The Propeller!!

[thatkid]

Well, my powder guy is a giant lying flake so I couldn't have him do the propeller for me. The other guy I've used for big stuff doesn't have an oven big enough for the length of the prop. I don't either which is why I was looking for someone to hook me up on it. Finally I gave up looking and decided to tackle it on my own.

The requirements were simple -

-Something to cook the part to a hot enough temp that the powder would flow out. Eastwood and others sell infrared heat lamps that you can use to cure powder on big parts. The problem is that one little lamp costs about 250+ I'm only making 200 on the prop so that just isn't cost effective.

Enter my 2 head propane heater from Harbor Freight. Normally 100 bucks but I happen to catch it on sale and with a 20% off coupon it dropped to $36. Woot!

Now I just needed a place to put it during this whole ordeal.

The corner of this table looks good. A few quick holes and she's ready to go.


Here's the silver basecoat getting baked. Yeah, that's the crap part, this propeller needed two coats. If you notice I added some hi-tech reflectors to aid in heat transfer.


The silver layer flowed out alright.



Hey look! I can powder coat wood now!


The orange topcoat sprayed and ready for heat.


The starting of the flowing.


All flowed out!


The final "nice" shot. Overall it turned out pretty good. The underside didn't take enough of the orange powder so it's a much lighter shade of orange. I'm hoping since it's going to be mounted on the wall he's not going to mind. If he does, such is life I guess.

[kilika2]

Excellent and you discovered an easier way to melt the snow outside the shop.

Chris.

[dougs]

That's way cool very impressed!

[rotortech]

Nice solution and the prop turned out nice. I am too late to suggest it but I know a guy who got two kitchen stoves and took the doors off. He runs large parts in them with them butted together - face-to-face.

[ragedigital]

Looks great, Nate!

I am too late to suggest it but I know a guy who got two kitchen stoves and took the doors off. He runs large parts in them with them butted together - face-to-face.

Still doubt that would be large enough. It would probably have taken the length of 4 stoves I would imagine.

[sweekster]

And you said it wouldn't look good...looks quite spectacular to me...



Just sayin...

[thatkid]

Thanks guys. The propeller is just over 6' long so even two ovens wouldn't have done it. I looked at turning my big oven and facing it to the house oven and seeing if I could do it that way but it still wouldn't be long enough enough. Not to mention this puppy weighs about 50 lbs and I wouldn't know how to hang it once I got it positioned.

[shredex]

That actually worked?! I'm going to take note of that and add it to the DIY portion of my brain.

Also, the finished product looks splendid Hopefully the customer thought so as well.