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Frustrations to Finishing with Jase Kaser

August 2, 2022 by pcnearme

[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” _builder_version=”4.17.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]In our exclusive interview with Jase Kaser, Owner of Kaser Blastings and Coatings, we uncover some of the everyday frustrations of running a powder coating business and how to overcome them.

We feature an up and coming coater, Jase Kaser. I stumbled upon his blog one day and discovered a fountain of inspiration, like no other. If you’re looking for solace in the life of powder coating this young man lends you a reprieve. He shares pearls of wisdom about the subtleties of coating, from a self-reliant mindset and covers everything from lessons learned in technical problem solving, to managing customers and employee expectations.

RossKote (Kim Scott): I call him the Ralph Waldo Emerson of powder coating. I hope you will call him a friend. Follow along as he melds his life experience with growing his powder coating biz, get ready to level up your powder coater game.

RossKote (Kim Scott): Welcome to episode 10, I’m Kim Scott, your host of the RossKote Powder Coater Podcast. Where we interview influencers in the industry and cover trending topics. So powder coaters can effectively learn and grow their business. Today, we’re reaching out to interview Jase Kaser from Kaser Blasting and Coating he’s out of Nebraska and I was attracted to his story.

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RossKote (Kim Scott): As a powder coater or the wife of a powder coater, because he has an approach on his blog that addresses the subtleties of coating things, the struggles with it, learning the business and addressing his customer’s expectations. And I found it very inspirational. I wanted to bring this podcast to you today because I found it’s almost like he has, it’s a training manual and a journal all in one.

RossKote (Kim Scott): So I’m happy to welcome Jase Kaser to the show. Welcome.

Jase Kaser: Thanks for having me on.

RossKote (Kim Scott): Yeah. Now I found you a Tim Pennington. So I’m just going to give a shout out to Tim Pennington of the finishings and coatings online magazine. If you don’t follow Tim, he usually is giving featured focuses and addresses all kinds of coating content in the coatings and finishing from powder coating.

RossKote (Kim Scott): So liquid coatings and beyond. So if you don’t follow Tim or you don’t get his email in your inbox go ahead and head over to his finishing and coating magazine online. Just Google it. And you will find you can sign up to get his newsletter, but recently a Kaser got featured in his magazine and I enjoyed reading it.

RossKote (Kim Scott): What was said in the magazine is just a feature of, they were just featuring you as a coater. But there was one thing that really brought an attention to me was just an introduction to your business and stuff. But I really found something that you said that was really compelling and that you’re grateful for your customers for the positive reviews and stuff.

RossKote (Kim Scott): But later on you said the more transparent and communicative, we are, the more satisfied our customers are likely to be. And that’s the one reason why I wanted to bring you on the show, because I do think that there are barriers to market and communicate. And especially when communicating.

RossKote (Kim Scott): To your customers, the subtleties of powder coating and the struggles that you have as a powder coater to educate customers or shed light on the process. But before we dive deep into that, I want to know how long have you been powder coating in the industry and or how did you get started?

RossKote (Kim Scott): Talk me through it.

Jase Kaser: Okay. My parents started Kaser painting incorporated before I was born back in 1987 and that started as a residential painting company. So it started off with my dad painting houses and then it grew from there and went into more commercial painting. Like new construction, hospitals and schools and office buildings.

Jase Kaser: In 2004, my mom and dad added a blast facility that was just adjacent to the building. If they already. And so they started blasting and then doing, I call it liquid coating. It’s still painting, but it’s just all the painting was done inside of booth. Like high-performance industrial type coatings.

Jase Kaser: And then in 2014 is when we finally started powder coating. And so when I was younger and growing up in high school, I always worked on in the summers, usually in the Kaser painting shop staining and finishing wood.And then I would also work in the blast shop a little bit like in the blast cabinet or if our main blaster was gone or on vacation, I would get in there and try to wrangle the blast hose as a young middle school or high schooler, which can be challenging.

Jase Kaser: Just because it’s, that’s probably the most physically demanding job that we have. And then when we started the powder coating, it was 2014. So I was in college at that time. I had just finished my let’s see, fourth year, it took me five years. I went to the university of Nebraska Lincoln for mechanical engineering.

Jase Kaser: So I’ve always been interested in setting up equipment and how it all works, how it goes together. And so I was interested in helping get all the powder coating stuff set up. So over that summer, between my fourth and fifth year, so going into my senior year of college, we started putting up the powder coating oven and boots.

Jase Kaser: And I sprayed our first part and then we hired one guy to help run it. And then I finished my senior year college. And then it was, I was getting right to the end of my senior year. I was trying to decide if I wanted to go to graduate school or if I wanted to just be done with school and had my bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and just go the family business.

Jase Kaser: But it was a tough decision. I was going back and forth because I had done a lot of undergraduate research and engineering. And that particular professor really wanted me to go on and be a grad student and get my master’s and get my PhD. But the powder coating was really taken off and dad really needed my help in the sense that like he was running the Kaser painting.

Jase Kaser: So the commercial, residential painting, also the blast thing, and then the powder coating and he could run all three of them, but it was like he was the limiting factor. You can’t be in three places at once, all day, every day.And so it ultimately, it was my decision, but they really needed help.

Jase Kaser: So I was like, you know what? I have powder coated or putting stuff together. And. I am getting really tired of school. I’m not sure if I will use this master’s or PhD, cause in the long run, I wanted to get into the family business someday and then hopefully take it over. So I decided that a bachelor’s degree was enough and then started helping and jumped right in and help in the powder coating right away on the floor.

Jase Kaser: And then since then it’s grown. So that was 2015 that would’ve been when I started working at full time. That’s been five years ago now, a little over five years. So the summer of 2015 and we’ve grown a lot since then, powder coating has been our fastest growing division ever since that time. And yeah, that’s where we’re at now.

Jase Kaser: Now instead of being on the floor and doing all the work, I’m mostly in the office. Trying to organize all the work and get all of the logistical stuff done. So all of our team members can focus on their craft. Everybody’s really good at what they do. And so it’s my job to get all their obstacles out the way so they can do their job.

Jase Kaser: If our sprayers can come in and spray all day washers can come in and pre-treat all day and not have to worry about equipment breaking and running on the supplies and materials, then they can do their job a lot better. So that’s what I focus on. I’m mostly scheduling an, order being a purchaser and cloning and dealing with customers.

Jase Kaser: I still like to get on the floor when I can, because that’s usually the funest part is when you can get in and work and not have any interruptions and get sweaty and stuff. That’s fun.

RossKote (Kim Scott): Yeah. Get lost in the work and just, I always was like that with painting. Let myself work without having any, distractions and stuff like that.

RossKote (Kim Scott): The logistics is hard, it’s not that easy. You have to know it all in order to understand how to logistically set something up. And it sounds like you guys do it all then like liquid and powder you’re out both sides.

Jase Kaser: Correct, yeah. So we have our blast and liquid booth, our indoor there 18 foot wide, 15 foot tall by 50foot long.

Jase Kaser: So we can do like concrete trucks and dump trucks. We do a lot of the 40 foot shipping containers. For construction companies. They don’t have to see those as job trailers. So we have that in one of our, one of our buildings and then our other building is fully powder coating.

RossKote (Kim Scott): And as a family business, are you the only family, the son or are there other siblings.

Jase Kaser: I have a younger brother. He’s not involved in the family business. He is also a mechanical engineer. And he decided to take an engineering job right out of college. It was a really good job. And so he’s still doing that right now. And I don’t know that he has much desire to come into the family business maybe someday.

Jase Kaser: But he really likes the engineering job he has right now. So that’s where he’s at, but yeah, I do have a younger brother.

RossKote (Kim Scott): So do you and your dad, I’m assuming your mom and dad are still seem like they’re young enough, they’re still involved in the business or you’re trying to get more hands-off?

Jase Kaser: So they, I would say, so they still run the Kaser painting side.

Jase Kaser: And then what I say, I run as a Kaser of blasting and coating side. So the Kaser painting as the commercial and residential painting. Like I talked about my dad’s still there every day, there from as I am from five in the morning till five at night. And so he’s doing the day today office running the painting side.

Jase Kaser: And my mom does all of the accounting and bookkeeping for all of the, all of our divisions. So they’re still there every day. They are getting them to the point where they want to slow down a little bit, but as far as the day to daywork and decisions and the blasting of powder coating I pretty much handle all that now.

Jase Kaser: And it’s been interesting. I’ve never, I haven’t thought about it much, but when I reflect on it as I’ve been, I’m surprised how quickly my mom and dad just let me run with it. As I started going but my dad is a very, he’s also very hands-on. He likes to be involved be very particular.

Jase Kaser: But he’s letting me make my own decisions. If we have a disagreement, he’s usually the one that will back down and they’ll just kinda let me learn the hard way. Sometimes other times I’ll step in and say, I know that Idid this before and this way isn’t going to work. But they do a really good job of just letting me go ahead and run with it.

Jase Kaser: And obviously there’s when there’s big, really big decisions to make. I involve them and we all three talk about it and come up with a good decision, but I’ve never felt that I was, I don’t really feel like their son when I’mat work, so when I’m at work, I call them Jay & Sherry. I don’t call it mom and dad.

Jase Kaser: Yeah. I’m just never, it doesn’t feel like it’s mom and dad watching over me at work. It just feels like we’re we have good working relationship if we work alongside each other really well and compliment each other because I look at stuff a lot differently than they do. Cause I’m younger went to engineering school.

Jase Kaser: And I’m interested in technology and every trying to do everything faster and on the cloud and more remote and either technology to help us go faster. And they’re, used to doing this. I don’t necessarily want to say old school, but you know that older way, but they have all the experience too.

Jase Kaser: So there’s, I might have a lot of new ideas that can help, but then when I run them by them, they can give me their input okay, that might work, but don’t forget about this and this, because they’re thinking about things that I don’t think about.

RossKote (Kim Scott): Yeah. That you haven’t even, because you don’t have this much experience.

RossKote (Kim Scott): Yeah. It makes you think that, what sets Kaser apart from other powder coaters in your area?

Jase Kaser: I would say our. We pay really close attention to detail. And in general, our feed back from our customers is that our quality is usually typically better than other places. And with going along with that, we’re usually more expensive.

Jase Kaser: We hear that as a lot of feedback too, but I would say definitely our quality. We’re very particular about everything that we do and from start to finish. So there’s a lot of intricacies and blasting and coatings that the general customer doesn’t necessarily realize at the surface. And then when it comes to any kind of coating everybody thinks it’s just painting.

Jase Kaser: I can do it myself. I can go to Menards and get an aerosol can and spray paint my car, parts myself, which you can, but it’s a lot different and there’s a lot more to it than people think. When it comes down to it, it’s hard to explain to customers. And that’s what we do. Our blogs started to explain to customers when they’re coming in to drop parts up or get a quote what’s all involved and all the steps that we’re taking to make sure that their coating’s going to look good, but then also have longevity.

Jase Kaser: Cause we’re all the substrates that we coat and the Kaser blasting, coating side, it’s all metal. And so we’re going for corrosion protection is what’s really important. And obviously everybody, when it comes to powder coating, we do a lot of general public stuff, the lawn furniture, car parts, and all kinds of stuff like that.

Jase Kaser: So they’re more looking for the aesthetics, but if it’s going outside, it’s really important to have, make sure the substrates craft properly with the right blast and pretreated properly with the right chemicals or you get either paint or powder coating over the top make sure that they have a good, long lasting finish.

Jase Kaser: So I think all that attention to detail sets us aside from everybody else, but that’s hard to convey to customers really hard.

RossKote (Kim Scott): Yeah. I think that’s what I found so compelling about your blog and just for the listeners, you can actually find the blog at Kaser, K-A-S-E-R blasting.com forward slash blog. (kaserblasting.com/blog)

RossKote (Kim Scott): And I feel like when I started to read it it’s a, it’s an ode to powder coating again, if I thought, wow, this could be a training manual for the subtleties of powder coating for both consumers or your customers, and your employees. It’s a journal, it’s a journey.

RossKote (Kim Scott): I don’t know your writing style intrigued me, I don’t know if you’re doing all of the writing. How do you get, how do you get inspired to write? Is it something happens with a customer or an event happens at work, and then that’s the impetus?

Jase Kaser: It’s a combination of things. But if somebody takes the time to go through and read all of our blogs, they might be able to tell that some of them are a little more passionate and ranty than others. So sometimes it’s the frustration that triggers me to record it. Other times. It’s just, I want to help educate.

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Jase Kaser: About a certain thing. We’re also, we really try to be active on social media, on all forms and blogging is this one of them that we do on our website. And and I work with we have a couple team members that helped me with that. I can’t take all the credit for writing the blogs. The content is definitely coming from me.
Jase Kaser: And typically the process that we use to do the blogs is I’ll record myself talking. It’s like we’re doing right now. And then I gave that to Chloe. I’ll give her a shout out and she’s the one who watches my videos and then she writes it out. So she’s using all of my words and contexts, but she is a very good writer.

Jase Kaser: And as a good way with words to get some of my long-winded rants down onto the page and actually make sense. So she does a very good job of that. I can’t take credit, for the physical writing, but the. Yeah, the topics just come up. There’s a lot of things that happen on a daily basis. And usually it’s just something that happened in that particular day.

Jase Kaser: I try to just, when I’m thinking about wanting to do any type of social media content, I just try to think about now what happened today, instead of trying to make up something special, that’s usually hard to do. It’s easier to just go off of what’s on my mind, what I’m dealing with, ton of customers calling in and asking the same question in a day or I feel like I’m answering the same thing over and over again, or explaining the same thing over and over. And I just feel like we need to make a blog about.

RossKote (Kim Scott): Yeah, that was, that’s pretty much how I got started. Someone suggested to me one day when we first launched our website, well, you need a blog, and I’m like, “oh God, what’s that? Like really?” And it was just quite simply put, what is the most asked question when somebody answers the phone?

RossKote (Kim Scott): What is the question they asked the most and that’s how it all started. And lo and behold, a year later after that blog post was posted, we reached number one in Google. And then it just took off from there. And that’s when I realized we were actually writing to consumer; our consumer based market rather than to other powder coaters or to any other audience, but I think what I like about what you’re doing is.

RossKote (Kim Scott): For those that have thought, “oh, I need a blog too.And, or I need a video log or a YouTube channel or where this and that”. I think what I like best about your approach is it seems simple. You’re just recording yourself. It’s you’re dealing with the day to day. Yes. You have help along the way.

RossKote (Kim Scott): You’ve got people re-crafting or redrafting the message, but it doesn’t have to be, it can be crude. It can be like crude in the sense that it non-processed and still be a great blog or a great blog in addressing to your customer or to your Instagram audience or Facebook, whatever.

RossKote (Kim Scott): It doesn’t have to be complicated. And I guess. The way that they’re writing or the blog that I just don’t feel it, that it’s pressed or not the word. That’s not the word I want to reach, but it’s not a forced thing. You know what I mean? It’s something that happens organically and it can be just that for everybody.

RossKote (Kim Scott): Because as with every job you’re creating content whether it’s a tough job or an easy job, or a shiny, pretty color job or a difficult customer job, or any of the different, that’s the beauty of powder coating is that you’re constantly creating content to write about because with every new project is content.

Jase Kaser: Yes. And the reality of the situation is, and I’m sure you can at test to this as like we’re in a small business. I have a lot of responsibilities that I have to attend to, to keep the business running. So I don’t really have time to sit there and think of these very intricate plans about what we’re going to do on social media and what I need to write a blog about.

Jase Kaser: So it just happens on the fly because I just simply don’t have that much time to dedicate to a long drawn out strategy for it. It’s just, whatever’s popped into my mind that’s all I have time to go with. So I just go with it.

RossKote (Kim Scott): And, we talked earlier about using software technology and apps. Can you break down for us? Are you using specific apps to help you, or are you just going straight to the platforms themselves to, maybe dive a little deeper in there? Is there a specific app you’re using?

Jase Kaser: Particularly? It’s, we use a lot of spreadsheets, so like Excel and Google sheets.

Jase Kaser: We just like to keep track of what we’re doing and then scheduling, you could also do that, any type of spreadsheet program. We liked the little sheets because that’s, on the internet and on the cloud. So you can access it from multiple places. You can access it from a phone or a tablet or a computer and in the powder shop with computer in my office instead of having to be at one particular place.

RossKote (Kim Scott): Yeah, I agree. We use Google a lot too. But when you’re recording, what are you recording just on your phone? Or how does that work out?

Jase Kaser: Oh, for content. Yeah, I just record them. I’m just using my phone.I’ve tried to, they have those kind of like selfie stick things. And also, I think it’s called a gimbal it’ll self balance, the phone, and I’ve used that a little bit, but it boils down to time.

Jase Kaser: So the people that helped me on social media they liked that and they want me to use it because it balances the phone better and get better video. And man, I got, it takes me 30 minutes to get that thing working. I don’t have that. So I’m just going to go with my phone. If I have a full day, like a Saturday or something that I can dedicate to it, then I’ll get out some tripod and set some stuff up and get the lighting.

Jase Kaser: But otherwise now I’m just using my cell phone. Now a days I’m used to it because I grew up with cell phones, but they can do almost everything. It’s basically like a computer in your pocket. So if you have a pretty new phone, you can pretty much take pictures, video record yourself, and all that content is good to put on social media.

RossKote (Kim Scott): I’ve struggled with the gimbal thing too. Maybe someday, it’s just one more thing to add to my list of many things. Yeah, I encourage everybody to check out some of the titles from your blog. And you’re putting out quite a bit of content.

RossKote (Kim Scott): You’ve put out something at least once or twice a week here, so you’ve got lots of content to read through and I like it because, you could be struggling with a project as a powder coater and reading your stories.Here’s one “three rules of training”. I thought that was very valuable.

RossKote (Kim Scott): That’s the most recent one that you’ve put up and, you’re a general manager at Kaser and I’m imagining you make it sound so easy, but I know it probably took you a little while to figure this stuff out. And here you are just right here. Super easy. You’ve got three different points that you’re using that other powder coaters could read to figure out how to work through some of their training issues as well.

RossKote (Kim Scott): Like, there’s never enough over explaining, figuring out the progression of a job and investing in your time wisely and stuff. And I think that’s, this is the valuable stuff that I think powder coaters should be reading on a regular basis and stuff, does it seem to help you to get it out?benco sales b17 ad

Jase Kaser: All of that’s the stuff like that last article that we wrote, that’s a little more, I would say in depth or more process oriented and less about like coating a part or something. That’s just learned, I’ve learned that over time. I definitely managed differently. I think we have a blog about pretty recently.

Jase Kaser: I don’t like it’s that one, but it’s one right for that, about how, when I first started I thought the best way to get my point across was yelling and intimidating. And I learned pretty quickly that, that wasn’t so it’s been a dry trial now really. And so throughout the years, we’ve and I know for me to say that you’re probably thinking, yeah, but you’re still super young, it’s been five years for me, so that’s a big portion of my life.

Jase Kaser: And that’s just what we’ve learned. We finally, I’ve gotten to a point where the team members that we have now have been there for a while.We used to have pretty high turnover and we still do. It seems like when you’re trying to fill a new position. You just gotta be prepared, the closer that you can keep yourself to reality and not get too high and not get too low when things are going bad, then it’s, it goes a little bit better.

Jase Kaser: So when it comes to training and hiring to try to just be realistic.And instead of, when you’re really busy and you’re hiring people, you can be really, you can get frustrated really easy, or really helps that someone’s going todo really good because he got a big project coming up and then you need a couple more, really good people that know exactly what they’re doing and have experienced.

Jase Kaser: But a lot of the time, even if they do have experience, they’re not going to do it exactly the way it, your particular team does it. Everybody has their own hands in the house. So that’s where we came up with the over explaining because when you have someone that you feel like has experienced and you just assume that they know.

Jase Kaser: Most of that, and it didn’t really come across in the article to start, but I can put it better now that we’re doing an interview in words, is that a lot of my background mechanical background comes from, I used to race when I was younger. So when I was nine years old, I started riding dirt track racing all the way until I was 25.

Jase Kaser: But it’s just recently that we stopped doing that. So I’m really mechanically inclined and used to whatever tools called and what’s the size of bolts are and this looking at something and telling if that’s gonna hold or if that’s going to break or if that’s going to work or not just because I’ve been around mechanical stuff my whole life ever sinceI was little.

Jase Kaser: And so we have some team members that come in that maybe have had a coating experience, or maybe don’t. But they, I take for granted that they don’t necessarily have that background if they haven’t used all the tools I have, they haven’t been around all the mechanical stuff I have. In the beginning, I used to not really explain that stuff and just assumed, like they knew exactly what I was talking about.

Jase Kaser: Or, if you go to hang a really heavy thing, really heavy part and you’re hanging it with a forklift because it’s too heavy for two or three people lift it. You have to get the forklift under it. It’s this natural for me to say, Hey, we’re going to need some like really big hooks, probably big chain to hang this because nobody can lift it, little tiny hooks.

Jase Kaser: Aren’t going to hold, it’s going to fall. And if someone doesn’t have experience with mechanical type stuff and being around, things like that, they just, they simply don’t know. That’s not because it’s no fault to them. They just don’t have experience with it. And so those are the little things that sometimes seem obvious to some people because of their experience.

