Sand Blasting & Powder Coating right here in little old Brazil, IN!


 
Jon Tofte

Jon Tofte

TVWBB 1-Star Olympian
Well, I think I made a really good contact today. I found a guy only 2 miles down the road from me who does both sand blasting AND powder coating. I brought him a sample 13-bar Weber firebox and an endcap. His initial quote was $50 for a box and two end caps. Sounds good to me! He was willing to work with me because I told him how many I could bring and that I wouldn't be in a big hurry. I also told him I would pressure wash off the grease before I gave him something to work on, as another here has done with his sandblaster. (Yes, I went for the deal on Amazon 😆 for the nice little electric pressure washer. Not overwhelmingly powerful, but adequate for my purposes and easy to use.)

We agreed to start with four sets, so I will see how it goes and how good his work is.

I have a PK grill that I completely wire-brushed down to raw aluminum. Many people think these are sold that way, but actually they are covered on the outside with silver powder coat. I am going to give him a shot at that to see what he can do.

This is the inside which, of course, won't be powder coated. The outside didn't have all that soot, so it cleaned up a lot better. Still, although shiny silver you can tell it is wire-brushed. Powder coating with high heat silver will hopefully make this close to 60 year old grill look new again:coolkettle:.
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I will report back with pictures after I get stuff back from this guy.
 
Great find, Jon! Reasonable, too. Are you going to do this to flip grills or personal? And I am curious...is this the high temp powder coating? I'd like to know at what temp they bake the high heat stuff at.

So the quote is $50 for sandblast AND powder coat? Why are you wire-brushing?
 
Mostly for flip grills, but I might do a special one or two for myself. For keepers you have to try to remember that you are really just creating a photo-op since after two cooks your grill will be black inside again!

The guy told me the powder coating would cost a little more because he would have to use high heat powder vs. regular.
 
Jon, that is awesome. I hope it works out for you. It makes it so much easier to do a rehab. I am also interested in the powder coating. My guy is also a powder coating guy, but I just figured the powder coating would be too expensive to make it feasible. Maybe I need to talk to him next time I take some cook boxes and end caps in for blasting.
 
Jon Tofte said:
Mostly for flip grills, but I might do a special one or two for myself. For keepers you have to try to remember that you are really just creating a photo-op since after two cooks your grill will be black inside again!
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Jon Tofte said:
This is the inside which, of course, won't be powder coated. The outside didn't have all that soot, so it cleaned up a lot better.
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I inferred that you wire-brushed the outside, too...wire-brushing the outside prior to media blasting is what I was asking about. But let's say that you don't wire-brush the inside and only pressure-wash/degrease, then it goes into a high temp oven...would that be a problem?

Granted, I don't know anything about the flip business. Is your typical rehab grill buyer savvy enough to appreciate the advantages of powder coating?
 
Bruce,
I doubt powder coating is profitable for flip grills, but he sounded like he could do both halves of my PK for $60 to $80. For a collectible where the lid is aluminum, I am good with that. I don't think I would try to get a Weber firebox or end caps done, but maybe...It would also be tempting for something special like my Broilmaster double grill, but I have had very good success making those look nice with Krylon semi gloss black, so that would probably be good enough for me.

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Powder coat will last a lot longer, but won't stop stains from messing up the look.
 
Ed Pinnell said:
I inferred that you wire-brushed the outside, too...wire-brushing the outside prior to media blasting is what I was asking about. But let's say that you don't wire-brush the inside and only pressure-wash/degrease, then it goes into a high temp oven...would that be a problem?

Granted, I don't know anything about the flip business. Is your typical rehab grill buyer savvy enough to appreciate the advantages of powder coating?
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I think most flip grill buyers are wowed when you can show them a grill that looks like new - even better than new - inside. Most expect to see soot and grease and are pretty shocked when it sparkles instead. Anybody that uses grills seriously knows that actually a seasoned grill will cook a little better and a brand new looking grill won't look that way after a couple cooks. But few people want to buy a higher priced grill with gunk on it. I like to say "Your crud left behind after grilling is seasoning while someone else's seasoning is crud!"

You can get a very nice look with patience using a angle grinder and cup brush. Enough to wow most anybody. But, you have to deal with the inherent dangers of this tool, the mess, and most of all the risks of inhaling bad stuff. And then, the sandblasted fireboxes I have seen DO look more like a new grill then you can do with an angle grinder. All that adds up to some definite advantages to sandblasting if you can get it done reasonably and properly.

My guy doesn't expect me to wire brush before he sand blasts, but like others have posted he would like to have most of the grease washed off since it gums up the process. Pressure washing or a strong cleaner like the special Dawn or Sam's Grill and Oven cleaner. For powder coating, I think it is necessary to completely strip the metal you want done. Whether that is done by an angle grinder (thoroughly used) or sand blasting I don't think matters. If you have the exterior of a firebox powder coated while the inside was only pressure washed, I don't see any big issue. Maybe the left behind stains inside would be more burnt in, but if it is just for personal use, I wouldn't worry about it. Again, for resale I would do all I can to at least get the inside very clean above the grate level if not the whole firebox.
 
Now an ideal thing would be to find someone who can fire on porcelain enamel. But, wow it's a great contact to have
 
I realize you all are discussing sandblasting on this thread, but for those of us who do not have that available isn't wire cup brushing the firebox enough for personal use?
 
Samuel Sandoval said:
I realize you all are discussing sandblasting on this thread, but for those of us who do not have that available isn't wire cup brushing the firebox enough for personal use?
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Absolutely. And, in fact, wire brushing is maybe overkill for your own use. Unless you are wanting to take pictures to memorialize your restoration, I think it is quite adequate to scrape everything out and use a cleaner and scrub brush. It is only going to get black and greasy after a few cooks anyway.
 
Yes, I agree with Jon. For one or two grills an angle grinder and wire cup brush is good. But, like he said, unless you are trying to sell them, just clean out what you can with a scraper and maybe some grill cleaner or a trip to the car wash to use the pressure washer and be done with it. Spend your time and money on other parts of the grill.
 
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