yeah that’s what i’m thinking too, anodising is such a mess, i just like the colours ! we can do some of that with the laser but also silly hard to control
i just hadn’t really considered doing powdercoating at home either
I bought my set up from Eastwood. Got the “Dual Voltage Gun” (140, though on sale right now, sigh), some extra powder containers and several powders. They have a single voltage gun for about $100 which I probably could have gotten by with. Harbor Fright has an even cheaper one ($80) that would probably work (not really that much to it). I had a thrift shop toaster oven that I use for reflow. Bought an air filter and pressure reducer from HF.
It turned out to be really easy. If you do reflow at home, this is way easier. It’s not quite as exciting as watching your ICs and components snap into place but it’s pretty close. The trickiest part is getting it into the oven with out it touching anything. Anything it sits on will leave a mark. I used sheet metal screws in the mounting holes as standoffs.
There is a related technique called “hot flocking”. Basically, if you heat up a part to 400F, pull it out of the oven and sprinkle on the powder, it will stick. You can do glass that way. I’m going to experiment with using something like a powdered sugar shaker to see if we can skip the gun altogether. Dirt cheap if it works.
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