You need to start on low voltage in the tight corners, do the right corners first because it’s creates too much of a charge if you do the rest first, once you’ve done the tight areas turn it to high voltage and and spray the rest of the part, and the smoothness of the finish is affected a lot by the amount of powder you put on it, small orange peel is the result of not enough powder, large orange peel is from too much powder
I've used the harbor freight gun for multiple things. I've used both harbor freight powders and prismatic powders. The red harbor freight powder worked perfect and set up very glossy and used it on a heel plate on my motorcycle. Thousands of miles later it looks just like it did out og the oven. I used the harbor freight black and it did not come out of the gun very well and I suspect it may have had moisture in it causing it to spit and sputter while shooting. The prismatic powders I used illusion purple and a matte clear top coat that both worked very well.out of the gun. I do however use an inline pressure regulator/ water sepperator.
Thanks Scott. Getting tired of all these Monday morning QB's on RU-vid that have all the ideas in the world for how I should do my videos, but oddly enough, none of them ever upload any content that's better. Weird.
About 10 or 12 years ago I made a locking door for our plain generic mail box and used Eastwood red powder, and to this day it has yet to rust. I had the first and only powder-coating gun they sold and cost something like $140 and used an old electric kitchen oven. Get a cheap box fan and a large AC filter, then make a spray box/booth where you have one side open, the other is the filter having the box fan suck air through the filter, that way your over spray goes in the filter and does not float around the shop adding to the dust issue. Also breathing plastic dust is not a good idea. Also, his pressure is WAY TOO HIGH! It's like he is trying to spray paint, but you just want the powder to pass by the surface slowly so it can grab.
You should watch some videos on how to powder coat. I've watched both of your videos on this comparison. Your air pressure is not low enough on the harbor freight gun. You also didn't have the same angle on your parts. You had a horizontal and vertical 90 degree on the nova cluster, and completely upside-down on your sheet metal. However your comparison seems a little better. The harbor freight gun works great. I've been using it for years. You don't want full air pressure to your gun on any system regulate the hose down to 15psi. Keep up the videos I've watched several.
He used an analogy in the first video of an airbrush vs industrial paint gun. I feel confident the two have different PSI on the user end. Using the flow control as a regulator doesn't work well
Thank you for the video and information, I have both Eastwood dual voltage as well as harbor freight powder coating guns, Both have a place in my work shop and I use them together to save time. My first Eastwood dual voltage gun failed and would shock me just holding it so Eastwood with fantastic customer service replaced it with the new “black dual voltage gun” instead of the blue one and it works amazing, I use the harbor freight just for clear coat. Eastwood is for the colored powder and it works great and saves me time. One comment I had after watching both guns was the amount of powder sprayed out of the harbor freight. If you do another video like this perhaps you can take the weight of the powder before and after to see how much of a difference from each gun. Also use a pressure regulator directly off the compressor so the same air flow goes through both guns so it’s a fair test. Thanks again and be safe. I appreciate the videos and information.
In the first video, you forgot the ground clip on one test and the powder stuck very well anyhow. Because the part had been heated to 400* and the powder melted on it. That suggests that one might jury rig a powder coater that simply blew the powder without the high voltage. Maybe even a HVLP spray gun would work. You'd always have to pre-heat, of course.
Excellent video, I'm going to be powder coating everything LOL. I was specifically looking for how to protect car parts instead of just painting them and this looks perfect.
manual says to position parts so powder falls into crevices. page 9: "If the object has grooves or recesses, position the object so that gravity assists the powder mist to fall into the grooves or recesses" . That's just a common practice. Id buy either but HF is 2 miles away and returns are super easy.
Because the guns are fogging the part, it would seem more productive to make a poly hoarding for the back side to contain the "powder fog" more. Love your videos and comparisons.
I have been having the same problems. The HF system is wasting too much of my powder. It also seems to give a weak charge. I like the example of the two coats with out peeping the first coat. I have wasted too much time sanding off the first bad coat for a reapplication. I think we would all appreciate (from yourself or others) how to fix screw ups and problems. I did learn a couple of tips, so, thank you.
I have never uploaded a video now to and I’m a very handy guy that have done a million diy at home . But I don’t do videos on, anyways I appreciate someone like you doing video and give your opinion on things never do criticize because I done no videos myself. Take the good advice and the trolls criticism let them be , they will never prospered that’s why they criticize. I follow a guy name COLTS WAY and all though he does what I do for a living (LINEMAN) he says it very clear . I don’t care what you think or say that’s his way on doing it. Great video and I appreciate it. You gain another follower. Thx
The problem you are seeing with lack of powder nooks and crannies or corners is called the faraday cage effect caused by the electrostatic. It can be done but takes practice.