Jase Kaser: And then, but you still got to train on it. And I, we found that it’s easier to over explain and keep saying the same thing and keep explaining stuff and let the person roll their eyes at you and be like, okay. Yeah, I know you told me, he told me, I know that. Of course, I know that it’s better to do that than assume they know something and then something goes wrong or more importantly, like someone gets hurt because the safety thing that someone’s doesn’t know.Yeah.

RossKote (Kim Scott): I think it’s easy. I think most people think I’ve told you once, how many more times do I have to tell you? But not everybody. My, I have a daughter that has a learning issue and, it did take multiple times, but once she got it in her head, it was in there for good, it was just this over coming this learning curve. And then once she learned the task or whatever, It was just, it never leaves it. And it is hard to adapt to your training to multiple levels. And one thing that was said in this blog called “Busting the Myth of Self-Direction” the intensity level ranges from moderate flurry to fog of war.

RossKote (Kim Scott): I love that because that’s exactly what happens in a very busy powder coating shop. It can, it’s this hurry up and wait. And then once it’s in the oven, then you’re sitting there waiting for the timer to ding, kind of thing. How do you keep your people busy during that slow time?

RossKote (Kim Scott): Do they, what are some strategies there? Because I’m sure a lot of powder coaters do have this busy and then hurry up and wait. And they, what do they do with their customer?

Jase Kaser: So we were lucky enough that we have a big enough shop and we have enough equipment now that we try to keep a pretty good flow go on. And we have enough people that someone can be hanging. Someone can be in the wash bay, pre-treating someone could be spraying and then someone can be packing. And so as long as the flow is going pretty well and I do a good enough job at scheduling it, it usually can flow out and obviously you have to have enough work to be able to do that.

Jase Kaser: But if you have enough parts there, usually there’s always something for someone to be doing. We try to keep someone spraying all day long. And we usually do a good job of that. And so usually there’s, there’s always parts in the oven. There’s always parts cooling down and there’s parts that are cold enough that can actually be being packaged.

Jase Kaser: As those are being packaged and carts are being opened up, then we just hang the next job and it just keeps going in the assembly line. It doesn’t always work that smooth. The hardest probably most stressful job at across all three of our divisions is running the shop floor in the powder coating shop. Just because you have to be thinking two or three steps ahead of everybody because you’re right. All of a sudden somebody’s okay, I’m done with that. What do you want me to do now? And that it does happen, or we call it the flow. So how things are flowing through the shop, it gets backed up or messed up or turned around.

Jase Kaser: And now you’re waiting, there is stuff in the oven and there’s no carts to pack. And so now you’re sitting there waiting. We just try to keep everybody busy as best we can. And if you have if you’re super busy, you have plenty of work. Usually it’s not an issue. You can start prepping the next thing or something like that, but sometimes it does get challenging.

 

 

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Jase Kaser: I spent a lot of time scheduling, normally I’ll schedule for based on due date when the customers need it. And then I looked back and grouped by color, which most power coaters do. And then I’ll look through to try to see okay, how is this actually going to flow through our shop?Are we going to have, we can’t spray three things in a row that take three hours each to spray because obviously if we’re going to set up a guy in there spraying on one thing for three hours, eventually everything’s going to come to a standstill because, so you have to be careful that, and sometimes it just happens to get a lot of big stuff and you have to spray a lot of big stuff and it’s out on the shop floor slows down a little bit, but then all of a sudden, the next day, it’s, it’s usually, it’s funny because sometimes.
Jase Kaser: The mood on the shop floor is like kickback and relaxed a little bit. It doesn’t happen much, but when the flow gets backed up it will. And then it’s everybody thinks oh, we’re ahead finally. And we’re doing all right. And then the next by middle of the next day, it’s a war zone over there and trying to, now that you can’t get enough help on the shop floor to get that package and hung back up. So it just flips back and forth. It can be stressful, but once, it seems like the newer team members get really stressed out by it. After you’ve been there for a while, you just get used to it. You learn to appreciate the days where it gets a little bit slower because the next eight days are probably going to be super, super busy and fast. And you’re not gonna have time to sit down.

RossKote (Kim Scott): Yeah. I would agree that’s probably more of an owner’s perspective too. Like when you’re an owner or you’re a single powder-coater with maybe one or two employee, like you’re used to that just because that’s your business. But how do you convey that to make sure that you’re, that you have conveyed that thinking through your team as well. And I liked this one called scheduling backward instead of forward. And I think you were that’s what you were talking about earlier, right?

RossKote (Kim Scott): Is you have to think about the end result first before you can figure out all the different steps in between to make that deadline.

Jase Kaser: Yeah. So I’ll answer the one about our team members, trying to communicate with that with them. That, so recently we transferred a new guy into running our powder coating shop floor. The one guy that had run it has ran it since we started, he was the first person we hired. And we moved him to more of a production manager across both the blasting and powder coating shop. So he’s helping me more everywhere now, instead of just on the powder coating shop floor, as far as like overseeing things. And we’ve been training this, the other guy that’s learning how tor un the floor in the powder coating shop. He’s been with us for a couple of years. And it was really good at all the tasks hanging, backing, sprang washing. So he’s very well-versed and all that. But it was a learning curve when he first started, having to think about the schedule and look farther forward, look farther down the schedule and really his job.

Jase Kaser: Now it’s kinda think about what everybody else is doing and the powder coating shop, instead of worrying about doing the physical. And it was a learning curve after the first week, he was like, wow, I didn’t realize how much thinking that you guys do on a daily basis, thinking ahead, not thinking about what we’re actually doing today. So it’s just, it’s a lot of talking in the mornings before we get started and explain “Hey, this is how I would do this. Don’t forget about this”. If something gets backed up or something, think about a few things that can be a safety valve for you. So somebody can remember, we have this rework that we just set off the side last week, but we still got to get all that re-sanded.

Jase Kaser: So that could be something somebody can do. So to communicate it to the team it’s difficult in, they have to learn by trial and error a little bit so they’re not until they started making the mistakes themselves and realize oh, that’s why we don’t like to do don’t want to do it in that. Know, you can tell him that as much as you want, but until they experience it themselves and they really get it. And then the scheduling and backwards to forwards. So that’s, that kind of comes from my frustration of that. And I think every, you probably can attest to this and anybody in the coating or finishing industry can, is that we’re the last people in the manufacturing chain typically.

Jase Kaser: And we’re the ones that are responsible for making the parts look nice and last a long time looking nice. Yet we get the littlest amount of time to do it typically because we’re, we’re right at the very end. So we’re the last thing before the due date before the customer gets it. And so all of the mess up and extra days have already been used up by the time it got by the time it gets to us typically, or any coater it’s already past due. So you can’t get it out fast enough. And I, that frustrates me cause we have to, it has to be perfect when it leaves our shop because that’s what everybody sees right away.

Jase Kaser: The customer’s going to, if there’s a nik in the finish, are frustrated with whatever it is, even if that doesn’t necessarily mean that the part’s not functional anymore. If they’re just frustrated that there’s a scuff or you missed the weld or you missed this corner. And so my proposal and line of thinking on that is like, why don’t we schedule backwards, not forwards?

Jase Kaser: Why does it that customers go to a manual metal manufacturing place with an idea and they make the prints up and they come up with what they think it’s going to cost and how long it’s gonna take. And then, typically metal companies are contacts, quoting the powder, coating for their customers. Metal companies will ask me, Hey, can you close this? And I do. And so they add that into their quote to their customer. And my thought is like, and it’s totally different. It would be first to do that, but why doesn’t the end customer come to the powder coater first and say, Hey, this is what I want it to look like in the end.

Jase Kaser: And this is what I want, and this is my due date. So then as a coater, you’re like, okay, this is how much time we need for coating. And we start working backwards. And then I contact the metal fabrication company that we already do business with. It’s just normally they contact me to help, but nowI’m contacting them and saying, Hey, here’s a print that my customer wants. This may, this is when I need you to have it done by so I can get it powder-coated and get it to my customer, will that work? And would you have the right material? And can you get that done? And I feel like scheduling that way. You would have a better chance to hit a few days.

Jase Kaser: You’d still have difficulties, but and some of that thinking comes from my engineering background. I like building things and I’m familiar with metal manufacturing. So I feel like I could help the customer if they had questions. And maybe some power coaters don’t feel like they can do that. But I just think it would be interesting to flip it around and schedule that way. Instead of, I feel like the end customer would be happier.Cause it always seems like then customer is frustrated that it’s past due, so yeah.

RossKote (Kim Scott): I, 100% agree with you on those two valid points, because again, it just comes down to educating the customer and growing powder coating and the powder coating experience, the powder coating marketplace.

RossKote (Kim Scott): Yeah, I think that will be the future because people will come to you for their personal projects and stuff, too. It is always, it is frustrating. I know that we’ve been in that same situation where we’re at the end and there’s, it’s just nothing but pressure, a pressure cooker situation to bring it to fruition for the end result. And then, to get back and forth between customers and the welder or the producer or whatever, I don’t know, contractor, it, it just, it can get kind of mucky. And I don’t, we’ve, I don’t know what the answer is at this moment. I guess the only future I see is just training up the customer or the consumer market that you can go to your powder coater.

RossKote (Kim Scott): First I just wrote a blog post on how to How to paint or how to coat your gate. And it’s a landmark posts, so it’s something that could be featured in an online magazine or architectural magazine, somehow it, where it just breaks it down for, if you were a homeowner what substrate do you pick? What codings do you pick? What, let me tell you about this, what is sandblasting? Why do you need it? I just walked people through, choosing a color, choosing a, a contractor, that sort of thing. And it, it really, you have to break it out, but how do you share it with everybody? That’s the key, like how do you get that out? How does your, how does the consumer find your website? That would solve a lot of problems.

Jase Kaser: Yeah, it would. And that’s why we try to post as much content as we can. Like he said we post blogs pretty regularly, but we’re, that was probably where we post the least on our website on the blog. So we post on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram, pretty much every single day, Twitter and Instagram and Facebook and LinkedIn, and we’re posting every day on and trying to as much as possible to keep the content fresh. And I always want to post more. And the people that work with me on all of our content. Always are like, yeah, but then that means you have to make more content, Jase. I’m like, yeah, I know. And I know I don’t have time, but I still want to post more. So just keep bugging me until I get you enough content post more because the more that we post, the more that it helps educate people. And then I just, hopefully in the end it makes our job easier.

Jase Kaser: And that article that Tim wrote on Tim found us because we post on a LinkedIn. So we, I think we shared like an, a blog from our website onLinkedIn, but he read that and then reached out to that, Hey, can I use that blog on my website? And this just put a link to our website in there if you could, and then a few weeks later than he asked to this, write up an article on it. So if we wouldn’t have been making any kind of content and we wouldn’t have been posted on weekends, him would have never found. So it definitely works. It takes a lot of effort and you have to put a lot of effort into it. We’ve been posting on social media for three years now, and that was the first time that someone wanted to write a magazine article on us.

RossKote (Kim Scott): Yeah, the coating’s world is huge. Everybody knows that and is, it can be noisy too. So it’s hard to tease out and find these people like you that are doing something a little trend-setting or a little different, or a little I get this as I, navigate the coatings world I find that from an industrial perspective, many of the people that work in coatings, whether they’re middle managers are pencil pushers or phone answers or.

RossKote (Kim Scott): Coders coating, liquid or powder. It’s not much happens. It’s a very slow moving animal, right? I think actually powder coatings move a little faster than just liquid coatings, because I think liquid coatings is just gigantic. We just realized that a couple of weeks ago, when we interviewed Kevin Coursin from PCI and all the, how big they found the liquid market to be and the decorator market to be, it’s just gigantic.

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RossKote (Kim Scott): But. Just because it’s big doesn’t mean it moves very fast. So it tends to be on the boring side powder coatings in general, if you’re just doing a single coat color application, that’s just single coat color application. It’s I think where the thing, the movement is happening is a lot of the creative side, whether it’s blog posts or new finishes or new application styles, or artistic level kind of stuff, that’s where there’s a lot of movement, but it’s hard when you’re in such a big industry to when you’re doing something exciting where new or refreshing, it gets hard to get people’s attention to it just because they’re, so it’s such a big place.
Jase Kaser: Right. And there’s kind of two sides of it. And so the, like Chloe, I said she helps. And now we have a new.Team member helping with social media there. They both really like the bright colors and the general public stuff that we do, or a bird bath, a lot more things like that, because those are cool. Look at people like, see those. So there’s, that’s the one side of like the artistic side, like he said, and people latch onto that then like seeing more of that. And I’m more on the side. Like I like the technical sides. So I like, why does pre-treatment work? What chemistries work better than others?And so there’s two different types of consumers of of like content or just two different, I think two different, mainly two different types of people in the coating industry. There’s the ones that are really focused on the aesthetic finishes. And those are usually the paint and pattern company, and the sales people and everybody in that world. And then there’s the surface prep guys. And I would include pretreatment with a surface prep where that’s more like nitty-gritty to underneath the coating, so nobody sees it. But it’s still really important, probably the most important part.

Jase Kaser: And, but that’s how it gets a lot more technical. And I think I liked that sidebar just because I’ve, I’ve always been hands-on and then my mechanical engineering, I understand to a degree. I understand a lot of what’s happening down on that, on a microscopic level with the chemistries and surface profiles and things like that. So I think that’s why I liked that. The other thing that I’m most familiar with. And so I liked to talk about those and take pictures of that and make content on that. Cause I think that’s the most important, one of the most important parts. And I like to communicate that to people because you don’t see that part it’s. But then, like I said, there’s the other side that everybody likes to see the nice, cool looking finish. And I liked that too, but we are more industrial than we are the general public side. And so most of what we do is industrial stuff. So if all we did was take pictures of what we were coding for one is a lot of the same thing over and over again.

Jase Kaser: Or every month we do a run up the same thing and it’s bland stuff, it’s gray and black and stuff like that. And every once in a while we have cool pieces that come through. So we, that’s why our content, I feel like it’s a pretty good mix of both. Sometimes it leans one way or the other, and depends on what platform we’re on, of what we post. And like Instagram. That’s really picturing. So you don’t easily do many blogs and stuff there but he did do bright colors and stuff.

RossKote (Kim Scott): Yeah. And you can take a portion of whatever said in the blog and use it as the script for, or the message for your Instagram. I think if you could deconstruct a blog post or a blog post, you could literally, use different portions in each piece could be optimized for whatever the platform is. LinkedIn has its own kind of, what are people wanting from you there? And Instagram is more story type telling. But yeah I like how you are able to grasp and do well with the different kinds of platforms because they are so different. Most of the custom coaters that focus in on automotive parts, of course they thrive in the Instagram realm. But when you are doing other types of jobs, how do you balance that? And you guys do seem to do it pretty well, and you highlight those personal projects that, you can maximize shock and awe on Instagram when you can, and then, and then utilize the LinkedIn for more technical stuff too. It seems it’s not an easy job to do but you seem to doit very well. And I but do you now just to wrap things up, what, is there anything you’d like to see change in the industry, or do you see any trends changing in the industry coming this way?

Jase Kaser: I think that just from a reading I’ve been doing, it seems like that we will be powder coating gun metal, substrates. There’s people that do it now, but it’s not very widespread. I think that’ll eventually someday in the next five to 10 years, it’ll become pretty common that, when someone does bring in their wooden cabinet or something, that’s brand new, we’ll be able to powder coat it. So I think that’s like a technological advance that’s coming. That’ll be, it’ll be interesting. I’m excited for that. I think it’s a little ways off for for a job shop like us to do this because it’ll probably start a big factory scale first.But and then the other thing is just, I wish there were more technical reps available just in all of the things. Exactly these lasting painting and powder coating. There’s always a lot of sales reps. And you have your favorite ones that you’d like to talk to and you have the ones that you wish that they didn’t show up because they were bothering you. I’m sure everybody has their favorites and the ones they don’t like, but it usually seems like when you really have a technical question, whether it be about painting powder coating or blasting, if you’re lucky enough, you’ve met one person along the way, one rep along the way that kind of knows everything pretty good.

Jase Kaser: And so you can call them and ask them and they can be pointed in the right direction, but all your other reps, usually for whatever reason. And they’re like I’m not sure I’m going to have to call the lab or something. And I think that just comes from their sales reps. They’re not tactical reps. So I wish that there was more tactical reps in the industry. I wish it was a little more even seems like there was a lot of, a lot more sales reps than there are technical. And it’s probably hard to find people that want to be a technical rep. They’re usually actually working in production company, but I don’t know if you found that the same, but sometimes it’s hard when you’re having a problem that it’s really hard to find someone to call to even just get a little bit by pretty much, a lot of times I feel like it messed up, but we’re just going to have to try something else and figure it out ourselves, which is fine. But sometimes it’d be nice to have a wealth of information just to call on and say “Hey, we tried this three or four times. It’s not working. Do you have any ideas?”

RossKote (Kim Scott): Yeah, I think I agree with you. I think we’re in Hawaii, so getting anybody to come out here is just nearly impossible.

RossKote (Kim Scott): We’re lucky if we get a phone call or something or two from people it’s happening now more for us email wise and people are finding the site just in terms of searches and stuff like that. So they’re finding out about what we’re doing and they’ll reach out to us that way. But I agree with you.Yeah. It’s something, maybe you’re just in a centrally located area, so it’s easy for people to drive up and, or contact you or, you’re in a hub area and stuff. I think that I think that there, there are tech people out there that could answer those questions for you, but they’re more in the consulting realm rather than working for the actual company that’s providing the equipment or the, the supplier that’s providing the powder or the liquid or whatever, the materials yeah.

RossKote (Kim Scott): They probably are more focused on sales and tech, but yeah it’s nice to know if that a company a large company that you’re  buying equipment from has, were powder is, has that. Has that tech person you can goto. Most of it, of the time that we’ve called tech people, it’s just plausible deniability.You did it wrong, okay. How did I do it wrong? Oh, you just did it wrong. Follow the directions on the application guide. Yes I did the whole time and it came out wrong, like it’s a, it can be frustrating. Cause it seems like even when you do find a tech person it just, they don’t want to, they don’t want to admit that their product failed.

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RossKote (Kim Scott):That’s been our biggest frustration, especially when we’ve got, when we’ve got a customer requesting a specific color happened to a certain year this year and it didn’t matter what we did or how we did it. It was wrong. And it’s because they’re there throughout, they probably throughout a powder. Not quite ready for public use, and it’s just, maybe they were driven to, that’s not every powder supplier, but it just, when it rarely does happen, you get frustrated because you feel like I’m buying all this from you and yet you’re not supporting me or trying to help me in any way.
Jase Kaser: You guys been in with you guys being in Hawaii, are there a powder coating manufacturers there, or when you go to order your powder is it a pretty long wait time when you want to get a box of powder ordered in like shipping lines?

RossKote (Kim Scott): Yeah. I mean everything about our businesses based off shipping in terms of what powders we supply, what you know, who we choose and why we choose it.

RossKote (Kim Scott): Shipping and humidity. Pretty much like rules our life and it fits equipment

Jase Kaser: In the contiguous 48. It seems like if we run out of powder quick or fast, or we forgot to order something, usually like we’re, since we’re in the middle of the United States, we’re like a two day shift point for pretty much every where or just regular ground, or we could just overnight it in.

Jase Kaser: But for you guys, if you accidentally ran out of a powder or something happened or a box on a box was bad and you had to get that same seller quickly, what is it like for it’s like the capacity for days or…

RossKote (Kim Scott): Yeah, it’s hell because you almost have to anticipate that will happen when you’re in a job, especially something like a huge Gate or railing or architectural level.

RossKote (Kim Scott): It’s it’s almost a paranoia that happens with us because.If we run out, earlier you were saying, because we’re finishers, it’s all on us to perform at the very end, despite all the failings of the, and delays of a huge job.You still have to bring that in on a deadline.

RossKote (Kim Scott): It’s there’s no, they’re not going to give you any extra days because because they brought it in five days late, kind of thing. So basically we have to almost anticipate over ordering powder or be ready to jump on it. If we know something’s going to fall short or read, be redone or something, who knows what the problem is, it’s almost like you have to be paranoid about it.

RossKote (Kim Scott): And just go ahead and, and then there is, okay, so say it’s just basic gloss black, even, I have to go to three or four different suppliers and then figure out is it faster to ship USPS from Tennessee or UPS fromIllinois or California, and there’s, it’s different for every supplier and it’s different for every shipping method.

RossKote (Kim Scott): So based on where it’s at and where it’s crazy, like some of the stuff I’ve had to do, I’ve had to order stuff. It came in faster fromTennessee than it did from California. Like in you wouldn’t, you’re like what, so yeah. Mastering logistics in Hawaii is a definite skill you have to have for running any kind of business here.

RossKote (Kim Scott): The other thing is just the cost of equipment. Whatever, usually when you’re in, the regular. Contiguous states it is always usually free shipping or very low price shipping, and it can arrive within a day or two or five days at the most it’s cost as just as much in shipping as it does for the equipment itself.

