06si

Is powder coat better than spray paint? What are the benefits beside "scratch proof"?

kevingreenbmx

It has a more even finish, is much more durable and will not flake off if you bend the metal.

it is also very expensive.

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meticadpa

Powder coating is infinitely better than spray paint.

It looks amazing, you can get a variety of colours, it's fairly inexpensive if you can find a place that does it locally and you don't have to do any of the work yourself.

You can also probably request custom paint-work with stencils etc., for an extra cost.

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06si

Expensive? Are you serious? The guy that's gonna powder my cosmos s (excludes plastic parts) is gonna do it for $85, but I think it will go to $100-150

Dar_T

I think he meant compared to what, like $30 worth spray cans.

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kevingreenbmx

all the local places i have asked quote me around $300. they say that it is so much because it is such a small job and it is almost not worth their time.

it kinda made me angry...

also, Dar T is right.

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06si

That's unfortunate because around here the cheapest(excluding the guy I went to) they could do is $150-200 and $200 gets you a company that powder coats airplanes including Lockheed's(according to their resume').

HAFenvy

My powder coating experience went well and here are some tips I want to share:

1.) If you are looking for a specific color they don't normally do, you are going to get nailed for the setup cost as well as the cost to order their minimum powder order (hence why some people are getting $150 to $200 quotes)

2.) Find out what standard colors they typically run and what they stock, that will save you cost for them to order in a custom color.

3.) If you just want a stock run color they do, ask when they are doing a run of that color and if you can slip your stuff in with another order ( being nice goes a long way). You might have to wait a week or two depending on how often they run a color but if you really want to save some bucks, this works.

4.) Do all the sanding and prep work so all they have to do is the regular pre-powder coating chemical wash to remove oils/etc that they will do normally. The shop might be charging extra for prep work and you might save some money there.

5.) Shop around, not all powder coaters will have the same pricing and some are specialty places. The place I went to actually does a lot of Aluminum railing work for local companies so they are always running black, white, beige and your typical boring house color runs. I wanted black so that worked out perfect.

5a.) EDIT: Call a couple railing shops and find out who they use to do their powder coating - you might end up finding a shop you didn't know about because they do tons of work for those railing guys and don't advertise their services in the usual places.


I got both side panels, the entire case, all my PCI slot covers, a plate with all my screws attached to it, my custom overlay, side window frame and a couple pieces of hex mesh all done for $65cdn. They were really interested once I told them what I was powder coating so they wanted a picture when I was done with the build - that probably got me a little bit of a discount too

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06si

And don't forget to tell them that you are canvasing/looking for price(who is the cheapest). That helped out a lot when I told the guy(the one I decided to spend my money)that and gave me a better deal. Still even if you are paying $200 for it, it is still a bargain compared to mnpc (they wanted $600 for a glossy red paint on my removable side panels, that's not including the case, door flaps, and the handle/feet bars)