Powder Coating Gun











Craftsman Powder Coating System: (No Air Compressor needed)

Brake Caliper Coated with the Craftsman Powder Coating Gun

It does not hold much powder. One cup can almost coat a 16" wheel before needing refilling.

The lid on the gun fits so tightly that if there is any powder on the lip, the lid will not tighten. To resolve this, I use a spoon to scoop powder into the cup, trying not touch the sides, then I use a small clean dedicated paintbrush to brush off any powder in the grooves on the lip before I tighten the lid. This brush is only used for this purpose and otherwise is kept in a resealable baggy to keep it clean. You don't want to introduce contaminants into your powder cup with a dirty brush.

Harbor Freight Powder Coating Gun

Eastwood Powder Coating Guns







Redline EZ-50 Powder Coating Gun

dedicated grounding rod using the alligator clip supplied with the gun. Without this gun being grounded to a grounding rod, there have been reports of it shocking the user. If you purchase a Redline EZ-50 gun and the power adapter does not have a ground prong, then the gun must be grounded using ausing the alligator clip supplied with the gun. Without this gun being grounded to a grounding rod, there have been reports of it shocking the user.

Hyper Smooth Powder Coating Guns

Powder coating gun - Read about them below in this post.The powder coating gun serves the purpose of electrically charging the powder and propelling it towards the parts you are powder coating. The amount it charges the powder is measured in KV/kilovolts (1,000 volts = 1 kilovolt). Cheaper guns have a pre-selected KV and more expensive guns allow you to choose. Powder coating guns range from $80 airless powder coating guns to $3,000+ for the professional powder coating setups like Wagner, Nordson, and Gema. If you already have a powder coating gun, read this article make sure you are using the correct spraying techniques I will start with the cheapest possible gun to get you coating. It is the. You can see my full review here: Craftsman Powder Coating System ReviewThe Craftsman gun is the only powder coating gun that does not require an air compressor. If you are interested in this gun because you don't have a compressor, also see Alternatives to Sandblasting since you would need an air compressor to do any sand blasting.For the beginner, this Craftsman powder coating gun performs well and is cheap enough to let you know if you would like to pursue powder coating. This was the first gun I bought and I used it to produce a lot of very nice finishes:I would call this gun under-rated. Powder coating forums will generally look down on it and it has some bad reviews because there is a part on the gun that breaks for even using a feather-lite touch. If you want to try out powder coating without spending much money, don't worry about that stuff. This gun has limitations, but the biggest limitation as a beginner will be your experience. The piece that breaks is a lock to hold the cup in, however it isn't really necessary. My cup has never fallen out even without the lock.The gun is very easy to use. I do not suggest using the ground wire that comes with the gun, but instead using a stand-alone grounding rod ( explained here ). The ground rod method should always be used instead of the guns ground, regardless of gun.The clear plastic cup has a couple issues:After you manage to get the powder in the cup, you simply slide the cup onto the gun, plug the gun in the wall, attach the grounding rod to the part you are coating and you are ready to go.There is a metal electrode that protrudes from the nozzle of the gun that charges the powder. This electrode will get coated with powder which will reduce the transfer efficiency of the gun, resulting in more powder on the floor than on your part. Clean the electrode frequently with a clean paint brush or towel.It may seem like I mentioned quite a bit of defects about this gun, but really, after you get used to it, it works decent enough. When comparing it to the price of other powder coating guns, you can see that it serves as an excellent introduction to powder coating. You can begin coating your own parts without a huge investment. Just keep in mind that this gun has no place in a professional powder coating shop, except maybe shooting some color sample panels.It also comes with some masking plugs and a roll of high-temp tape, but you will find that you will want a larger selection than what his included.The following powder coating guns are still beginner guns but they may offer a few more features, however, you will need an air compressor for all of them.The next price up is the Harbor Freight Powder Coating Gun . I have never used this gun but I have found that all of Harbor Freights tools fall into one