The Miracle of Powder Coating

Here's a good example of powder coated metal. I've switched to this method for some of the smaller pieces and ones that see a lot of wear. Generally, I spray paint all of my pieces with a special metal spray paint that on its own is pretty tough, but powder coating is like armor.

It's a pretty amazing process whereby paint powder is deposited onto metal by static electricity and then baked onto the surface in an oven. The final product is very very tough and chip resistant. A wonderful thing about powder coating is that the total time from cleaned metal to a finished and coated part, ready to be reinstalled, is about three hours or so. There's no time spent waiting for paint to cure on the surface of a part...when it's cool, it's done. Powder coat also doesn't stink like spray painting does...and when trying to work inside during the winter, this is a huge benefit.

In the top left corner you can see the piece media blasted and clean before heading to powder coating. Then you can see the final product, with a nice even set finish.