baked on finish

[Gerald Boggs]

I just learned this from a friend.

He was working with a smith out east of me on a large handrail job. To finish it, they contacted the Powder coat company about using their ovens on the weekend. As the powder coaters are closed on the weekend, they agreed to rent the use. So what he did was to take all his railings there, coat them with boiled linseed oil and bake them at 400 for about hour and half. I didn't get to see this, but I understand the finish came out beautifully.
I don't know about all powder coaters, but these guys have 24 foot by 8 by 8 foot ovens, so just about anything would fit inside.

Which got me thinking of other ways besides the propane torch to heat my iron before applying the finish. I've a table I needed to finish and I wasn't looking forward to using all the torch fuel to heat it up before applying the linseed oil/wax finish. The light bulb flickered on and into my basement I went. I heat with rather large wood stove. So I put it on top of the wood stove and left it for a few hours. After it was nice and hot, plus well dried out, I heated up the finish and painted it on. With the iron hot and the finish melted, it was quite easy to get into every crook and cranny. Took it off the stove and made sure all was covered. Today, I'll apply the straight wax coat and it'll be finished. That was a lot easier then heating it with torch. So I got thinking, I could do the same with a Salamander heater. It's starting to get cold in the shop and I could kill two birds with one stone, heat the shop and have a easy way to heat the iron for the finish.

[divermike]

well done, I have been thinking along those lines myself, I have a huge stack of firebrick, I was thinking of using a salamander and making a long low tube, and just letting it go for a while, but in my pole barn, I have a barrel stove, that, with an added grate on top, might just be the trick!! thanks for the thought!

[orgtwister]

i used to use a wood stove in the shop i worked at for bakeing the enamel paint on my race car motor parts i would put them next to the stove and heat the oil pan and any thing else i wanted to paint to were i would need a rag to pick up move it away and paint it then put it back and reheat im sure its the same thory and it would just suck the paint in the metal i still have some of those parts out back siting on the ground for 15+years still no rust and the inside of the pan was coated with oil and that backed in on the inside and still not really rusting