RossKote (Kim Scott): It’s absolutely crazy. I’ll never forget back in 2004, we ordered our, we were painters back then. We weren’t even, we were just getting started with powder coating and learning about it, but we ordered our open face spray booth cost 2,500 and it costs 2,500 to ship it. That’s a hard pill to swallow.

Jase Kaser: Yeah. There’s, it’s hard enough to keep up with project deadlines and customers. And then when you have that logistical wrinkle and mean that would make them a lot more difficult. I can’t imagine if we, cause I always if I have to overnight something I will I don’t want to, because it costs a lot, it cost more to ship powder than it does for the material itself, but at least we have that option, but yeah, I can definitely understand what you’re saying, where if you’ve got a big project, you’re just going to, over-order just in case we have to rework half of this, we’d better get the extra powder because I don’t have any leeway on fortunately.

RossKote (Kim Scott): Our customers are pretty understanding when it comes to charging them for powder or, including powder or, like making sure that we cover our, cover our ass on the powder expense, including shipping.

RossKote (Kim Scott): We just did a, we’re doing a project for Oprah Winfrey has been building our house here for fricken forever. I think going on three years now, and of course it’s the typical, like they, the spec calls for this or whatever, and then the designer doesn’t like it.

RossKote (Kim Scott): So then you’re having to redo it and stuff like that. But generally speaking, like if we order powder for a job like that, we have maybe a minimum order, if, even if it’s just a small thing, but they’ll buy the powder. And we’ll try to use as much as we can have it for that job, but then, pretty much it just stays here and we reuse it.

RossKote (Kim Scott): I haven’t really found any kind of way to reclaim that money back or we try to. If it then becomes an in-stock powder for us, I guess as special order, if we don’t have, if we have unused portions of it or pounds of it, and then we’ll make it an in-stock color until we have no longer an in-stock color, kind of thing. Yeah.

 
RossKote (Kim Scott): Oh, that’s good do sell that separately? I think we can order some of that today. Yeah. Okay. We missed I know that in terms of wha twe’ve used in, after burns or whatever is like the silver cream it’s like a cream that has silver nitrate in it, I guess.
 
RossKote (Kim Scott): I don’t know if it’s, I’m saying nitrate, but it does have silver in it. So that actually helps heal the skin. I ended up with a second degree burn on my hand many years ago, not from stripping. Was pouring hot water. It was one of those kitchen disasters.

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[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.17.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]Jase Kaser: All right. We do the same thing for different reasons, I think. But yeah we have pretty much a set stock color that we have the samples hanging on the wall. And then if someone’s oh, I don’t like any of those and I want to special order something. I’m like, okay, that’s fine.

Jase Kaser: But we buy usually 50 pounds box minimum. So you want to do that. You’re gonna have to pay for the whole box to powder. And some people are like, no problem. I’ll do that. And then that’s cost way too much. I’ll just take one of your stock colors.

RossKote (Kim Scott): Yeah, I think one of the frustrations about customers own merchandise, COM I call it COM.

RossKote (Kim Scott): Like the incident we had earlier this year, where we had a difficulty, it needed a tech rep for for the powder supplier, because we had problems with the application. Is I don’t think we will ever do that again. I get that, they bought their own, special, transparent, or illusion colored from XYZ company or whatever.

RossKote (Kim Scott): I appreciate that. That’s good for you. But I don’t knowhow old you’ve been sitting on that powder. I don’t know where you bought it from. You could have bought it on eBay from a second hand seller, a third hand seller. There’s just too many variables and I just kinda had to put it into it because there’s just too many pitfalls with that, so you pretty much have to buy powder from us.

Jase Kaser: Yeah we don’t let anybody use their own. Cause just like what you said, you don’t know how long it’s been sitting there. And usually they don’t have the data sheets with us and we try to have an SDS for everything on file just in case. And yeah, we usually don’t let people bring in their own patterns because a lot of the times, even if it’s we had one not too long ago, they brought in a really low gloss black and that’s the one they wanted. And I was like, oh, we just, we don’t spray other people’s powders.We just, we use our own, we have our own flat black, it’s going to match just saying oh, I just really want you to use ours. And I understand it looks like it’s the exact same color. So you think we might as well just use yours, but it could spray out totally differently.

Jase Kaser: For some reason it might not like, pretreatment we put underneath it. And we just know that our black blacks that hold it up here. So it is the same color. We know how we need a process, ours, what don’t fix this. We need to put it on. And what spray settings maybe. We can just give you a better product if we use what we know as long as it, and if it’s going to look the same, we’d rather just use ours.

Jase Kaser: And that’s how we try to.

RossKote (Kim Scott): Yeah, you get used to it, it’s consistency, you know how to, it’s. Yeah. You just know what you can stand behind. And I don’t know what it is about like these celebrities on Maui. I don’t know. It just seemed like all the incidents has. We have, we have this thing, we just did some stuff for Mick Fleetwood, from Fleetwood Mac.

RossKote (Kim Scott): Yes he’s retired here. He owns a restaurant. Very good restaurant. Actually. It’s very popular here in Lahaina and he wanted these lights, sconces for his garden, and he ordered them from the mainland and they were powder-coated very well-made I guess they make their own light sconces, and then they powder coat them as well.

RossKote (Kim Scott): But he, so he got them done, but he, for whatever reason, they didn’t that’s right. He thought he could just order whatever color he wanted. And when we went to match the stock on this and call the lighting company to say, what color are you using? We found ourselves into a bit of a pickle because the sample that was sent from the lighting company, they use a box heater.

RossKote (Kim Scott): And instead of the, a hopper, and because this powder had a metallic flake in it, guess what all the metallic wait floated to the bottom.And so when you sprayed, when they sprayed the color, you didn’t see the metallic end. He liked that because it was less, it was more. But then when we got the same exact color from the same exact supplier and we applied it, we use it, we use the hopper, which kind of keeps the metallic floating and it came outlooking different than, so then he didn’t like that and we’re like what do you want us to do?

RossKote (Kim Scott): We just literally ordered the same exact thing that these people are doing, so it was strange. That was a new one for us, new pitfall in powder coating.

Jase Kaser: Yeah, metallics are always challenging.

RossKote (Kim Scott): Yeah. It’s been great talking to you. Thanks for joining us today. So how can coaters get ahold of you?

RossKote (Kim Scott): We talked about your blog, but would you like to throwout maybe an email or a website?

[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.17.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]Jase Kaser: Our website is Kaser, K-A-S-E-R blasting.com. And then on all the social media pages, Facebook Twitter and Instagram, the search Kaser blasting and coatings will come up. And then on LinkedIn, we have a Kaser blasting and coatings, but most of it’s posted on my personal LinkedIn, Jase Kaser, K-A-S-E-R.

Jase Kaser: So you can find us there. I won’t list off my email, but I think it’s on our website somewhere. If you have a question, feel free to give us a call.We’ll try to help if you can’t you can’t figure it out from all the content that we have out there. Definitely call us.

RossKote (Kim Scott): Again, definitely head over to the Kaser website and find that blog.

RossKote (Kim Scott): I found it refreshing. I found it insightful. I found it educational for sure. And I appreciate you coming out on the show today very much and taking the time to talk with us and get to know you.

Jase Kaser: Yeah. It was nice to get to know you too. I really appreciate you have on the phone here, we’d been wanting to do some more podcast stuff we haven’t, and this is the first oneI’ve actually been on.

Jase Kaser: But we’ve been talking about it a lot, so we’re happy when you emailed us and thank you. It was, it’s an interesting to learn about the challenges that you have in Hawaii that I would never think of because when you know, just locationally, there’s a lot of differences. So it was interesting.

RossKote (Kim Scott): All right. We’d like to thank our supportive followers and fellow powder coders out there. I hope you’ve learned something new about your powder coating business. Please comment, share, follow, and like the podcast. And if you have a topic you’d like to discuss, email us at info@mauipowderworks.com. Have a great day.

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RossKote is committed to sharing their experience in metal coatings, painting, and restoration so customers & powder coaters can navigate the process of powder coating and make the best choices for getting their projects done.

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Filed Under: All Posts, Podcast Tagged With: coatings, custom coaters, exterior finish, finishing, how powder coating works, Life hacks, manufacturing, powder coating, re powder coating, refinishing, restoration, steps to powder coating, troubleshooting powder coating

Industry Insider: Powder Coating Trends with Kevin Coursin

June 6, 2022 by pcnearme

[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.17.3″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]In our exclusive interview with Kevin Coursin, executive director of the Powder Coating Institute, we reveal current and future trends for the global coatings market. He’s here to paint a broader outlook to the powder coating market and discuss what its like to be in this industry.

 

 

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RossKote (Kim Scott): Today. We’re talking about the state of our industry. With someone who has their hands, knee deep in it. Kevin Coursin is the executive director of the Powder Coating Institute. He’s here to share some insights and highlights from the recent annual meeting. I’d like to tease out from him, some of the broader strokes, from the data he presented. In the hopes of giving you a bigger picture of our industry and what it may mean for you.

RossKote (Kim Scott): So how long have you been working in the industry and how did you get started?

Kevin Coursin (PCI): I’ve actually been in the paint industry for 38 years now. Long time ago after I graduated from college with my engineering degree, I started working at one of the general motors assembly plants and being just a plant engineer, working on various projects.

Kevin Coursin (PCI): My boss came up to me after two years and said, Kevin, I got good news giving you a 10% raise; and I was extremely happy with that. He says, but you’re going third shift. You’re going to be the maintenance supervisor and the paint shop. And that’s how I was introduced to paint. Now it was liquid paint. It wasn’t powder back then that they had, but I learned a lot about the processes about the equipment and what it took to maintain it.

Industry insider kevin coursin on the powder coater podcastKevin Coursin (PCI): So it was quite an education for two years. After that the came up to me and said, Hey, Kevin, you’re an engineer and you’re in paint. There’s a new plant we’re building in Michigan, we would like you to transfer over there, give you a promotion and you’re going to install a new paint shop.

Kevin Coursin (PCI): And I went and took it. Then it was again, quite an education that we had put together and working with a group. And then I learned how to design, how to build and manage putting it all in and starting it up. After that the market wasn’t as good in the automotive market. So I decided to change a little bit of direction, and I went to work for one of the system houses as a project manager and worked at myself into a general manager sales, and eventually became president of KMI systems.

Kevin Coursin (PCI): So I’ve done a lot over the years. Just recently here in beginning of February, I started at the Powder Coating Institute is the executive director.

RossKote (Kim Scott): That’s quite an exciting career. And I find that most of the people that have been in it as long as, 30 plus years or more 40 y’all kind of start in late.

RossKote (Kim Scott): And it all happens with that. And then it moves into powder. Would you agree?

Kevin Coursin (PCI): Yeah, I think it depends which, which direction you, that you go into. I, again, when I first started there really that’s when powder coating was really at its infancy, so it wasn’t as much out there. And the automotive had been primary liquid, so that’s where my experience came.

Kevin Coursin (PCI): Then when I came over and started working in the system’s houses. That’s where I started learning about powder and both in just regular powder paint. I learned about powder porcelain enamel but also did some liquid systems as well. Did multiple, different types of systems depending on what the customer would wanted to install at the plant.

Kevin Coursin (PCI): I had a very broad education on a lot of paint equipment.

RossKote (Kim Scott): So PCI recently had their annual meeting on the state of power coating, but is there anything that stood out to you from the data that really intrigued you the most?

 

[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.17.3″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]Kevin Coursin (PCI): I think on the overall market data that it was there. When you see it globally the powder market itself is little over $10.4 billion.

Kevin Coursin (PCI): And it sounds like a huge number by itself, but when you compare it against all the other types of coatings that are out there, whether it’s a house paint, auto, refinish, trailers, industrial market, that type of thing; it’s only just a little under 7% of the overall coatings market.

Kevin Coursin (PCI): The largest market itself out there is really the decorative, which is really the house paint with external and internal. That liquid paint type thing is the biggest market itself. So when you compare powder to just that it sounds like, we’re only a tiny little sliver. But when you compare the powder coating to other industrial liquid coating, which is only about 8% of the market, or wood liquid coating is 7%.

Kevin Coursin (PCI): So that’s exactly the same as powder. But powder even exceeds the auto OEM original equipment suppliers or manufacturers use of it. And the auto refinish is about 6%. When you compare the powder to those other type markets, we have been growing over the years and have taken more and more of it.

Kevin Coursin (PCI): So it is still a growing market.

RossKote (Kim Scott): Yeah. I found that right off the cuff, I found that really intriguing and encouraging too. Now on slide 11. In 2019, North America and Europe had negative growth rates. And that was the automotive production, black construction market and a flat manufacturing environment is what this slide is talking about.

RossKote (Kim Scott): And I found that really intriguing because, they were seeing that we were headed for a slowdown in late 2019, but no one really knew what the news articles were referencing. And really you can say that powder was already giving us an indicator that we were heading for a slowdown. Would you agree with that?

Kevin Coursin (PCI): Yeah, I would. And what was defined there was, it was working more on the annual basis. But if you would have broken it down and the data that they had on the quarterly basis, you could see that at the beginning of 19, things were moving along pretty well, but it definitely tailed down at the end of 2019.

Kevin Coursin (PCI): You could see that on a quarterly basis. So it was a pretty good indicator of things that we’re up and coming.

RossKote (Kim Scott): Yeah, just to continue on this slide 12, and I don’t want to drill down too deep because some of the smaller coaters like ourselves, we’re not really experiencing too much of a slow down locally.

RossKote (Kim Scott): I think that the larger coaters or industrial coaters and line coaters. They are probably the ones that are being affected more on the higher points in the market. Which they’re just basically saying that we were down 1.5%. And overall the year will be down anywhere from 5 to 15%, which is pretty much in line with what national projections are for America in general for the economy.

Kevin Coursin (PCI): Correct.

Kevin Coursin (PCI): Yeah. And again it can vary by market and like you said, some of the markets that you’re in, you haven’t seen as large of a hit, but in some of the markets that if you were dealing directly for an automotive supplier as a tier one or tier two, and that was a bulk of your work.

Kevin Coursin (PCI): And they took a really big hit in quarter two this year because they had shut down all the assembly plants. So they definitely took a larger hit then there. But the overall average, when you take them all into account, it’s probably 10 to 15% down from the market, but again, some are doing better.

Kevin Coursin (PCI): Some are not doing as well. So it really is how diversified you are or how tight you are to a single market.

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RossKote (Kim Scott): I think one of my favorite slides, is slide 20 because it really starts to dig down deeper into the overall custom coater market. And I was shocked by this figure on this slide, when it basically said that globally, there are over 42,000 custom powder coaters out there. Did that number shock you?

Kevin Coursin (PCI): It did shock me also. This was the first year that we had actually started breaking down for the custom coater market. And when I saw this slide, I had to call up the consultant company that was doing all the research for us and I questioned them on it. I said, really? And he said, yeah, that’s what they are finding.

Kevin Coursin (PCI): And in North America by itself there was over 6,000 that they had in just North America. And even that number, for just North America sounded quite large. Now what they don’t define is how large of a company it is. So that would include some of the very small, custom coater, little chop shops that are out there now.

Kevin Coursin (PCI): They might only be coating a few wheels at a time, but I think they’re included in those numbers. So sometimes that big number, you gotta take a little bit with a grain of salt and just do not dive down or, do a bigger breakdown into the size of the company. We hope to do that into next year.

Kevin Coursin (PCI): To try and get a better picture of the various sizes of custom coaters and how many there are in different markets and what the revenue in those markets would be.

RossKote (Kim Scott): Yeah. And just to note that on this slide, the definition of a custom coater, is a company that primarily custom coats. And that’s, if they are manufacturing a part and then powder coating it that part for another client, they’re not considered a custom (coater).

RossKote (Kim Scott): And they, on top of that, if they were to include those people, that number would double to the amount of custom powder coaters out there. That’s extraordinary.

Kevin Coursin (PCI): Yeah, it is a big number. And it’s something, it just goes to show how large of a market it overall is. Even if you just break it down into the north America or the U S that there is quite a big group of those type companies out there.

Kevin Coursin (PCI): Anybody into that market, or, you may think you have competitors, to say that you have 6,000 other ones, it can be a little bit leary. But again, we got to dig a little bit deeper into some of the numbers to break it down into size. Because there are some very large powder coaters, but there’s also some very small ones.

Kevin Coursin (PCI): So breaking that range is going to be our next step to try and get a little bit better meaningful data.

RossKote (Kim Scott): Yeah, I think that’s going to be great for us all. And I really liked slide 21 because the majority of custom coaters are using stock colors and that’s like RALs, right?

Kevin Coursin (PCI): Yeah, just the off the shelf, nothing special.

Kevin Coursin (PCI): And if you think really when you get into a lot of the custom coaters, they’re offering a slate to a bunch of companies or people, if they want something done special and they’re not going to custom and get a formulation because they’re only spraying so small amount of it.

Kevin Coursin (PCI): And I think that’s where, the stock colors are pretty much the standard for them to use.

RossKote (Kim Scott): Yeah. Now on the same side, it says, certifications play some role in the process. Are they talking about like PCI ones only, or just all kinds of certifications that are out there.

Kevin Coursin (PCI): No, there are a number of certifications that are out there.

Kevin Coursin (PCI): PCI is one of them that we have on the market. There are some others that can be done. And in fact, even some manufacturers have what they call their certification program. If you’re coating a product directly for them, they may have their spec and they’ll come in, even audit the facility to make sure that you are meeting a certification. So it can depend a little bit. There’s a lot of certification requirements out from the department of transportation in a lot of states. You have to get a certification. One might be from PCI, or it could be from one of the other areas that they may have, in order to be able to coat and provide product to them.

RossKote (Kim Scott): After this presentation was over. I started to think about what was presented on the slides and what it all meant for me, which is why I prompted to call you for an interview because I wanted to know. With powder supplies and global supply chains at risk now regarding China and the economy right now facing all nations, not just some, but all.

RossKote (Kim Scott): What does that mean for me as a powder coater? Especially a small guy. Is it going to be harder for me to get powder someday is pricing going to go up? What does that mean?

Kevin Coursin (PCI): I guess that can be always a potential issue that could have occure of getting, and it may be a particular color because there is a raw material that might be coming from China.

Kevin Coursin (PCI): And there’s a, if it’s a political dispute, there may be a short break in the action when, while they’re trying to solve it. It could be also from shipping standpoint how long it might take to be able to get some of those colors. It is an issue that’s out there. But I still think overall the world has gotten smaller and everybody has to sell to other people.

Kevin Coursin (PCI): So there may be some short term as the politicians deal with issues. But overall, we want to sell to China and China wants to sell to us so it still does everybody good to keep the commerce sorta speak flowing.

RossKote (Kim Scott): I agree with that. I hope it does mean that. And because in the end, people are just people, we all want to do and continue about our business. So now the other part of this that got me thinking was like this reshoring of manufacturing in the United States. With potentiality of shortness in the market. What does this reshoring in manufacturing, I don’t even know if you could speak on it, or if much about it.

RossKote (Kim Scott): What does it all mean for us here? If you can comment on it.

Kevin Coursin (PCI): We definitely have seen a number of companies come in to do reshoring and bringing manufacturing back to the states. I think a lot has to do that, when there were a lot of these global companies were able to bring their money that they had over back into the states.

Kevin Coursin (PCI): They’re doing more investment here. Some of the issues that you were talking about the global supply chain disruptions. They feel if they bring it back here, they have more control over it. So they’re hedging their bet a little bit to bring it here. So I think you’re going to see more of that continue.

Kevin Coursin (PCI): Again, once we can get through the pandemic side that we have here, that’s put a little bit of pause on some things, but I think you’ll see it pick back up again. Bringing more manufacturing plants into the states.

RossKote (Kim Scott): I think it will be positive for both the smaller guys growing bigger and maybe some of the other guys sharing some of those jobs for us. Now at Maui Powder Works, we’ve been a member of PCI since 2017. And we joined primarily because it’s a late legislative body because we felt that it was important for us to become part of a greater community of coaters as well as to uphold, higher standards in the industry in terms of coating and what we’re bringing about in our product line. But what is PCI and why should other custom coaters care?

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[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.17.3″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]Kevin Coursin (PCI): The Powder Coating Institute, it is a group of suppliers and users that have come together.

Kevin Coursin (PCI): Number one goal is that we want to grow the powder coating market itself. But in doing so we recognize that there’s steps that have to go along with it to make sure it happens. One of them is educating, PCI has a number of workshops and webinars. We work on standards. We have a events like the powder coating week that we put on again for education and where people can interact and network.

Kevin Coursin (PCI): We have our technical publications. We have the Powder Coating Tough magazine, which is exclusively published for the powder coating market itself, and lot of good articles, learning new things, how to to do some items there. We actually are working on the Fifth Edition of the Powder Coating Handbook.

Kevin Coursin (PCI): It’s in the final editorial revisions right now. And it looks like we’ll be releasing it in early January next year. And it’s upgraded with all the latest and greatest new technologies that are out there. A one-stop if your powder coater, and you want to learn something or learn, find out if you have a problem, you can go to it as a handbook.

Kevin Coursin (PCI): Those are the big things that we want to work on from a PCI standpoint. The other thing we do is we do have our certification program. Again, we talked a little bit about it before, but it’s really a quality program. We want to make sure that the processes that are being used are being controlled and you’re doing what you say you’re going to do and have all the proper training and documentation.

