Fluid bed powder coat chamber

[ichthyo]

I've been powder coating bullets for years using the shake and bake method. However a buddy of mine showed me how he powder coats fishing lures using a fluid bed chamber to get an incredibly even thin coat of paint prior to baking in a toaster oven. His chamber is simple, but only a 3" diameter PVC tube with air pumped to to "fluidize" the powder. I'm thinking about trying this for boolits. Has anybody tried this? It seems common place for lure makers.

[Beagle333]

There's a long thread on fluid bed testing.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?302438-ES-fluid-bed-tests&highlight=fluid

[ichthyo]

Thanks. I used the search feature and didn't come up with that method.

[TexasGrunt]

I've coated thousands of lures and jig heads using a fluid bed.

1. It's not that thin of a coating
2. You first have to heat the boolits
3. You need some method to hold the hot boolits while you dip them and that will leave marks

Lures/jigs have a eye or wire to hold.

If you want a even and thin PC coat get an electrostatic gun.

[ichthyo]

Thanks for the advice.

[Bama]

I have use a fluidized bed on cold bullets using a 9 V powered ionizer. If I turn the air up just a little, I get a dust cloud about 3/4 in deep above the bed. I put the white outlet wire inside bed and ground the tweezers holding the bullet. A complete but thin coat of the dust will stick to bullet. The charge is high because you don't loose any powder when placing on tray in oven. It is also a good way to coat jigs as long as you use forceps clamping around eyelet.

[Wolftracker]

A cottage cheese container in each end of a section of PVC with packing peanuts in the pipe between the two containers, bullets and powder (no BB's) in the containers and man does it coat them, in a minute or less of shaking and rolling! I'm using statically enhanced powder from Eastwood but I bet this works with HF as well. Peanuts won't wear out. If they lose their charge, replace with another handful. No need for direct contact between bullets and peanuts. Static goes through plastic just fine.