Powder coating leaf springs
Powder coating leaf springs
I'm considering powder coating the leaf springs on my Mikado Logger. They will need to be baked at 400 degrees for about 40 minutes. So ,my question is the heat going to anneal the springs and make them weaker?
- Bill Shields
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Re: Powder coating leaf springs
Why?
When the leaves flex, the coating will crack and fail.
You are also faced with the variability of thickness
I have never painted or coated any springs.
When the leaves flex, the coating will crack and fail.
You are also faced with the variability of thickness
I have never painted or coated any springs.
Too many things going on to bother listing them.
-
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Re: Powder coating leaf springs
What Bill said.
It’s a waste of time and effort.
It’s a waste of time and effort.
Clausing 10x24, Sheldon 12" shaper, ProtoTrak AGE-2 control cnc on a BP clone, Reed Prentice 14" x 30", Sanford MG 610 surface grinder, Kalamazoo 610 bandsaw, Hardinge HSL speed lathe, Hardinge HC chucker, Kearney and Trecker #2K plain horizontal mill, Haas TL-1 lathe.
- Dick_Morris
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Re: Powder coating leaf springs
If you don't like the color chemical gun blue is an option.
- Bill Shields
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Re: Powder coating leaf springs
Spring material I get seems to be always blue anyway..
Too many things going on to bother listing them.
Re: Powder coating leaf springs
The temperature involved is lower than the draw temperature required when heat treating the spring material, so that's not a problem, but the idea of coating the springs is less than ideal for reasons already discussed. It makes little sense in the way of functionality and would yield a rather unsightly mess when the coating started to peel, which it most likely will.
H
H
Wise people talk because they have something to say. Fools talk because they have to say something.
Re: Powder coating leaf springs
Depending on how your spring leaves were made the edges could be bright, even if they are blue temper. I would think the best edge condition would be rolled round, which is what I use and what McMaster-Carr usually provides. For those springs I have had them black oxide treated with excellent results.
I would think any coating that adds thickness being paint or powder coating or plating or whatever is definitely going to be a problem. Black oxide does not add thickness. It merely chemically colors the surface. A side benefit is the black oxide, if done using a mil spec. hot process, suppresses rusting.
Dave
I would think any coating that adds thickness being paint or powder coating or plating or whatever is definitely going to be a problem. Black oxide does not add thickness. It merely chemically colors the surface. A side benefit is the black oxide, if done using a mil spec. hot process, suppresses rusting.
Dave
Re: Powder coating leaf springs
The individual spring steel (from McMaster-Carr) leaf springs on my Ten Wheeler and Mikado were not treated in any way, and show no corrosion after years of use.
A squirt of oil when new soaked in between the leaves and helped prevent rust, and actually help them flex.
Also: What Bill S. and others have offered here.
Spend your efforts on other aspects of your build.
RussN
A squirt of oil when new soaked in between the leaves and helped prevent rust, and actually help them flex.
Also: What Bill S. and others have offered here.
Spend your efforts on other aspects of your build.
RussN
Re: Powder coating leaf springs
Thanks for all the suggestions. Mine are rusted from sitting 20 years and wanted to glass bead and coat with something.
Re: Powder coating leaf springs
I suggest simply oiling them with a light machine oil.
The rust you see is most likely surface only, and not rusted between the leaves.
I painted everything on my loco for long-term protection except the springs.
So far so good.
RussN
The rust you see is most likely surface only, and not rusted between the leaves.
I painted everything on my loco for long-term protection except the springs.
So far so good.
RussN
- Greg_Lewis
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Re: Powder coating leaf springs
I would be hesitant to use any blast media on them as it could affect the springiness. (Although walnut shells would probably be OK.) If the rust is just on the surfaces that show in the photos, I'd probably just wipe them off vigorously with a rag and apply oil and let them be. No harm will come from that minimal surface rust and it will be almost invisible down under the boiler.
Greg Lewis, Prop.
Eyeball Engineering — Home of the dull toolbit.
Our motto: "That looks about right."
Celebrating 35 years of turning perfectly good metal into bits of useless scrap.
Eyeball Engineering — Home of the dull toolbit.
Our motto: "That looks about right."
Celebrating 35 years of turning perfectly good metal into bits of useless scrap.