How to Restore/Customize Your KitchenAid Paddle and Dough Hook

Well if you are anything like me your KitchenAid stand mixer is going strong but the coating on the aluminum paddle and dough hook is long gone.  I was tired of getting grey aluminum oxide streaks in my cookies, so I decided to do something about it.  I would put a fresh powder coating on them.

To be fixed

• Sad Oxidized Aluminum Paddle Or Dough HooK

Tools needed

• Sandblasting cabinet
• Oven
• Powder Coating Gun With Power Supply
• Powder Coating Powder (in any color of your choosing)
• Sink
• Wire Hooks
• Gloves (for getting things in and out of the oven)
• Well Ventilated paint Cabinet

I was doing this at the Techshop in S.F. and they had all the tools I needed.

Look at your powder as different colors need different temperatures.  My powder recommends 400°F(204.44C).  Since the oven is going to take quite awhile to get up to temperature.  The first thing to do is fire the oven up.  I set it to 425°F(218.33°C).  I set it to higher than the recommended temperature to account for some of the temperature loss that will happen when opening the oven to place everything in.

Now that the oven is heating up.  It is time for a deep clean.  To start I used the sand blaster to clean all the oxidation off the dough hook/paddle*.  It made a world of difference (Take a look at before and after picture).  From the sandblaster it was time to rinse the parts off in the sink.  Once the dough hook/paddle are washed it is important not to touch them with your hands because the oils from your fingers will show though on the final finish.   So while you are washing insert the wire hooks though the top where the connect the dough hook/paddle to your mixer**.  Then touching just the wire hooks transfer them into the oven to dry.

*I could not get any pictures though the scratched up protective film sorry.
**See tag in picture four.

While the dough hook/paddle are drying in the oven an it is still getting up to  temperature lets set up the powder coating gun.  First connect the compressed air hose to the regulator.  Then connect the air hose of the powder coating gun to the other end of the regulator and dial it down to 5 PSI(10.93 Gram force/square centimeter)  Once that is all set I dumped the powder in the hopper(the jar looking thingy) and screwed it back onto the gun.  Now it was time to grab the dough hook/paddle out of the oven and hang them up in the paint booth.  Remember to wear your gloves while doing this those guys are hot.

Well now thet the dough hook/paddle are clean, dry, hooked, and hanging. Let's get to powder coating.  First take the alligator clipped lead and connect it up to the metal hanging grid.  This clip acts as the ground so it is good to make sure it has a clean contact to the hanging grid and is not to far from your hanging dough hook/paddle.  Once clip is secure take the gun in one hand and the safety switch in the other.  Press the button on the safety switch and the trigger on the powder coating gun.  This turns on the electricity and starts the powder flowing.  Keeping the nozzle about an inch from the dough hook/paddle making up to down movements until there is an even coating of powder on them.  Now it is time to bake.

Carefully transfer you now red dough hook/paddle from the pain booth over to the oven.  You want to make sure to only touch the wire hooks.  If you touch the dough hook/paddle at this point you will end up with powder on you not your part and will have to start all over again.  One you have them in the oven set a timer for however long your color said it would take to bake.  I then turned the temp to 400°F(204.44C).  You can see how much heat was lost opening the door.  Mine was 14 minutes so I set a timer and started to clean up.  To do this I dumped the extra powder back into my can.  Then used compressed air to blow all the stuck on powder out of the gun and hopper.  Once that was complete I packed the gun and power supply back into the checkout box.  I still had some time to kill so I suck a peak at what the guy on the water jet cutter was doing.

Well my timer went off so I grabbed the dough hook/paddle hung them in the paint booth to cool and packed the gloves away.  Once they had cooled down and I was still thoroughly baffled by what the heck the guy was cutting out of the steel on the water cutter.  I packed up my dough hook/paddle in my bag and headed home to install them.  I think they turned out great and after seeing some of the awesome colors you could choose this could be a great way to personalize your KitchenAid.  I think the red looks great with my gun metal mixer which is now truly one of a kind.