Took apart my Morse MV2 control today and powdercoated it.

[catamount]

Okay, I don't think this is truly an MV-2 because it doesn't have the Neutral interlock, but it's darn close.

Mine was heavily chipped, pitted and even worse the control was sluggish and didn't move smoothly. Since I had some time on my hands, I decided to take it apart to re-lube the mechanism and powdercoat the cover.

Here was the cover before. Just... ugly.



Some gunked up interals shots, just in case someone needs them in the future. Pull the internals away from the plate SLOWLY so you do not lose the spring and the ball bearing on the end of it.







Then I removed all of the old grease with greased lightening and some commercial grade PPG wax & grease remover.



Next I put the faceplate into my sandblast cabinet and gave it a good cleaning. Every MC owner needs one of these! I found this one for $150 on Craigslist a couple of years ago while doing a motorcycle restoration.



You can't get to this kind of finish with sandpaper! It only took about 10 minutes and a 33 gallon Craftsman compressor to get here.



I'm using the Eastood $150 "Hot Coat" kit to powdercoat this. I got it a few years back to do that motorcycle restoration I spoke of and once you get setup to do this kind of thing... you start looking around your garage for anything else to coat. It's really fun and does a nice job.

Anyway, the first step is to clean the part with wax & grease remover and then ground the part and spray the powder.



Then into a 400 degree oven (not your kitchen oven! ) in your garage. You should not use your "eating" oven for the byproducts will ruin future baked foods. I found this oven on Craigslist for free because the top wasn't functional.

The powder starts to "flow" out, the pores of the metal open and up and when it's done baking the part has a very strong and resilient shell.



Once it cools, it's ready to assemble. You can't do that with paint!



It's best to pre-bake cast parts like this at a higher temperature than you will be powdercoating at to release any trapped gasses *before* you spray the coating.

I forgot to do that so there is some minor pitting in the surface. You can't really even tell from up close though, so I'm not going to worry about it.



From there I greased up my internals, put it back together and everything works like new. It feels like a new control, and looks great doing it.





On to the next project...

[mikeg205]

outstanding..!!! I love the the second life you gave to both the blaster and the oven....!! Great pics...!!

[Table Rocker]

Great post, thanks for sharing all the pics.

[BrooksfamX2]

Nice work!

[bturner2]

Outstanding post!

[thatsmrmastercraft]

Impressive work, and an equally fine write-up.

[CantRepeat]

Yup! This is one of those threads that people will be using for a long, long time. I hope the photos are hosted some where safe.

[thatsmrmastercraft]

Originally Posted by CantRepeat

Yup! This is one of those threads that people will be using for a long, long time. I hope the photos are hosted some where safe.

The down side is I just added one more thing to my To Do list.

[Phntmski]

I'm so impressed by this and some of the other posts here at TT. Outstanding job!!

[catamount]

Thanks guys! I've been really enjoying "fixing" up this boat.