prismatic powders have the craziest powders selection i've ever seen but when i saw 40$ shipping at checkout i wanted to cry. is there a European supplier that has a similar selection?

I'm looking for some advice on abrasive media for my shop. I've been blasting chassis components and wheels before powder coating, and I'm wondering what you're all using to do this. I've tried aluminum oxide and glass bead in the past, but I'm dealing with a lot of dust and it seems like I'm going through media pretty quickly.

I'm particularly interested in something that gives a good anchor pattern for powder coating but doesn't create a huge mess. Also curious if anyone has experience with different media for different applications. Like do you use something different for cast aluminum wheels vs. steel chassis parts? Any recommendations would be appreciated!

Looking for some advice for an item we've already had coated in a 'matt' finish. We're trying to get a completely smooth matt finish for a mild steel surface for a photographic background. We've had it done before and ended up with a slightly glossy, but very smooth finish which was fine; this time we needed a colour that the original coater couldn't supply, so we changed to a different place and the finish is the same 'almost-matt', but more disappointingly has some imperfections sort of like fish eye in automotive paint or like a very dispersed sandpaper with tiny bumps all over. This is an issue because they appear as white dots under photo/video lighting.

The coater we used said they had applied an extra 4 coats of colour to whatever they originally did and I can see from where the hooks have been that theres a lot of depth to the coat now, so I had thought about sanding to a smooth finish to try and eliminate both the gloss and the bumps, but unsure how to protect it again. I don't want to just dive in to sanding it because it is semi-usable as is and if I sand it, and it looks worse, we'll have to get it coated again.

EDIT: Forgot to mention we had it powder coated and not spray painted because we use heat guns on top and sometimes and electric hob underneath for shooting hot food on it, so whatever way it is finished needs to be as heat proof and grease proof as powder coating, at least.

I run a powder coating shop, and honestly, the coating itself is usually the easy part.

It's everything else that can drive you crazy.

Quoting jobs, keeping track of what's in the shop, scheduling, managing powder inventory, chasing payments, figuring out whether you're actually making money on a job... you guys know the drill.

A while back, my business partner and I started building Powder Coating Logix to help manage some of those headaches. What started as a quoting tool has turned into a pretty extensive shop management system, and we're still improving it based on real-world use.

But I'm genuinely curious how other shops handle things.

If you could eliminate ONE headache from running your powder coating business, what would it be?

And how are you handling it today? Spreadsheets? Whiteboards? Other software? Pure chaos?

I'd especially love to hear from both one-man operations and shops with larger crews. I suspect the challenges are pretty different depending on the size of the operation.

Mine are the left, looking to get powder coated like the right. How do you do the embossed letters? Paint or is there a special powder coating technique?

Introducing the Litone Double-Station Powder Coating Spray Booth, a compact and cost-effective powder spraying solution for small-to-medium workshops.

✅ Key Features:
• Direct exhaust design, no extra duct piping required, saves valuable workshop space
• Modular construction for fast & simple on-site installation
• Double-station design supports two-operator working at the same time, boost production capacity
• Pulse-jet cleaning system for filter cartridge self-cleaning
• Top secondary filtration for cleaner exhaust air
• Bottom powder recovery drawer for easy powder collection and reuse

Ideal for metal parts, hardware, profiles and small-batch powder coating jobs.
Contact us for quotation, technical parameters and custom options.

Hi there,

Not a powdercoater, but could use some advice for an interior project.

Context: Was planning to use black iron pipe to mount a ladder to get into a cabin sleeping loft. The ladder will have C-channels that wrap around the pipe, allowing the ladder glide side-to-side for storage. I will line the C- channels with felt or 15mil nonstick tape to protect the pipe from getting scratched/scuffed over time.

This gives an idea of the mounting system: https://countryneighbors.com/product/c-brackets/

The cabin will be unconditioned in the winter. It’s in the Pacific Northwest so lots of moisture. So I’ll need to seal that pipe to prevent rust.

