Paint Choice

[TheRealJoaquin]

I'm currently in the planning/design stages of building a cabinet smoker on wheels. Looking at interior rough dimensions of 60" tall, about 18" wide, and about 18" deep. I'll be insulating the walls with high temp batting. Looking at doing mild steel for the interior and exterior surfaces. I have some heavy duty ss grates I was able to get out of some industrial kiln's (small ovens). I will be building a separate smoke generator and the whole system will be electric.

Anyway, what I'm trying to decide is what paint to go with. I can have the whole thing high temp resistant powder coat painted. This paint is used on campfire rings and I've been told it holds up very well. Being that I'm dealing with making food in this, I'm not sure what everyone thinks of powder coating and if it would be harmful? I really don't want to leave the interior unfinished or have to periodically recoat with vegetable oil or grease. Wisconsin humidity would rust this in a hurry!

 

[PolishDeli]

I'd go with a custom creosote coating for the interior.

 

[civilsmoker]

I would not recommend painting or powder coating the interior. A properly seasoned mild steel surface will hold up very nicely (even in Wisconsin). Have you thought about using a thin gauge stainless on the inside

 

[TheRealJoaquin]

I have. I just don't have any experience welding SS. I've done a lot of fab work over the years, just never with stainless.

What I thought about doing was build this to what I think I want, work all the kinks out, and then build an all stainless and then sell my mild steel version for what I have into it locally. I'm still on the fence about what route I want to go yet.

 

[civilsmoker]

Get some flux core stainless wire run a few lines. It doesn't take that long to learn how it flows..... Remember you aren't doing structural welding just enough to seal and if for food service to round and smooth the corners.....

 

[bill1]

In other words, let your food paint your inside. Paint is for outsides. Nothing out there will get into your food, even if it bubbles up in real time.

 

[TheRealJoaquin]

In other words, let your food paint your inside. Paint is for outsides. Nothing out there will get into your food, even if it bubbles up in real time.

I think I'll just try this route. I'll season it well and just keep an eye on it.

Doing the stainless route would be ideal, but being this will be my first home built smoker, the mild will be much easier to modify and make changes to vs SS. I'm never happy with what I build so it usually takes me a couple of attempts before something is exactly how I want.

 

[thirdeye]

So, it sounds like you will get a professional grade of paint job on the outside. Make double sure your contractor will do an adequately blasting job. And don't scrimp on the primer, it is the foundation of a good paint or coating system. On industrial equipment, it common to do a 'stripe coat' with primer. This is applying a band of primer on all the difficult areas first, such as edges, corners, high wear areas, welds, seams, bolt heads etc. Following curing, a second coat of primer is applied. Here is some basic info.

All You Need to Know About Stripe Coatings | High Quality Industrial Coatings

A stripe coat is defined as a coat of paint applied only to edges or welds on steel structures before or after a full coat is applied.

www.induron.com

 

[TheRealJoaquin]

So, it sounds like you will get a professional grade of paint job on the outside. Make double sure your contractor will do an adequately blasting job. And don't scrimp on the primer, it is the foundation of a good paint or coating system. On industrial equipment, it common to do a 'stripe coat' with primer. This is applying a band of primer on all the difficult areas first, such as edges, corners, high wear areas, welds, seams, bolt heads etc. Following curing, a second coat of primer is applied. Here is some basic info.

All You Need to Know About Stripe Coatings | High Quality Industrial Coatings

A stripe coat is defined as a coat of paint applied only to edges or welds on steel structures before or after a full coat is applied.

www.induron.com

I'll let our paint guys take care of everything. They do fantastic work for a lot of big name companies, so I definitely trust their work.

 

[slavikborisov]

Sandblast the inside… for the love of god do not paint it the interior… your food will be cooked in there!! …..After it’s sandblasted take some Pam or veggie oil spray and blast it all interior surfaces with it and that’s it.. fire it up get it real hot so it sets cooks in initially and after a few smoke sessions you’ll have a nice glossy black smoker finish that will hold Up to Any humidity level