Friday, March 26, 2010

Stations of the Frame :: Painting

The realm of the color slingers.

Almost all of our bikes pass through the Paint Department (minus the raw titanium and stainless steel bikes). The frames are received sandblasted and prepped for primer. After priming the action begins.

This is one of the two stands used for sanding and masking the frames. Like in welding, the stand area is set up for maximum efficiency with all of the necessary items needed to do the job easily within reach.

Within arms reach is a cabinet containing many of our decals as well as all of the various grits of sandpaper.

Frames in process sit nearby.

This is the paint mixing area. Also the gun cleaning station. It looks like somebody had a little accident.... Clint.
Inside the booth sits all of the paintguns, cleaned and ready to spray. They attach to the shops compressed air system, the air is dried as it is made but the air that is used for painting has to go through a separate purification system to ensure that it is as clean as it can be.

This is the wall that sucks the air out of the booth. The peg sticking out is what supports the frame while it is being painted. When we get our video program up and running I'll be sure to do some videos showing us all at work in our areas.

Every so often the paint residue has to get chipped off of the stand, but it looks kind of cool and organic as it grows. When it gets chipped off it reveals hundreds of layers of paint, it's like holding a rainbow nugget in your hand.

The frames finally get cooked (heated) in the hotbox. It's pretty dark and hot in there. When they emerge they look like they were dipped in glass. Then they have to get unmasked and prepared for shipping.

1 comment:

Dave Sauvageau said...

Absolutely gorgeous work! Every part of the process is precise and professional. I will have one of these beautiful machines one day! Thanks for being awesome!


Dave