Final Result
Inspiration
For this project, I wish to learn how to apply powder coating to metals.
I found this aluminum box on the junk shelf. When I saw the holes in it, I came up with an idea that I could put a tube inside to make it a vase or a diffuser.
I found this commercial picture online. I love how it combine the glass tube with wood in a quite simple way. I wish that I could use metal and tube to create a vase that is quite similiar to this one.
Powder Coating
Pre-bake
To remove the dirt and oil from the surface of this metal box, we first used Acetone to wiped the box in and out completely. Then we scratched the surface of the box with sandpaper, which would help the powder to stick to the metal better. After that, the box goes to the oven with 425F for about 40 minutes for pre-baking.
Cool it down after heating it up. Using wires (rip rubber off) to hang the metals on the rack for powder coating.
Powder coat
After completely blew out the left powder in the powder container, we add the gloss white powder paint into the container and started to do coating. With the rack connected to the electrical power, the white powder was drew to the surface of the metal.
Bake
Hang the metals in the oven and bake with 400F for about 20 minutes.
After all the processes, what I have is these pair of glossy white metal box.
Base
I used cork to be the base of the vase. I drilled two holes on the cork and inserted wood dowels in it to connect metal and the base cork.
Since the dowel is longer than the thickness of the cork, I had to used wood saw to cut it into two pieces.
Assemble
I put the vase on the top of the cork with dowels to connect and stabilize the vase. I measured the length between the top hole to the bottom of the metal box, so the tube that I bought online could fit perfectly in between.
Here is how the vase looks like with lavender inside.
