Can Wood be Powder Coated?

check-out "bronzed baby shoes" on the web.

Yes. Sorry lyn.

These guys have system to powder coat wooden bow handles. I think it would work for your piece.

http://www.innovocsolutions.com/

http://www.btdwoodpowdercoating.com/

I've found, that with things like this, if you bypass the sales department and go to the tech department, they are usually pretty helpful.

If this is a one time deal, you may be able to get them to send a free sample of their product. Just enough to git r done.

Well, kinda..................

The bow handles are plastic, not wood in the first site. btdwood coats MDF, which, to me, isn't "wood", but a composite.

Wood, to me, is the stuff you cut off of trees and use unaltered.

Del uses "wood" to make bows.

There I go again. Being anal.

Don Julio REAL and I are about to relax.

My bad. I was looking at the "wooden" bow grip. It looks a lot like the stuff that comes from trees. Here in NC we just call it wood.

Somebody needs to contact both of these sites and tell them that what they are doing is impossible.

OK, have it your way. I'm wrong, again.

Yes, powder coating wood is possible, if not done all the time.

You're going to have a headache in the morning.

I coated that part. It's a clear coat polyester powder coat over nylon. The graphics are 3D sublimation. Cool Stuff.

Hi Dave,

So, tell my friend, who posted the picture, is the part wood??????

As the hungover one said, "It looks a lot like the stuff that comes from trees. Here in NC we just call it wood."

He's so clever.

I admit that I was wrong when I stated that "wood" could not be powder coated, and I stand corrected.

But I just hate it when he's right and I'm wrong.

The substrate is nylon. The powder coating was done using the Innovoc Process at our previous location in Sparta WI. (Innovoc is now in Montrose Co.)

You are not completely wrong though Lyn, there will be out gas artifacts in the final finish. Hard woods have grain that is made up of pores. Heat up those pores and stuff comes out. Best bet would be to use a textured low cure epoxy, a little texture forgives a lot of sins!

"You are not completely wrong though Lyn".

See, I'm making progress. I've gone from being completly worng to being, not completely wrong".

Dave, it's a pleasure to have you here. Please hang around.

One way to powder coat wood is 'dip-coating'. Hard woods which can withstand high temperatures but lower than the rotomoulding powders can be powder coated by simple dip-coating method. A dip-coating tank containing powdered plastic over a screen below which air is blown can be used for coating small articles with quite ease.

Some polymers do not need high melting temperature and hard wood won't char at reasonably high temperatures too.

But of course! Here's a supplier:

http://www.fusionuv.com/

Using UV rather than heat to cure your coating solves lots of problems, not the least of which is providing adequate ventilation in a home workshop environment. Forty years ago I was a casualty of an improperly vented curing oven in a manufacturing facility. It produced full-blown hepatitis without benefit of germs, and a ten-week involuntary absence from work.

In addition, the effect of raising wood to high temperatures is generally not benign. Thermal curing of a powder coating is likely to affect the physical characteristics of some kinds of wood adversely, and may even char it.

Just remember to size your ring to allow for the one-and-a-half to three mil thickness of the coating. Good luck!

you proposed a good solution but the OP doesn't want to move his object...he wants to coat it in situ, if I am not wrong. For UV coating you need an oven and object has to pass through it. But again the OP doesn't have enough funds to do that. Difficult kinda situation, ain't it not???

I've had a few things powder coated and by the very nature of the hard finish I would have thought that it wouldn't be stable enough, the wood that is, thats apart from the fact that wood sweats, expands & contracts and generally moves constantly.

Bazzer

YES .. use a base metallic filler coat and prepare the wood properly .. put object into oven to bring to temperature before powder on it

use a slow low heat bake powder.. to minimise disruption, If your powder guy cant help you with this, look elsewhere It can be done.. have done hard wood .. soft wood and laminated boards..Boat building is starting to use it now..

I have an idea!!

Mix soot (or Kajal as it is called in Indic) in any acrylic car paint which uses hardener...and spray over the object or just paint it with the brush. Applying lamp heat or leaving the object in strong sunshine will do the curing and do the job.

Another method is to polish the surface black ( with soot) after doing the filling... zinc sulphate might work ...if you do not want to use ready-made putty or wood filler. Sand it off wet and spirit polish or lacquer when dry.

Did you not read the title? Can Wood be Powder Coated?

Powder is dry.

yes, powder is dry, I know that but sometimes it is mixed to make pomade as well!

There's one other problem with the proposed method, primarily:

1. static charge the target,

The gun charges the powder. If you cannot dissipate the net negative charge, the similarly charged powder particles will not be good neighbors and kick each other off the part. You need to have some method of making the surface of the part conductive. I suggest Ramsprep (I think that's what it's called.) But, Ramsprep is a salt and will leave a residue that telegraphs to the powder coated surface. Rohm & Hass used to make it, I don't know if it's still around. If this is for a mass production method call Kevin @ Innovoc.

you are right, there are two well-know powder coating processes..

1 Static powder coating

2. Dip-coating

I dunno what the OP wants to do??

My experience with fluidized bed (dip) coating requires that the part be pre-heated to melt the powder on contact.

I don't think that is the process used here.

I know but you can use a low-melting point plastic powder.....after you have done the filling.

Thanks to everyone. I enjoyed the humor as well as the diverse opinions. The parts are hoops cut from half-inch thick (15/32nd actually) Baltic Birch, 18.5-inch outside diameter. 16-inch inside diameter.

Part of the reason for considering PC was to hide minor surface imperfections when cutting the prototypes (a router and circle cutter with a half inch bit).

I've dead lines that must be kept. If I screw up these parts in the oven, there will be Hell to pay so I'll be content using a flat black enamel.

Static charging the wood is my biggest question. When I do get around to trying this process, I'll experiment with spray painting copper paint as a primer. That paint actually has real copper in it.

I've used that spray before to create a conductive ground planes inside the fuselages of composite aircraft to improve the signal strength on VHF and UHF antenna's.

If it will do that, it might just hold enough of a charge to hang onto the powder while baking,

Thanks all for the support.

L.J.

You cannot do the same procedure for plywood. You need to follow the procedure that will be more suitable for wood. To know more, you can also visit this website.

You can powder coat wood main thing you need is the wood to have a proper moisture content and to be dense enough to withstand heat. You want moisture to be properly balanced or it will cause issues with outgassing, making powder coating wood a bit more sensitive to heat. Birch is not a wood I have seen powder coated doesn't mean its necessarily impossible. This guide covers all the things to consider if your going to try powder coating wood.