Powdercoating???

[kcbcommando]

I'm thinking about getting some prepped axles powdercoated. I can then polish them to a high gloss which should give a slick surface for the wheels to roll on. Anyone done this???

[DerbyDoc.com]

Dec 28, 2008 12:13:54 GMT -6 kcbcommando said:

I'm thinking about getting some prepped axles powdercoated. I can then polish them to a high gloss which should give a slick surface for the wheels to roll on. Anyone done this???

We get a lot of powder coating done by a company here locally. Its usually small metal parts. Ill see if I can find out how much the powder coating would add to the diameter of an axle.
Im not sure if powder coating axles will help or hurt a cars speed, I do know that you can get powder coating really slick, and smooth.

[kcbcommando]

Keep me posted. I will call a guy locally and see if he can be of assistance. Time for some testing.

[JustaDad]

I think it would depend on what material you are powder coating with as to the results you will have.

At one of my former companies, we used a Nylon 11 to coat the butterfly valves that we made and I see it being used more and more. The idea behind this was to have the area be less porous and allow for a better seal in the closed position. For this application it worked well and we were able to get a consistent mil thickness over the piece using a fluidized bed to do the coating.

Coating axles is another thing all together. For industrial applications the mil thickness is far too great to work on an axle. You would need to start with a much smaller diameter axle. Then you would have a tough time getting it to be round. You will need a lathe to do this right.

After all is said and done, I'll bet you can achieve a better smoother finish on the bare metal than with any coating you could use. But if your goal is to have better lubricity, then I think some testing needs to be done.

Good Luck and please post your results