let you know some of the things I would do if you were to do this DIY.
Brake clean spray is a friend when getting heavy grease out of tight spaces that your fingers can't get into.
Prebaking isn't a bad idea for something like a valve cover which has how many years of oil baked into it.
Getting the part up to the cure temperature of the powder to be used and holding it for about 10 minutes will make sure that any solvents or residues that show themselves during the cure cycle, Won't.

Don't skimp on masking. It's the easiest thing to do and the hardest thing to fix if you realize AFTER you cure the part.
Have the cure oven at a higher temperature than you need. Curing the powder isa range of temperature, It might say 400F for 10 minutes, but you can get away with curing it at 375 for 15.
So the closer you are to that range is also the closer you are to burning the finish.
Brittle, discolored.


That is VERY heavy powder BTW. Not the cure, when you were spraying it went straight to the floor. need slightly more air flow, but have to be cautious about the mess without a booth.

[Papajin]

If anyone is considering messing with a basic setup, I've had decent luck with the inexpensive Eastwood gun with a couple of simple mods you can find online to make powder delivery more consistent. A good ground is important for good adherence, so if you can attach directly to a grounding rod, that would be ideal. I just picked up the largest counter top oven I could find, and only do small parts, but it's been nice not having to send the small stuff out as I have quite a lot of miscellaneous brackets and other metal parts that will PC well. I definitely prefer PC to paint when possible. Also you can pick up an assortment of PC plugs and caps fairly inexpensively at Amazon or other places so it might be worth the investment vs. tape if you plan to do more than a couple parts -- incidentally I use them for painting too.

[connorwhitaker]

I have been a project engineer in the field of Powdercoating/Ecoating for a few years now and I’m really impressed by this episode. Jobe did a great job of breaking down the important parts of what makes this process work and made it fun and easy to understand! Great job guys, love your content!!

[jackson.robertson]

Powder coat James, that would be entertaining

[justynswartz]

I started working at a powder coating shop a couple weeks ago. I'm a pressure washer right now but get to learn powder coating once a spot opens up. Definitely seen alot of cool stuff already. Loving it there sofar.

[wretchedslippage]

Hell yeah! The best part for me working at a sandblast and powdercoating place is ive been able to do my wheels, whatever parts I want for FREE BABY!

[joeyblack]

It would be really cool to see how well a medium quality powder gun would do. Somewhere around the $200-$400 range