The problem with the inside corner has to do with the electrostatic attraction. The electric field will be stronger on outside corners, and weaker on inside corners. Therefore more powder will collect on the outside corners than the flat surfaces, and less on inside corners. This is due to a phenomenon called field enhancement. It is the same principle that a lightning rod mounted on a flat surface will attract lightning to the sharp rod instead of the flat surface. There are many articles explaining this in more detail on the internet.
The reason you may have trouble with your second coat is the mil thickness of the first coat. Once it has 5 mil or more you will not get anymore powder to build up because it is insulating the steel from ground and static charge.
Curious how the HF would have worked if you would have put the same kind of air regulator as you had on the EW. Also on your infrared heater I bet if you would have made some kind of chicken wire frame and lined it with tin foil and put it on the other side of your part I bet it would have reflected the heat back and raised the temperature on your part.
how about lowering the pressure on the crevices ? just thinking if too much air pressure it tends to push more powder away because of too much air? I don't know if it will make any difference
There's a guy on RU-vid showing how you can make the Eastwood gun with a couple of minor upgrades shoot like a professional it seems that the harbour freight also could do the same thing. You may want to check that video out.
@@ClubbersGuideCanada The YT channel is "Cycle Fab". He designs and manufactures upgrade parts for both HF and EW powder coat guns. I purchased his upgrade parts for my HF powder coat gun and absolutely love it!
@@catherineharris4746 The YT channel is "Cycle Fab". He designs and manufactures upgrade parts for both HF and EW powder coat guns. I purchased his upgrade parts for my HF powder coat gun and absolutely love it!
does your light get the part to 400? 340 or 350 wont flow out smooth. try a flat color and you will see if its still shiny it didnt cure. flats lose sheen when they are fully cured. good content!
Great video on both times ! Not easy recording and doing. I done a lot of stuff that possibly could made to have a channel and never go for it because I'm trying to stay focused....not easy. Great jod!
Into crevices? I think you'r referring to the diffusers. I don't use them as I find the gun works better without them. IMO the only way to spray powder into a crevice and actually get it to stick is to pre-heat the part and hot-flock it. If you don't, the Faraday cafe effect will never allow powder to get into a crevice.
I don't have a clue about powder coating, but your apples to apples comparison about the nooks and crannies was probably different because the ground clip was directly to the instrument bezel hanger, and not to the angle part where it had to travel thru a bunch of connection and a longer distance. The ground caused the attraction, so that may be the difference in the performance. For any true comparison, you would need to remove all the differences (like you did with the square tubing and had the same results).
thats not the issue its called a faraday effect. opposing metal close to each other cause the powder to swirl and repel from the area. lower voltage and or hot coating the second coat is the only way to achieve it.
Low voltage is for the first coat base of powder, and the higher one is for the second coat that the static charge can get through the first base for better coating....... the way you use a diffuser is by at a 90° angle to the part for the harder areas first.
I appreciate that. Folks have no idea how much time and effort goes into even a crappy video, let alone a good one. I do this because I enjoy it, and certainly not because the RU-vid revenue has me making a sweet $1.27 per hour.
I would like to request a new test/video. Can you wet sand, clay bar, polish etc powder coat to an absolute perfect finish the same as regular auto paint?
Awesome video! Really gave me a great comparison between the two. I do have a question for you. Is there a way to go around not sandblasting? Don’t have the room or money to spend on a little setup. Not looking to make money in this so will just be using the power kit on small items.
As long as you clean the part to the bare metal that's all that's mandatory. A wire wheel will do it as well. I prefer media blasting because it's quick and leaves a pitted surface for the powder to adhere.
I appreciate this second video in your attempt to compare apples to apples for clarification of the obvious differences in your first video. But I feel it's worth mentioning that while you still used the same powders and adjusted air pressures, you did so on different parts (your dashboard vs the part you made on your brake). In order to have an unbiased comparison, all test factors need to be identical....not just 'similar'. No, I don't expect you to do another test regarding this. I'm just suggesting that in the future you should consider using the exact same parts for test pieces, rather than different pieces. Just my opinion.
You’re using your diffuser wrong when you can spray directly onto the part that you want to powder you don’t use the diffuser. The diffuser is to kick your powder left right upper down if you can only put your gun in One Direction then you would use the diffuser to spray the powder around left to right not straight out. For example when you’re trying to get into the crevice and you can’t aim your gun up you’ll put the diffuser on point a gun straight under it and let the diffuser blow the powder upward into the crevice. And with the Eastwood system when you start to do those crevices you use your low-voltage can you start by blowing your powder in the crevice first then you switch to the high voltage and go over the whole piece.
