Powder Coating Boolits

[Bad Water Bill]

Another question to be solved is will the PC help attain any higher speed before the pill goes POOF?

[ryokox3]

Hi all, I did an experiment, but would like to see if anyone else could try it also and try to validate my results. Anyway I took some boolits and prepped them on the tray for a powder coating. Then I had some that did not pass my casting tests and usually would go back to the lead pot, but rather I decided to pc them, but with a twist. I took some lee liquid alox and touched the base of them to it. Then Placed them on the tin foil covered tray like the other boolits. I thought I'd need something conductive in the alox to make the pc stick to the boolits, but it seems like they worked well with out that. Anyway after pc'ing and baking, the ones with the lubed bases did not stick at all on the tin foil. The others... well you know. Anyone else want to try and replicate my results?

[Bad Water Bill]

That is something I would NEVER have thought about.

Thanks for the information.

[xyankeeworkshop]

rykox3,
Outstanding idea on the Alox. It's like a really horrible tasting "Pam" for your cookie sheet.
Did it get smoky during the 400 deg baking process? Did it reduce the amount of powder fillet at the base of the boolit?

[corey012778]

has anyone thought about the fluidize bedding system to coat?

[Bad Water Bill]

Never heard of it. Teach us please.

[corey012778]

basically, it is a system that introduces air into the powder making the powder into a fluid state. I have not done this my self yet, when this thread started I started doing research. a lot of people that cast up lures use this method. down fall, you have to have a wire to allow to DIP the item into the powder. they heat the jigs up first.
there is four major parts the the system
a cup to hold the powder.
a base to hold the cup
a connection point for the air (connects to the base)
a filter that keeps the powder from falling into base
a seal for the bottom of the base
air line and air pump.

can be made from parts found at wally world, pet store, and a hardware store.

going to make one, just need to pick up the piping and the connection.
just a google search with the key word "homemade fluidized bedding system" and "how to fluidize bed lures"

down fall, have to drill a hole just deep enough to catch the threads of some type of hook, or come up with a try method. I am working on both now.

[Ken73]

basically, it is a system that introduces air into the powder making the powder into a fluid state. I have not done this my self yet, when this thread started I started doing research. a lot of people that cast up lures use this method. down fall, you have to have a wire to allow to DIP the item into the powder. they heat the jigs up first.
there is four major parts the the system
a cup to hold the powder.
a base to hold the cup
a connection point for the air (connects to the base)
a filter that keeps the powder from falling into base
a seal for the bottom of the base
air line and air pump.

can be made from parts found at wally world, pet store, and a hardware store.

going to make one, just need to pick up the piping and the connection.
just a google search with the key word "homemade fluidized bedding system" and "how to fluidize bed lures"

down fall, have to drill a hole just deep enough to catch the threads of some type of hook, or come up with a try method. I am working on both now.

Corey, I think you may be on to something - think about having a fluidized bed that you drop your freshly cast (and still very hot!) boolits into. They drop to the bottom and get a full coat in the process!

Maybe take a small metal can (coffee can maybe?) and pop tiny holes in the bottom, then make your base underneath that. Only thing I'd be concerned about is the boolits sticking to each other and cure time.

[corey012778]

I was thinking of something like that. went to a dollar store found metal pencil holders. bought 3 of them. going to drill holes. never thought about dropping them while casting. going to have to do a dry run once I have the system built to see if the filter can hold up to the weight and see where the break strength will be at.

[Ken73]

... never thought about dropping them while casting.

They're already hot, you're already going to drop them, seems logical?

going to have to do a dry run once I have the system built to see if the filter can hold up to the weight and see where the break strength will be at.

How about a small basket made of aluminum door screen that you lift out after dropping the boolits? Wait a few seconds or so for them to cool of course while they're in the FB setup. The air should help that, too. The whole basket doesn't have to be made of the screen, just the bottom; find a smaller can to go inside your pencil holders, cut the bottom (and top if it isn't already) out and cover it with the aluminum screen. Make a small wire handle to lift it out of the FB after the boolits have been coated/cooled. I was thinking large soup can and small soup can.. get one of those round air stones from the pet supply for the bottom then you don't have to drill holes (other than one for the air supply) in the bottom or make a base for it. Get a good sized aquarium air pump.

Only thing I can think of that might be bad is that the FB might turn into a "fog" because this stuff is VERY fine. Maybe put something over the top when not dropping boolits. Definitely wear a dust mask!

[Bad Water Bill]

I think that dropping directly from the mould will result in a BIG gob of powder sticking to the boolit. If I heated jig heads very warm Then tried to cure the head I ended up with a runny mess.

Just my .02

[olaf455]

.
I spoke with a representative from the powder coat company about the liquid to powder coating. He said it would work fine for our application when using a larger nozzle in an airbrush. He said the liquid/powder mix probably would not last longer than a week after mixing so it is best to mix only what you are going to use immediately. At $20 a pint it is reasonably priced.
The advantage is one does not need a powder coat gun and have to deal with reclaiming the loose powder from using a pc gun. The boolits would still have to be baked as normal. He said non metallic items that can take the heat can be pc'd this way.

