Powder coating hinges? DIY available?

[Evanism]

Wisdom needed here brains trust!....

I make MDF wooden boxes for a kids toy chain and get all my brass hinges from Zenith and screws from China (500 and 2000 at a time). Naturally I make HEAPS of them at a go. (man-o-man can I rebate and attach a hinge like a machine now!)

I have a supplier who will give me 50 pairs of plain steel at an awesome price. The samples are exceptional. They are not plated. Just goozed to stop rust.

The boxes are invariably painted white or any number of rainbow of colours provided by Haymes. Painting the hinges is not cool - despite being "cheap" material, the end product is finished perfectly and individually hand painted/crafted/art.

My question is, rather than plated brass (which is nice), I'd REALLY love to provide the hinges colour coded to the boxes by powder coating them.

Does anyone know how one would power coat metals at home, with good quality results without death-toxic fogs of cancer? Kits? Process? Magic?

P.S. I ask, as every powder coating company wants a new Ferrari for the driveway for doing 500 hinges...

(This is only a side comment, but gosh-darn willikers is it hard to get stuff manufactured for you here. It seems like we don't make a single damned thing - engineering companies seem to be just importers from a catalogue. You wouldn't believe how hard it is to get hinges made for you.... i.e, YOU CAN'T)

[Enfield Guy]

Yep, your right. You can't get hinges made in Australia, for a reasonable price. It can be done, but, there is a massive price premium.

I investigated this last year as part of the development of a product that required a particular design hinge. Local manufacturers could do it if I fronted up with $5000.00 for the tooling, and if I was happy to pay $7.50 a hinge with a minimum order of 1000 of each of the 2 sizes. Nearly $20 000 to get something that worked.

I shopped around the web and found a company in india who ended up doing the hinges with no tooling cost for $0.68 and $1.30 ea for a 500 of each buy. Even with the airfares and accommodation costs to go to India and do QA the total cost of the exercise was less than $3500.

What size are the hinges you are looking for? I can have a look in their catalogue and see if we can get close. You might be surprised how little it can cost for very good quality product.

Sent me a PM if you like.

Cheers
Bevan

[rwbuild]

What about 2 pack using an air brush gun, just a thought

[Evanism]

Painting is out as I don't want any build up or restriction of the hinge.

I thought powder coating would be the right thing to do.

China is pretty good, but things are changing incredibly rapidly. I've seen some pretty huge price increases in the last 6 months, plus a few of the companies seem to have vaporised. Some companies are wanting 60 days for things that are "in stock".....hmmmmm

Alibaba and AliExpress product numbers are dropping too.

I might be stupid, but an electrostatic coloured powder that is then baked on doesn't seem like too hard a thing to make into a home kit.

How do home jewellery people do enamels and coatings? I've seen some pretty amazing examples at the markets.

[Enfield Guy]

you tube and wiki are your friends.

I'm not so sure that powder coating in a good solution. The film thickness may cause problems with action of the hinge. The action of the hinge may damage the coating, chipping etc. Proper cleaning, i.e: acid etching and clear coating may be adequate and relatively cheap to do.

Cheers

[mark david]

Hi, definitely agree,powder coating the hinges is not a viable option, due to the elctro-static process the paint powder would likely penatrate all parts of the hinge rendering it most likely locked solid after the heating process.
Then trying to loosen afterwards would most likely chip the paint off.

Unless you could take the hinges apart and put wadding of some kind to prevent internal coating, probably not viable either.

Probably the simplest soloution is cheap cans of spray paint.they tend to gum up the hinges a bit but you can work them loose afterwards.

you tube and wiki are your friends.

I'm not so sure that powder coating in a good solution. The film thickness may cause problems with action of the hinge. The action of the hinge may damage the coating, chipping etc. Proper cleaning, i.e: acid etching and clear coating may be adequate and relatively cheap to do.

Cheers

[Evanism]

I can do 2 pack enamels and other durable paints already... I have good spray gear, but I really really REALLY want a neat functional hinge.

