Powder Coating - Grounding Your Parts
If you are powder coating a metal part, it should be grounded. The grounded part is what attracts the powder to stick to the part. The better the ground, the less problems you have. Often a gun or the guns control box will come with a little 18 gauge ground wire and a mini alligator clip that you can connect to your part to ground it. I will call this the "stock" ground. The stock ground continues through the control box, through the wire it uses to plug into a wall outlet and after that is a mystery to me. This is not a good example of a ground. No matter how good of gun you have, you should have a DEDICATED GROUNDING ROD.
Using this ground method helps with faraday cage areas(the recessed areas and corners that powder just does not want to stick to normally) and also when you are spraying more than one coat. After you spray the first coat, the entire part is insulated by the powder coating. A weak ground will not attract powder through this insulating layer and you will have problems getting your next coat to stick.
A ground rod is an 8 feet long bar coated with copper and has a sharp end. It can be bought at your local Home Depot or Lowes for $10.00, The rod gets hammered into the ground almost entirely. You want to leave about 6 inches above the ground to attach the wire to. You then attach this wire to your parts and your parts are now grounded very well(most of the time). While you are out buying the grounding rod, you should also buy a grounding clamp, this is a clamp that simply fits around the rod and has a bolt to attach your wire to.
Also you will need some wire. My wire is 10 feet long 8 gauge copper wire. If you need a really long run of wire, you should get a thicker gauge. Although you want the shortest wire and the least amount of connections possible to make sure you have a reliable ground. If you plan on powder coating in your garage or shop, you can actually drill a hole in your garage floor using a masonry bit, and hammer the rod through the garage floor down into the ground below. If you no longer want it in the garage, just pound it the rest of the way down and fill the hole.
What I did was install the ground-rod right outside my garage door, I put an upside down flower pot on top of it to keep anyone from tripping on it, don't want to get sued by the guy who checks my meter, afterall. It has a foot of lead wire with a little quick disconnect plug from Lowes. I coated the rod and connection with some dieletric grease to prevent corrosion. Then on my rack I have a 9 foot long wire that I just connect to the grounding rod wire. It takes less 10 seconds to plug in and is very convenient. On my rack, the wire runs up the side and over to the middle and it is soldered to my "master hook". I hang everything from this hook and it has worked very well. Testing with a multimeter has confirmed the resistance from the ground rod to the part hanging on the rack is 0. The rod, wire, clamp, and connectors cost me $16.
Also for those of you that live in Florida like me, or other areas that have dirt that is more sand than dirt, this can cause this method to become less efficient. If you are still having ground issues after using the rod, wetting the area around the grounding rod like you were watering a plant will make for a better connection to the earth. Resources: http://www.propowdersupply.com http://ezinearticles.com/?Powder-Coating--Grounding-Your-Parts&id=7892585
Thank you for reading!