Sandblasting Powdercoat

Jeff NWOH

Member
I'm working on a snowplow project.

I'm half tempted to blast and paint the blade when I'm done straightening and welding on it.

I don't think I've ever blasted powder coat before and just wondering if it comes off like paint or will I wish I never even attempted it?
 
Many years ago I worked for good friend / local attorney, who had a local big manufacturer for a client. I was doing some work for the man, needed spray painting some large items, he said Here, let me have them. He hauled them to the factory, had them put in the prep / paint line, they came back zinc-chromate primer-coated and then double-spray painted. Maybe you know somebody local to you????
 
I had a powercoated trailor rin sandblasted, when I picked it up he commented how hard it was to get off. I hate powder coating!!joe
 

I installed a set of powder coated handlebars on my sons Honda dirt bike. 2 sessions of riding through the woods and most of that powder coating was gone. Powder coating is good for the environment, but basically is not any different than paint.
 
I would never have that issue with the powder coat finish they put on my PJ trailer. New in 2014 and it's about all peeled off already. Comes off in big pieces.
 
I have sandblasted two items that were powdercoated and it comes off hard but no harder than high quality hardened paint.
 
I have had trouble removing tough powder coating and had to score the surface with a wood chisel to get somewhere for the sandblaster to lift off the powder.
 
My 2015 P&J looks like the day I bought it and has never seen inside,, but neither has it ever seen salt. You must have either got a dud or I got the one they accidentally did right?
 
Sand blasting with water is how they prep for power coat, and how they take it off is it doesn't come out right.

At least that's how they did it at the shop I used.

You would want a coarse, aggressive media for that application.
 
My experience with powder coated objects is the coating does not get hard like paint. It is soft enough to absorb the energy of the blasting media and just sort of smears. Same effect with a grinder and wire wheel. It is hard to take off.
 
I have removed big sheets of it with an air blow gun. Not sure how good yours will be stuck on ?
 
Poor powder coating will come off like paint with a sandblaster. Good powder coat is near impossible unless you have a big blaster and good media. Best way I have found on small stuff is to burn the powder coat off with a weed burner torch. Doesn't work well on sheet metal though as it gets hot enough to warp.

The company I work for has a big oven to bake the stuff off the coating line racks.

I am another one that doesn't care for powder coat, at least on stuff that rusts.
 

Just put scratches through to the steel here and there, spray it with water, and the powder coat will come off in big sheets in a few days.
 
I get a new tandem axel dually gooseneck every three or four years. I have had three PJs and they had some very bad problems with their power coat in the past. The one I have now is a year or two old and it still looks pretty much like new except for contact damage. I ordered this one from the factory instead of buying off the lot. The dealer told me it was $120 to have it primed and nobody does that to ones on the lot because the market is too competitive. It's the best $120 I ever spent. You cam tell exactly what parts weren't primed by the amount of peeling. (Ramps)
 
(quoted from post at 07:47:58 12/07/16) I'm working on a snowplow project.

I'm half tempted to blast and paint the blade when I'm done straightening and welding on it.

I don't think I've ever blasted powder coat before and just wondering if it comes off like paint or will I wish I never even attempted it?

The Powder coater guy I use cleans his racks and other equipment with a propane weed burner. If he has to prep something thats already powder coated he burns it off first then sandblasts it clean. Its basically a plastic coating, burns off quickly.
 
Like some of the others have said, if is was done right and the metal was pre-treated properly with either iron phosphate conversion or blasting or both prior to application it will come off hard. If not, it will come off pretty easy. Powder is over rated for some applications and is not the end all to durability. Wet paints can be better in many cases and will stick in applications where pre-treatment was not too good before coating. A chip in a wet paint generally won't spread much or very fast. Scratch or chip powder and it will come off in sheets. The reason is wet paint sticks to metal. powder on the other hand has little adhesion properties to it and doesn't actually stick. You have to make the metal accept and hang on to the powder by using a blast or conversion profile to give it something to hang on to or it will let go. Personally I would get out the weed burner and burn off the powder then clean, sand, and apply your favorite wet coating to it. Powder is popular because it costs less to use than liquids per square ft., fast to apply, is environmentally friendly and can be very durable in many applications if done properly.

Greg
 
I didn't realize it would burn off that easy. When I worked for a powder coater we had a big furnace to burn the buildup off of our tooling
and sometimes for reworking rejects. The stack must have been 30 feet high and at night there was 5 feet of flame above that. I would be
cautious of breathing in the fumes from burning powder coat.
 

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