Star Wars Yoke Paint or PC?

Zinfer

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Tore down a Star Wars yoke this evening and sandblasted the old material, which came off as if it were simply paint. It really behaved like it was paint I was blasting off.
Were these originally powder coated or painted parts? I'm thinking the handles were painted aluminum but I haven't tried blasting those yet.
Seems like paint to me.
 
hrm. Well I'm thinking a Krylon spray bomb might not stand up to handling very well. Works well with Marquee brackets and such, possibly even control panels with a full cover CPO, but for the controls themselves...I'm kind of surprised. I thought everything was originally powdercoated.
Being I'm out of a powdercoating guy locally that's any good and I don't have a spare oven now would be a bad time to try and pick up a powdercoating kit from Harbor Freight.
Has anyone else tried spray painting theirs?
 
hrm. Well I'm thinking a Krylon spray bomb might not stand up to handling very well. Works well with Marquee brackets and such, possibly even control panels with a full cover CPO, but for the controls themselves...I'm kind of surprised. I thought everything was originally powdercoated.
Being I'm out of a powdercoating guy locally that's any good and I don't have a spare oven now would be a bad time to try and pick up a powdercoating kit from Harbor Freight.
Has anyone else tried spray painting theirs?

It would probably be fine, but for something that could get rough treatment from kids playing the game, someone might have a ring on, etc..even in HUO environment, I would like to have mine powdercoated. I've never had a thing powdercoated, but to me the appeal would be just having someone else strip and finish it as much as the durability factor.
 
nah, I'm more a Satin guy. :)
That's one of my problems with this second powdercoat guy, he wants to do everything with glossy black, and it absolutely looks like shit. Actually in detail, it looks like someone is trying really hard to make an old worn out part look like it's brand new. And it's not supposed to look like or convey that.
IMG_1340.jpg
 
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My bad, satin is better. I also did all my yoke handles (SW, ESB, ROTJ, Road Blasters) with a texture bk1 is what my pcoater calls it, has a much better feel and is more durable/scratch resistant.




nah, I'm more a Satin guy. :)
That's one of my problems with this second powdercoat guy, he wants to do everything with glossy black, and it absolutely looks like shit. Actually in detail, it looks like someone is trying really hard to make an old worn out part look like it's brand new. And it's not supposed to look like or convey that.
IMG_1340.jpg
 
Ok, I found something new. I managed to get past all the paint of the yoke frames and cover. However, the grips were a different matter altogether. Some kind of coating on them. Definitely hard to blast through. But it seems different from standard powdercoating. Almost some kind of rubbery or smooth coat. But it is definitely hard to get through to the base metal. You have to stay on it for a long time with 100psi plus with aluminum oxide.
So it is possible that some sort of special coating was given to the grips, but the rest of the yoke was straight paint.
Be nice to find out what this grip coat originally was.
 
Well if I'm going to have to powdercoat the grips I might as well do the whole thing. I'll have to find someone else that does powdercoating out of town I think. I really would like to avoid shipping heavy metal parts though.
 
Are you sure those heavier items in the second pic aren't painted? I'm having an awful time powdercoating inside edges and the main housing is all about inside edges.
I can't get an even powdercoating of inside edges at all. What am I doing wrong?
IMG_1715.jpg


I don't think powder coating was all that common already in the early 80's ?

Definitly go powdercoating and satin (we call it semi-gloss).

Here is mine:

web.jpg


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and the end result:
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The flash makes it look more shiny than it really is. Satin is definitly closest to the original look.

More pics here:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=68094.msg1064112#msg1064112
 
Mine was powdercoated by a professional company. No idea what's going wrong on yours. isn't the powder coating supposed to be "drawn" to the metal by the electrical charge ?
 
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Its called the Farady cage effect. Its because your gun is a hobby gun. There's not a whole lot you can do about it. Hot flocking, or possibly better grounding could solve it a little, but its a very common problem among lower end gun units. Until your start getting into guns with adjustable voltage, you'll have this problem.
 
I had a Harbor freight gun and it did this all the time. Upgraded to a Hyper Smooth (when they were 1000 dollars..ouch) and the problem went away for the most part. Some spots in really tight places were still impossible to powder cold. Even with custom multi coat nozzles and adjustable voltage.

I then upgraded to a 5000 dollar Wagner Prima Sprint gun and now I can coat anything. Including non metal stuff. I even have a pre programed button on my control board of the gun that is the "faraday cage" button. If your having trouble with an area like that, you press the button and it configures the voltage, ramp time, air pressure and other stuff to best suit powdering areas like that.
 
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