Kevin Coursin (PCI): So you can make sure you’re very consistent going through it. But I think in, for the end users that are certified. With the quality program they do get a more consistent and better quality out. It does save them money in the long run because they have less downtime and can produce more through the system itself.

RossKote (Kim Scott): Yeah. And I think one of the most or two of the most underrated things about PCI that maybe people know or don’t know is even if you’re not a member and you have a troubleshooting question or a problem that you need help solving in your powder line, you can actually write the Powder Coating Institute.

RossKote (Kim Scott): And you will actually help try to troubleshoot that problem for that coater. That’s true right?

Kevin Coursin (PCI): Oh, yeah. We do get the inquiries in by email or there’s actually a contact us on our website and we get things in, I actually received one today and it does come to me.

Kevin Coursin (PCI): So I’m the first person that looks at it. It happened to be from an architect and he had an issue on how it is to do some touch-up for powder coating product that was out in the field. And I was able to go out to some of our powder suppliers. With this particular issue, I get back some results from them. And then I send back and say here’s something that you can do.

Kevin Coursin (PCI): Just one little example of what we do. And we get a number of them throughout the year.

 

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[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.17.3″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]RossKote (Kim Scott): And I think the other underrated thing, or the thing that I was shocked, I learned this at the custom coater forum when I went a couple of years ago, is that you actually have this thing called, peer groups. Do you know what I’m talking about?

Kevin Coursin (PCI): Oh, yeah, I am one of the facilitators for one of the groups, so I am intimately involved with it. And right now it’s jointly managed between the Powder Coating Institute and the Chemical Coaters A ssociation. But we have three groups, they’re built of up to 10 companies and we set them up so that they’re, noncompeting, they’re in different locations throughout the U.S.; different markets, but they all doing the one thing that’s common. They’re applying powder coating to products. So with that in mind, we meet twice a year, typically one of the companies hosts it and the other individuals come in there and it’s two days we’re at the plant.

Kevin Coursin (PCI): We actually do an audit. We walk around and put it into a paint term, it’s an unvarnished information back to the company of what they found and it’s meant to be informative and to help them. Likewise, when you are one of those individuals that you go to the plant and you do the audit, while you’re walking around, you may see something that you can go, that’s a great idea.

Kevin Coursin (PCI): I can take that and incorporate that back into my operation. And the individuals that have been part of this find is very good, both from a quality standpoint of learning new things, how to do it, but they also, then they come to know each other. Trust each other, so they can send out an email.

Kevin Coursin (PCI): I’ve got this kind of problem. Anybody experienced this before and get some information back from them. So it is a very good program, like I say, we have three groups right now. We are in the process of forming our fourth group. So we hoped we have several that have expressed interest and we hope to find enough more that the starting sometime in 2021, we can get that another group going.

RossKote (Kim Scott): Yeah, I, of course everybody was trying to get me on their group because we were exceptional coaters. It was just that we were in Hawaii.

RossKote (Kim Scott): Stay with us. So they were like, oh no, you want to join my group? No, join my group.

RossKote (Kim Scott): But I really felt wow, this is this is so much more than what I had anticipated as being a member of PCI, was to have this opportunity to do that. And and get to know possibly other coaters that have been in the game a little longer than I have or bigger than me. And how can I scale my business to, it seemed intriguing to me, but also just, having that shoulder to lean on or get confident with, if they’re going to come in and take a look at what I have it keeps you on your toes, but I think it’s a great program that you guys need to maybe get out a little bit more because it seems interesting to be a member of that.

Kevin Coursin (PCI): Yeah, we’ve only really got two years of it under our belt. This would have been the third year, but we’ve had to cancel both meetings the spring and the fall meetings because of the issues that we’ve had with the COVID this year. So really next year will be. I guess a repeat.

Kevin Coursin (PCI): So we’ll call it year three still. So we are trying to grow it and we are trying to figure out how we can get the word out to people and we appreciate you bringing it up because I think with your podcast again, it’s just another way of getting the information out to people and maybe they’ll get interested to be able to find out some more about it.

RossKote (Kim Scott): Yeah. So now as executive director, I know this is a new role for you. What do you hope to accomplish, with PCI in the coming years or rather, what do you want?

Kevin Coursin (PCI): I guess as the executive director, I’ve got a couple items that are, number one, then two on my list is to grow the powder coating industry and increase membership for the Powder Coating Institute.

Kevin Coursin (PCI): But that’s just the, I think the ultimate goal, if we provide the service, I think all that will we’ll come with it, but we would like to, I want to add and improve the education webinars, things like that. And updating the Powder Coating Handbook, again, getting that out to our members so that they can use that to improve their equipment and their systems.

Kevin Coursin (PCI): I would like to, as you mentioned before, the peer group. We’d like to grow those to the more groups themselves, because we really think it’s important. And it’s a really nice thing for custom coaters to do. Increase the certifications, both for the custom coaters, as well as the OEMs. We think that’s a good quality program that’s really especially made for the powder coating industry. That is, probably very cost-effective overall from a training and learning and making sure that you can do it. And a lot of them use it from a marketing standpoint because they can say that they are certified and try and get additional business. The other areas that I think we’re going to be doing some more work in and we’ve started this year on, is trying to develop more into the alternative substrates, like wood and MDF or plastic and ceramics.

Kevin Coursin (PCI): We think powder coating can really grow into those markets which primarily had been done by in the liquid. But we can do it more efficiently. And then we’ve got a committee that’s dedicated to right now that we’re working on to develop some technical data, some brochures and everything on that.

Kevin Coursin (PCI): The other areas in the architectural market for all the architecture that’s coated and all that, the specifying that comes from architects. And we’re trying to work right now with another association. That’s specifically markets to those for developing specs. But they don’t have any spec whatsoever to talk about powder coating.

Kevin Coursin (PCI): So as an industry, we’re going to work on it and hand it to them and say, insert this into your standards. And again, trying to get people to not only grow and choose powder, but also to do it right.

RossKote (Kim Scott): Now in 2021 in February 23rd through the 26th, in Orlando, Florida, you guys are going to have your custom coater forum. But incorporating in that is earlier on in the week and you guys have coating workshops. They’re powder coating 101 workshops. The basics is what this is called. And I went in 2018. I didn’t go to the workshop. I flew in as a presenter and just attended the custom coater forum.

RossKote (Kim Scott): But I was amazed at how many people were actually in that room getting and learning that powder coating 101. It was full.

 

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Kevin Coursin (PCI): Yeah we, in this past February we had 75 people that were in for that workshop alone. And it’s a two day workshop and that runs concurrent with the custom coater forum.

Kevin Coursin (PCI): And again, there, we have typically around 40 to 50 custom coaters and there’s a whole set of speakers and tracks that are dedicated to the customer coater market and companies. And then some of it is business. Some of it is, we had some round table discussions and we also have some technical presentations and for 2021, we’ve got the program pretty well all set up and have some great speakers coming in.

Kevin Coursin (PCI): And we’re going to be talking about certification and peer groups, again, just trying to educate those on there. We have someone coming in to talk about automation for custom coaters. We have another individual that’s gonna be talking about troubleshooting and different ways to do that and solve problems.

Kevin Coursin (PCI): So we’re trying to tax different areas and be helpful and very meaningful for someone that’s coming in there to spend their time. After that we do have a two days that follow, which is we call our technical conferences and there we have papers on everything from batch coating, to automation, to new technologies.

Kevin Coursin (PCI): So there’s a lot of different sessions that you can pick and choose which one you’re interested in going to, and while that’s going on, we do also have a, a tabletop exhibits that the suppliers will be there. I think we currently have 74 suppliers who hopefully gain a few more that are going to be coming in, during lunch hour, where lunch is served right among there.

Kevin Coursin (PCI): So you can eat and walk around and talk and network and learn what’s new from the various suppliers. Or if you got a problem, go see a supplier and he’d be probably more than willing to help you out.

RossKote (Kim Scott): Yeah. If you think it’s going to be boring, it’s not. I wasn’t sure what to expect that first year I went and it was amazing.

RossKote (Kim Scott): We had one speaker was from Mighty Hook. I can’t remember his name off the top of my head, but I was amazed that he had a solid hour, and it wasn’t boring at all. They went really fast and how he could talk about just hooks in an hour. He was a true expert. We’re not sponsored by Mighty Hook today, just so you know, I’m not pumping them in any way, but I was just floored, how much he could talk about hooks and all the different ways to use it.

RossKote (Kim Scott): So it’s cram packed. It’s always exciting. You get to meet the owners of the companies that are there. Steven from IFS and then they’re not just sitting up on a pedestal in their group. In the evenings, you go to the bar or the lobby and you get to have a personal conversation with them too.

RossKote (Kim Scott): It’s not cut and dry.

Kevin Coursin (PCI): And everyone that attends there, you do have the industry experts. So if you have some things or you want to learn some things, they’re there and believe me, most like myself, we all like to talk. So if you come up to them, they’ll share, they’ll help.

Kevin Coursin (PCI): They’ll do whatever you can. And come up to me and if someone’s got a problem, I can point out someone that you should probably go see and talk to, but it is a, great event. And it’s well worth the time there. And I know it’s a struggle for everybody to get out of their business to go to this.

Kevin Coursin (PCI): But believe me, it is worth while.

RossKote (Kim Scott): Yeah. And the location, the Renaissance hotel there, that was really nice. I was impressed. I really liked that hotel and it seemed like a lot of the coaters were going to meet their family later that week to go to, Disney World, Universal and SeaWorld and stuff like that.

RossKote (Kim Scott): So I think it’s a great location to have that.

Kevin Coursin (PCI): Especially like individuals like myself that come from the Midwest. They have to go to Florida for a few days it’s pretty nice.

RossKote (Kim Scott): Yeah. Everybody was like, oh, don’t leave Kim. What do you mean you’re not staying for the technical conference? And I’m like, oh no, I didn’t know, there was this other thing. So I just came in for the custom coater thing, but everybody was like, no stay with us.

RossKote (Kim Scott): So I was bummed actually that I had to leave. But yeah I really enjoyed it and I look forward to next year to. It sounds like it’s might be happening. If the world doesn’t come to an end. It will happen. Thanks for joining us today, Kevin. I really learned a lot about, more about PCI, especially with the slides from the presentation. I thought it was it’s very nice of you guys to share this data. Others that may or may not be in PCI. So how can coaters get ahold of you, if they have questions?

Kevin Coursin (PCI): Probably the easiest way to get ahold of me would be to just send me an email.

Kevin Coursin (PCI): It’s kevin@powdercoating.org. Otherwise on the website, there is the office number that you can always reach me through that also.

RossKote (Kim Scott): That’s great. We’d also like to thank our supportive followers and fellow powder coaters out there. I hope you’ve learned something new about your powder coating business.

RossKote (Kim Scott): Please comment, share, or follow us on this podcast. And if you have a topic that you would like to discuss, just email us at info@mauipowderworks.com.

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About us

RossKote is committed to sharing their experience in metal coatings, painting, and restoration so customers & powder coaters can navigate the process of powder coating and make the best choices for getting their projects done.

RossKote regularly contributes helpful videos on his blog and YouTube channel.

Join us.  As we build a powder coating community online to share our passion for performance finishes by subscribing to RossKote’s Powder Coater Podcast

Connect with us. Comment below. What would you like to know more about? I love to answer everyday questions to the consumer market wants to know about powder coating.   

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Filed Under: All Posts, Podcast Tagged With: benefits of powder coating, coatings, custom coaters, how powder coating works, powder coater podcast, powder coater trends, powder coating, powder coating podcast, re powder coating, rosskote podcast, troubleshooting powder coating

Interview with Martin Pageau of Greensolv

October 12, 2020 by pcnearme

[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]Learn how Greensolv helps stay on the leading edge of green tech, reduce burns & yes contrary to what you’ve heard…save money! 

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In this episode, we introduce you to Martin Pageau, President of Greensolv a closed metal paint stripper system. It takes drive, determination & commitment to be at the forefront of bringing green to the restoration industry. This guest is out to change your mind.

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Interview with Martin Pageau of Greensolv

Greensolv Brochure

RossKote(Kim):Welcome to episode seven. I’m your host Kim Scott. You are listening to the powder coder podcast where we interview influencers in the industry and cover trending topics. So powder coaters can effectively learn and grow their business today. It’s all about saving time and restoration that starts with stripping. There are a few products out there that can do that today and we have one of them right now. I’d like to introduce Martin Pageau from Greensolv. Welcome to the show Martin.

 

Martin Pageau: Well, thank you Kim. Hi, everyone.

 

RossKote(Kim):How long have you been working for green solve?

greensolv, martin pageau, strip metal fast, green business, powder coater podcast, rosskote podcast, podcast, Rosskote, architects, Auto, automobiles, brand, care and maintenance, cleaning, coatings, small business, contracting, cure, powder, curing powder, custom, custom coaters, customer service, design, designers, DIY, exterior finish, hawaii business, home garage, hospitality, hotel, interior finish, Life hacks, manufacturing, metal coatings, metal prep, metal project, metal, restoration, military, motorcycles, performance finishes, powder coating, powder coating hawaii, powder coat timing, powder coat ovens, powder colors, prepping metal, process, Restoration, Rims, sandblasting, shortcuts, specializing, steps to powder coating, troubleshooting powder coating, what we stand for, Wheels, My Mantra, Ross Scott, Maui Powder Works, Hawaii Business, News, Powder Coating, Sandblasting, Hawaiian Islands, Maui, about us, about maui powder works, powder coating near me, powder coating hawaii, powder coating oahu, powder coating kauai, powder coating big island, free pdfs, pdf, free downloads
Martin Pageau, President of Greensolv

Martin Pageau: Almost 20 years. We started the company in 2002. My father was the founder. I was there with him. So almost 20 years.

 

RossKote(Kim):And is that Daniel Peju has Joe

 

Martin Pageau: Yeah.

 

RossKote(Kim):sorry.

 

Martin Pageau: That’s correct. It was an entrepreneur all his life.

 

RossKote(Kim):and you guys are out of and you guys are out of Montreal East Coast.

 

Martin Pageau: Exactly Montreal and Canada were about six hours driving distance from New York City straight up north.

 

RossKote(Kim):Wow, okay. So what’s the story behind Green Salt I says on your website that it was a gel paint remover. You used it for a Japanese client. Can you give us a really brief story behind that?

 

Martin Pageau: Yes, this company is based out of Osaka in Japan. There’s still our customers 25 years down the road. They wanted the replacement the paint Cooper with no metal and chloride or dark little methane and we worked on that for a year or two and then we’ve been selling them a non. Well less toxic paint stripper for all these years.

 

RossKote(Kim):That’s awesome. So it says on your website that you or in your story your about page. It says that you offer a closed metal paint system stripper system. What exactly does a closed metal paint stripper system mean?

 

Martin Pageau: Well, that’s a long-term goal. I would like to have no contamination or no no evaporation in the atmosphere. We’d like to recycle the water that they use for wrenching parts. So we’d like to have a closed system, you know and be able to recuperate even the paint stripper itself. And so that that would be a zero contamination going out of the system. That is our objective long-term though because we’re almost there but not quite.

 

RossKote(Kim):Right, but hey, you’re in that direction and that’s so important which leads me to your core values because I really I really get and stand behind what you’re doing. It’s good for the planet. It’s good for people. But yeah, you know, we’ve got this problem. We want to save. Things that we like right, we want to restore them. We want to be able to bring them back to life and you know, we we’ve got to strike a balance and stuff like that. So what can you say about your core values? What out of all of them you have five listed here: protect the environment, be a valuable partner, promote Excellence always innovate, generate wealth for employees, customers and Community out of all of those which one is the most important to you.

 

Martin Pageau: Well, that’s a very difficult one. I think they’re all very important. We like to protect the environment. We like to be a good partner. Also, we like to help our customers strip more parts and be greener. We’d like to reduce our carbon footprint. Like I said and also create some wealth for for everybody for our employees but also for our customers for just about everyone so that’s that’s a real tough one, but protect

 

RossKote(Kim):Yeah.

 

Martin Pageau: the environment might be one of them

 

RossKote(Kim):I think so because when you when you choose that one, it’s like it all the

 

Martin Pageau: might be the most important.

 

RossKote(Kim):others kind of fall in line. You know, it just seems like That’s kind of where we’re all kind of headed. And you know, we do have chemicals out there for a reason because they do good jobs for us and when we need them to and so it’s important. It’s part of the basis of life, right?

 

Martin Pageau: Yeah.

 

RossKote(Kim):And so primarily I guess a lot of you know, because I’m speaking on behalf of the custom coaters. you know, our primary interest is stripping rims, car rims and stuff like that and Before we get into how long it takes to strip a wheel with your product and how much does it cost to do that? Before we do that you have that you are the world’s most efficient and profitable paint system stripping system. What does that mean? I mean like how does a small custom coder? I guess just kind of do that. I mean, how do we strike that balance between being efficient and profitable but yes stripping.

 

Martin Pageau: Yes, that is a ball claim. I have to admit but what we’re trying to do is actually to provide a very efficient product that is predictable and reliable. So you want to have always the same strip time, it might vary a little bit. But you know if it takes an hour or two hours to strip a rim, it’s it takes two hours now and in six months and in 12 months with the kind of the same solution, and also what we want to be doing is to reduce the cost for our customers. So if you can strip a rim for two dollars and you know, it’s reliable, you know, it’s going to be there so you can price accordingly to your customer and it makes you feel you know safe when you make sure your prices and also which your business because if you have a chemical that varies and you don’t know if it’s going to strip in one hour or 12 hours or 24 or not at all, then it could be a problem. You know, you promised something to your customers and you want to be good to that. You want to meet your requirements. So yeah, we try to have something reliable and predictable.

 

RossKote(Kim):Yeah, you know and I think I you know in our system here in our small shop, you know Ross only leads. he’s the only one that does this dripping whether we’re buying it off the shelf or ordering it or you know, like any kind of stripping that gets done is done by him the owner because we’re so worried about passing that, you know, allowing our employees to take that risk on our behalf for our customer and that is That I know we never felt really comfortable having our you know, so we always tasked them to do other things in the shop, but it’s a it’s taking a toll on my husband. In his health and well-being. So I think this is definitely a product that we would be you know that I would say most custom coaters. and their wives or girlfriends would probably want their husbands to want right, but, you know when looking into the cost of your product It can get kind of pricey at least on the onset. Do you want to talk about like How I know you have a cost calculator on your website, and I’ve used it. And it’s certainly is interesting to know how you know, you can see how it can reduce labor and increase productivity. But how does the cost? How do you how do you justify the cost? I guess because we looked into it for ourselves and it was really expensive.

 

Martin Pageau: Indeed the capital investment is pretty steep. If you want just a tank and the chemical you might be looking at $15,000 or something. But then the advantages are no labor. And once you have it, it’s really the lowest using cost you can ever get with one drum of chemical which is 55 gallons. We can strip 1,000 Wheels the equivalent with the nasty metal and chloride that burns your skin right on contact and also it’s very nasty and it’s banned by EPA for releasing in the air releasing in the water. So this product the competitor it’s 100 Wheels but 55 gallons. So you strip 10 times more with our chemicals that are three or four times less toxic than the other guys. Then you use 10 times less. So therefore the carbon footprint or the the toxicity to the environment is 10 times less plus also it’s the chemicals that we use are a lot greener. A lot of our customers once they they overcome that capital investment. You tell us that the tank is the employee of the month. You’re right because nobody wants to be stripping it’s too dangerous. You get one drop on your skin and you’re burnt for life. This is not the case with ours. It’s very safe and you got no everyone. Labor, it’s probably not the will 30 seconds to drop it in. Take it out and rinse it and there you go. There will strip. You don’t have any scratching no or no scrubbing. So that’s that’s all we can justify it because once you have it, it makes you make money because you can do 10 times more one small tank the $15,000 capital investment will strip for you up to four or five sets a day and you can even leave the wheels overnight. So therefore you save a lot of money and you can do more. You compare with the price of one employee per year. It’s a lot cheaper.
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[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]RossKote(Kim):I think that’s a very very valid point when you’re talking about when you add in that employee. Into the equation I would say, you know, if you are at the if you’re a custom coder and you’re at that level of where you have like at least one two, maybe three employees and stuff to keep them busy. I mean that that can Make the difference in time and maybe replace. I don’t know. I don’t want to say replace an employee, but maybe scale you faster if you can, you know plan that out right in your in your strategic planning. I did see on the was watching the YouTube video that you have. And I like so when you put it in there, that’s kind of get more into the nuts and bolts of the system. So you put these you put rims in you’ve got them. Are they all happening to be the same size or can they be multiple sizes?

 

Martin Pageau: Or they can be multiple sizes. Obviously. If you have a four wheel tank, normally you’ll be your your strip four similar Wheels, but the tank that we that we sell they’re up to 26 inches and with so you can do up to 24 inches rims, but you can turn them around if you

 

RossKote(Kim):I see. Yeah.

