As powder painting is getting so much more popular, I’ve been asked a number of times for fluid bed ideas. Rather than sending this out individually so many times, just thought I would put it up here for all to see.
This is a fluid bed I built a number of years ago.
Very basic and simplistic. Works fantastic for my applications.
4″ toilet flange screwed to a board (up-side-down) and DO NOT POP OUT THE CENTER KNOCK_OUT
Before gluing the reducer on, drill a series of holes around the perimeter the top edge of the flange (you will see the holes I drilled by looking inside the fluid bed.
Cement a 4″ to 2″ PVC reducer – It fits perfectly into the flange
Cordless drill and fine wrasp – grind the inside of the 2″ side of the reducer so a piece of 2″ fits in loosely.
Mount your aquarium pump to the board
Use (2) 1/8 nipples to 3/8 fittings. Drill a hole on each side of the reducer as shown and screw in the fittings. Use a few drops of cement to secure. I under-sized the holes and just threaded the PVC with the fittings. Attach air line from displacement valve.
Cut pieces of 2″ PVC pipe to prefered size (3 or so inches). Use sand paper and sand the bottom end to be a little under sized – should fit fairly loose into the 2″ end of the reducer.
Place bottom end on a coffee filter and wrap around the piece of 2″ PVC pipe and insert into the 2″ reducer. The coffee filter keep the powder from dropping all the way into the fluid bed. fill a couple oz of powder into the fluid bed WITH THE DISPLACEMENT VALVES SHUT WAY DOWN. Open each slowly and evenly to the point that the air will fluff your powder.
When your done, remove the piece of pipe by holding tight to the coffee filter. Tap pipe so the powder all drops out into the filter. Dump from filter back into your storage container.
Powder residue remains on the PVC pipe, so I cut one for each color
