The power of powder

Joe Jackson got the idea to go into the powder coating business while watching television.

“I seen it on TV ... and I saw that no one else was doing it in Sedalia,” Jackson said. “I figured that’d be something good to get into.”

At the time, Jackson was working as a a supervisor at Sedalia Cold Storage Co., and started up his sandblasting and powder coating business part time. He went into work for himself full time about a year-and-a-half ago.

Powder coating is a process by which dry, electrically charged paint is applied to metal that has also been charged.

It’s sprayed on just like liquid paint, Jackson said, but some care is required.

“If it doesn’t have electricity to it, it’ll just fall off,” Jackson said. “You don’t want to touch it while you’re doing it. It’ll shock you.”

After coating, Jackson pops the painted parts into his 135-cubic-foot oven, where they bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.

The baking can make things pretty hot in the summertime, and although he can’t fit a whole car in his oven, it’s pretty roomy.

“You could probably cook a cow in there or something,” he said. “It’d probably take a while.”

The paint is a lot easier to put on than to take off, Jackson said. It’s also a lot easier to paint a part than get a part ready to paint. “Powder coating is the easiest part. The hard part is getting it ready to do,” he said.

Getting a part ready to go involves sandblasting it clean. Jackson’s sandblasting unit is housed in an adjacent building next to his powder coating shop. “I can sandblast about anything that will fit in that building,” Jackson said.

Other shops have cropped up since Jackson first started his shop, but he said he’s not hurting for work.

Bicycles, old vending machines, plant stands and lawn furniture line his 543 E. Fifth St. shop. “You never know what you’re going to get,” he said.

He can powder coat about anything that’s metal, he said, but much of his time is spent working on car and motorcycle parts.

He said he particularly enjoys working on motorcycle parts.

Larry Yeager, who owns Yeager’s Cycle Sales on South Limit Avenue, said powder coating is gaining in popularity, taking over from the recent chrome fad.

He’s worked with Jackson for the past four or five years, and said he’s been “absolutely” happy with Jackson’s work.

“Joe does a good job. He’s done it for a number of years,” Yeager said Thursday. “I just dropped some stuff off over there today, as a matter of fact.”

Jackson rides a 1981 Harley-Davidson Electra Glide, although he said he’s only painted some smaller parts of his own bike.

Jackson’s shop hours run generally from Monday to Friday, between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m., but he said he’s flexible.

And the flexibility can work both ways.

“Sometimes work gets in the way of fishing. Or fishing gets in the way of work. One of the two.”