 

Martin Pageau: if you see some 26 or 30 inch rims,

 

RossKote(Kim):and in that video on the YouTube

 

Martin Pageau: you can obviously turn them around

 

RossKote(Kim):video are these like painted rims

 

Martin Pageau: and do two at a time and it doesn’t happen most of the time. Yeah, so

 

RossKote(Kim):like or they it wasn’t it didn’t say in the video. So I’m just asking are these Already previously powder coated or are they paint painted rims?

 

Martin Pageau: All the rims and well, we’re very lucky. The video comes from wheeler finisher that we have here in Montreal. They do anywhere between 100 and 200 Wheels a day that this trip they have three strip tanks and it’s all OEM Coatings. It’s very rare that they have a wheel that was powder coated. So it’s always the original finish from the the manufacturer and yeah, they take between 90 minutes per batch this trip and they do usually 16 wheels at a time. They want to do 150 Wheels. That’s they need to be very productive and the Coster will is

 

RossKote(Kim):right

 

Martin Pageau: very low it’s about two and a half three bucks. And when you think about it three dollars is about what seven minutes labor and how long does it take if you strip a wheel by hand probably 15-20 minutes and you’re probably used to 20 dollars of paint stripper.

 

RossKote(Kim):Right exact. Hope more than that sometimes so yeah, that’s I guess that’s kind of maybe where? Most of the custom coaters are could be either dealing with a previously powder coated Rim how well does that does your product work on the on a powder coated Rim? Not necessarily a painted Rim. Do you know?

 

Martin Pageau: Oh, yes part according is probably one of the easiest according to be removed. It takes 60 minutes 40 minutes that the strip about recorded around what it could take if you have a BMW with the original finish, it’s usually three codes the base code. Well, you get the primer the base don’t and the clear on top those can take up to 90 minutes the strip so usually yeah part of coding and then when we have coupons that we do our test on in the lab particulating is usually the easiest so it strips Eco product coding any type of liquid paint would they be polyurethane epoxies? just about every cool thing that we

 

RossKote(Kim):Yeah.

 

Martin Pageau: know of and even the PVD the new one that they put on the OEM wheels such as the F-150 that takes longer.

 

RossKote(Kim):Wow.

 

Martin Pageau: It’s probably like three four hours,

 

RossKote(Kim):Yeah, okay.

 

Martin Pageau: right?

 

RossKote(Kim):Yeah. Okay, because I know you couldn’t do

 

Martin Pageau: But it’s strips. Well you leave them overnight.

 

RossKote(Kim):that with like a traditional chemical stripper. I mean you get you know, I don’t know if you you did

 

Martin Pageau: right

 

RossKote(Kim):that overnight. You would probably wake up to and open up the thing and there wouldn’t be anything in there. I’d be gone.

 

Martin Pageau: the Yes indeed. The will would disappear.

 

RossKote(Kim):right All right. Well, so let’s talk about your customer. Let’s kind of backtrack a little bit and go into who is your ideal customer. I know your advertising to like the Aerospace industry and stuff like that. But before we started the podcast you were talking about, you know your custom coder Market. Can you describe who that is? Who is your customer? How big are they? What kind of guys are calling you for this product?

 

Martin Pageau: Our our customers mainly 90% or 95% of our customers right now are either custom quarters or a little bit finishers and the size of the business will vary we have a lot of guys that are it’s a one-man show and some the biggest shops that we sell to are probably 30 40 employees. So it’s usually a small business and they’re located probably 60% of our businesses in America in 42 States even in Hawaii actually and we got Canada, maybe 40% or 35% you sell a bit to Japan and France and England so but yeah, normally it’s the custom quarters that they want to strip and repaint wheels or valve covers or brake pads or bicycle motorcycle frames the usual stuff or even garden chairs. people chairs but all metal Parts, obviously, so this trip the good custom quarters this trip and then the sand blasts for five minutes with a brush blast just to give it a nice profile and after that the particle so and it helps them so much because this is reliable when you get some Wheels coming in you just throw them in the tank and there’s trip within a

 

RossKote(Kim):right, so

 

Martin Pageau: couple hours so you can start working

 

RossKote(Kim):So do you offer some kind of?

 

Martin Pageau: on them and there’s no labor again.

 

RossKote(Kim):Financing or how does you know like do we have to come up with our own financing for this or how do you usually set up your clients when they’re ready to purchase?

 

Martin Pageau: I would try to help our customers anywhere we can and this is one of their methods that we got is the payment plan. The most popular one is probably the eight month payment plan. So we ask for 20% down 20% before we ship which is five or six weeks later because we offer three things we offer the chemicals: the Stripping System including the tank the rinse table, the whole system and also the third thing that we offer is a technical service. So we go see our customers every three or four months the grab a sample and analyze it so you always maintain good efficiency and you never dump your stripper. But to get back to the payment plan. Yeah, we got an eight month payment plan over say 20% 20% and six months of 10% or we get also what we call the paper wheel. It’s over 36 months. So you get a flat fee that includes all the chemicals for the three years and includes also the system and then you hone it after 36 months.

 

RossKote(Kim):And so do you fly out to Hawaii and test my system?

 

Martin Pageau: I’d love to actually never been to Hawaii. I loved it.

 

RossKote(Kim):Allowing me fun. I think we could maybe go on an adventure when we come to Hawaii, too. You might have to take some extra time to test all those chemicals when you’re here.

 

Martin Pageau: Yes, we actually fly quite a bit to Japan once a year, so it would be on the way.

 

RossKote(Kim):Oh you do? Okay. Yeah, okay. So let me look back on some of the questions. I  sent it out to our Group Forum here on Facebook and one guy asked could you make the tank longer? I guess the tank he has is 44 inches and is six inches too short.

 

Martin Pageau: hmm

 

RossKote(Kim):For a full set of four-wheel tank. Do you know what he’s talking about there?

 

Martin Pageau: Yes. Yes, we’ve been making thanks for maybe five six years. And at first the tanks were 44 inches long by 24 inches wide and had years going by will be getting bigger and bigger every year. So we had twice we had extended the tank the four wheel thing I’m talking about. So now it’s 48 by 26. So yes indeed. We make him bigger. We also have the six wheel take which is 72 inches long and that is very good. If you want to do a bumper or motorcycle frame or any kind of long parts, that’s especially good for product quarters or custom quarters.

 

RossKote(Kim):Yeah, it sounds like it because you know, we have such a variety of parts and pieces and stuff. It seemed like that would be the one to get. And the other guy asked this is he was wanting to know could you make them more affordable? He was a bit shocked because the pricing when he asked was in Canadian dollars, I guess. So is there a plan to make this more aside from your payment program? Is there an opportunity for you guys to make them? Cheaper in the end or your to lower your cost so you can pass it on to the customer.

 

Martin Pageau: We’re trying to and that’s where we’ve been doing for the last year’s but also we have a nice control box. The tanks are UL certified which means it’s up to the electrical code of America and also Canada and now Europe those things are a bit costly and most tanks when we can start looking at them on the web. They’re pretty often that are competitors are like two or three times the price sometimes we try to and that’s all we Mass Market them or we Mass produce them up to maybe 50 60 tanks a year. So I think the price is already pretty good. I know it looks pretty expensive. But there’s a lot of Technology. They’re very well insulated. They get a nice counterweight. They’re like workhorses.

 

RossKote(Kim):right, and I think like he said

 

Martin Pageau: so

 

RossKote(Kim):you’re saving money because you know, it’s that employee exchange, right, you know, so either you you can put your money into this machine that can replace your employee who would be in charge of stripping or you yeah,

 

Martin Pageau: exactly

 

RossKote(Kim):exactly. So that makes sense to me. So if someone had an older tank and wanted to upgrade to the larger tanks, is that possible or would they have to be like buying the whole system all over again?

 

Martin Pageau: We’re trying to get a very great exchange system for that. Normally we give the face value of the thing that was even if it was paid like through two three four years ago. We like to exchange tanks because they’re better built. Now we keep on, you know, making them stronger and better and also wider and longer. So yeah, we kind of try to give our customers face value what they paid a factory years ago against the new tank. So the new tank might be a bit more expensive but still it’s pretty good and also that’s the same thing. We do say something and we like to see our customers grow. So we sell them a four wheel tank and eventually two or three years later. They want a six wheel tank or an eight wheel tank and then we can trade it against the old tank face value again.

 

RossKote(Kim):You know, this is such valuable information and I know you can only put so much on a website. I mean, I really like your website. It’s very clean. It’s very simple. It’s very easy to read and it gets to the point. But I’m so glad that I’m having you on the show because it’s answering a lot of these details that may be inhibiting some powder coaters to reach out to you to get more information. You know what I mean? And it’s been good having you answered some of these ahead of time to kind of peak the interest of custom coaters that you know could be on the fence of you know, maybe buying a trying to decide what to buy if they’re gonna go with a traditional chemicals stripper system or yours. So okay. I want to ask you another question I wanted to ask you and that is I can’t find my notes. Let’s talk about the processor, the chemical process right in itself. How does it work? Could you just I’d like to know more about how it works because I know it’s heated and in and it’s got so bad. How does it start as a chemical and then it’s safe when it comes out you can Not burn yourself.

 

Martin Pageau: Well, we use the way that we came up with that chemistry. Is that normally the cold paint stripper? That’s what we call it. That’s the dichloromethane. That’s the one that burns your skin right on contact and pretty much every paint stripper available out there or most of them although they’re getting banned slowly. They have this molecule, the bacterial methane. This is called so you can use it at a real temperature. So in order there’s no chemical that is as good in terms of paint stripping. So the only way we could do that is by heating the solution to 80 or to 18. I Tour 80 Celsius and that’s how every 10 degrees or every 20 degrees you double the efficiency. So it’s exponential. It’s two four eight 16. And that’s how we can come up with a very efficient solution that is more efficient now than that lower methane, but we’re comparing it 180 versus room temperature. So that’s the first part now the chemistry itself we can rejuvenate it and that’s why we go to see our customers. We try to go see them at least three times a year depending where they’re located but to grab a sample bring it back to the lab and then we can analyze it and we tell our customers. Okay, you can fix your chemistry this way and we have 200 chemicals that are additive and that can bring the efficiency back to 90% So that’s all that’s why we’re saying that the chemistry is very very reliable and predictable in terms of stripping time. The third thing is that we need to clean. Of course the chemical will get saturated with paint because the paint doesn’t go anywhere it stays in the tank So eventually it’s too dense and that’s one of the tests that we can tell our customers when it’s time to clean. But normally if you do say 20 Wheels a day for a four wheel tank you like to clean every month and a half it takes about two hours. What you do is you let your tank cool down, you let the paint settle at the bottom you pump out the chemical and then there 15 or 20 gallons that you have at the bottom of paint. It’s a very fine particle. It’s like clay. It’s a microscopic particle, but because if they the paint is really disintegrated and that’s why it trips too well because it goes into the nukes and crannies and even the places where it’s engraver and boss it’s trips welding those in those Corners. So you remove the liquid and then you shovel out the sludge and you put the liquid back in and you top off the new material. So if you remove 15 gallons of sludge, you have 15 gallons of new paint stripper. So, otherwise you never dumped your chemicals you always reusing.

 

RossKote(Kim):Right, you’re just adding to it. And so you pretty much leave it to the coder to manage it himself date on a monthly level and they’re just adding and taking out sludge and then in between that you’ll come out or you’ll test the sample for them and then tell them what they need to add in or how much to add in.

 

Martin Pageau: Exactly.

 

RossKote(Kim):Okay.
[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]Martin Pageau: That’s like a blood test. It tells you how much you’ve been taking care of your solution.

 

RossKote(Kim):right, so you

 

Martin Pageau: And there’s some good and some some good systems and some that are not as good. Let’s put it this way.

 

RossKote(Kim):right. I mean it’s it’s so I guess if you’re gonna buy your system, you have to be committed to maintaining it. Otherwise, it may not strip as well as you need it to.

 

Martin Pageau: hmm Indeed. That’s a key cleaning. Your solution is probably one of the most important things. It keeps the efficiency High just removing. This sludge is if you think about having 20% paint and you’re stripping the solution all you probably lose 20% efficiency because it takes the space of good good chemicals. So that’s why you need to remove that paint.

 

RossKote(Kim):so if you have this system and then

 

Martin Pageau: That’s a standard paint and the chemical once in a while.

 

RossKote(Kim):you know say you’ve done X number of Wheels over the month. Will it start to not strip as well? Is that how you know

 

Martin Pageau: Well, if you buy a four-wheel tank again the example, then you do four sets a day after three months. Probably you’ll see some some the efficiency go down quite a bit slowly

 

RossKote(Kim):right

 

Martin Pageau: slowly, but gradually what you want to do is after two months and three months again, you settle down the paint by turning up the tank for 48 hours and then you shovel this ledge out empty the tank. And as soon as you put some new chemical and you remove the sludge the efficiency will shoot right back to 90% of its original oil was when you got it.

 

RossKote(Kim):Okay. So one of the metals that is limited with the substrates that you can put into the Into this system. I mean I would imagine alloy is okay aluminum. D what if you have something that’s like really rusty or

 

Martin Pageau: Well, unlike the dichloromethane or the cold strippers you can put a lot more. The metals and you can use you can strip magnesium. You can strip. So the fancy wheels from Ferrari or even I think Harley-Davidson, that’s some magnesium Wheels. I get the question at least probably once a month. Can I put my magnesium Wheels in there? Yes, they’re very expensive first. So you don’t want to scrap them and you can put stainless steel cast iron any type of aluminum magnesium titanium, even some plastic a little bit. It’s to hit the Miss with plastics.

 

RossKote(Kim):Yeah.

 

Martin Pageau: It’s plastic is like paint.

 

RossKote(Kim):Right. It probably would depend on its chemical composition.

 

Martin Pageau: Yes, exactly.

 

RossKote(Kim):Yeah.

 

Martin Pageau: But I get a lot of customers that shook their plugs into in the solution.

 

RossKote(Kim):Okay, okay.

 

Martin Pageau: and the hooks

 

RossKote(Kim):Um well Yeah, there’s never ending there. But a lot of the same, I mean in terms of Maintenance, it’s a lot of the same stuff that the traditional chemical stripper tanks, you know, you still have to you still have to you don’t necessarily have to drain it. But you do have to take out that sludge or it will not be as it fills up and you have to you know, you do have some maintenance there with that tank system.

 

Martin Pageau: yes.

 

RossKote(Kim):So pretty similar in terms of that. Wow. This has been so enlightening. I guess such an enlightening. I learned so much more than I thought I ever would with this interview. I mean I kind of know about the regular I can never say this word methane or whatever system. That’s what I’ve mostly utilized or been around. But I’ve I really am a kind of intrigue Now by your product and I hope our listeners are too because I’m gonna put all the links in this interview like your YouTube video a link to your website and stuff because I think people need to start maybe looking into that because let’s face it. The world is trying to well, they’re regulated. It’s becoming more regulated in terms of nasty chemical usage. You’re trying the industry’s trying to go more green. What is the future of your product? I mean, what’s the what’s the what do you see happening in the future in terms of chemical stripping?

 

Martin Pageau: would like to do again is close that Loop so Reduce our carbon footprint carbon footprinting means the damage we do or to the environment or the what we leave behind, you know, whatever it is rents water or solvents going into the atmosphere. So with we’d like to do is capture everything again and make it more efficient and more and by one of our our current purpose actually is achieving more with less and that’s what we want to do is do more help you strip more for less less pollution less money. And then reduce the cost of stripping we already take it down from dichloromethane. We evaluated. It’s probably $4 per wheel of chemicals with the cold strippers with ours. It’s probably $2 a wheel or maybe 250 sometimes but so yeah, that’s what we want to achieve. It’s just more efficient greener. So that’s what we try to push and we do a lot of R&D. I was in the lab this morning trying to get the new version which is even Greener. We call it the California friendly formulation. So that’s one step further than or the actual paint stripper that we get now and it’s being tested for the last two or three years already.

 

RossKote(Kim):Yeah, and I think that that research and development part is key because you’re pushing the industry forward with your company. Whereas some of the more traditional older companies that are just selling chemicals. I mean, it seems like their days are going to be numbered. Maybe I don’t know, you know it just with regulation coming down and green earth EPA standards changing all the time getting more strict either by state or by nation. And I think that I think that you guys are definitely on to the Future and that’s something that all coaters. Need to understand in terms of moving and pushing their business forward, you know, despite Maybe. We’re you know, some of the logistics that are happening in supplies and materials for their business. right now with changes in getting products and materials and pigments here to America. It’s nice to know that there is a guy in Canada that’s providing this kind of a system to keep our businesses running. And now you do have a blog post on there that said that you are making things in America now, is that what’s up with that?

 

Martin Pageau: Oh, yeah, that’s right. Well, we try to be a valuable partner. We’ll try to reduce the carbon footprint and that means also reducing the freight. I mean the distance that our drums are going so if we ship from Montreal Canada to California, that’s a long way to ship one drum. So yes, we started blending. It’s a tall blender out of Pennsylvania near Philadelphia and that’s been since March. So every all of our us cells now are made in America by a Pennsylvania company and they’re shipping straight from there to all of the US eventually maybe would like to have a hub also on the west coast maybe in Texas, you know, so in order to reduce or the footprints so less gas that’s being used and we’re trying to one thing that we like to do as a team here is to look at all the regulations from Be for water for air and try to respect them and also be one step ahead in the development that we do just to make sure that our customers are. You know, they’re well served. They can. They can ask us any questions about the regulations. We know them all and if we don’t we’ll look we’ll look them up to make sure that they comply.

 

RossKote(Kim):Well, I think that leads back to your core values about how you’re standing to help your customers and move the industry forward. And I and I it sounds like what you’re saying is what you’re doing, which I like.

 

Martin Pageau: You know, we’re trying as hard as we can.

 

RossKote(Kim):Yeah.

 

Martin Pageau: because one thing is if our customers are happy, we’re happy and if they’re

 

RossKote(Kim):right

 

Martin Pageau: not then we’ll work hard to make a match.

 

RossKote(Kim):Well, I mean everybody could use that

 

Martin Pageau: is that

 

RossKote(Kim):on their side, right? I mean, we’re just there’s a lot of small businesses out there that need the help of others to move them forward or grow their business.

 

Martin Pageau: yes, and if we can there’s nothing more pleasant than seeing an entrepreneur that starts a company and then I get one guy, our first customer in America from Maine Portland. He started in his in-laws garage and he was by himself with one employee and now they’re 12 employees five six years later the can’t be happier and we sold them the first tank. We changed it against a bigger tank and he’s doing more and more Wheels now, he’s up to 60 Wheels a day three vans. So it’s very happy to see our customers succeeding and if we can help them. even better

 

RossKote(Kim):Oh, that’s awesome. I think that’s a great way to end. I mean, it’s nice to know that you know, you’ve got our back if we’re gonna purchase a product from you. That you’re gonna be there along the way to help us maintain it and keep it running so that we can keep our businesses running. So let’s what’s your where can you be found? Why don’t you tell us your website? So the listeners who don’t have the video can be can know where to go on the web. And then also what’s your social media handles and stuff email phone?

 

Martin Pageau: Okay, my well our website is greensolv.com. And we get a platform on Instagram very popular. It’s green solved on this core link and we get we’re also on Facebook under my name Martin Pageau on LinkedIn as well and finally My email is mailto:mp8geau@greentsolv.com  You can write to me anytime. I answer everybody and make a point to that.

 

RossKote(Kim):And it’s greensolv with no e on the end s-o-l-v.

 

Martin Pageau: Yeah, yes V like Victor. You’re right with no E at the end. So green solving or that’s what we’re trying to do.

 

RossKote(Kim):Right, right. Awesome. Well, thank you for joining us on the program today. I appreciate it, and I hope I hope you have. I hope you may get some calls. You’ve certainly enlightened me again, and I’m gonna tell my husband all about this system. So, thank you.

 

Martin Pageau: Thank you man, Scott for having me today. It was a real pleasure to talk to you.

 

RossKote(Kim):All right. Thanks Martin. That was great.

 

Martin Pageau: All right. Have a great day. Aloha.
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Featured Coater: Black Label Coatings & Powders

October 5, 2020 by pcnearme

[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.5.1″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.6.4″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.6.4″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.6.5″ _module_preset=”default”]Some say necessity drives invention. And the custom coating industry is no exception.  In this episode, we introduce you to Victor Pate, Owner & Founder of Black Label Coatings.

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He’s got an inspiring bootstrap story of how got into this business and built one of the most impeccable brands in custom coating today. But that’s not all. He talks shop about what he would like to change in the industry and shares what drove him to start his own line of signature powders for custom coater by custom coaters.

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Interview with Victor Pate of BLC

RossKote(Kim): Welcome to episode six. I’m Kim Scott your host and the other half of the powder coating Duo roscoat, you are listening to the powder coater podcast where we interview influencers and Industry in the industry and cover trending topics. So powder coaters can effectively learn and grow their business in this episode. We’ve got BLC in the house chew Create one of the most impeccable brands in bespoke Powder Coating today. And unless you’re hiding under your oven for too long. You know who I’m talking to and I’m honored to speak with today. Victor Ross pay of Black Label Coatings, welcome to the podcast Victor

 

Victor Pate(BLC): Thank you Kim. I appreciate you having me sorry. It’s been a little bit of a struggle getting our schedules to line up. I know you guys in the middle of the move and we’re staying covered up. I’ve been looking forward to get to talk to you for a while now.

