Powder coat didn't work well

[Don Fischer]

I got some called Bronze titanium from a place in Oregon. Put it on the first ones and it's about the same color as the bullet's. Looked quite a bit and figured it wouldn't hurt to put on a second coat. Looked better but still wasn't sure. So fired a bunch in my gun and got some more leading than I'd care for. Called Midway and had them send me a 356 sizing die. Gonna run all the ones left thru it then tumble lube with lee Alox. Got all my rifle bullet's resized and tumble lubed and feel better about them. I though that the powder i got would be good because it was about the same color as a lead bullet. Guess I'll have to try some of that bright stuff, wanted to stay away from that. Nothing like a hunting bullet with a blaze orange jacket! lol

[Walter Laich]

I like colored PC cause you can tell how the coverage is. If it's clear or lead colored it's hard to tell how well covered they become.

Hoping you are casting for 9 mm given the sizing die you're ordering.

I pretty much just do one coat and that's all I need but then I'm using Smoke's powder and his stuff is a known product.

Are your really pushing your bullets or shooting a mild load?

[StuBach]

+1 on using Smokes powders and using colors to see coverage. I am very partial to the Gloss Black as it looks nice but not too out there, though the colors can be fun too.

[jcren]

Get powder from smoke here on the forum. He has clear ( white before baked, easy to see) black and a sliver that are all proven to work for us. I run his clear and black on all my stuff including reduced 06 and have had no leading.

[Spector]

I am going to address 38 and 45 caliber pistol boolits dry tumbled with Air Soft BB's and baked base down on silicone mats or parchment paper.

Actually clear is easier to gauge. It looks like powdered sugar on donuts. Or maybe some people call if confectionery sugar. Extremely fine. I believe it to be the easiest unbaked coating to see. The thinner the coating the more gray white it will appear. When in the oven it glosses over and turns clear and becomes very shiny. If your boolits are clean and you can see the powder is evenly distributed on the boolits then you are going to have a good baked on coating. There are no pigments for the polymer to carry with it as it tries to even out once it become liquid on the hot boolits.

If you have not tried clear then it may sound counter-intuitive that you can easily gauge coverage. Once you do try it you will clearly see (pun intended) just how well and simply it does coat boolits.

If your boolits slide around and into other boolits it can affect the unbaked coating. Silicone mats get the best traction on the baking sheets and and boolits get the best traction on them. I believe that parchment paper is next best. Finally comes NSAF for me. I am apparently too clumsy. When I've tried it I wind up with boolits sliding into each other. I have put trays of boolits into the oven with no boolits touching only to remove them later with boolits touching, and stuck together. If you have much powder on the booklit bases they can just take off and float on the liquid powder coating.

If you just have to make brightly colored boolits then disregard what I have written. I'm more into good coverage with repeatable results and ease of application.

I've seen the pretty pics of colored boolits and I can even get pretty colored boolits as well. The clear just appears to me to be more uniform in density with a less lumpy appearance when dry tumbled even in high humidity.

Mike

[Walter Laich]

speaking of color....

I've gotten away from bright colors and use Smoke's gloss black with the the other colors added to it in small quantities. It given a dark color like dark cherry or dark blue. Doesn't look like jelly beans as much.

I used some of Smoke's traffic purple in the gloss black and after several bullets I noticed the color was getting more purple with each batch. the black sticking better than the purple and being used up faster. Happened at least three times so I know it wasn't a fluke.

Bottom line is we can make whatever color, hue or no color we want.

You pays your money and takes your chance

[Spector]

I have used Smoke's ''Clear'', Flame Red, John Deere Green, Signal Blue and Traffic Purple. The Traffic Purple seemed slightly more problematic for me with clear being the easiest and Signal Blue next most easy. The red seemed to cover ok. I think I was just tired of the Harbor Freight red look. I have never tried mixing colors.

I know Bangerjim loves his colors and the pics I see of what he and others are doing and have done are, well, sort of inspiring. So I ordered a 4 color sample pak from Smoke. After using the colors only the Signal Blue really turned me on, but it was hard for me to gauge the coating thickness before baking.

So I went back and tried the clear again and was impressed by it all over again. If they show signs of heavy and light areas I just blow the excess powder off of the boolits before baking. I tried my shop vac once, but overdid it and had to re-tumble my boolits in powder, The shop vac may hold promise, but you definitely do not want to get too close.

Personally I find it is better for me to go too light on powder rather than too heavy if I don't quite have it right after the fist swirling and shaking. I add very small amounts of powder until I just have them coated adequately.

I am simply after the most uniform coating I can get and boolits that are non-leading. Clear gives me that.

I am apparently red/green blind according to a dot filled circle I looked at once. It had a number in it that i could not see. I could see numbers in all the other dot filled circles. I can see red and green. Red not well and green fantastic. so I suspect that while I can differentiate these two colors I may not be seeing what others see. That actually seems to help me in the woods in hunting situations. Still that may also be why I am not a preoccupied with colors as much as some seem to be.

I used to love to stock rifles in curly maples and flame birch, but as someone pointed out to me once''pretty don't make em shoot better''.