of two categories: great deal or absolute garbage. You can quickly determine which one it is by the reviews on their website. Considering this gun has a 5 star review, I would say it is a good powder coating gun for a beginner. If you are not close to a Harbor Freight, you can also get the gun on Amazon here: Chicago Electric Powder Coating Gun Harbor Freight also sells 4 different colored powders: matte black, red, white, and yellow. These are often very clumpy and require tons of sifting to get them to a usable consistency. The good thing about the powders is how cheap they are and if you dump the powder in the garbage, the container it comes in screws right onto the harbor freight gun. So, save the containers, and you can fill them with any powder you want, just make sure you thoroughly clean the containers out.The next is Eastwood's line of guns, they have a Hotcoat Starter and a. You remember I mentioned adjustable KV (kilovolts) above, well the dual voltage gun offers you the adjustment of two different voltages which comes in handy when you are shooting two coats. Eastwood also sells their guns in a line of starter kits that come with plugs, tape, and assorted powder colors. They also come with Eastwood's instruction manual, a manual which you should ignore for the most part as the information skips a lot of important details. The Eastwood powder coating gun is the most popular gun for new powder coaters and it does work considerably better than the Harbor Freight powder coating gun and the Craftsman powder coating gun mentioned above.Hotcoat Dual Voltage Gun:This gun has two preset voltages for you to select. Normally you would use two different voltage settings when you are doing two separate coats, however both of the settings on this gun are low to begin with so the main advantage is that it has a higher voltage of 25kv to shoot larger parts such as wheels or sheet metal. All of the other above-mentioned guns have around a 12-15kv settings that are not adjustable. Basically,the higher the KV, the more your powder will be attracted to the part, until you set it too high and the powder actually bounces off the part. An example of a high KV setting would be over 90kv.If you are interested in a mid-level gun that performs quite a bit better than all of the guns mentioned previously, check out the Redline EZ-50 . It can be found for around $350 and is a very good gun for the price. The voltage is completely adjustable up to 50 KV and does a lot better job with Faraday cage areas as well as spraying multiple coats . If you plan to charge money for your powder coating service, I would say this gun is the bare minimum.The Hyper Smooth 02 or Hyper Smooth 03 powder coating guns are pretty much the last rung on the ladder before moving onto professional-level guns. These guns are great for the serious hobbyist or a lower volume powder coating shop. The Hyper Smooth guns easily apply multiple coats, up to 15 coats according to some. If you select the DPW model, can shoot powder into very difficult Faraday areas. The transfer efficiency is also much better than the lower level guns. This not only means that you will waste less powder, it also means a cleaner shop as more of your powder will end up on the part and not in the air or on the ground. The Hyper Smooth guns are very similar and comparable to the Kool Koat guns sold by Columbia Coatings as they share the same electronics inside and come with the same actual gun.There are several versions available of the Hyper Smooth range:The main distinction is the 02 or 03 model and the difference between the two is that the 03 has a separate regulated auxiliary air-out line to connect to a fluidized hopper. A fluidized hopper is a type of hopper that has an air source connected to it and the air flow through the powder continually mixes and sifts the powder. The powder in a fluidized hopper is so fine that is resembles a liquid as it is moving around. Fluidized hoppers ensure that the powder you are spraying is as consistent as it can be with no clumps and an even distribution of all of contents of the powder. For the best powder coating results, a fluidized hopper is a must, and therefore the 03 models would be the one to go with. However, the 02 model will save you some money and you can still use a fluidized hopper, you will just need to construct your own hopper with a separate air source.Within the 02 and 03 range, there is the "LED" and the "DPW"models. The "LED" is the basic model while the "DPW" which stands for Digital Pulsation Wave, has a move advanced board that makes shooting Faraday areas easier. Below is a visual comparison of the 02 and 03, DPW and LED models.This article covers most of the beginner and intermediate guns but I will cover the professional guns ($3,000+) in later posts.