Victor Pate of Black Label Coatings & Powder
 

RossKote(Kim): Awesome. Well Victor before we get started talking about you. Let’s talk about where your shops located and how long have you been powder coating?

 

Victor Pate(BLC): We’re located in Chucky Tennessee, which is in the mountains of Upper East Tennessee. We’re pretty much out in the middle of nowhere’s most people would call it. We’ve been in business for five and a half coming up on six years January 1st of this coming year where we are 60 year anniversary. I’ve been in the powder coating for about 13 or 14 years total.

 

RossKote(Kim): Okay, and where can people find you online? What’s your social media handles website stuff like that.

 

Victor Pate(BLC): That’s an easy one at black underscore label underscore Coatings you type in BLC and a hashtag search on Instagram. We come up pretty quick. You can also find this at our powder website or excuse my powder Instagram black underscore label underscore powders, and we’ve got Black Label powders.com sir our website. We’ve got no one black little coatings.com is our main website.

 

RossKote(Kim): yeah, and I can’t wait to talk about these powders a little later in the

 

Victor Pate(BLC): well

 

RossKote(Kim): show because I think what you’ve done is absolutely amazing. So but at talking about social media you proudly post that your veteran So thank you for your service. owned. What does that mean to you?

 

Victor Pate(BLC): Oh well. It’s not as heroic as I wanted as most people like to present it to be I was a musician in my earlier life. I gotta go pregnant. My son came into this world chopped on my hair off joined the army. in search for The elusive benefits, that one would need to have a child basically put my creativity on hold to raise family then, you know do all that and then later on in life when It got a chance to what’s my son graduated high school? Basically, I got chance to strike out and try to fulfill that creative void that I had the Army taught me everything though as far as being disciplined self-resourceful just not given up and I think that’s that’s some of the things you need as a business owner because it gets hard. You already know that you know, there’s days you don’t feel like getting out of bed the days you don’t feel like going days. You don’t feel like doing the prep 100% but you know, that’s where I think we Shine from from other shops is no matter what the job is we trust the process and no matter what it is. We don’t cut the corners.

 

RossKote(Kim): Yeah, I couldn’t agree with you more. It’s definitely. an ability or not, even an ability but more of like a personality trait or a mantra that you have to abide by or You know get in line with because it’s powder coating has its. Parts that are hard and and it’s definitely a process of learning and everything. It’s not something that you can just pick up easily. Now, let’s start a little bit. You gave us a little teaser on that. I mean, how did you get started and talk me through it because you said you started powder coating before you started the business what compelled you to be a powder coder and how did you get started?

 

Victor Pate(BLC): Basically, it was just a feel of void. I had a local powder coat shop. There’s a few industrial shops in here. And there was only one shop that would take you know, small batch work. If you had a set of handlebars or set of wheels you could take in there and get powder coated. It was hit or miss on quality. It was hit or miss on price. You could take the same Parts there twice and get two different versions of black the prices were never the same. But as just what was quoted to you you go to pick up the price been jacked up three times what it was promised to you at the Quality was never the same. Sometimes it was good. Sometimes it was okay. Sometimes it was terrible. So after having a look into that world and I started getting into you know, what all would take for me to be able to do my own Parts at the time. I was racing motorcycles and and and wanted to you know looked apart and I wanted everything to match and look good. And basically there’s no in the area that could that could service, you know my needs. So basically I got into it for myself. I spent you know the first few years ruining my own parts, and then I ruined my buddies parts and then I tried got happily decent it, you know got took off. Bring them on worked at a diesel shop about an hour from here and he was having the same problems with the same powder coated that I originally had problems with and he’s like man you need to open up your business and just take off. I promise. I’ll keep you busy. so at the time I was driving a truck working 50 60 hours a week driving a truck had good seniority making great money good benefits, you know, just wanted to do it just to kind of Be able to help me purchase my toys and pay for my hobbies and it slowly turned into a full-time job. It was never the intention. I remember very clearly going into it thanking if I can just make my Foreigner payment each month and I’ll be flying. And next thing, you know, my wife put her job first. She started helping me. She was a nurse for a neurosurgeon in town. And she made good money a good benefits in order the whole nine yards. She quit her job and was helping me do prep in the daytime and we were shooting at night and eventually just got to be the point where I was costing me more to go to work than it would if I had to stay home. So I you know, our shop was in our basement like a lot of people start out. You know, I’m proud to say that I’ve got this idea in my head that when I hit the 10-year Mark, I’m gonna publish pictures from my original setup right now. It’s still to a little close to home. It’s you know, some of it’s embarrassing. But I’m a firm believer and and you have to use what you have at your disposal. So we made every square inch of our house count. We turned you know, we just turned the whole house into basically without a good shot. So after we got to where my wife quit her job and we quickly saw that, you know, I still need to be there. I went ahead and quit mine and we went full-time. That was four and a half years ago that we’ve been doing this full time that I’ve been doing it full time. We quickly found that we needed more space. We started looking on the market for commercial property and it around here commercial property is very hard to come by and in my price range. So we just looked up and found this place that had a house and two shops out in the middle of nowhere. And the big shop had three phase power. So we my ideal going into this after I learned from from my basement shop was you can’t do prep and the same space that you’re doing your powder application without having to spend a day or two of cleaning and luckily for me. I’ve got a prep shop and then I’ve got you know the clean shop where the ovens and the powder beads are so it was almost like this place was made for us and it was meant, you know, we bought it we’ve got here and it’s taken off ever since.

 

RossKote(Kim): Wow, I mean what a incredible story because you hit on so many of the same. Um things that my husband and I have gone through it’s almost an identical story and I’m wondering how many of the listeners out there have that similar same story because we’re you know, and I I like that story because I think it helps bring it all together as a community, you know that we have similar hero Journeys or you know, similar Journeys, you know that we can all figure out how we got together and got to this place, you know, everybody has that simple beginning, you know. And I I just love that that was great you but you you know, there is something deeper there. It’s not just that you have all you’ve started similar to a lot of other people you have outstanding reviews on Google business page you have.

 

Victor Pate(BLC): Dot

 

RossKote(Kim): Um You know your social media is off the hook. everybody follows you powder coders and customers alike. I mean, there’s something there’s something more magical there behind the scenes and maybe it’s your wife. I don’t know. Who knows. There is something that you can do or that you’re bringing to the community that is. A higher level. I don’t know. I’m maybe I’m getting to here, but What do you think sets you apart? Besides all these reviews and you’re out? You know.

 

Victor Pate(BLC): Well, I’ll be honest with you. Absolutely nothing special about me as a person other than the fact that when I’m interested in something I become obsessed with it. And if I become obsessed with it, I completely submerge myself into it. I don’t have a lot of hobbies. I don’t have a lot of other interests because everything takes a hundred percent of my focus and my time. We keep my both my wife and I and it’s just my Watson now, there’s nobody else, you know, we would like to have somebody else, you know, but at the same time I know that there’s headaches to come along with that. I think honestly, it’s just we’re not afraid to fail. We’re not afraid to try. You know, when I first got into this everybody’s like well, you know, you can’t can’t do this can’t do that. I’m going but why can’t you do that? I’ve got a small background. Painting Automotive Painting and I try to take those same Concepts and apply the powder and I know that’s not a hundred percent always possible but I get that but there’s a lot of things that that we’re doing that when we started people said you can’t do so, it’s it’s just it comes from you know, they say inventions or necessities of mother invention. So for us, it’s everything we’ve done is just because we’ve been a problem in front of us and we’re trying to figure out how to work around it. My wife she’s incredible. She’s my best friend. She’s she’s you know without her, you know, I don’t think the business would be where it is. She would love to been on the podcast today. She’s little on the shots odd. She doesn’t do well talking to people and understand that but we’re we’re both like that. We’re both kind of shut offs, you know on a Friday nights. You don’t find us in town. You don’t find us in a bar you find us on the shop, you know when we When we get into something, we completely turn our lives upside down for you know, that’s what we did. You know, I walked away from a really good job. She walked away from a really good job. We had a big house on a cul-de-sac and a nice subdivision, which is something I’d always wanted. We gave that up office place out in the middle of nowhere and you know, we’re actually happier now that we’ve ever been.

 

RossKote(Kim): That’s awesome. Yeah, I mean, I think it’s takes a dynamic duo to do all of stuff. I’m not sure who does the social media if it’s you or her or any of the other digital stuff like keeping up with, you know, getting those Google reviews, you know, sometimes people offer them up and sometimes you have to ask for them, but 57 outstanding reviews is an incredible goal that you’ve achieved there. I in my opinion because it all plays into your rankings and your brand and stuff. But as speaking of Brands, we recently had a brand survey that we sent out to other coders. and in the industry and I found this comment. There was a portion there where they got to pick or suggest who their favorite brands that they follow in. The industry are some people named powder coat or suppliers. Some people named other powder coders, you know as who they are who they think has a good brand or on social media or whatever and Then they so once they named it then they were asked the question. Why? what do you think they have or why do they why do you follow them and this comment? I’m not gonna say who it was from because I I’d have to look back but I highlighted this when the survey results came in because I found it fascinating and the way that they just set it set it so perfectly I guess and it might be shocking to you. I don’t know but they specifically said that they named you Black Label Coatings and they said an extremely tidy facade difficult to gauge their actual size. And I think you kind of just I think you kind of just described ahead of time what this is and I I have to agree with him. I mean when you when you’re a powder coder and you’re looking at other powder Growers on social media Yeah, you’re looking at that rim or that color but beyond that you’re looking at the background you’re looking at what what kind of things are in the back of the shop and and stuff like that, you know, you’re paying attention to the details, I guess more so than maybe a customer or an average follower of yours. Do you have anything to say about that? I didn’t mean to throw that out as like to get you off guard or anything, but I had to share that with you because I think it’s I think it’s indicative of your brand but it’s you know, it’s you know, I don’t know. What do you think of that?
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[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.6.5″ _module_preset=”default”]Victor Pate(BLC): I think it’s great some of the best lessons I’ve learned from other powder coders indirectly is looking in the background to see what’s going on. I’m very cautious of what’s in my backgrounds. I know sometimes I may let more go than I but it it’s For me it boils down to you don’t have a million dollar shop to do million dollar work. Yeah. I’m a firm believer in that. You can have a small outfit like, you know, we had when we first started, you know, the first few years the business was spent in the 650 square foot basement and and my presence online was was you know, I presented my logo my brand representative the work. And most people always want to know about the my picture Booth where I take pictures and to be honest goes back to what I was saying before where you know necessity is the mother of invention. We started posting some good quality work and then we started getting calls from people going. Hey, man, your work’s being used to sell product for another powder coat or a mile down the road or 10 miles down the road or two states over and I started noticing that you know, Not everybody but there’s some shady people in the industry. So we want to make it as hard as possible. If you just steal our background for you sell our work. So we made the entire background and we still Watermark our pictures. It hasn’t stopped everybody from stealing it and trying to pass it off as theirs, but that’s you know, that’s that’s slowed that down. but

 

RossKote(Kim): right

 

Victor Pate(BLC): for me, the main thing was there’s two different types of powder coating there’s industrial and then there’s custom well industrial is just pretty much what it is. It’s industrial you create 10,000 mailboxes through before lunch. And you know, you’ve had a good day where us we don’t do that. It’s not about the quantity. It’s about the quality. So we we do things the hard way. We don’t we wanted the and the reason I named The Black Label Coatings. I remember when I was a young kid, my parents worked for the government. My dad got a job State Department. And I remember after he got a couple of pay raises on him. He bought a really nice suit and it was a Black Label suit from Ralph Lauren. I asked number asking what’s the deal with the black label and he saw other just indicative of the highest quality that you can get and then I started you know, as life went on and time went by I started noticing other brands did the exact same thing like you can buy Mercedes. Yeah, that’s badass. That’s great. It’s very expensive car. Well, you can get an AMG Mercedes or you can get the Black Edition Black Label Edition. So there’s several Brands out there that share that same philosophy, but for us we wanted to only do the very best work. We could we didn’t care. We’re going to make any money in it because this was never supposed to be a business. This was supposed to be a hobby for me to pay for my toys and help us, you know supplement the income. So it’s one of those things that we started where if we do this, we’re only gonna do it one way and that’s the right way.

 

RossKote(Kim): I love that. Yeah there I’ve never noticed that before about Black Label, but you know while you were talking I was thinking. Oh, yeah, American Express has their black card and that’s supposed to be the card and everything.

 

Victor Pate(BLC): right Sure.

 

RossKote(Kim): Yeah. I’ve never Never known that before and that’s yeah. I mean, I think you see that in alcohol Brands you see it in. I don’t know all kinds of Brands actually, so I have to pay more attention to that. And I I think you’re right about you know it there is only so much you can do when you get to that level or you have that much notoriety on social media. it it’s you can slow it down one of the most downloaded photos that we have and I actually happen to be on Instagram when I saw someone caught I actually caught them in the app. They had just posted I was following like the powder coating hashtag on Instagram and going through pictures and seeing what other guys are doing and stuff and I saw our photo on somebody else’s post. I’m like, what is this? I didn’t even understand it. And thank God the day that I took that picture I did something similar. It wasn’t as perfect as your picture, but it had our we had a a banner that’s had our logo on it. And I actually that day don’t normally do this, but that day I look, you know put the banner behind the wheel and literally like the guy must have just cut and pasted it right into his you know, the picture and stuff and it

 

Victor Pate(BLC): I believe.

 

RossKote(Kim): Thankfully I had yeah. Thankfully. I have that Banner. I’m like dude you’re using and I totally busted him and it’s hilarious because they have like a gazillion followers, but they they post rims

 

Victor Pate(BLC): it

 

RossKote(Kim): and boobs, you know, so And no wonder they have like 25,000 But anyways, I’m like I totally or 50,000 followers by now. busted him and he felt bad and he didn’t take it down. But I’m like well at least tag me in the post, you know, that’s the least you can do if you’re gonna do that, you know.

 

Victor Pate(BLC): What yeah.

 

RossKote(Kim): Yeah, it’s just what’s gonna happen when you are the way who you are, you know.

 

Victor Pate(BLC): People are funny man. They really are funny. They’ll try to watch something funny and get credit for it. But and that’s fine. You know, if you want to use a valve coverage to sell your valve cover refinish things, that’s fine. But just make sure that you’re up to being able to do the job. You’re going to offer up they were

 

RossKote(Kim): Yeah.

 

Victor Pate(BLC): sold.

 

RossKote(Kim): Yeah, it’s get well, it’s gonna bite him in the ass. Anyways, right? I mean if they’re not they can’t do the work that they’re expected. I mean that’s just the nature of powder coating.

 

Victor Pate(BLC): Yes. Hey, that’s that’s one thing that really kills me. I get a lot of people to contact and be like, hey, man, I love your work. I just bought a new booth just bought a new oven. I’ve got this gun. I know how to plug it up. How do you two tone? I’m not telling you. A long way to that point man. So just just start with the back. Well, I need to make money. I’ve got well, I’m sorry. I can’t help you. So we did it the other way we did where it wasn’t a business. It was just the Hobby and it turned into a business and I think that’s it came natural at that point and I try to explain to people every day that we learned something new literally every time we work I take care of all the prep. I’ll do all the social media do all the unfun stuff. My wife does all the shooting. I hope some when it comes into the two-tone stuff. I’m more comfortable with some of it than she is again. She has her strengths. I have my strengths and together. I feel like we’re Unstoppable at that point.

 

RossKote(Kim): Yeah, I I think. having a partner in this business, whether it’s your wife girlfriend or a buddy is definitely how to make the most of you know to be a one-man band is really really difficult to especially when you want to keep up with the Social media or get, you know get that ranking on online and stuff. You know where people can actually discover you, you know, but go ahead. Sorry.

 

Victor Pate(BLC): I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to speak over you. I’m the first person to tell you that my social media game has slipped a little bit, but we’ve just gotten so busy and I used to be that guy that worried that my percentages were down and I need to do something about it. And then it finally just hit me one day just do the work put it out there as art if you post once a day or once every three days just put something good out there and if people want you they’ll find you I don’t I don’t put the effort into it that some shops do but to me, I don’t like seeing 50 useless posts and then one good post instead of Wills. I’m I’m funny like that I guess but

 

RossKote(Kim): Now that’s just the nature of Instagram. There is a way to do it and Away not to do it. Hopefully going to cover that in a future episode that I’m planning at for now, but I agree and you know, it’s okay to take a break from social media. I mean we have recently just because of you know where we’re at right now in the move. And it’s okay. You can come back just know your brand and utilize the hashtags or share your story and people will come back and follow you again or or like your posts again. It’s just you know, you just have to go with the flow. You can’t be on it all a hundred percent all the time. It’s just insane to do that. It’s not realistic.

 

Victor Pate(BLC): I think some posts are stops put social media before they put their work and that’s something that I never want to be accused of. I mean, we’ll work 20 hours a day seven days a week and be happy with it before we post two or three times that week. You know, it’s just what it is. I don’t I don’t feel comfortable not doing everything possible to make a job. Right? And I think that’s where all our reviews come from. Anybody’s had work done here knows my schedule stays erect mainly because if it’s not perfect, it does not leave the shop. But I’m also that guy that my tattoo artist has a year and a half wait for me to get into see him and I’m cool with that. So my customers are now cool if we’ve got a two month wait or four month, wait or like this year for the first time we’re booked solid for the rest of the year. We did that like the third week of May that’s never happened. I’m not sure what caused that it just kind of happened and we couldn’t be happier with it. I know the coronaviruses. Really hampered or you know dampened a lot of our new color releases, you know for black little powders and we can get into that a few minutes. But you know, honestly, you know, it’s been our best year for business. It’s just been very difficult in navigating the waters that are right now, but I feel like my customers know what they’re waiting on and they’re cool with that.

 

RossKote(Kim): yeah, I it’s interesting some are doing okay and some are not I you know, we took a hit for sure just because You know tourism and people demand for business, but it’s coming back around for us and I think a lot of people have some extra cash in their in their savings right now from unemployment. Maybe they’re getting back to work now and they feel a little bit more comfortable spending that money. I’m not sure but we’ve We’ve got quite a bit of rim jobs coming up the minute. We open up plus, you know, the usual construction Gates and railings and stuff like that are you know staying pretty busy so

 

Victor Pate(BLC): Yep. I’m a big fan of y’all’s railings. That’s cool.

 

RossKote(Kim): Yeah, it’s a big thing here and I hope to make it more, get it out there more and stuff like that, you know because we really do like those jobs and they look great, you know.

 

Victor Pate(BLC): Especially that patina yaI’ll have

 

RossKote(Kim): Yes. Yeah, the patina powder coating is coming along and hopefully we’ll have some big announcements coming up in the next. Month here about what we’re doing.

 

Victor Pate(BLC): that’s great.

 

RossKote(Kim): We’re getting some heat getting some attention from some of the bigger multinational companies right now. So we’ll see what the outcome is of those. Yeah, so yeah, let’s get into the powder line. I’m excited about this. You know, I called you when we were talking about patents. I think you had finally announced that you had this powder line. You mentioned you had some patents. Of course, we were at the moment of

 

Victor Pate(BLC): Yeah.

 

RossKote(Kim): deciding whether or not we should do a patent. So that’s when I first reached out to you months ago and and you know

 

Victor Pate(BLC): Yeah.

 

RossKote(Kim): remember that call and tell me about this powder line it what why did you start it? And what makes what makes these powders different

 

Victor Pate(BLC): Well again everything for us seems to go back to you know necessities of mother inventions when we first started shooting, you know, I grabbed all the cool colors. I could find from Prismatic powders and Columbia Coatings and order them and got them in and some over awesome. Some of them were great. And then the blacks were just not cool at all. It’s not a real black. It’s you know, we started noticing no matter what brand we ordered. It came in two different shades of black a dirty gray black or a dirty brown black. So I remember calling my powder rip at the time and having a long conversation with her and going. Hey, what can we do to maybe change some of this and she goes? Oh, you know unless you want to do like a 10,000 pound order of a custom color. You know, that’s really Really not you know much we can do for you. And I said well, how do I go about doing this myself? And she goes let me transfer you to the lab and let you talk to them. I think she was tired of hearing me talk. So I got on the phone with the guy at the lab at one of my suppliers and started asking him a bunch of questions and and basically reading between the lines I started making notes and as he was talking I would say, okay, so where can I buy that at? And it’s all you know, go check this website and check this and know these people will sell you, you know, go just ask for a sample, you know on a sample be you know, 20 pounds of pigment. So I just started basically trying to come up with, you know, trying to reinvent the wheel the first color we did was our signature satin black. We did that where the industry standard on satin black Falls anywhere between like 40 and 50% Satin. We mix ours the significantly higher rate. We like to think that that extra gloss level fills the gap between traditional satin and gloss black My Hotrod customers. Absolutely love it. Hey, it’s a single stage powder and B. It’s a lot easier to care for than gloss black as you already know gloss blacks and Nightmare if you touch it and scratch it and you know, there you go. So after we got the signature satin black done we decided we wanted to focus on gloss black. So we started focusing on gloss black and then we got that halfway done and we played with it. I think we had like five or six versions before we came up with actual murderous black. But it’s basically just I think it could be better. So we tried to make it better and that’s been our philosophy since day one and we want this to look as good as humanly possible. You know, how can I do that? And without you know, Reinventing the will and coming up with new formulas there just wasn’t many options out there. So that’s what we were forced into.

