Powdercoating welded aluminuminumuminuimum?

A buddy wants to powdercoat his street bike frame, but he's heard some horror stories about the welds off-gassing and ruining the powder coating. I said it sounds like Hogwash, what's the hive say?

Along with that, any suggestions for Powdercoating in New England area? We're in CT & RI, but anywhere in the north east is fair game (NY, PA, VT, etc).

Thanks!

Welds off-gassing? Yeah, sounds like hogwash to me too.

lol, just tell him to powdercoat it. If the distance/shipping weren't a factor, I'd recommend my local guy. Does great work for great prices.

I pre-bake everything I powder coat. Depending on the metal, there could be impurities trapped in it. Another reason is to bake off the oils from your hands, or from the use. I'll put it in the oven at 50 degrees higher than the bake temp for about 20 minutes or so.
If you don't do this, the part can off-gas during the curing process, creating holes/bubbles in the coating.

I did some aluminum wheels for a guy here and I baked them for 30+ minutes and they were gassing like crazy!

+1 to to the good Dr. Boost. Pre-bake for sure. The one time I didn't, I had bonding problems and 50% of the powdercoat pealed.

DrBoost wrote: I pre-bake everything I powder coat. Depending on the metal, there could be impurities trapped in it. Another reason is to bake off the oils from your hands, or from the use. I'll put it in the oven at 50 degrees higher than the bake temp for about 20 minutes or so. If you don't do this, the part can off-gas during the curing process, creating holes/bubbles in the coating. I did some aluminum wheels for a guy here and I baked them for 30+ minutes and they were gassing like crazy!

Huh, so not complete hogwash, just specifically the welding part.. Good to know :)

Thanks!

Central mass powder coat in Clinton mass did a Dwarf car frame for me 10 years or so ago it still looks new the guy I sold it to put it on dirt and it still cleans up great. Just like with any solvent paint there's good and expensive and cheap an crappy powders... The owner at CMPC told me he wanted to use a mid cost one as it had best impact durability and still had some flex.

Thanks for the recommendation, Dwarf. I'm sure he'll be giving then a ring.

After degassing, hang it and rinse with brake clean and let it dry.

If the item is small abrasive blasting it works great. I knew a guy who owned a power coating business. He did work for major companies and everything got blasted or tumbled. The kind of abrasive used is key. You have to know how hard the surface is, what kind of finish you want, etc.

The Google has lots of reading on the subject. Certainly the pre-bake has merit. Anyone who has welded used alloy automotive parts has an idea how hard it is to get the stuff clean.

Degassing is helpful in some applications and definitely not hog wash. I worked in a powder coaters for almost a year, we picked up a contract coating cast aluminium planter boxes for a city council and had a lot of dramas with them in the early stages. Degassing became an absolute must part of pre treatment.

Haven't seen much issue with aluminium welds, but for piece of mind it certainly wouldn't do any harm to do a degas bake.

There are plenty of welded aluminium products out there that are powder coated so its obviously doable if the correct process is followed.

I even pre-bake stuff I spray bomb until it stops smoking. Then it's ready.

He should be more worried about not knowing whether the frame was heat treated after welding. If it was and he powder coats it, it will probably have different (worse) mechanical properties.

Not sure if it applies to powder coating but many paint companies recomend a prime wash before painting aluminum which is a light etch.