Thanks. I’ll order some to see how it works.
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I thought we have control to turn it off?
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As of now in the UI. Nope.
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Oh, interesting. I could have sworn I read somebody’s post that they tested some materials with it off. Maybe you and that person use different software revs.
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Doubt it. Unless that person was a beta user.
He was. Looks like it was Dan.
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I did some more research on using liquid powder coat with a laser. There are some people experimenting with this plus many big companies. I found a company that is powder coating MDS and using a laser to give it a wood grain effect for doors and windows. Another website said you need to use very low power to just get the powder coat to flow and attach to the substrate. Then you can remove the excess and cure the piece in an oven or with a heat gun. Also there is a You Tube video of a guy that powder coats wheels the conventional way, but he also powder coats a plastic center plug to match using a heat gun to cure it. So I am excited thinking the process could work. Use the liquid powder coat on your part, Let it dry. Put it in your laser to add some text or graphics. Remove the excess powder coat. Then cure the part in a 400 deg oven or with a heat gun. You should have great looking powder coat graphics in any color. The website said you need very low power to just get the powder coat to flow and you might have to defocus the laser to spread the heat and not destroy the part.
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Many people have mentioned that if you did powder coating with a laser the air assist would blow it off. But that’s what my posts are trying to tell you…with liquid powder coat you have a liquid carrier that can be painted on and dries like paint. so the air assist can’t blow it off.
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Isn’t liquid powder coat, paint? Just heat cured paint? Liquid carrier for solid pigments seems to be the definition of paint (not being snarky here). I guess what is the difference from this versus say Stove paint?
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The liquid carrier for powder coat paint is a special carrier liquid . You
mix your dry powder with this carrier and it becomes possible to put it on
the part without a powder coat gun. You don’t need the 15KV electrostatic
charge to adhere the powder. It is water based. So you mix your color and
paint it on the substrate. When it is dry the laser air assist will not
blow it away so you can use the laser to apply graphics or text to your
part. Then remove the excess paint and finish the cure in an oven or with
a heat gun. It is not regular high temperature paint. It is a special
product to enable you to do powder coating without the gun and on things
other than metal, like wood or mdf… I did research on the internet and
found this information. Looking forward to trying it out when I get my
Glowforge.
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I’m too lazy to go read, so how do you remove the excess paint? And can you reuse it?
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It looks like you mix the carrier and powder coat, but I haven’t found how long the mix is good for. After spraying, the excess can be easily wiped away with a rag or whatever. I would guess it might be little messy trying to get it off of porous wood though. Cool stuff.
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That brings in a neat way to work with metals by lasering of the “not to be coated” sections sharp and cleanly.
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First you must realize I don’t have my laser yet. So I have never really
experimented with this. But I am just giving my take on things that I read
on -line. The carrier is water based. It is just used as a way to put the
powder on the part without using the special gun. But I’m assuming that if
it is not cured it will wash right off. The areas hit by the laser should
be bonded to the part. So after the excess paint is washed off ,the
graphics should remain and need to be fully cured in an oven or with a heat
gun. I am only hoping it will work this way. I won’t really know until I
get my laser and try it. But even reading about it was exciting to me. So
I decided to let people know about it. If you have a laser and wish to try
it buy some from Powder Koatkkane and give it a try. If it does work It
would be a great way to put colorful graphics and text on anything you make.
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That stuff just looks (to my untrained eye) like liquid crystal polymer resin, thinned out, which they mix the paint powder in with allowing it to heat cure.
Thanks Dan, I will check it out.
Gary
OMG!!! I bought my unit with the intention of etching powder coated pieces. (I have lots of other things I want to work on too, but this was one of my top dog wishes). I was going to use a little powder coating liquidizer I found on eBay, but this offers so many options and possibilities (I can hold off buying a spray booth…) Thank you! So excited! Googling, and buying, as soon as I’m done posting.
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Apparently you can’t just Google and purchase. I put in a request for info. Has anyone bought LiquiPowder from Techline yet?
I saw somewhere on here some powder liquid medium, but it was expensive stuff
are you still looking?
Jonathan
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Yes- I am waiting for a response from Techline, but they’re in Australia. I would be interested in researching all my options.