Thread: Triton saw bench stripping

I used to get a lot of stuff powder coated, sometimes they stuffed up, the only way is to burn it off then sand/bead blasting it. They used to wait till they had a few jobs to do, along with their hooks and grab a few old pallets, sit the stuff on top and burn, baby, burn. Sorry but that is the only way that I know off, otherwise ring several powder coaters and see what they have to say. Because it is reasonably thin, blasting it will distort the panels. You could try sanding, but be prepared to go through a lot of discs, they block up quickly.
Kryn

I thought the Triton MkIII was an epoxy coating rather than powder coating?
Not sure that would be any easier to strip though.

Originally Posted by snowyskiesau

I thought the Triton MkIII was an epoxy coating rather than powder coating?
Not sure that would be any easier to strip though.

I thought that epoxy would have an undercoat /primer. The paint/ powder coating lifts off in big sheets and sometimes shows shiny bare metal. The shiny bits (now rusty) showed no evidence of a preparation ie,sanding marks to key the paint/powder coat, virtually all of the Triton stuff has loose paint/ powder on it.

I can understand rust where a edge was scuffed and scratched but not peeling off over large sections.

Back in the day when I worked on metal furniture frames, we did a few long run powder coated lines. Occasionally something was not right somewhere in the system and rework was required on an item, meaning that the whole thing had to be stripped, fixed then recoated.

Our normal powdercoater was a couple of Km toward the city from our place, and our sandblaster a couple of Km the other way. The powdercoater had a large kiln made from a container with firebrick lining and some decent sized electrical elements which they ran virtually continuously for baking powdercoat off without causing significant damage to the base materials like an open fire or flame heating might. They would load it up, bake for around 24hrs, allow to cool, unload and reload, then start again. They then sandblasted the items to clear all residue from them. From memory, I think the bake cycle went to somewhere near 400C. The remnant powder coat was a bit like baked on gunge in a kitchen oven that was well overdue for a clean, but lifted very easily when blasted. Ten years ago, stripping a PC dining table frame worked out at about the same price as coating it would.

If there is a fair bit of local manufacturing in your area, either a powdercoater or a sandblaster will probably have the gear set up to strip previously PC gear.

Re the lifting in sheets etc, this is normally because the base materials were not properly cleaned prior to coating, leaving a microscopic layer of oil on the surface between the PC and substrate.

malb is correct in that powder coating lifting off, is because of poor prep work. MEK is used as a cleaner for stuff to be powder coated, takes oils of easy peasy, including your hands.

Thanks fellas,
I have had a good outcome. I tried some Septone automotive paint stripper on my saw bench table and had success .
If the paint was indeed epoxy,I would have expect a base coat would be under it but none is evident.

Does the cleared non rusty bits look like a phosphate coat of some sort?

Thanks for all your replies

Grahame

Stripped triton deck.JPGSeptone stripper .JPG

Grahame, I would say that it missed the phosphate coat completely.Quite often in a manufacturing process, the use of a phosphate coating is done away with, particularly if the item is intended for use in an enclosed environment.
What usually happens, is that there is a bit of moisture/oil that is not cleaned off properly, it's put through the oven and moisture/oil escapes through the powder coating, but leaves tiny pin holes that the air with moisture can get in, eventually peeling of the coating, a bit like the old wooden fascias on houses that are not painted regularly. This is what was explained to me, where I used to get my powder coating done.
To re-coat it, if you are not able to do it yourself, take it to a panel beaters shop and ask them to do it in a 2 pack with a good quality primer. Sometimes a lot of the spray painters, do work at home, if you could find one, it might save a few $$.
If you are going to do it yourself, sand the surface all over, to get rid of any trace of rusty surface and to give the etch primer a good base for the paint to adhere to. Then use a 2 pack paint to finish. I'd sand it all over before taking it to the painters also, just to make sure that it is done to your satisfaction.
Kryn

G'day Grahame,
Had the same problem as you about 12mths back - blistering under me paint and well worn areas from use that had started to rust badly - rather than attempt anything myself I took mine to our local powder coater for advice. He insisted that I leave it with him as they would clean it up and re coat it - I don't know what their process was to clean it - but set me back a $100 Aus.
As you can see from images is not the Triton colour but who cares - is starting to mark up in places but has had a lot of use since re-coating. Will be interesting to see if any bubbles beneath the coating come to light in the future.
TST 01.jpgTST 02.jpg

I have a few little jobs on the go at present - the image below is of an old table saw metal cabinet that needs cleaning up - its a little worse than me Triton bench top was - can't afford to get this unit powder coated - appears paint job was never undercoated - currently rubbin' it all down with coarse polly pads - I'm not a fan on paint strippers - 'But on this metal cabinet would your brand of paint stripper be useful'? - other wise I'll just keep on with polly pads and then sandpaper.
GTS 01.jpg

Hooroo
KJL1951 aka Kev.

I can highly recommend the nylon abrasive disk strippers for angle grinders.

They aren't tough enough to remove metal at any great rate (ie don't even try as you will wear the disk out), but they will power through rust and paint and what I've presumed as powdercoat with relative ease.

The $7 ones from Robson's Tool King are a cheap way to try them.