Powder Coating Boolits

[popper]

One nice thing about the wire grid fixture, it can be placed in a box, sprayed, and removed. Then the 'waste' is in the box to be recovered.

[Rich22]

I use the little portable/compact Sears gun because its.. well.. portable and compact and there's no compressor necessary. For these small jobs it's perfect. It's also considerably cheaper (about 1/2 the price) of the Harbor Freight unit. You can get additional powder cups (I bought 4 just for the heck of it) from Summit Racing but if you do, you'll want to make foam plugs so no moisture gets in and gums up the powder. (Pretty easy to do.) I'd also keep around some of the "do not eat" silica gel moisture absorber packets to toss in there as well.

Is this the correct one ? http://www.amazon.com/Craftsman-Comp.../dp/B004YEAYCW. If so, I am gonna have to try this, has anyone had any negative experiences with this where it just did not work? I have thought of my work flow, cast,PC, size, load and it really would make for an efficient process for me I do believe.

[Bad Water Bill]

I picked up the same one a couple weeks ago on the advice of several others. I have not found a cooker yet and even if I do cooking will be done OUTSIDE. The temp is supposed to be around10 for the next several days so this OLD man iis not going to try till it warms up a lot.

I will sit back and learn more from you younger folks.

[xyankeeworkshop]

The Craftsman gun works fine for what it is and how much it *doesn't* cost.

The complaint about the thumb lock for the hopper release is true. Mine snapped itself off pretty much by itself. I superglued it back on and it and it's fine.

Small chunks of plastic have cracked and fallen off the grip. Purely cosmetic at this point.

The directions call for you to gently shake the gun as you're spraying to agitate the powder in the hopper. The problem with that is the lousy seal between the hopper and gun allowing powder to leak. There's a fix for that upthread somewhere to make a foam gasket for the problem.

It's certainly not a professional tool, but then again it only costs $40. If you're the type of guy who has a problem with the drawbacks of cheap tools AND you have a compressor, spend the money elsewhere and buy once/cry once.

[Rich22]

The Craftsman gun works fine for what it is and how much it *doesn't* cost.

The complaint about the thumb lock for the hopper release is true. Mine snapped itself off pretty much by itself. I superglued it back on and it and it's fine.

Small chunks of plastic have cracked and fallen off the grip. Purely cosmetic at this point.

The directions call for you to gently shake the gun as you're spraying to agitate the powder in the hopper. The problem with that is the lousy seal between the hopper and gun allowing powder to leak. There's a fix for that upthread somewhere to make a foam gasket for the problem.

It's certainly not a professional tool, but then again it only costs $40. If you're the type of guy who has a problem with the drawbacks of cheap tools AND you have a compressor, spend the money elsewhere and buy once/cry once.

Understandable, what would a good other choice be, assuming there is one, in roughly the same price range? I do have a big compressor and would be working right next to it so it would not be inconvenient whatsoever. If there is no good cheap alternative I may give this sucker a try since in all reality, other than bullets, I really cannot think of any other use for it and I do not want to spend serious $ until I make sure I like doing this and it works for me.

Thank you

[Bad Water Bill]

Buy the Craftsman. If you decide to go bigger or get out entirely list it in the FOR SALE section.

[Rich22]

Buy the Craftsman. If you decide to go bigger or get out entirely list it in the FOR SALE section.

I like that plan, now to buy that, do some more research, get some powder and make up some bullets to test this on, you do not know how pleased I am to come across this thread, if it works it will solve numerous problems for me.

[xyankeeworkshop]

The Harbor Freight gun is compressor-driven and costs $20-30 more, depending on their price that day or which coupon you clipped. I honestly don't know if the quality is better or not, but the $5 jugs of powder HF sells do screw directly onto the top of the gun to eliminate the material transfer and manual agitating you need to do with the Craftsman.

