What's your overall opinion of it?

How much stronger is it than regular painting?

My cousin used to as a home/side business. LOTS of motorcycle frames these days are powder coated instead of paint - seems pretty robust compared to paint on the bikes I had. No chips/dings etc. It's not armor clad but it is better - what magnitude, I can't scientifically say.

Teal,

Good morning.
Yeah, motorcycles is what has me considering buying a powder coating set-up.
I'm thinking of doing a complete restoration on my 2001 Honda cr500 and Kaw. kdx-250 2-cycle.
Thanks for the info..

Powder Coating is durable enough that many of us coat out cast bullets with it.

99.95% of his business was motorcycles and motorcycle parts.

He had money invested in gear.

Yes, better than conventional paint, if a quality powder coat is properly used! That said, I’ve personally used only on cast bullets! memtb

I powder coat all my lead jigs... does that count?

The big thing with powder coat and it is same with paint, is the prep. I have seen many powder coats that flake and rust.

The fire museum I volunteer at just began doing some powder coating. It is like painting, it's all about the prep and rust can creep along under powder coat a little more than paint. You will spend big money on an oven for curing powder coat. Ours is a commercial grade oven, runs on 220 and cost about $4000. We use a sort of beginner gun from Eastwood bit will upgrading when we get a little more proficient at it. I'm looking at redoing my 17 Husqvarna FC450 and a Yamaha YZ465. The boss is okay with it as long as I pay for the powder and don't get in the way of regular operations.

We powder coat our snowshoes and our soon to be on the market composite canoe rails. Prep is everything, and the grounding and the oven!

Thanks all good information.

I powdercoat about 500 Frankenstud Sling Keepers each year. It is an exceptionally tough coating that is ready in less then 30 minutes

As others have said, Preparation is everything for for good results... And there isn't any practical way of filling and working any flaws such as dents and rust pits ect... When prepped properly, I have had just as good of results (if not better) with conventional epoxy primers and paints (some are very durable) than i get with the average powder coat job... And i doubt it would be worth the trouble & $$$ to set up powder coat for just 2 motorcycles...

I agree
The oven for a frame would be too expensive for a hobby

Yes, it is quite durable. I've recovered bullets from sand backstops and they still were coated.

I've been powder coating with a Harbor Freight sandblasting cabinet, Harbor Freight sprayer, and an oven I got off craigslist for about 7 years now.

I beefed up the blasting cabinet a lot by sealing it better, adding bracing, and swapping the tubes to a larger diameter. Probably also helps that I've got it hooked up to a fairly large compressor.

I've had to swap the heating element twice now, but the total investment is about $500 in equipment, not counting consumables.

I've looked at the materials it would take to build a large double wall curing oven, several sheets of corrugated lowes/depot sheet metal roofing material, lowes/depot has cheap insulation rated to 1200*. 6' tall, 4' wide, 4' deep. Wood-burning stove gasket to seal the door.
Old working kitchen stoves are given away, harvest needed components, mount in bottom of oven.
Thanks for the help.