Powder Coating

[LANDSURFER74]

Can any one recommend a powder coating firm in the Sheffield, Rotherham, Doncaster area please.

[Trigger]

Not quite the area you're after but there's a reasonably priced one in Mansfield, blasted and powder coated my frame and forks for £30.

[LANDSURFER74]

Mansfield is fine .. i work in chesterfield ... any idea of the name of the company...

[al_yrpal]

How about Mercian at Derby, straight down the motorway, and, you'll get a super hand done paint job, although not powder coating which can be very crude because powder builds up on edges.

Al

[gilesjuk]

Powder coating is harder wearing and more environmentally friendly.

[al_yrpal]

Powder coating is harder wearing and more environmentally friendly.

Thank you Giles. From someone that ran one of the biggest powder coating plants in the UK, coating everything from shop equipment, Hoover casings and bus parts to name just a few, I can assure you its not environmentally friendly at all. And, harder wearing than what?

Al

[Trigger]

Mansfield is fine .. i work in chesterfield ... any idea of the name of the company...

W H Paint Finishers Ltd.

Quite easy to find as well, you just turn up the old railway sidings after going under the rail bridge on Sheepbridge Lane.

The finish is pretty good but obviously nothing like a professional hand painted job but for the price I doubt you'd get a harder wearing finish, although my bike is a utility bike I like it to look nice. Just make sure you mask off all the threads and holes you don't want painting.

[bikes4two]

Powder coating is harder wearing and more environmentally friendly.

Thank you Giles. From someone that ran one of the biggest powder coating plants in the UK, coating everything from shop equipment, Hoover casings and bus parts to name just a few, I can assure you its not environmentally friendly at all. And, harder wearing than what?

Al

Maybe this posting needs some balance:
1. what is the cost of a powder coat versus say, a Mercian 'proper' paint job?
2. Hardness of wearing - what matters more than absolute hardness is the suitability of each to the job in hand. For instance, if a 'proper' paint job is say £250 but lasts 10 years (arbitary figures by the way), is this more suited than a powder coat at £30 that only lasts 'x' years. The answer to this of course, depends on what you're looking for.

I'd be interested to know the relative benefits/costs of each as I'm sure the OP and other future readers would. Can anyone elucidate?

[LollyKat]

Mercian stove enamelling starts at £100 - see here (scroll down). Contrast bands, linings and transfers add considerably .

[LANDSURFER74]

If in 10 years i fancy a change of colour how is powder coating removed?
Bear in mind my lovely Carlton-in-Lindrick manufactured 531DB frame only cost £32 on ebay!

[Ian Raleigh]

Powder coating is quite hard to remove and needs to be sand blasted very slowly at a very high pressure
thus your frame gets pitted by the high pressure of the blasting ! I had a frame powder coated and got tired
of the colour and when i took my frame to be blasted the sand just bounced off the super hard surface and
when the stuff was off my frame was left with an orange peel effect ! I'll never have anything powder coated again.

Another thing with powder coating is its all down to a guy who's doing the coating ! so you can end up with bad results.

Cranks look good powder coated though and never wears off.

Ian

[gilesjuk]

Powder coating is harder wearing and more environmentally friendly.

Thank you Giles. From someone that ran one of the biggest powder coating plants in the UK, coating everything from shop equipment, Hoover casings and bus parts to name just a few, I can assure you its not environmentally friendly at all. And, harder wearing than what?

Al

It's a damn sight more environmentally friendly than paint. The fumes given off as it is sprayed, the solvents used to keep it liquid, the thinners you add to it to spray it. Plus you're wasting a lot of paint with the overspray.

Wikipedia gives plenty of other reasons:

Powder coatings emit zero or near zero volatile organic compounds (VOC).
Powder coatings can produce much thicker coatings than conventional liquid coatings without running or sagging.
Powder coating overspray can be recycled and thus it is possible to achieve nearly 100% use of the coating.
Powder coating production lines produce less hazardous waste than conventional liquid coatings.
Powder coated items generally have fewer appearance differences between horizontally coated surfaces and vertically coated surfaces than liquid coated items.
A wide range of specialty effects is easily accomplished which would be impossible to achieve with other coating processes.

Surly powder coat their bikes for this reason.

As for harder wearing, it's a damn sight easier to get bolts into the holes on a painted frame. On a powder coated frame you have to get a tap into the threads first or you'll snap the bolt (I learned the hard way).

[Trigger]

As for harder wearing, it's a damn sight easier to get bolts into the holes on a painted frame. On a powder coated frame you have to get a tap into the threads first or you'll snap the bolt (I learned the hard way).

That's why you use sacrificial bolts in all the threads

[JonMcD]

Powder coating is quite hard to remove and needs to be sand blasted very slowly at a very high pressure
thus your frame gets pitted by the high pressure of the blasting !
Ian

Not necessarily. I had a previously powder coated Thorn frame, and a Dawes frame with Hardaznailz paint, powder coated by Armourtex in London, and there was no problem. They get rid of the old powder coat by using a pyrolysis oven for steel frames or a solvent stripper for aluminium frames. So, if you have a previously powder coated frame and you want it powder coated again it seems you need to ask how the old finish will be removed.

[PW]

If you want a decent enamel job try Vernon Barker in Dronfield. I'm just rebuilding the Son in Law's Claud Butler after one of Vernon's paint jobs, it really is damn good and it doesn't seem to scratch either.