How many times have you heard of some legendary idea that first came to life on a bar napkin? Rumor has it Discovery Channel’s Shark Week was first scribbled out on a cocktail square, as was the former points system for NASCAR. Porsche routinely retells its story of how Max Hoffman – whose Hoffman Motor Company created the post-WWII European car market by importing brands like Volkswagen, Jaguar, Alfa Romeo, Mercedes-Benz, and BMW – spelled out all of the elements of the iconic Porsche crest, which Ferdinand Porsche, Jr. sketched out before him on a napkin.
Add one more great product idea to that list of legends. In the late ‘90s, Eastwood product development manager Mark Robidoux was having drinks with a coworker after hours when the discussion turned to making powder coating technology more accessible to DIYer. He remembered a flocking tool he’d used in a high school shop class and sketched the initial concept for a “fluidizing chamber” to spray powder onto a part. That element would be the key to the Hot Coat powder coating system, which Eastwood launched in 1998, establishing the DIY powder coating market.
In the video below, Mark retells the original story himself, and explains how that initial bar napkin sketch turned into the first PCS-150, then evolved into the dual-voltage PCS-250 and later the high-powered PCS-1000, which has allowed countless people to turn their power coating hobby into a business.