Got a neighborhood kid that wants me to powder coat some of his traps. The not exceeding 400 degrees is pretty straight forward. I ordered paint that cures 375 @ 18 minutes. Question is for the timing typically to bake 18 minutes at an established internal temp of 375 will take about 1/2 hour. Is there a time limit or point of caution on the amount of time? My powder oven runs about 15 degrees hotter than the thermostat during pre-heat. (Oh, long springs)

Those temps are too close to the tempering draw down temps, remove the springs first.

As wreck some kids traps, try yours first. Some things just don't make sense. Baking at 375 could be one of them. What would he be gaining?

He's making some type of display with them and wants the springs finished the same as the base/jaws. I don't know all the details and he didn't really care about if they were functional or not. Regardless of his short term thinking, I don't want to change the temper of the springs incase they are used in the future. Thanks for confirming what I was thinking about this being too close in temp/time. I'm thinking an acid bath and paint would be a better suggestion to him

Thanks

I had 100s of traps powder coated. My coil spring traps lost no spring strength. But I left my BGs with the springs compressed. I figured that they would have been easier to coat. They lost some spring strength but still functioned ok.