Why won't the Harbor Freight system shoot upward? Look at the angled canister when you point the gun upward. The powder flows down (gravity) away from the pickup.
I think the diffusers are there to make you waste product. (Paint). Seems like you can better control the flow without it and any adjustments could be made with air regulation. It's shocking how much powder is just shot away to be wasted.
When PC over chrome does the chrome have to come all the way off.? If so what’s the better material for blasting. New to all of this and just wanted to do some parts on my Florida patina’d motorcycle. Even new parts are rusty in a couple of months of sitting.
On the harbor freight system I do the tight corner & nook and cranny first then the flats last works for me just figured it out by trial and error. lol
Wouldn't you want to create some downdraft table/fan box ? This stuff looks to be super messy. Why would anyone spray this in their shop with no down draft.
I know this video is older buuuuuuut a fan nozzle would be leaps and bounds better as far as coverage and getting into the faraday's. Most high end commercial units utilize them unless you are only doing large flat areas. There is a guy that sells a lot of upgrades including fan nozzles on E-Bay.
Late to your channel but new to powder coating. I actually watched both your videos and wondered about why you’d have to turn off comments on the first. I’m guessing folks were rude about your process. I don’t get why people can be so negative. Anyway, they were both very helpful for me because it was very much like going through the experimentation stages with you. I normally have missteps with something new myself and it’s helpful to actually see the ramifications. Thanks much for both videos.
Thank you James! You are exactly correct sir. I turned off the comments because I was tired of all the Monday morning quarterbacks blasting my a**. I did my best. Might not have seemed like it, but it was a lot of effort and it was as good as I could do. Making videos that come out perfect is hard, very hard. I wish all these damn negative Nancy's that seem to know everything would make a video showing everyone the correct way to do it and just leave me alone if they don't like my content.
I don't mean this in a negative way but I have to say that this is an invalid review as well. One cannot make a comparison without having exactly the same criteria between the two items. To be specific, you didn't use the same parts to paint! You changed all kinds of parameters on the Eastwood gun until you got the results you wanted. Then with the HF gun you painted a completely different piece, and you never tried any of the different diffusers that were included with the HF system. You also never stated the air pressure used with either gun so we have no idea whether you used the same pressure settings for both tests. I have never used the Eastwood system before but I do have the HF system and I am able to get it dialed in to work properly for any situation. It doesn't blow clouds of paint all over the part and everything else around, and I can get even coverage in the smallest of corners by adjusting the charge with the foot pedal. Overall your reviews show that you have a strong bias towards the Eastwood system instead of being objective and unbiased.
Id just bought a powder coating gun, i want to powder coat my dirtbike farme which is Way to Big to cure in my oven. Kan you make video om how to cure lagrer parts like a dirtbike frame. Love youre videos
@@tylerhunt9129 but i would like to have the frame cured so it’s chips resistense and would take the beating of the though terrain. Will it stil could resist that by being cured by a hesting gun?
Good question. Regulating at the gun gives you an instant pressure adjustment where you want it. If you put it at the air compressor and you have 200 ft of air line between the gun and the compressor, then making an adjustment not only requires walking back to the compressor, but more importantly it means that when you make an adjustment, that pressure differential then has to equalize across a large volume of air lines. In short, making an adjustment at the compressor means you won't get what you want at the gun until all 200 ft of air lines catch up. I run the moisture filter at the gun because that negates any condensation that occurs in the lines between my gun and the compressor, which is a lot if you have a lot of air line as I do. At the end of the day, having that stuff directly at the gun gets you exactly what you want and where you want it.
Could the issue with crevices be a result of the two negatively charged surfaces being too close together? The result creates a positive charge which would repel the positive charged powder. To overcome the repulsion, a tighter "stream" is needed. That's why removing the defuser helps. The closer the two negatively charged surfaces are together, the more difficult it is to get positively charged powder to adhere, kind of like a faraday cage. Try painting those areas first at a lower voltage and higher pressure.
I gave you a long list of problems with your last video. It looks like you made an honest effort to address all of them. Much, MUCH better. Well done! WRT to that little valve, it's just a flow control valve, it is basically a variable orifice so you can control the volume of air flowing through the gun at whatever pressure. I don't know what the recommended pressures are for either gun, but if you were in a reasonable range for both you should have tried adjusting that first before changing the pressure. That was the reason that you were dumping out powder with the HF gun, and you should be able to fine-tune that.
you may want to turn your air down. It5 seems you are wasting alot of powder product with the sheer volume coming out. take a look at Eastwoods video on the beginers guide to powder coating and notice how slowly his coating is coming out of the gun.
You tried everything you could to make the Eastwood unit to work better than the Harbor freight. That is not a head to head. This should have been a how to make the Eastwood work video.
