Powder storage

[Newboy]

I began powder coating several years ago. I bought some colors from All Powder Paints. I think I bought a pound of green, red, blue, and black. These paints were stored in Mason jars in my garage. May have gotten fairly warm in the summers here in South Carolina.

I used the appropriate #5 containers, and the proper black airsoft bb's. A few shakes, and life was good! My Mihec 9mm bullets stopped leading.

Then, something CHANGED! My paint wouldn't stick any more. I tried adding styrofoam to the container, pre-heating the bullets, high humidity days, low humidity days, new bb's, fresh paint, putting my containers in a vibrating cleaner, washing the bullets in acetone, and even tried several spells I learned in Haiti. I could not get any powder to stick.

So, I order some fresh powder. I ordered from Powder by the Pound this time, by mistake (I forgot who I used last time). The fresh powder puts me back in a happy place!

I can only assume the powder got too warm in the garage or got old.

Has anyone else experienced this?

[ChuckO]

I keep my powders in jars stored in an ammo can. I put a couple of bags of desiccant in the can with them. They have been in my garage for over a year with no problems. It's probably the humidity during storage that causes the problems, not the temperature changes. I do not see any difference in the coating ability from the humidity while doing the coating or curing, but keeping the powder dry during storage seems to be important.

[DerekP Houston]

Hmm I haven't tried mine in a few months either and its just stored in ziploc bags in my closet indoors. The bag i left outside and open was ruined for sure Houston has 100% humidity on a good day.

[Rottweiler]

Yet another use for that old line "Keep yer powder dry"

[Newboy]

I really do not think it was the humidity, since I kept the powder in air-tight jars.

[Smoke4320]

Actually it probably was Humidity.. as you open and close the jar each time you get fresh air inside .. now all the excess air space is being heated and cooled setting the garage .. this produces moisture that is absorbed by the plastic
Just like a leaking scope the air heated and cooled causes fogging
answer is to remove as much excess air as possible .. powder in a plastic freezer bag ..air pushed out as much as possible then in a sealable container
but nothing is going to be good for 3 or more years with what we have in cost effective storage

[Newboy]

Actually it probably was Humidity.. as you open and close the jar each time you get fresh air inside .. now all the excess air space is being heated and cooled setting the garage .. this produces moisture that is absorbed by the plastic
Just like a leaking scope the air heated and cooled causes fogging
answer is to remove as much excess air as possible .. powder in a plastic freezer bag ..air pushed out as much as possible then in a sealable container
but nothing is going to be good for 3 or more years with what we have in cost effective storage

Thank you. If you are the "Smoke" who sells powder, I defer to your experience.


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[bstone5]

Use a flour sifter to take the lumps out of old powder coat material. It will require several times thru the flour sifter to get the powder coat material free of clots of powder coat material.
Have done this a bunch. Store the powder coat material in freezer bags, use two bags one inside the other, remove all air of the first bag. Works for me.

[Stilly]

God I hope you are SO wrong about why this could have happened. OUT! OUT FOUL POWDER KILLING DEMON!

Because I have about 30+ colors and some I have not had a chance to use yet.

Thank god Calguns banned me again. Now I can concentrate on casting the 1900 lbs of lead ingots I have and use up my powder before it goes bad! BTW, So far I have found NO degenerated powder. My powder is kept in squeeze bottles and my tumbling powder is kept in smaller square bottles with ASbbs in them as well... I need to label them I guess. The sharpie keeps rubbing off.

[farmerjim]

I store my powder in glass mason jars. I pull a vacuum on them for storage of more than a few days.
Many of the cheaper plastics will allow moisture to slowly seep through.