Stove enamelling vs powder-coating

[Anthony]

Re: Powder

Powder coating involves dry coating a positively charged metal object with, well powder paint (in laymans terms), then baking it in the oven, To get a good coverage a thick coat is applied. This is effectively a ceramic process, a bit like firing a glaze in pottery, but not as hot. It is well recognised that powder coating adds quite a bit of weight, certainly around 100 grammes plus or quarter of a pound, but can add over half a pound on a fat tubed aluminium bike like a Cannondale etc. This is why Pace favour anodising as it adds virtually nothing in weight to the frame. Multiple layers of enamel are very thin, so add a lot less than powder coating, which is really an industrial based atmospheric protection system, where weight matters not one jot but corrosion resistance in paramount.

Great, thanks, nice to be put right, and to find that the Argos deal is pretty good, which is what I thought before. Is it correct that aluminium is the only material you can anodise? I thought I'd seen anodising offered on the Argos website at some point, but not any longer.

 

[Agency_Scum]

About point 2.
ABC did a spectacular job of shot blasting the humungus amount of rust from the first cable router area of the top tube. The small traces you can see were as NOTHING to the serious " turbo trainer sweat burns " it had in that area. Gordon at G-Whizz tried to talk me out of buying the frame as a restoration project because of the large area of rust damage. I convinced him otherwise when he realised my abilities and conviction for buying such a well made frame ( which goes LIKE A B@ST@RD BY THE WAY! ).

 

[Tallpaul]

My Easton Ulralite tubed Rock Robster frame is powder coated and still only weighs 3.25lbs.

My Lava Dome was stove enamelled by Argos and although the finish looks beautiful it is actually very soft and chips quite easily. The powder coat on the Lobster is bullet proof.

 

[Max P]

My Lava Dome was stove enamelled by Argos and although the finish looks beautiful it is actually very soft and chips quite easily. The powder coat on the Lobster is bullet proof.

This sums it up nicely.

If you want the best, shiny showroom look with endless choice of colour blends, lining and fancy finishes it has to be wet paint.

But for a far more durable, everday good value finish it has to be powder.

 

[Agency_Scum]

Yes, like Max P said!

 

[development_cycle]

Does anyone have any like for like photos?

 

[Joe]

Re: Finish

you are totally wrong that road bikes have an easier life, you must be joking, they inherently cover a lot more miles, get ridden in continuous rain, get leant up against each other a lot and in Winter get covered in salt and road grime.

surely a mtb gets this lot AND all the horrors of big lumps of tree/flint/etc and the abrasive action of sand.

When I was cycling a lot in northumberland and hamsterly I even wore through the paint on the top-tube where the grit & mud on my riding shorts brushed against it.

Granted, I was doing a LOT of miles at the time

 

[Max P]

I don't have any like for like but going on experience (and as posted) wet paint has a much better gloss and shows fine detail. Powder gives more of a plasticky look and picks up fine scratches in a similar way.

Seem to remember reading it can be polished out with Brasso?

 

[steveslow]

Argos did my Breezer. Looks great but not that tough - paint scratches easily. I must get around to ordering some helicopter tape.

 

[Anthony]

Interesting that Carl Strong votes for powder - I think he used to do all his own painting, but decided instead to sub-contract the work to a specialist powdercoater. Presumably he feels that, at least at the very highest standards, powdercoating is sufficiently good that even at his prices he doesn't offer stove enamelling.

http://www.strongframes.com/paint_&_powder/