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Powder coating - safe?

No idea really. The place I took it to seemed to be a professional outfit, and had a lot of good reviews and examples of previous work. Can only guess that either the parts were warped during the blasting stage (I never saw them between them being blasted and coated), or whatever method they use for powder coating - assuming there are different methods - was too hot or whatever. Will get some photos when I get the parts back. An expensive lesson learnt.

Appreciate the gesture.. :) I was contemplating buying some used rails, lockdown bar and what have you and letting the guy have another go - but if they got warped again it would be throwing good money after bad.
 
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Well at least the legs are ok. The sparkle effect is actually more subtle than I thought it would be, you have to look really close to notice it. Hopefully that will keep me in @DRD's good books ;)

Actually starting to think the rails etc being chrome will be a nice offset. Would rather not have paid £259 for it though.
 
Indeed.

Picked up the knackered bits today.. as you can see they are... ever so slightly warped. As in, hardly any edge is straight.

The side rails could almost be used as bows.

The powder coater guy gave me £100 towards replacement bits and didn't charge me for the bits he did do, which I think is more than fair. He is convinced the guy that blasted the parts "used the high power blaster instead of the other one". He wasn't happy that the guy pressed on even though he must have noticed things bending.

Ah well, chrome stuff is en route.
 

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Durzel wow you've really highlighted that it's not "safe" then, but the Chrome will look great:thumbs:

Surely the guy applying the powder would notice if the damage had occurred at the blasting stage. My money would be on the curing stage, some metals are not standing up to the heat/time requirement for the application. I'm surprised we haven't got a knowledgeable powder coater in this community.
 
Chrome bits arrived today.. fitted without drama. The lockbar didn't fit to begin with, so tried playing about tightening and loosening the 2 flat head brass screws on top without much luck (what are these supposed to do?). Eventually ended up adjusting the whole receiver which seemed to do the trick, though it's not perfect yet.

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In case anyone is interested this is what the powder coating ended up looking like..

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At most angles it just looks black, but when you look closely it has a blue hue with blue sparkles. It looks more subtle than I had expected or planned it to be, but I actually I think it looks better subtle...

That said - I don't think I'd do this again on anything other than legs and maybe coin door (which I haven't done). Besides the warping of several bits making them unusable the extra material on some parts has caused problems...

For example, the apron...

B8A37721-2419-4A45-B82A-384DB68FC979.jpeg

I had to sand down all of the holes on it - including where the cage nuts go, the two screws that attach it to the hangars (and the things that go over these holes to provide a thread for the screws to go through), and - most frustratingly of all - the 2 prongs that go under the hooks (?) on the playfield to hold the front down. Ended up having to buy a Dremel to do those properly.

I still have some issues with balls getting stuck rolling down the right hand side due to the extra bulk added by the powder coating (the clearance down this side is very tight), and the decals I put on it don't look particularly great either... basically the apron turned out to be a nice idea in principal, but a frustrating one in practice.

:confused:
 
MartinY said:
So right length for bally Williams but wrong for stern, is that right?
Click to expand...

Yes, I now have 4 spare B/W legs in Cadbury purple, after blindly taking a set of metal to the powdercoating guy.

They are 3” shorter than the red Stern legs shown.

I have since got a +3” Stern set of legs done in purple and fitted them to Metallica earlier today.
 
Meanwhile, Iron Man got a set of red metal. Not quite the red I was after (wanted a darker cherry), but ****-it: looks really good & matches the backbox trim!
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I've still got my old warped powder coated bits. Does anyone think they are worth anything or should I just bin them?
 
Possibly. I think the main problem is that stuff like the side rails need to be true along the full length, otherwise they're going to want to come away from the cabinet, or lift off or whatever. I don't know how true they'd ever be.

It's possible someone could make something of them, or even fix the lockbar, but I don't have the time, equipment or skills to do it. I'd pretty much need someone to just take them off me to make it worthwhile holding onto them.
 
anyone recommend a powder coater in London / South East?

Looking to my GOTG done.

Neil.
 
RudeDogg1 said:
Are you getting speaker panel coated? That would look niiice
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I'm kind of in two minds, partly because I think it might be too much, but partly because some parts of the new panel are quite thin and might not make it through the process.
 
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