Powder coating a spin pole???

[RoyB]

I've got a 4.5 metre long spinnaker pole that has been pretty well flogged over 5 years. It seems to be structurally and operationally ok but it looks terrible.

There are no anodizing shops on my island that can re-do it and even if they could that wouldn't do much for the various dings and gouges.

Does anyone know if powder coating is a viable option?

The local powder coater will acid dip, rinse, sandblast, chromate coat and powder coat all for about $150 - not a bad price but I don't know if it will work on a spin poll that gets knocked about by shackles and has lines chafing over it.

Any advice would be most welcome.

[Brian Duff]

a lot of aluminum spars are powder coated.

[Ted Reshetiloff]

I would be interested in who has an oven big enough to powder coat your pole outside of a serious manufacturing setup. I have a similar situation with a pole I bought used and have since stripped. It is not too hard to etch the bare aluminum then apply several coats of a high build primer followed by a hard finish like awlgrip or even something like Interlux Interthanes Plus. But for $150 if its really a powder coating job I would say go for it. Either way a piece of leather sewn on in certain areas of the pole will go a long way towards keeping it nice looking.

[Matthew Sebring]

I agree with the other poster that a $150 powdercoat (if that's really what it is and the quality is decent) sounds like a good deal. However, it won't really fill the gouges and abuse, just highlight them like paint does. I've done an awlgrip job on a spin pole which (like the last posters says) had been etched (sandblasted actually) painted with a high-build primer then filled with awlgrip's filler material (red stuff, can't remember the name) then sanded then painted over again (then filled again, sand, paint, repeat) until everything was uniform and then given a final awlgrip topcoat job. The end result was a pole that looked brand new.

[TomP]

I have a oven that can take 25 feet horizontal, 12 feet wide, and 12 feet tall. I have powdered small boat masts and booms, big boat booms and so many spin poles I can't even remember. With some of the new powder formulations out there (they look like chrome) we have even done winch drums complete with "alligator skin" effects. The techniques for powder are very similar to the Awlgrip methodolgies of high-build primers and color coats/seal coats, then gloss coats.
Metered correctly, powder and its base primer coat will fill most imperfections flawlessly.
There is one important thing to remember though. If the material is heavily oxidised there is the possibilty of an effect called "gassing" where the oxides reach critical mass and revert back to gassing causing tiny pin holes in the powder. We have turned away certain jobs because the oxidation is that bad. Sand blasting is not a viable option because the blast media will drive the oxidation further into the material to be coated. We have had great success with a hot bath of de-ionized water (think of a long jacuzzi). As with all finish jobs, proper preparation is 2/3 of the finished product.
Hope this helps.