 

RossKote(Kim): Wow, I mean and I love that murderous black this the word in itself is enough to get your attention, right?

 

Victor Pate(BLC): It is.

 

RossKote(Kim): I love yeah, I love the names of all your powders and stuff and I mean so Are you saying because you’re using a higher quality pigment? Do you think the is the application? I mean, I’m not a powder coder. So I’m but is it do you get better coverage or is it just that you get the durability? And you know, what? What is the finer line there?

 

Victor Pate(BLC): So once we once we started having them produced for us that did two things for us instead of spending five or six hours every Sunday afternoon trying to mix up a small batch of gloss black to last us the week. We basically took our tried and true formulas that we came up with took our life savings and invested them into black little powders and by going to the man talking to a lab and the different pigment manufacturers and saying, okay. What is the absolute best pigment you have for this and going that route so many levels to it that most manufacturers don’t go past, you know, just the basic necessity to get a black color. So we’ve tried to incorporate the very best. Very best ingredients if you want to call on that into these powders and as a result, you get an actual true black it is black as night. I hope my son’s not listen, but always like to say it’s black as my ex-wife’s heart.

 

RossKote(Kim): I love Until that I think that’s awesome. I mean because you are the coders coder. I mean, would you disagree with that? I mean like I I think you’re making powders for people like you that want the and your customers that want the very best. powders in the industry and I maybe it’s a wake-up call or maybe it’s something you know, like people listening today probably didn’t even know that like, I didn’t know that till I talked to you that one day and I was like, oh, wow, I never considered that, you know, um, so I you know, I I it it must have taken you some time to Put it all together. I know you were making the smaller batches and stuff and you kind of mad science then you know, what you were doing on the weekends making your own powders. I mean, what is the process and you don’t have to dive too deep into it. But what’s the simple process you called the chemist and you said give me this give me that.

 

Victor Pate(BLC): In the beginning. Yes, and then we ran into issues. So there’s magical thing out there called a binder which makes flake adhere. Is that you can apply and without a binder you’re really not doing much good. That was the hardest thing for us to get access to. The way that my powder explains something in the beginning they don’t make high-end powders because like 95% of the powder consumption is for industrial use and if it’s good enough now, then it’ll be good enough tomorrow and they had no interest in fixing a problem. It wasn’t there in their eyes. Custom shops or is they like to calm job shops, you know, they fall in the back burning and what that guy needs. I’m not worried about that because he’s only gonna order met best maybe 500 pounds for me this year. And if that’s his that’s if he’s doing good, you know for a small

 

RossKote(Kim): right

 

Victor Pate(BLC): Us in the beginning where we monitor 300 pounds a year. They didn’t care what I had to say. They didn’t care that I didn’t like their black or they’re clear. So it it really They didn’t see is a problem. And I know we’ve stepped on some toes now and that’s fine. I’m proud of what we have and and and I think the difference for us is we took our life savings made this powder and basically what it is it key. It saves us time on on on the back end now and instead of having to prep to make the powder. It’s already done. It’s ready to go shows up boxed and we shoot it. We’re gonna go I don’t push it down people’s throats. I don’t post a whole lot about it. It’s one of those things that’s there if somebody wants it. I’m more of an artist than I’m a businessman. So I know I’m losing, you know revenue and all that. I’m sure people are out here, you know jumping up and down right now at the sheer, you know, sound of my voice saying those words, but it’s not about the money. It’s about to work and and for us if we’ve got a product it’s there on the market, you know, we may get into more advertising later on but right now we’re super comfortable with that. We’re at we’ve got 11 new colors that we need to launch but until the pandemics over and our pigment supplier reopens. There’s really not a whole lot we can do so we’re kind of tied Right now we got a bunch of color matches. We’ve got one for 10 digit designs going on that we still can’t finish up because we just don’t have access to the pigments.

 

RossKote(Kim): Yeah, I’ve heard there is some disruption there. I hope to dig a little bit more into that when we have a PCI on they can maybe give us some shed some light on that. But yeah, I’ve heard some people. I’ve had some issues. Getting the materials that they need to make their powders. So we’ll I’m I imagine this this story will unfold in the coming months, but I think it’s just

 

Victor Pate(BLC): so

 

RossKote(Kim): awesome. You know that what you’ve done and how Innovative and you know, you didn’t start with what can I bring? To the industry you started with what can I bring better to my customers?

 

Victor Pate(BLC): what 100% 100%

 

RossKote(Kim): Yeah, go ahead.

 

Victor Pate(BLC): the biggest I’m sorry, I think I think the biggest thing for me is is the reason we try so hard is we live in a pretty small community and I would say probably 60% of our business comes on the UPS truck, but that other 40% is people that live near and around me and I love being able to look Union shake your hand knows I gave you a kick asset of Wheels. I’ve got customers, you know from back in the day that when we weren’t even a business. It’s still you know, swing by the shop and go. Hey man. Just wanted to show you man. You still look just as good the day you did it for me. That’s what it’s all about.

 

RossKote(Kim): Yeah, I that’s an interesting story too because like when my husband and I first started or his thing was I want to be the guy, you know, I’m you’re the guy, you know, give me the guy I want that guy the guy that does the powder coating right, you know or the best or you know, and we’re in a small area and stuff like that. So, you know when you’re known as the guy I think it’s kind of making a statement that you’ve kind of arrived in as far as in and around your You know and making customers lifetime customers, right?

 

Victor Pate(BLC): I’m very happy with where we are today, and I’m proud of how far we’ve come but I’m not satisfied by any means and I think that’s another reason that keeps. Keeps me up late at night keeps my wife up late at night. We keep journals by both sides of the bed. I’ll wake up and write some crazy idea down and I’ll read it the next morning when I get up and not extend the time. I’m not gonna lie to you. It’s all garbage, but there’s you know, just a little bit of that where this magic. And you know, we’re running.

 

RossKote(Kim): Yeah.

 

Victor Pate(BLC): It happened last month two months ago. Maybe we were on a job and I kept trying this one. This one finish as a set of poison spotter Jeep fenders and I could not get our heavy silver flake and our custom color match for Jeeps Anvil gray to work together. Well, My wife and I kick these fingers around back and forth back and forth back and forth tried three or four different things. I’m like man, I don’t know and you know, it’s like well if this is as good as we’ve got so far, you know, we’ll see what the customer thinks. And they supposed to come down the next morning or in a couple of days and I called and that makes more say hey man, lightning struck, you know We got a whole new idea give me a the night. week and we’ll see what happens and went down the shop and knocked it out and we could not have been happier. It’s just I think that’s the thing that excites me. The most about powder coating is You can do the same thing. every time 10 times, but if you just make one slot adjustment you can make Leaps and Bounds improvements or make it go the other way makes it a terrible. So you we I really get into those into that area of the process where the slide is saying makes the world a difference even down the media that we blast with, you know, we’re a hundred percent self-sufficient we strip blast coat in house. We don’t rely on anyone else. That’s another pet peeve of mine for new Shops coming up that don’t strip a blast. You know, we get those, you know father not shops that pop up they see us doing okay, and they think they can do it and they last, you know a couple months because they don’t. I could imagine not having the ability to strip and blast something if I needed to because guess what we’ve done this for a minute and I still strip and blast on a regular basis. If we see something that this imperfection that I can’t live with it’s not leaving the shop.

 

RossKote(Kim): Yeah, I know. I’m married to a man just like that. and you know, it’s

 

Victor Pate(BLC): That’s a curse in.

 

RossKote(Kim): It can be. Yeah, it’s a cursive blessing exactly, you know. And I and I I get that passion. It makes it you know makes life interesting and you know, you know that. You know, you’re so sure, you know, and even with the with things falling apart or making him a success, you know that. You know, when that next powder coater tries to start up down the street or whatever. You’ve got nothing to worry about. You know who you are. And I think that that really speaks to me. I feel like when I look at your brand, I feel it all the way down to my bones, you know and talking to you today. Just kind of just you know, just kind of reassures me that what you see is what you get, you know, and I love that. I think I wish more Brands could be bringing that to the you know is just

 

Victor Pate(BLC): skip

 

RossKote(Kim): take you you’re just doing you Victor and your wife is just doing her and you’re bringing it all out. You know, you have to protect yourself. It’s a it’s a social it’s it’s a

 

Victor Pate(BLC): group

 

RossKote(Kim): profile on the Internet or whatever, but I think for the most you’ve really struck a balance between your personal lives and your label.

 [/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.6.5″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.6.5″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.6.5″ _module_preset=”default”]Victor Pate(BLC): Well, thank you. I’ll be honest. We don’t have a personal life. It’s just all business. I like that with it this all we do before the business, you know, we rode 15 16,000 miles a year on motorcycles. Each of us my wife and I both have bikes since the business started. We rode just a little bit in the beginning. But once it took off man, like I started my bike one time last year she wrote around the block for me. I haven’t been on it like three years. I just don’t have time. I’m not I’m that’s my focus isn’t there if I’ve got free time to ride a bike. I’ve got free time to be working on new color and a lot of colors like our Nardo gray with real blue pearl. I remember seeing a car in Baltimore Maryland. I was a little kid and the sun was hitting it just right and it was this white. It was a white car that had a blue a custom blue pearl paint job and I fell in love with it not carried that image in my head with me my whole life. Oh, man. I love to be able to recreate that. Just so happened. One of our diesel shops in Arkansas would do a lot of work with he called me up. Hey, man, I need this color and he basically described it except instead of being white. It was a Nardo Gray. so we went to town on that and that’s took a long time to figure out but it’s It’s I don’t do anything but work if it’s not powder coated related, I’m not doing it. I just it’s that’s where my brains at. And that’s where it’s been at for a while. And and and I thank you almost need that when you’re starting a new business. I think you need that when you’re trying to build a brand, but I consider earlier. It’s both a curse and a blessing.

 

RossKote(Kim): I couldn’t agree with you more. I mean, we literally have had our heads down to the grindstone for the last three or four years since we got serious, you know, we started the business in 2010, but We really didn’t take it to seriously until 2015 when I got out of my industry and joined his business and his industry. So I I hear you about just not

 

Victor Pate(BLC): right

 

RossKote(Kim): looking up and just staying focused and stuff. So if you had let’s do some wrap up here. So if you had an extra $10,000 in your bank account for your business right now, what would you spend it on? Would you spend it on a on equipment space another patent, I mean

 

Victor Pate(BLC): Oh here we’ve got one that we’re working on right now that and again if this pandemic would free up we could have already had it done. We’re working. We’re working on one product. Now that is not currently available anywhere on the market and I don’t want to give it out because I’d be cut my own throat at that point, but we’re hoping to have it wrapped up this year. But yeah pads are expensive trademarks expensive. So definitely take that for legal fees and help push the brand further.

 

RossKote(Kim): Yeah, yeah. Is there anything that you would like to change in this industry or do you see any I mean, I kind of answered your own question. But do you see any change or Trends changing in the industry? Maybe your powders are a response to that, you know?

 

Victor Pate(BLC): I think that they’re I think the one thing that drives me crazy the most we work with a lot of high-end Shops and and they’ll have their customers either go on our website or one of the other powder suppliers websites and look at colors and we’ll present you know, our Our customer the retail Shop with a bill for the price, you know for the whole price of the project coming up and the customer looks at it and goes why is the 1600 dollars the powders on 899 a pound? What why is it $600? and I think what bothers me the most is there’s this. Untold rule that that powder coaters are supposed to be you know, but low if you know just feed them, feed them some bread crumbs and throw them a dollar and they’ll do all your work for you for nothing. I don’t know where that came from and it may just be in my area but I think the hardest thing I’ve see other shops struggling with is knowing the value of their time and I think that’s why a lot of shops go under so fast is there they’re spending three and four days on a project and they’re not charging accordingly. So if I had any impact on the industry at all would be just to raise awareness that what we do is is very hard very difficult very time consuming and it’s it’s long form work. You don’t just go in and you know shake the gun at and you’re done you spend the day on prep you spend the day doing this you there’s a lot of time that goes into doing what we do and as you very well know. You have to trust the process. You can’t cheat the process and if you trust the process, you’re gonna spend some time and you’re gonna spend some money and you’re gonna have money wrapped up in equipment. You know people come in and want to you know, beat me up on a $400 set of price or $400 price set of wheels. And I’ve got $250,000 worth of equipment in both shops, and it’s not it’s not The public’s perception of what we do is an Acura, I feel like

 

RossKote(Kim): Yeah, I couldn’t I mean geez it is true. And I think that that actually comes from The industrialists powder coders because you know for them with the line coding and everything. It’s like everything every part is just you know, the because it’s automated. It’s all about the margin and it’s

 

Victor Pate(BLC): Sure.

 

RossKote(Kim): powder and stuff like that. And I I I imagine it’s I agree with you. It’s not just in your area. I think it’s Global actually pretty sure people in all parts of the world are experiencing that too, you know, and it is something that needs to be changed. It’s a valid point. It’s not something that you know the way you just explained it is just so yeah, that’s exactly how it is.

 

Victor Pate(BLC): skip

 

RossKote(Kim): You know, you explained it really well, and we covered a lot of that what you were talking about as far as pricing in our just released episode on pricing and it it’s been getting a

 

Victor Pate(BLC): know you

 

RossKote(Kim): lot of comments and people have really appreciated this episode because it covers the value of what who you are as a person. You know, it’s not just math. It’s the confidence behind it and stuff like that. So that is a very well said thing and it’s a great. I think it’s a great point to end with because I feel like we’ve only just scratched the surface of yes. I’m definitely going to have you come back if you don’t mind.

 

Victor Pate(BLC): right on.

 

RossKote(Kim): As yeah, especially when you come out with that new one that you’re talking you’re talking about and stuff. You’re welcome to come back anytime.

 

Victor Pate(BLC): Well, it won’t. It won’t be a powder, but it’ll be a shot. It will be something every shop in the US needs and can use and has the needs for right now. They just may not realize it just yet.

 

RossKote(Kim): Oh, wow, that makes it even more more exciting. That’s great. I love it. And I think Innovation is definitely going to be A trend you’re going to see and it’s not going to come from the industrialists because they’re already built out. They don’t they’ve got everything they need in their in their line

 

Victor Pate(BLC): Sure.

 

RossKote(Kim): coding systems. I mean they can always Upgrade their equipment and you know do something fangle with the way they hang it or the speed or the you know, whatever.

 

Victor Pate(BLC): Sure.

 

RossKote(Kim): But I think the major Innovation is

 

Victor Pate(BLC): Please don’t.

 

RossKote(Kim): going to come from Custom coders like us.

 

Victor Pate(BLC): I think so. But please don’t get me wrong. I want no part of doing 10,000 mailboxes before launch. What they’ve got going is what they’ve got going and I’m happy for them. Please. Don’t don’t don’t think I’ve would want any part of what they do.

 

RossKote(Kim): Yeah, don’t mail you 10,000 mailboxes, okay?

 

Victor Pate(BLC): about it

 

RossKote(Kim): All right, Victor. It has been a pleasure talking to you. I am so happy that you’ve come on today, tell us again. You’re on Instagram at Black Label Coatings with an S. What’s your websites again?

 

Victor Pate(BLC): Black Label Coatings and Black Label Powders.com. If you go to Black labelcoatings.com, there’s a link to the website for powders.

 

RossKote(Kim): Awesome, and we can just order like online right? We don’t have to call you can just order online. Whatever you need.

 

Victor Pate(BLC): That’s correct. No, man. Yes, the reason let me touch on this real quick. I know it’s been a touchy subject for a few customers. In the professional world. It’s very common. If you’ve got a website that sells product you can pull up the website and you can look at the products, but you’re not going to have a price until you create an account and gain access to the pricing. The reason we did that is so that if I’m trying to help you with a customer and you call me up say hey, man, my customers looking for this. He’s not really sure what color he wants. I’ll say. Hey just have him check out my website. They’ll be able to look at the colors, but there’s not going to be any pricing the pricings for you the custom shop and that’s what we did, you know? custom powders designed by a custom shop for custom shops

 

RossKote(Kim): That’s awesome. I get that and yes, we’ve had a few customers come to us or You know, they I don’t know either they’re trying to save money. They think we’re gonna rip them off or whatever. I mean we’ve got shipping, you know for us. I’m not sure. How do you ship just thought I’d ask in case I order some because are you shipping UPS or USPS? How do you get how do we get your powders?

 

Victor Pate(BLC): Right now everything’s done USPS. We’ve been talking with UPS to take over all of it so that we can have shipping to Canada and other countries right now. We will ship anywhere in the world. You just have to email me your powder label. We’ve got order for Canada going out Monday, and we’ve got our first order going to Australia on Monday, and I’m super stoked about that.

 

RossKote(Kim): Oh, that is wow get that pin board out and start pinning up all the countries that you are selling to

 

Victor Pate(BLC): right

 

RossKote(Kim): just a milestone, you know, I think that’s great.

 

Victor Pate(BLC): Yeah, we’re happier. But can we really appreciate you having us on today?

 

RossKote(Kim): Oh man, Victor. Thank you so much. And please say hi to your lovely wife. What’s her I won’t even ask. I’ll ask off what her name is. I’d love to meet her someday.

 

Victor Pate(BLC): You can talk to her named her. Her name is Jennifer. You can find on Instagram jail Pate 85. So it’s it’s she just not been like talking on phone very much.

 

RossKote(Kim): Okay, great. Thank you. Well, thanks again for your supporting us followers and following the powder coating podcast. I hope you’ve learned something today new to help you with your powder coating business. Please feel free to comment below, follow, like & share the podcast if you have a topic that you’d like to discuss. Email us at mailto: info@mauipowderworks.com . You can also if you’ve got something to sell, you know, you say you’re coming out with a new product or you know, just hit us up too. We’re interested in all kinds of things related to custom powder coating. Thanks again for joining the show. 

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About us

RossKote is committed to sharing their experience in metal coatings, painting, and restoration so customers & powder coaters can navigate the process of powder coating and make the best choices for getting their projects done.

RossKote regularly contributes helpful videos on his blog and YouTube channel.

Join us.  As we build a powder coating community online to share our passion for performance finishes by subscribing to RossKote’s Powder Coater Podcast

Connect with us. Comment below. What would you like to know more about? I love to answer everyday questions to the consumer market wants to know about powder coating.   

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Filed Under: All Posts, Podcast Tagged With: black label powder, black label powder coating, brand, coating, coatings, custom coating, how powder coating works, metal coatings, podcast, powder coat rims near me, powder coater podcast, powder coating, powder coating wheels near me, re powder coating, restoration, rosskote, rosskote podcast, troubleshooting powder coating, wheel refinishing near me

Who is Thresh99?

July 27, 2020 by pcnearme

[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.5.1″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.5.1″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.5.1″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.5.1″ _module_preset=”default”]Just like in the Kung Fu series starring David Carradine, the way of the apprentice is a long & hard fought journey to knowing theyself. Learning the weriding ways of powder coating from a character like Master Po is full of paradox. But is a wave of change coming? Are platitudes of the old guard still relevant? Or can a new way be forged? 

Enter–Thresh99. A man who believes the answer to that can be found in the dynamics behind the industry’s beginnings & that a woke generation of up & coming coaters could actually reshape the industry as we know it.  Find out more when you join us in this episode to discuss his journey & what he sees for the future of powder coating.[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.5.1″ _module_preset=”default”][/et_pb_text][et_pb_social_media_follow follow_button=”on” admin_label=”Podcast Follow” _builder_version=”4.5.1″ _module_preset=”default” background_color=”rgba(0,0,0,0)” global_module=”18950″ saved_tabs=”all”][et_pb_social_media_follow_network social_network=”dbdb-itunes” url=”https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/powder-coater-podcast/id1521924245″ _builder_version=”4.5.0″ _module_preset=”default” background_color=”#ff5e51″ custom_button=”on” follow_button=”on” url_new_window=”on”]dbdb-itunes[/et_pb_social_media_follow_network][et_pb_social_media_follow_network social_network=”dbdb-spotify” url=”https://open.spotify.com/show/7FgCAAeRaThYLQ038qtkf2″ _builder_version=”4.5.0″ _module_preset=”default” background_color=”#7bb342″ custom_button=”on” follow_button=”on” url_new_window=”on”]dbdb-spotify[/et_pb_social_media_follow_network][et_pb_social_media_follow_network social_network=”dbdb-soundcloud” url=”https://soundcloud.com/ross-scott-228377209″ _builder_version=”4.5.0″ _module_preset=”default” background_color=”#fe3801″ follow_button=”on” url_new_window=”on”]dbdb-soundcloud[/et_pb_social_media_follow_network][/et_pb_social_media_follow][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.5.1″ _module_preset=”default”][embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pNByiBYWfU[/embedyt][/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Featured project outro” _builder_version=”4.5.1″ saved_tabs=”all” global_module=”19380″]

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You could be our next client.  We feature special projects to inspire others. Our clients look to us to provide exceptional coatings that stand the test of time.