I have tried powder by the pound's liquid 2 powder product and it did not work very well. The problem I ran into is that the liquid powder mixture is very difficult to get on to the boolits evenly. Accuracy was bad. The product does not act like paint, in that it will cure the powder to the bullet. The powder once dry will wipe right off so you cannot touch it and it did not work at all well to dip the bullets nor did it work to tumble them. the product appeared to be distilled water with a small amount of soap in it as to break surface tension.
if you try it and get it to work please post details

[ryokox3]

rykox3,
Outstanding idea on the Alox. It's like a really horrible tasting "Pam" for your cookie sheet.
Did it get smoky during the 400 deg baking process? Did it reduce the amount of powder fillet at the base of the boolit?

I did not have smoke issues with it during the cure though it did have an odd smell. Not too bad though. It did not stop a fillet from forming but it did keep the tin foil from sticking. Now that i think about it i believe that the fillet is alox so I'll see it can be removed easily. The alox boolits were much more stable on the tray. I'm using tall 30 cal with a gc base and they want to tip over.

[Jailer]

Ok, I got my powder gun and powder from harbor freight. Problem I'm having is I can't seem to get the base of the boolit coated with powder. The noses are turning out great but its thin on the base and bottom driving band.

What am I doing wrong?

[corey012778]

I think that dropping directly from the mould will result in a BIG gob of powder sticking to the boolit. If I heated jig heads very warm Then tried to cure the head I ended up with a runny mess.

Just my .02

you maybe right about the directly from the mold. did find a video of someone doing jig heads. please note, that is the same fluidize bedder system I am building.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=d7xc7BNbBnc

ken, here is the those cups I was talking about

I am using an 3inch pipe. may go up to a 4 inch once I learn the system a little.
as you can tell from the pic. the cup is too large to be inclosed completely by the pipe. unless I do a very shallow FB or use a lot of powder

[leadman]

olaf455, the boolits still need to be baked after spraying with the liquid to powder solution.
I fired some pc boolits in my Ruger SBH Hunter in 41mag and also in my Savage 110 30-06. The load is my standard 17.8grs of LilGun with the Saeco 220gr TC. The Savage load is my standard 19grs of SR4759 with the 311041 at 177grs. I fired both boolits with and without gas checks. 5 rounds in the 41 and 10 in the Savage per group.
Ruger 41mag, 25 yards
The velocity surprisingly was the lowest 2 averages for the 2 groups of pc'd boolits in the Ruger compared to the other wax types lubes I was testing also. The GC boolits were 1,290fps, the no GC was 1,278fps. All the other wax types lubes (3) were over 1,300 fps.
The group size with the pc'd gc boolits discounting the first shot I pulled was a one holer at .759" at 25 yards. The group size for the no gc boolits was 1.559". No leading.
Savage 30-06, 100 yards
The group sizes were GC= 1.941" No GC= 1.999", average velocity for GC was 1,598fps, No GC was 1,641fps. The no gc velocity was the highest avg. velocity for all groups fired this day with this load. There was no leading.

I feel that I was not shooting my best because the nerve ablations I recently had done on my neck are still causing me considerable pain. I know I was pulling my face away from the gun a couple times. At least I got to shoot some of these boolits and will now pursue this further as this is a viable coating to use.

[clocker]

The stars finally aligned tonight. The PC gun and powder were sitting in the garage, Walmart had an oven on sale, and I finally had some time while the girls went to the mall I warmed up the pot and got out the Lee 300aac mold. Man that has got to be one of the nicest casting molds that I have used. Since the pot was warm I figured might as well make some 45 230gn and 12ga slugs.

So, there is a learning curve to PC for sure. The Craftsman gun is adjustable with the trigger but it seemed like mine either took an eternity on low speed or blew the powder off of previously coated boolits if used on high. Like others, I was having issues getting the grooves covered. I'll try adjusting the ground a little better and make sure they are spaced out a bit more next time. Overall the 45 worked decent though. Next I moved on to the 300aac. Those boolits seemed super long and unstable compared to 45. They had way more issues with shadowing and general coverage. Since I was not using a jig to stabilize, a number tipped over getting them into the oven

Gotta try some different techniques next time. I'm hoping for something that is repeatable and has a little higher volume than just placing the boolits on a sheet.

[leadman]

I did some Lyman 311041 and expanded the poultry wire I was using with a punch so they would stand up nose down. This worked good, at least for the first batch. Now I need to use a drill and Scotchbrite pad and drill to grind the paint off the top of the wires so a connection will be made.
I am thinking of using a section of the poultry wire on top of the boolits with ingots weighing it down. then I can pc and remove the top poultry wire so pc doesn't get baked on it. I can live with a couple of bare spots on the nose of the boolit.

[corey012778]

ken look back on post 219. I think that has the answer to the FB dipping brain storming but with a heavier gauge wire . make a rod that would fit in the toaster oven preheat the boolit or use a heat gun. dip the boolits, places them back on the rod back in the oven to cure.

[rcav8r]

Ok, I got my powder gun and powder from harbor freight. Problem I'm having is I can't seem to get the base of the boolit coated with powder. The noses are turning out great but its thin on the base and bottom driving band.

What am I doing wrong?

Possibly faraday cage effect? different planes of the field actually repelling the powder. Corners, inside and outside, can sometimes be difficult to coat.

The alox on the bases is a great idea. Now try some actual PAM and see if that works.