Tiller What's the deal with the paint on the PTO tiller from TSC?

[strantor]

Whilst I fully agree with your observations (and ta for the photos), I have to ask where you and/or this picture was taken.

If it is on an ocean coastal area, then the salt-water environment (mist) would have accelerated the rusting.

Alternatively, if this tiller was shipped from China/overseas then the salt-water environment would have produced the same result.

I am close enough to the coast that I have to pay for hurricane insurance but not close enough for salt spray to touch anything. The tiller sits maybe 15mi from the sea as a crow flies. If it's made in USA by Tarter as suggested a few posts up, then I don't see why it would have been shipped across any ocean.

But let's say it had been shipped from China. The way the paint is lifting off in large flakes is not the same type of coating failure I'm accustomed to seeing on shipboard equipment (typically pock marks, bubbles, anywhere the paint got nicked and water hit metal). This seems (to me, a relative layman) to be the result of poor surface prep prior to painting. But maybe I've never a piece of shipboard equipment with powdercoated surfaces, and how they look when they fail.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I believe that Caterpillar would take issue with your "doubt that any equipment mfg. has a coating engineer" comment.
Cat factory paint holds up VERY well!

I think we were talking about CUT equipment, not tractors themselves. I don't think I ever saw a Caterpillar tiller, lawn rake or bush hog, back blade, LPGS or any other "equipment" that we use on our CUTs around our small estates.

 

[Shaneard]

I have a friend who owns a powdercoat business and he does a lot for me, farm equipment of my own. I just ask him why powdercoat from overseas comes off in chunks and doesn't hold up. He said they don't clean the surface good or cure it long enough. He also said he knows in the Philippines they use rain water as a rinse. He has a multi rinse system and is constantly adding chemicals to do it the right way. Everything I've had done by him has held up well and that's a lot and most of it sits outside.

Here’s a few things he’s done for me.

 

[the old grind]

I personally do not like powder coated products.
I have seen top branded Cdn/USA products fail in the paint department.
I believe powder coating is a manufacturing short cut that mainly meets OSHA standards. thumbsup
Same goes for water based paints. ...

Powder coat is a way to avoid VOCs and government standards regarding their use, facilities, disposal, etc. It saves manufacturing steps, time, and prep. So, it's a cheap way to make stuff look good on the shelf or lot. YMMV once we let our implements rust in our own care, and a tiller is not a $30k car or truck that will be always garage-kept for the duration of ownership

'New' stores are routinely stocked with items ('excess inventory') from nearby locations that have languished without being sold. Auto parts suppliers do this all the time. Don't expect the tiller in question to be as 'young' as the store location, or to be sold at more that 10% discount, if that. Which gadgets of ours still have perfect paint after one or two uses? :scratchchin:

btw, Products seem to be thrashed most enthusiastically by folks who wouldn't own them, if that's proof of one's credentials. Oh, and as to country of manufacture ... it's been discussed elsewhere
County line implements? - Yesterday's Tractors

 

[PILOON]

Powder coating reminds me of the early automotive undercoatings.
It peels and flakes with the peeled area trapping moisture and then deep corrosion occurs.
So often I have picked at a powder coated blister and presto, a large flake comes lose!

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Powder coat is a way to avoid VOCs and government standards regarding their use, facilities, disposal, etc. It saves manufacturing steps, time, and prep. So, it's a cheap way to make stuff look good on the shelf or lot. YMMV once we let our implements rust in our own care, and a tiller is not a $30k car or truck that will be always garage-kept for the duration of ownership

'New' stores are routinely stocked with items ('excess inventory') from nearby locations that have languished without being sold. Auto parts suppliers do this all the time. Don't expect the tiller in question to be as 'young' as the store location, or to be sold at more that 10% discount, if that. Which gadgets of ours still have perfect paint after one or two uses? :scratchchin:

btw, Products seem to be thrashed most enthusiastically by folks who wouldn't own them, if that's proof of one's credentials. Oh, and as to country of manufacture ... it's been discussed elsewhere
County line implements? - Yesterday's Tractors

Link didnt work

 

[the old grind]

Link didnt work

Works for me, from my post and/or from within your quote. (Dell laptop, Vista, Opera browser v.36.)

Sorry 'bout that. Your Phone maybe? .. Anybody else have difficulty?

 

[Handloader109]

Glad I have a woods. 2 yrs outside zero rust