About us

RossKote is committed to sharing their experience in metal coatings, painting, and restoration so customers can navigate the process of powder coating and make the best choices for getting their projects done.

RossKote regularly contributes helpful videos on his blog and YouTube channel.

Join us.  As we build a powder coating community online to share our passion for performance finishes by subscribing to RossKote’s Powder Coater Podcast

Connect with us. Comment below. What would you like to know more about? I love to answer everyday questions to the consumer market wants to know about powder coating.   

MAUIPOWDERWORKS.COM
Copyright 2016-2020©
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Filed Under: All Posts Tagged With: benefits of powder coating, brand, coatings, custom coaters, how powder coating works, Life hacks, Maui Powder Works, metal coatings, performance finishes, powder coat rims, powder coating, powder coating hawaii, powder coating wheels near me, process, re powder coating, restoration, rosskote, shortcuts, steps to powder coating, thresh99, troubleshooting powder coating, what we stand for

Hidden Secrets to Hot Flocking

July 27, 2020 by pcnearme

[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.5.1″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.5.1″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.5.1″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.5.1″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″]To Hot Flock or..to not hot flock… That is the question.

Join us as we visit this taboo & somewhat controversial topic. RossKote breaks his silence on this not to be missed episode of the Powder Coater Podcast!

Now you don’t have to seek help when it can come directly in your inbox. Sign up to receive every podcast today.

“One of the great things I love about my job is getting to share our story & learning through others as they share theirs so we can all learn from each other”

– Kimberly Scott, Host

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Look out because we’ve got a hot one for you today. In this episode, we take you to the outer limits of the powder coating universe when we discuss the hidden secrets to hot flocking. We’ll rock it to the inner atmosphere of this highly taboo subject and moonwalk through troubleshooting to conquer some bad examples of what can happen when things go wrong. When we reach our destination, we’ll arrive on the planet we call Zen. Join us with our very own Major Tom, our in-house powder coater, Ross Scott, as he returns to earth to share some great tips from the magic zone.

Kim Scott:

Welcome to another edition of the Ross coat powder coater podcast. We interview influencers in the industry and cover trending topics to powder coaters so they can effectively learn and grow their business. Today’s episode is episode number three, Hidden Secrets to Proper Hot Flocking. Today, my husband Ross is back and giving us his take on hot flocking. We also call it hot coating here in Hawaii, and we’re also hopefully going to tease out with him what he calls creating that magic zone when attempting to do this process. But first we still are having a launch party over here. We’re so excited with all the feedback and comments that we’ve been getting on Reddit, the podcast page and the Facebook groups. Shout out to Chris Small and Jimmy O’Malley. They basically are first-time listeners to even listening to a podcast.

Kim Scott:

Chris said that it was refreshing to hear somebody that didn’t learn a course as he doesn’t have any in his country. So thanks Chris for that comment. And also we have NGM Coatings posted, “Thank you for doing this for us new and upcoming coaters. I look forward to listening to all the new podcasts or episodes. Thank you.” And you’re welcome. We’re excited to be getting that feedback from you. Lets us know that we’re talking about things you want to hear about. Also one last shout out to Steve Schilling on the powder coater business group on Facebook. Yes, we are now on iHeart radio. I just uploaded that. So if you don’t see us today or tomorrow, just give it a few days and it’ll be up there. Also, for those of you that are tuning in regularly, we are now on Apple iTunes, Spotify, SoundCloud, and I believe Google Play.

Kim Scott:

So please like, share and subscribe to our website https//www.rosskote.com. And just a quick review of the episode one and two. Of course, our first episode was just going and introducing ourselves as the husband and wife team Ross Coat, where you can learn about why we started the podcast and we talk a little bit about our story. And of course, episode two, which just got released earlier this week, was an interview with Ronan from RoRo Designs2, who has inspired us all to create a better customer experience. Now, on to today’s guest. Ross, are you there?

Ross Scott:

Hi. Welcome.

Kim Scott:

Hi. So now let’s get into this taboo and somewhat controversial subject in powder coating that’s discussed in a lot of forums and groups. Can you tell us, just in simple words, what is hot flocking? What is it? Is it the same as what we call hot coating? You and I call it hot coating. Are they the one in the same? What is hot coating or hot flocking?

Ross Scott:

Hot flocking, basically, you take your substrate that you’re powder coating and you get it up to oven temperature of anywhere between 350 and 400 degrees is the temperature you’re curing it at. Once that part is basically up to that temperature, you pull it out of the oven and you go straight into powder coating. And what happens is, because the substrate is at that temperature, the powder immediately flows out over the substrate as it attaches. So it is great that that happens when you have hard to reach areas because it’s sticking and flowing out immediately. The downside to that is you can put too much on very easily and you’ll get drips and runs.

Kim Scott:

Okay. And so is this why it’s so controversial? And why do you think industry sources warn against doing this or they don’t even address it? I’m not even sure if it’s in manuals or technical stuff at all. Is it? Have you ever seen [crosstalk 00:06:17]?

Ross Scott:

It is. It is. It is addressed. They do frown upon it. I believe that the industry basically says if your gun settings are proper you don’t need to do this method and basically you’re not doing it right. Like I said earlier, some parts cannot be coated in the normal fashion. They’re too recessed and you can’t get the powder in there. It’s very difficult to do.

Kim Scott:

All right. That sounds simple enough. So let’s talk about you and your technique. When do you use this technique and what specific parts do you use it for? You know what I’m talking about. What kind of jobs does this work best for?

Ross Scott:

Yeah. Yeah. Now hot flocking, I only really do it when I have hard to reach areas on parts and I can pretty much name them on one hand. It’s basically rims, specifically the lug holes. I have a really hard time doing that when they’re just normal temperature. So I hot flock the rims, always, to get the powder into the rim holes. Another situation I have is custom built fenders. Those things are extremely difficult. They basically weld the compartments almost closed and they have a little hole that you have to fit your gun into. And it’s very hard to do that just at room temperature because the powder just doesn’t stick in the corners because of the way it spins around in there. So I always hot flock that. There’s also lift kicks. They have the same type of design, like these custom bumpers have. So pretty much those type of three things, I always hot flock. However, I don’t hot flock the whole part. I just do the trouble problematic areas. And that is my tip that I want to go over.

Kim Scott:

Okay. Well, before we get into that, let’s talk about… Well, I’m going to talk about a very bad example or an example that happened actually just a couple of weeks ago. It’s always when you’re doing things for a friend that sometimes bad things happen, right? So you had picked up some fishing pole holders, if anybody knows what those are. If you fish, especially here out in the ocean, people mount or have these fishing pole holders made out of metal, usually aluminum, right, or stainless steel. And they’ll mount them to the boat on the top part and you basically set and lock your fishing pole in there so you can drag your line and do the deeper fishing, I guess. I can’t think of the name of it right now, but basically you’re just popping the fishing pole in there and you’re dragging the line behind the boat. And so you pick these things up. They were very small job and it was just supposed to be real simple, but something happened when you were hot coating them. Can you tell us what happened?

Ross Scott:

Well, actually I wasn’t planning… They were brand new fabrication and I had just put the primer coat on and I had flashed it off and I was actually going to pull them out of the oven and let them cool down. And what happened is the phone rang and I got on the phone and I was talking and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Few minutes go by. And then I get off the phone. I’m like, “Oh, I have to still have to do these.” And I pull them out of the oven and I usually let things cool down. I don’t always hot flock, specifically on these. They didn’t really need to be hot flock. And what happened is exactly what happens when you hot flock. I just started doing my normal procedure and started coating it two times like I normally do.

Ross Scott:

And even though in a normal situation that’s okay, when you hot flock, it is too much powder. And I put them back in the oven and I brought them out after they were done curing and I had all these drips everywhere. I was just like, “Oh God. Duh.” I knew better. One of my tricks that I do is when I pull a part out and I want to coat it, now this is what I call hot coating, I basically let the part cool down before I put the powder on and I let it get to about 150 to 180 degrees. And then I apply the coating as normal and never have problems with it when I do it that way. But I didn’t do that. I went straight to hot flocking and basically put too much powder on and it just ran like crazy.

Ross Scott:

And it’s really easy to do. You think you didn’t. You thought you basically put the right amount on. Okay, it’s not going run. That was the perfect amount of passes. And then you put it in the oven and it’s boom. You’re just like, “Oh my God. I barely put anything on it. It’s running.” So it’s really easy to make that mistake. And I think it’s just because it flows out and it’s deceptive on how much you’re really putting on. So anyways, that was my problem and I had to sand all that all out and redo it.

Kim Scott:

Yeah. This particular piece too, these pieces, were angular because they had to be mounted at a certain angle in order for the pole to rest easily in the socket. And I think angles, I think when I’ve seen you make mistakes like that or you have drips, which is really actually rare these days, but it’s the angle sometimes because you’re either putting it too heavy on one side and not enough on the other. I don’t know. It’s just that also can be problematic, but I’m not the powder coater. You are. I just hear about it later when you’re screaming and cursing and all of that fun stuff. But before we finish out your magic zone tip, let’s talk about more about the troubleshooting, about hot coating because there’s issues, there’s things you got to do with your gun settings maybe, or is it grounding? I think you should preface these other kinds of things you have to have just right in order to get that magic zone and get your focus on.

Ross Scott:

Well, right. Obviously the gun settings are very important. We want to have the high voltage setting amount. Kim, you’re not going to know much about this, but the listeners out there they’ll know, you’ll want your high voltage setting at about 60, your current limitation at 40 and your powder feed quality, you probably, this is key actually, is you want to really bring it down and that’s about 27% to 35%, somewhere in there. If you don’t have these types of functions on your gun, the main thing I want to describe here is the powder cloud that’s coming out of your gun. It needs to be really small. Comes out about four inches past the gun nozzle. You want it to be about a two inch, no more than three inch diameter cloud. And if you keep a real light, small cloud, it’s easy to control the powder as it’s going on into deep recessed areas.

Ross Scott:

You can sit there, for example, on lug holes, I will dial that just into those settings that I just said, and I’ll pull the trigger of the gun away from the rim. So I make sure my cloud is right. And then I come into the lug hole areas in a circular pattern. I just work it in there, just a couple passes on each hole and it flows out and then I step away. Let the rim cool. I let the rim cool down to 150, 180 degrees. And then I turn my settings back up and I leave it still at the high voltage setting at 60 and the current limitation at 40, but I bring the powder feed quality up to about 50, and then I get a bigger cloud. And I just basically powder coat the whole rim, as I normally would. Two passes. I start from the back of the rim where the center bore is, and then work to the inner lip.

Ross Scott:

And then I go to the front of the rim where the center cab would go and work that area and then work the outer lip there. And then do the, basically, hub, which is the outside of where the tire goes. And I finish it up. That’s pretty much how I do a rim and I always stay with it like that every time. And from there, we put the rim in the oven and it depends on what we’re doing, if that’s the first coat, which is like a primer coat, which is probably the most important coat, believe it or not, because you got to get that wheel protected, we’ll just put that in the oven and let it flash off and then continue it in the next sets. And I repeat the same process on every coat.

Kim Scott:

So it’s almost like a Zen zone. I mean, we called it a magic zone, but I actually want to actually say that it’s more like getting into your Zen mode or your focus because this technique is the way it is and you can easily… You’re sort of on a razor’s edge sometimes. You can easily turn this into a booboo in any number of distraction or setting issue or grounding issue or whatever, but when you have it right, it’s like you’re in the Zen’s with you’re really super focused on what you’re doing and you’re not having to redo the piece over and over again. So it’s more like… Do you think patience has a lot to do with it or is it just experience?

Ross Scott:

Patience has everything to do with it. You have to slow your roll. Powder coatings a quick process and basically when I first started doing the hot flocking, I did have lots of mistakes because I was just trying to do it all at once. And when I realized, “Hey, let’s just…” And then I was always doing it with a huge powder cloud, so it was just too much powder getting on there. So once I… It was a common sense thing. “Hey, let’s bring this down,” and, “Okay. That’s nice. That’s working good. Okay,” and, “Well, hey, let’s just, now I got all these problematic areas covered and they’re all flowed out, let’s just set the rim out over here on the side here and let it cool.” And that’s what I really, I can’t stress, it really helps because you’re letting that rim cool down to 150, 180 degrees Fahrenheit, like I said.

Ross Scott:

Just take your infra-red thermometer and go to the center bore in the back and when it gets to that temperature, basically just start coating again and coat like you normally coat. And it’s warm. It will stick very easily, but it’s not flowing out on you and it’s not going to give you any problems. But you’ve already got your problematic areas out of the way and you’re not going to have any problems. It’s going to look great. So that’s my tip and it works for me and I hope if these guys out there that are having a hard time hot flocking, I hope you try it out and it works really good. There’s a lot of guys I see, like on YouTube, they actually hot flock the whole rim and they just bring their powder cloud down and just go over it real slow.

Ross Scott:

And they know that they can only put so much on and it’s a gamble and you just basically put it in the oven and go. But if you’ve done it a lot, you can do it that way all the time. But I don’t do rims every day. I do lots of stuff, railings, gates, you name it, I’ve done it. And so when I get a set of rims, it’s like I have to slow down. I have to slow down what I’m doing because everybody that wants their rim wants it perfect. And hot flocking actually is a little secret that I do to get it all in the corners and the crevices. Because if you don’t do it, it’s so easy to have it too thin. And then if you do hot flock and you do the whole rim hot flock, it’s really easy to get a mistake and then you’re redoing the whole thing.

Ross Scott:

So I just think it’s real important to stress, get your powder cloud down, let it flow out in the problematic areas, and then from there, set the rim down on the side, let it cool down or whatever kind of piece you’re doing, and then continue your coating as you normally would proceed. Of course, bring your powder cloud back up when you’re doing that and it goes real smooth and you always have a consistent, perfect coating. And that’s what I like.

Kim Scott:

Okay, well, let’s talk for a minute about how you’re hanging the rims. Because I’ve seen you, especially with some of the problematic older rims that are pitted, where you have to build up the surface with primers and stuff like that, and you and I talked about an example prior to the podcast that when you’ve got really bad chrome rims that you’re trying to restore. Can you give that example because I think that’s another deeper layer into this hot flocking, especially since so many powder coaters do a lot of rims.

Ross Scott:

Well, yeah, if you get a rim that’s chrome and it’s totally been electrolyzed underneath the chrome and you blast that away and then you have all these just pitted… It’s like a hammertone finish, almost. It’s just totally dents and pits from where there used to be aluminum, basically, from being eaten away and you blast that away and now you’re going, like, “How do I make this look smooth again?” And this is a good hot flocking exercise here. So I normally do rims. I hang them through the valve stem. But in this situation, I hang them through the lug nut holes. And I do this with a bunch of C hooks. Six inch, quarter diameter C hooks. I use three of them. Basically, it looks almost like a Y. One through one hole and the other two holes, and use a 16 gauge wire.

Ross Scott:

And I go to one major C hook to hang it on. And basically you’d hang it in that. Instead of a vertical position, it’s in a horizontal position. So when the rim’s hot and you bring it out of the oven and you got lots of just massive indentations from where the corrosion was, it’s really easy in this position to put it on, hot flock it and build it up, especially with a primer. You can get that all built up and it won’t run and drip because of the way it’s being held. And I only do this in the area that is bad. I hot flock only the area that’s bad. Because it’s like a bowl. And because it’s like a bowl, there’s nowhere else for the powder to go and it just builds up. And then you can basically get all those dimps and dibbles smoothed out with just a basic light sanding and then go to your color coat from there.

Kim Scott:

Okay. Also, now talk just a minute for how you normally, if you just have a regular set of rims that are in pretty good shape, you have a unique way to get good grounding. I would wonder if you could share that with the audience, just in case those that are new to this could use this really helpful tip.

Ross Scott:

Right. Okay. So I use a 5/16ths, basically regular bot that’s about three quarters of an inch long. And then I have the 5/16ths nut. It’s a basic nut. No lock washer or anything like that, or locking nut. It’s just a regular nut. And I basically put that through the valve stem. That will fit through 90% of the valve stems and it fits nice. So it’s tight and there’s no slop. And what I really like about this method is when you take the wire and come around the backside of the valve stem where the hub is, and I put my wire around it, and then I basically tighten the nut down onto the bolt and it snitches that wire right up to the rim and it’s going to be like that throughout the whole coating process. And so you’ll always have a great ground.

Ross Scott:

I mean, it is on there. And I have found that by doing it that way, you’re basically taking grounding problems totally out of the loop. And of course, I also do some other tricks in my shop as far as grounding. We have a metal building. So I ground to the main stud of the building that goes into the ground. And then I go from there to my gun. And from there, it goes to the booth and also the part. So I do a Y there. So I’m directly connected to the part. I actually connect it right to the C hook at the very top. And I never have a grounding issue ever. And that seems to really work well.

Kim Scott:

Well, that sounds like a great tip. Of course, I don’t powder coat, but I do hear you all the time and you have crafted this advice and methodology over the course of your powder coating career and not only that, but with the satisfied customers that we have. And you’re also a super perfectionist too, almost to a fault sometimes. Because a lot of times I’m like, “It’s good enough. Just get it out.” Right? Because, and this is something that is going to be coming up in an upcoming episode with a special guest that I’m invited over to talk about pricing, costing issues, and one of the topics I want to say is how good is good enough? And can it… Sometimes you and I get into a tussle about the price that we’re charging versus what level of perfection they’re going to get.

Kim Scott:

So that’s for another episode. But I think it’s an important one to cover and it’ll be coming up in the next couple of weeks. We also just want to preface this by saying that, this is how we do it. We are not learned school. You might’ve learned something different from someone else. And we’re all here to learn and learn from each other, too, as well. So that’s the reason for the podcast and for getting this information out to you guys. You should always, always reference or read up your powder coating manuals, your tech manuals, your equipment manuals, and pay attention to how you learn. Because it is a methodology. We’re just here to not spill the secrets or share too much or whatever. It’s just that we feel like people need to know more and there’s just too much disinformation out there, that we’re trying to maybe clear the air, clear the powder coating cloud that comes out of the guns, so to speak.

Kim Scott:

One last thing, and I don’t know if we want to just, because we’ve talked about a lot of things here and I don’t want to have people spinning and questioning, but they can always go over the podcast again if they want to hear it. But you talk about this sweet spot or the passes. You talked about that earlier, especially with rims and the degrees or the temperature. Could you just maybe go over that one more time, just as a final wrap up to this podcast, about your way and why you do three passes maybe.

Ross Scott:

Yeah. Yeah.

Kim Scott:

Care to share?

Ross Scott:

Yeah. Sure. What I do is, like I said earlier, after I’m done with the hot flocking, I basically let the piece cool down. The reason I do that is because I don’t want have any drips or runs. And if I let it cool down to 150, 180 degrees, it not only adheres properly with normal settings, it basically allows you to lay it up and I do two runs. Just two passes. I don’t go real slow, but I don’t go real fast. It’s just everybody has their own speed. I work in circular motions generally with the rims. So that’s what I like to do. It works for me and I never have problems. And people always comment, “Man, how you get this so perfect and glossy?” And I go, “It’s just two quick passes.” And the key is I do it at 150 to 180 degrees because the powder is sticking to the rim.

Ross Scott:

It’s not floating around in the air. It is attaching to the rim and that’s what’s really neat about the hot coating aspect of it, that sweet zone of 150 to 180 degrees. It makes it super simple. I do that on gates and railings too, when we’re doing big runs, because if the part’s warm like that, it just makes it easy and you can just fly through it real quick and you know everything’s attaching and you’re done. You just put that sucker back in the oven and let it go. I have one more thing to say about the rims and how to hang them. There’s another way too, also, with German rims, specifically BMW, Audi. Everybody knows what I’m talking about. Those valve stem holes are really deep on those and it’s hard to find something to go through there and hold it.

Ross Scott:

And what I have used is a 3/16ths washer and the 3/16ths diameter hole is perfect for running 16 gauge wire through. And basically you put that through the valve stem hole there and the washer will hold it no problem. And you don’t get these binds and marks in the well of the valve stem hole and you get a nice, perfect ground because it’s nice and it’s pulled up tight. Now, granted, it’s not as good as the washer and nut method, but I mean, I can’t find a good washer and nut to fit in there for the life of me. So that’s what I’ve been using, is a 3/16th washer on those German style rims. And don’t forget to put those in the B17 for the half a day. [crosstalk 00:31:53] that one.

Kim Scott:

Yeah. Well, that’s been awesome, Ross, and I thank you for joining me again today from the dining room table. I appreciate it. And we also like to thank our supportive followers and fellow powder coaters out there. I hope you’ve learned something new about powder coating in your business. Please comment below, follow, share the podcast. If you have a topic you’d like to discuss, just email us at info@mallorypowderworks.com or message us on Facebook. Until then, we’ll see you soon.

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Filed Under: All Posts, Podcast Tagged With: Auto, benefits of powder coating, coatings, custom coaters, hawaii business, hot coating, hot flocking, how powder coating works, Maui Powder Works, metal coatings, metal project, performance finishes, powder coat rims, powder coating, powder coating hawaii, powder coating wheels near me, process, re powder coating, restoration, specializing, steps to powder coating, troubleshooting powder coating, wheel refinishing near me, Wheels

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