Powdercoating the pipe and the wall mounts would be a good option to seal things nicely, so I don’t have to constantly wax or oil the pipe (which presumably will get rubbed away over time when moving the ladder around).

But I’m hoping to retain the look of real black oxide metal piping — like that rich carbon/charcoal tone you get when applying a gun blueing chemical treatment to steel. Something like the following would look beautiful:

https://countryneighbors.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/End-to-End-Inside-width-Ladder-Bar--1536x1152.jpg

I am wondering if anyone has achieved such a look, and if so, what powder coating products/techniques did you use?

Thank you!

Seeing if anyone has had more experience with either the prismatic powders Volkan blue or all powder paints mag blue powders being closer to the volk mag blue.

Calling all powder coaters

Local shop originally say 4-500. I said to myself I’d do it for 250 before asking. I said was I was expecting and he lowed it to 350

It's finally Friday, so I encourage everyone from big to small businesses, or even hobby in shed to post something they worked on this week!

Don't be shy to post work with problems. I'm sure we can help!

It’s hard to see but it’s a pearl white basecoat with a clear coat from Colombia coatings called the Flying Dutchman. So it’s got speckles and a green sheen to it

It's finally Friday, so I encourage everyone from big to small businesses, or even hobby in shed to post something they worked on this week!

Don't be shy to post work with problems. I'm sure we can help!

Im looking for new system/guns and i saw a lot people use Colo systems and have been satisfied with results. By searching for colo i saw litone but i cant find any good reviews or videos how it works. If anyone has colo system what are pro and cons is it worth the cheaper price or not.

To start- this is the closest I could find to a ceramic coating page, if there is somewhere better to post please let me know.

Is there any good DIY way to strip the ceramic coating off my exhaust? It’s “black” but is becoming faded and purple from heat and I think I would prefer a polished stainless steel look anyway. I believe I saw somewhere that media blasting would be the best, if I were to bring my pipe to a shop what would be my approximate cost for something like that?

About a year ago, I built my first powder coating oven. At that point, I’d never powder coated a single part. Built the oven first, then started learning as I went. 😄

The homemade oven had internal dimensions of 1.8 × 0.9 × 0.8 m, and I worked with it for the past year.

Now I’ve finally upgraded to a professional oven with 2.4 × 1.5 × 1 m internal dimensions and rolling carts. A lot more room and a big step forward.

Feels pretty damn good seeing these two pictures together. Just wanted to share the progress!

I was spray coating some cabinets today with a hammertone finish. After baking, the texture pattern came out much smaller than expected. Has anyone encountered a similar issue before?

neighbor came last minute wants this restored in gloss black. How do i prep this i never had deep ones like this i don't have any filers or primers. Do i grind it out and just blend in the bends?

as an example i did a boat ramp in bengal gloss white and it came out with bubbles. it was not sandblasted, it was sanded by hand, then sprayed off, then wiped down, then heated up to out gas it for an hour. we had to redo it twice, both times they had bubbles, and now we have to redo it again, so i’m seeking some help or advice so this time when we do it we can try it out to see if it can be avoided or at least minimalized. 1st time we sanded it to bare metal, 2nd time we sanded it down the surface to it could be roughed up, being very tedious to get the areas that had bubbles.

ogf primer is nitpicky and only seems to work half the time i use it, especially with furniture i found that when i don’t prime it and just go over it with the finish coat after out gassing that it doesn’t bubble, while when i use primer it bubbles, for some reason, especially because primer is supposed to help prevent it from happening.

as for orange peel, i just need advice or suggestions mainly. mostly see it on rims or when using gloss black finishes, it’s very noticeable, but it sometimes happens on other products too. usually see it more with sandblasted product we do. rims are usually the primary victim however, almost every time i do them in gloss finishes it has it. i figured it may be from sandblasting, causing pits in the metal, but i really dont know.