A question for all you DIY powder coaters here

Ok, so I've been powder coating stuff pretty frequently and wanted to see what you guys do to overcome some of the annoyances.
1) How do you strip the powder off the oven rack? (I think I figured this one out, more news at 10)
2) How do you deal with the mess of hoses and wires when you are coating?
3) Where do you get you powder from and what are your thoughts?
4) How big is your oven?

So, for #1, I set up some jack stands and put my rack on there and coat the parts. Then I transfer the parts to my other rack and put that one in the oven. As long as everything fits on/under one rack I'm golden.
For #2, I'm thinking about building a collapsable spray booth. I mean, you have the 110V cord to the outlet, you have the ground wire to the rack, the air hose, and the cord to the activation button. It becomes a mess. One thing I did was put a clip on the control box and hang that from my belt loop. Helps a little bit, but it also pulls down my pants. But I have yet to get any on my hootus.

I rarely bake items directly on the rack. If anything I hang them underneath the rack in the top position. I bend wires and let them dangle. I use old IV poles as hangers to spray on.

My process is to media blast the part, clean with brakleen, wire them up and preheat them in the oven. Transfer the hot part to the IV pole and coat it (usually needle nose pliers on the wire to move them, the parts are 350 deg afterall)back into the oven hanging under the wire rack to cure for whatever time the label says for the powder being used.

I started preheating because I was doing a lot of wheels and the Faraday effect actually resists the powder in corners and nooks and crannies. By preheating I could turn the electric field off and the powder will fall wherever you spray it and stick instantly to the hot metal.

A wheel like this was impossible to powder coat with the electric field on

but by "hot flocking" it, I was able to cover all the bits inside and out.

Anyway for a wheel I pre-heat, remove to a sheet of plywood covered in clean cardboard or body shop paper, spray, and then put the wheel back on the rack. I can then fold up the paper and pour the leftover powder back into the container.

I always liked the stuff from powderbuythepound.com. The best gloss black I have used is still the eastwood stuff that came with my first setup.

Isn't there a concern about annealing the aluminum and losing its strength? Guess I need to look that up myself...

There's lots of discussion on that. The general consensus is its fine for wheels for a street driven car. For a race car, most shy away from it because, well, its better safe than sorry. When you consider that many factory wheels are powder coated, the concern seems unfounded to me.

Ditchdigger wrote: I rarely bake items directly on the rack. If anything I hang them underneath the rack in the top position. I bend wires and let them dangle. I use old IV poles as hangers to spray on. My process is to media blast the part, clean with brakleen, wire them up and preheat them in the oven. Transfer the hot part to the IV pole and coat it (usually needle nose pliers on the wire to move them, the parts are 350 deg afterall)back into the oven hanging under the wire rack to cure for whatever time the label says for the powder being used. I started preheating because I was doing a lot of wheels and the Faraday effect actually resists the powder in corners and nooks and crannies. By preheating I could turn the electric field off and the powder will fall wherever you spray it and stick instantly to the hot metal. A wheel like this was impossible to powder coat with the electric field on but by "hot flocking" it, I was able to cover all the bits inside and out. Anyway for a wheel I pre-heat, remove to a sheet of plywood covered in clean cardboard or body shop paper, spray, and then put the wheel back on the rack. I can then fold up the paper and pour the leftover powder back into the container. I always liked the stuff from powderbuythepound.com. The best gloss black I have used is still the eastwood stuff that came with my first setup.

An old Iv pole huh? Interesting. I've had to 'hot flock' quite a few parts. I just did some motor mount adapter plates yesterday and I have to hot flock the bolt holes for that reason.