Powder coating hinges? DIY available?

[soundman]

Back a few years ago I was powdercoating everything in sight...these days I'm not so excited about it.

I've learend a bit more about painting, metal in particular and have developed some of my own processes.

Unless these are very small hinges, painting is very dooable.

Painting standard door hinges is a piece of cake....as you get smaller it gets a bit harder.....ya just have to be more carefull

The first thing you have to do is get the bastards clean.....lots of em are covered in some sort of clear coat..which while cheap, crappy and not very durable can take a bit of getting off...if they are plain and uncoated they will be either oily or rusty

either way, a swim in a bowl of thinners will help.....if you have to scrub them after is another matter

once they are clean and dry of thinner, I will give them a swim in rust converter or phosophoric acid......you'll probably have to keep this stired and make sure the hinges stay open so all surfaces can be acted upon...this should remove any zinc plate and any surface rust....and give a nice etch for a key.....rince well in lots of clean water and drain.

what I will then do is lay them out on a big piece of cardboard and have at them with the heat gun till they are well dry and very warm to touch.

without delay I will then spray up with an etching undercoat thinned fairly well...I like wattyl super etch.

let them flash off till touch dry, warm them up with the heat gun again.....not too hot.....just very warm to touch...turn over and spray the other side.

then repeat with the colour.........if they are smaller hinges you need to be concious of your film thickness..so enamel is not the go....laquer will get you coverage with more film controll.

remember in order of glugginess...household enamel, spraying enamel, laquer.......door hinges you will get away with household enamel.

warming the job and setting the paint off with a little heat, helps the flow out and hardens the job up.

you may want to do a second coat of colour.

If you want to harden it well......low bake in the household oven while shmbo is not arround......lay the stuff out in the oven cold ( good side up) and the start the oven at 80 to 100deg..bake for an hour and cool in the oven.

I have been doing this with small metal parts including screws for over 10 years now..and it works well and it stays on.

For it to be viable you have to do it in volume..and it is booring and laborious...but it works well.

you may want to apply a small amount of clean clear oil to the hinge pivots after painting.

cheers

[Evanism]

Thanks to everyone for their wisdom and VERY helpful advice.

EinfieldGuy put me onto McMillan hinges. They are sending me samples. They are machine finished and his price is quite good, I'm hoping I can finish them off with a bit of light machining and a blat on the polishing wheels.

I'll try the various paint ideas/techniques. China sent me 100 samples that need some love. These will be good to trial.