[retread]

xyankeeworkshop,
Sounds like you are going through the same mental gymnastics I am concerning the powder recovery and the mess. If I find any workable solutions I will post. Until then I'll keep abreast of what others have tried and posted. Appreciate all the input from everyone. Thanks.
Retread

[retread]

xyankeeworkshop,
Sounds like you are going through the same mental gymnastics I am concerning the powder recovery and the mess. If I find any workable solutions I will post. Until then I'll keep abreast of what others have tried and posted. No, I didn't coat the bottoms. Need some area for conductivity. Thought about drilling some holes and going nose down but then the "flange" where I would meet the foil would still be a problem. Appreciate all the input from everyone. Thanks.
Retread

[Ken73]

FYI, I was informed that Summit Racing no longer carries the extra cups for the Craftsman gun. I did a little searching and it appears someone on Ebay snatched a bunch up and is selling them for $25 a pop with $10 shipping, but it says in his listing he'll cut you a deal if you order more than one. Kinda steep considering the whole gun kit was <$40 but if you want an extra (or just a spare in case yours breaks) then I guess it'd be worth it.

[leadman]

I bought the Harbor Freight powder coater and some red paint yesterday. Also bought a new Black & Decker toaster oven for the kitchen so I could use the old one but it is such a *** that I am going to return it tomorrow and buy something else. Hope to be coating but the end of the week.

[Rich22]

Two remaining questions, Has it been found that the mold size needs to be adjusted to take into account the thickness of the P.C? In short I have a mold that drops about .358 and for cast I was going to start working up loads with it at .358 (mic'd bore .357) but if it drops .358 I imagine when done with PC it would be at least .360 and if I then size to .358 the P.C would be mostly if not entirely taken off in the sizing process. Has it been found that bullets perform better closer to jacketed size or cast size (.001-.002 Oversized)? Think I may go pick up a gun this afternoon. May have to try this this weekend

[retread]

I sized a bunch of powder coated 356 TC's today. They were coming out of the mold at 358-359. I is reqlly amazing how easy they resize with almost no resistance and with no lube. I came back from a good day at the range. Accuracy was good but what was nice is when I got home the gun cleaning was a breeze. My 9mm is a Ruger SR9 and has been prone to leading straight out of the box. Usually it is a real chore! Not today. Spent more time cleaning the rest of the gun than I spent on the bore. I'm hooked.

[bpratl]

What are the majority of the PC's using for a sizer? I started off with a Lee push through, which I still have, and progressed to a Starr with all the goodies about two years ago. I also have a HF powder coated which I purchased a year ago for other projects so I want to try PC my casting.

[ryokox3]

Two remaining questions, Has it been found that the mold size needs to be adjusted to take into account the thickness of the P.C? In short I have a mold that drops about .358 and for cast I was going to start working up loads with it at .358 (mic'd bore .357) but if it drops .358 I imagine when done with PC it would be at least .360 and if I then size to .358 the P.C would be mostly if not entirely taken off in the sizing process. Has it been found that bullets perform better closer to jacketed size or cast size (.001-.002 Oversized)? Think I may go pick up a gun this afternoon. May have to try this this weekend

I believe you need to first undersize if you are not already dropping them undersized. Then you need to final size after pc'ing

[xyankeeworkshop]

I believe you need to first undersize if you are not already dropping them undersized. Then you need to final size after pc'ing

I'd really love a hard and fast rule on this. My personal experience with a powdercoated Lee tumble lube 9mm design has been really odd. I'm guessing most of that is based solely on the fact I'm not coating a conventionally-shaped boolit.

[leadman]

From what I have read if you pre-size you need some type of lubricant that will have to be removed prior to pcing. Most user seem to size after the pc.
I have my toaster oven so hope to do my first boolits very soon.

[lavenatti]

I've been presizing with the Lee sizer dies. The TL boolits don't seem to need lube to size saving me the cleaning step. Other boolits I just roll around on my lube pad before sizing and then give them a quick swirl in a jar of acetone.

After powder coating I measure their diameter. Some need to be resized some don't. They don't need lube again if you are resizing them but I've found that trying to squeeze them down more than 3 or 4 thousandths seems to really thin out the powder coating.

[retread]

Trying to eliminate the troublesome aluminum foil, I drilled and tapped a series of holes in a scrap aluminum plate and installed some allen head cap screws (10-32 x 1/2). These were some I picked up at a garage sale for $0.25. I cut the plate to sit on top of the pan that came with the toaster oven. Used the aluminum foil to keep the pan clean and clamp the ground lead to.



I hit the top of the screw heads quickly with a file after each batch to make sure I have good contact. Notice the bottoms of the boolits. No "flange" on the bottom just a nice clean corner with only the screw head portion not covered. The limitation I see coming is the build up on the plate but many boolits will be coated before then and I still have lot of those screws I bought on hand.