(re)finishing - protecting outdoor tools

[fractal]

I was outside today watering the garden and noticed that the hose reel was looking a bit scruffy. I bought one of those metal hose reel carts at costco a year or so ago. I have probably tried every way to deal with hoses and this cart was the first product that did not result in the hoses being left on the ground. It works. I can turn the crank and get 100 ft of 3/4 hose on it in no time flat. I can grab the end of the hose and walk and the hose comes off the reel. It does not matter which way I am walking as long as I remember to turn the reel to face the way I want to pull the hose. I was so pleased when I bought it that I ignored the fact that it was cheap, made in china, product.

Well, I have now had it for a year or two and it is showing it. All the chrome parts ... well ... there isn't much chrome on them now.
and
should give you an idea what I mean.

Anyway, I immediately started thinking of ways to justify buying more toys ... err ... tools ... before finding out how good hammerite really is. ( hammerite for those of you who don't know it is the UK version of rustoleum that claims it can be sprayed directly on rusted parts ). I have been using hammerite on all my outdoor refinishing projects and it is good stuff. But, I wondered if there might be something better.

I considered stripping the old chrome and rechroming them. You can buy kits from Caswell Plating to do that job, but decided ... my lord, this is a hose reel. I also considered cleaning the thing up and putting a coat of electrostatic painting (powder coat) on it. You can get cheap powder coat guns from harbor freight or caswell or others. The stuff is supposed to have exceptional weatherability. I would probably give it a shot if not for the need to bake the part at 300-400 degrees after you spray it with the powder coat complicating things.

What do the folk on this forum do in cases like this (other than not buy cheap chinese hose reels)? Much as I think taking it apart, cleaning it up and powder coating it might be an interesting job, I am strongly leaning towards hitting it with the wire brush on the angle grinder and coating it with hammerite.

 

[SPIKER]

Fractal:

I would POWDER COAT IT! but I'm biased as I build powder coating booths ovens and systems for a living and always have access to them for jobs such as this! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

take a look, http://www.haynncorp.com

click any of the links for ovens, or powder booths. I went down to CHUPPS about a month back (he is an AMISH POWDER COATER!) and bummed some copper vein powder for my own personal projects /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif as amish they do things pretty slick sometimes, we built him an entire Powder Coating line) 2 ovens BIG washer and 2 booths with conveyor system through them all and a repaint line. they run it all from a big 50KW turbo diesle power plant, and powers the welding shop out back too. our system only uses about 1/2 the output power so he has extra. I talked him into the added wattage...

Mark M /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

 

[have_blue]

Dis-assemble, sand blast, and spray with several coats of automotive enamel or good UV resistant epoxy. Rough up between coats and your cheap but effective hose reel will last a long time.

If the base metal would have been properly prepped for the nickel plating in the first place, it would still shine like new.

 

[Junkman]

I don't think that it was the prep work that caused the chrome to fail, but rather the lack of a copper and nickel base coat before chroming.

I think that powder coat is expensive for something like this and it isn't warranted. I would just clean, prime, and paint. I have a fertilizer spreader that is powder coated and I wash it down after every use. The powder coat is pealing in many places and no matter what I do to try to preserve the unit, it continues to rust. It is a too, not a treasure. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[OkeeDon]

I love Hammerite. We used it all the time to paint bbq grill bases when we were reconditioning used grills. You can get it in a smooth finish, but the hammered finish is great to hide flaws. It works differently than Rustoleum. Paints like Rustoleum have inhibiter's in them to prevent rust (I think fish oil is part of it). Hammerite actually forms a protective film over the part and prevents oxygen from forming new rust.

Of course, using a system like this, it's important that you coat the entire part (no gaps) and that the coat have a minimum thickness (6 mil comes to mind, but it's been a few years since I used the stuff, and I may have mixed up the numbers with something else).

Hammerite hardens to a coating similar to epoxy, but because it's a one-part coating (no separate hardener), it takes about 6 weeks to do so. During that 6 weeks it's relatively soft, but after that, it's as hard as you can easily get in any coating. You can re-coat within 12 hours, but if you miss that window of opportunity, you have to wait the 6 weeks for it to harden in order to re-coat.

You can get spray cans, or buy a quart and thin with Xylon for spraying. Home Depot and Ace Hardware have selections of it. My Home Depot paint guy used to order me any color/texture if I bought a half-case or so.