Last thing I need is a gummed up, stuck or cracked join.

I might go get a little etcher, thin primer and a sample colour. It might just be easier to use a bloody spray can.

[Enfield Guy]

The alternative is of course to buy something that works. Not being a smart A-- either. Here's an option http://www.restorationonline.com.au/...ort=20a&page=5

Price doesn't seen to be too bad, but I do reckon I could get them out of india for a lot less landed, if the qty was right, say 500 prs.

Just sayin'
Cheers

[RoyG]

Evanism,

Thinking laterally here - which may mean that I'm entirely thinking in the wrong room, but here goes ......

I'm not sure how big the MDF boxes are that you're making, but - provided that we're not talking about big heavy boxes (e.g. like Blanket Boxes), then hinges made using Aluminium may be suitable. If you can use Aluminium hinges, then you can Anodise the Aluminium to create a range of colours. My limited understanding is that the anodising process will typically add about 0.001" in thickness on each face. If the hinges have removable pins, then you can probably 'mask' the hinge pivot pin and holes to prevent anodising in that area, if the 0.001" increase in size causes problems with the hinge binding.

And from what I've seen a friend do in the past with some boat parts that he was making, Anodising is a process that readily scales down to DIY scale, although there are some acids involved, so safety mesures are still needed. As for what range of colours is possible and what additional chemicals are involved for those colours - I haven't managed to research that far yet.

Some further reading for you ........

• http://www.bryanpryor.com/anodizing/ (A general background information web site discussing DIY Anodising.)
• http://www.caswellplating.com.au/anodizing.html (Advertises that they "sell every anodising plating kit possible for the home DIY plating or anodising experience")
• http://www.doric.com.au/range/aluminium_hinges_1 (First Australian response to a Google search for Al hinges.)

I hope that info is useful....

Regards,

Roy

[Evanism]

Needless to say, probably, but I'm well known to my mates to spend $500 to solve a $6 problem....same goes with savings on purchases.

It's come to the fore - and is worth my exploring - as my work seems to be going absolutely ballistic. Some weeks I hear nothing and some weeks the work absolutely floods in.

The regular stuff is manageable, but it's these orders such as a zillion boxes that lends itself to real bloody headaches. Getting bulk anything in Canberra.... Just Ain't Gonna Happen.

For example, I stripped every 25mm brass hinge from the 3 bunnings stores here and received ZERO, repeat ZERO satisfaction for ordering more with them. Nope. Nup. Fuggg Off. So I write a long email to Zeniths distro last night....even worse....a perfunctory and derisitory response this morning: speak to our dealers. Fugggggg RIGHT offfff mate!

So, I'm forced to speak to my Chinese mates, or as EinfeldGuy points out, India. VERY happy to do so, in fact, I feel obligated to!

Geez it's hard to give your money away in this country.

[Enfield Guy]

I did quite a bit of research in the first half of last year. Having samples sent, long e-mail strings, etc. It depends on what you want. If you are happy to have to remark for each individual hinge and tidy up for inaccuracy, then china will be your go to place. If you want a consistent product that you can reliably jig for then there are other places to look. I have made an enquiry with my supplier as to price and availability of a 25 long, 9mm leaf hinge that he makes. I'll PM you the details.

And yes, your right, you should be glad to spend your money overseas where you can get the product you need, at a price you can afford. There is a whole other moral argument here, but we won't go there, will we.

Cheers
Bevan

[Enfield Guy]

As an addendum. I have had an initial response. I now await pricing.

[Enfield Guy]

You could try these guys in Aussie, if you want. http://www.mccallumhinges.com.au/bra...cCallum_B1.pdf

[Master Splinter]

Caswell Plating offers a DIY Powder Coat kit - http://www.caswellplating.com.au/powder_coating.html

$600 for the kit (Aust.) or $350 from Caswell US (the Australian kit comes with a US to Aust. style plug convertor). Also available from Grizzly US.

[Enfield Guy]

PM sent to Evan.

Cheers