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Thread: Powder coated tumblers

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
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    Question Powder coated tumblers

    Hey everyone, I've done a couple Powder Coated Yeti's and Ozark Trails and even through the P.C. finish is different I still get the same results. I always get a color haze left over on the stainless. I have read on here and other websites that if you scrub it with rubbing alcohol or Goo Gone it will comes off. I haven't tried goo gone but I have tried other things and it seems to lighten it some but always leaves a stain of the original color.

    I try to hit it pretty hard, despite what the material database says to use.

    I have a 30 watt ULS 2.3 and I have been hitting it with 100%P, 50%S and 500ppi. The material database in the driver says 36%p and 100%s.

    Here is the last one I did, this was with me scrubbing the hell out of it with alcohol. Its more pronounced than the camera shows.

    Is that the nature of the beast?





  2. #2
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    I haven't done many of these, but I believe others have said that doing 2 passes is the key to getting good results from powder coated items. I'm sure you'll have some more input here shortly, but that's my advice for now.
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  3. #3
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    If the finish can take it, acetone does a great job removing residue. Two passes will almost guarantee clean results and even then I'll clean them with denatured alcohol.

  4. #4
    I've ran into Hydroflasks that have had enough p-coating on them to stop bullets. Like .020" thick or more. These animals take 3 passes at Cermark speeds with the GCC. It's ridiculous.

    The best 'average' results I've found is to run one pass fairly slow at 500 res- then IF NEEDED I run a quicker pass at 380, this usually takes care of it, ridiculous thicknesses notwithstanding...

    But thanks to my wife I found the absolute best cleaner for these, 'almost' acetone -- which would be 'strengthening' or 'nourishing' fingernail polish remover-
    The store brands of this stuff work great! It's mostly acetone, but while straight acetone makes p-coating tacky almost immediately, this stuff is buffered down enough to give you much more working time-
    not a LOT mind you, but "one thousand one one thousand two" for the damp wipe followed by a dry wipe works great. Two seconds with straight acetone and my rag is sticking to it..
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  5. #5
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    Try denatured alcohol first, not rubbing alcohol. Cuts all of the various colors I have done, but without the risk of acetone. If it won't cut it, acetone or fingernail polish remover Kev suggested. And carefully use a magic eraser. They will scratch some coatings, so careful!
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  6. #6
    I use orange cleaner most of the time but I never do a second pass on cups. I will do that on flat items if needed.

    There are some things that rubbing alcohol cleans better than dna. I just bought a bottle on isopropyl 91% yesterday. In this case it is to clean Apple watch bands and it works much better than dna. That said, most of the time I use dna.
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  7. #7
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
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    I tried Denatured alcohol, lacquer thinner, pure simple green concentrate windex with no change. I'll have to pick up some fingernail polish remover and see what that does.

  8. #8
    Is this a case where less is more? Perhaps backing down your power would yield a better result. FWIW, the tumbler looks good to me.
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  9. #9
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  10. #10
    This is a p-coated flat aluminum lid engraved by my fiber. It took 5 passes to get thru this much coating-
    and I've ran into a few Hydroflasks with this much coating-
    deeppc.jpg

    When it's this thick, there's no doing them once, or at lower power I'm afraid!

    And on those with a nice reasonably thin coating, results don't seem better at lower powers that work than full power...
    ========================================
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    FOUR - CO2 lasers
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