That's the way I feel about pretty bollits too I guess. I actually like being able to see the boolit under the powder coat......Mike

[Hickok]

Those Lee dippers in various sizes make it easy to duplicate any color you find you like. Just right down the dipper/scoops of each color and you can make your favorite combination easily again.


A favorite of mine, 3 scoops of 2.8 cc Smokes purple, and 1 scoop of 2.8cc of smokes black, dumped into a cool whip container with black bbs. Plum crazy purple.

Read a post by Walter and got me on to this color.

[kokomokid]

I saw someone dipping bullets in a pc float (like fishing lures) and wanted to know if the bullets need to be heated and how hot if so? Maybe a dumb question but I am totally new to pc.

[Hickok]

That was Bama, I will try to find that post for you.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?300034-30cal-rifle-boolits-pcing-tricks-and-hints-needed/page2

Post #30.

[bangerjim]

DO NOT start out with some unknow powder from some unknown place on the evilnet.

Get Smoke's powder or (for many) HF red. Do not deviate from the published and proven methods, equipment, and powders we all have established to work and work well.

metallics do not work nearly as well as standard colors. Especially for your 1st time. Get the technique down with standard colors and then branch out and experiment.

banger

[bangerjim]

I saw someone dipping bullets in a pc float (like fishing lures) and wanted to know if the bullets need to be heated and how hot if so? Maybe a dumb question but I am totally new to pc.

Do a search on the net for "fishing lure (jig) fluidized bed coating". Simple to find. Same thing we do. From what I have seen, it is a VERY slow process and YES you would have to preheat the boolits to get the powder to stick. Static works for us in BBDT and ESPC. With just a teeny little bubbling container of powder, there is really nothing there to make the powder stick. Jig makers do not make many of those at at time......not like us and our hundreds of boolits!

If you are new to this........why not just stick with what many thousands of us have proven works very well?????????? BBDT or ESPC. Get those to work and then branch out and experiment with other weird coating methods.

Ya' gotta learn to walk before Ya' run.

bangerjim

[kokomokid]

Thanks, That was what I was wanting. I might be able to dip bullets as they come out the mould but that would keep you busy.

[reddog81]

How did you apply the PC and how did you bake the bullets?

[rjathon]

I have had great luck with one container of HF Red but not with another.

I tried Smokes blue and green with great success. It definitely easier to use. I let Smokes pick the colors that cover well.

[chirodr1]

My son builds twin turbo kits for Dodge and Chevy diesels. The piping is powder coated before he sends them out to his customers. I had him get some left over powder coat from the guys that powder coat his piping. I received 4 or 5 pounds of powder coat and tried it on some boolits. There was probable 6 or 7 different samples. Only two of the samples would work and both of them were poly. Some of them were not labeled so I have no idea what they were but they would not adhere to the bullets by the shake and bake method. Of the two that did work, one is a dark blue and the other is grey just a little darker than a lead bullet. With the grey powder coat I can dump some (approx. 75-100 depending on caliber) boolits in my plastic container, without plastic airsoft BBs, add less than 1/2 teaspoon of powder shake for 30 or 40 seconds. I then open the container and if they appear to need more powder I will add a little and shake again. When they appear correct I then dump them on my trays that are covered with NSAF and put them in my oven at 400 degrees for 10-12 minutes. I monitor the time without using the timer on the oven which will shut the oven off. I have little trouble with the boolits sticking if I pull them out of the oven immediately and shake the tray for a couple of minutes as they cool. If I use the timer on the oven and the oven shuts off for 2-3 minutes before I pull the trays out they stick pretty badly to the NSAF and there is a definite roughness where the boolit was laying on the foil.

I initially would shake them then use forceps to pick them up and tap any excess powder off and stand them all up before baking. This was tedious at best and invariably would bump them and knock most over before got into the oven. This was almost impossible to get a tray of 30 cal boolits into the oven still standing. After getting frustrated with trying to do the rifle boolits I decided to just bake them with a few standing and most lying down. Guess what! I found it did not matter if they were lying down. As long as I monitored the time and pulled them out at the correct time before the automatic timer shut the oven off, and I immediately pulled the trays out and gently shook them for 2-3 minutes till they rolled around freely on the tray I did not experience any excessive roughness of the coating on the bullet.

At the range I have not been able to tell any difference between the boolits baked lying down and the ones baked standing up.

As the OP mentioned he was getting leading I would suggest he do a smash test. As mentioned not all powders are created equal and I would recommend he buy some proven powders like Smoke's which have been shown to work.

Sorry for the long diatribe but I hope this helps someone getting started powder coating. I read comments about how someone can do their lubing with a Star sizer in a lot less time, etc., and I agree. If you have to shake and remove with forceps and stand them up and bake and all of that it is time consuming and much slower than using a Star. We who powder coat know we do not have to put up with smoke from some of the lubes, the stickiness from tumble lubing, and experience virtually no leading.

This has been my experience with powder coating with the powders I have used, and depending on what powder you use, your your experience may vary. I do know I will never use a conventional lube again unless it is my only option.

[hickfu]

50/50 HF red and HF yellow (mix up real good then shake and bake.... they turn out looking like this
163257

Im still waiting for the rains to stop so I can try the powders from Smoke...