Powder Coating Boolits

[popper]

All I shoot are FN, the 40SW just drops right into the 9mm case and just the nose is bare, just a hint of a ridge at the edge of the PC. HF stuff works fine, the gun is good and takes ~15psi to work. If you touch it before it's baked, it comes off. Don't know about shaking. I sized mine first then again after PC. Rich22 - were they cold when you sized? If a hard alloy, you'll have to pound it out. I've done that with LLA lubed too. Clocker - can't solder to steel, the only epoxy I could find was only good to 450F (industrial is good @ 600F but $$$$, don't get silver filled, it corrodes bad and fast.). PC bakes @ 400F. The 22 is too small for the grid I found. There is some decorative alum grid ( steel too but $$$) that is smaller but bends too easily.

[bmiller]

The coating rubs off very easy, you can't touch them until after they are baked.

[clocker]

Thanks popper. I'm with you on the bare nose. As long as the base and bearing surfaces are coated I'd be more than fine. Time to find some of that expanded metal and heat up the old soldering iron

Curious question for those of you with the Craftsman PC gun. How far away from the boolits do you hold it? After some reflection I may have been too close at ~8" from the boolits last time.

[retread]

I have had no problem with a good coat at about 6 inches. 356 as cast which means 357-368+. Powder coat only adds about .0001 to .00015. No problem sizing to 356. Does not show any signs of compromise. I use the craftsman.

[leadman]

I found an easy way to clean the 1/4" poultry screen today. I was trying to soften the pc with a propane torch so I could wire brush it off but I had sprayed the screen with spray canola oil before setting the boolits on it. The pc caught fire and moved across the screen like a grass fire with about 2" flames! Had to help out some thick areas with the torch but it sure cleaned up easy. I tried the next batch without the spray canola and it was slower to burn and remove.

[HI-TEK]

I found an easy way to clean the 1/4" poultry screen today. I was trying to soften the pc with a propane torch so I could wire brush it off but I had sprayed the screen with spray canola oil before setting the boolits on it. The pc caught fire and moved across the screen like a grass fire with about 2" flames! Had to help out some thick areas with the torch but it sure cleaned up easy. I tried the next batch without the spray canola and it was slower to burn and remove.

It may be interesting to have a look at the U-Tube videos about coating projectiles. Any one can do it, and they work great.
HI-TEK
YouTube videos:
Part1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VevKJgHseWc
Part2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NU7PbbtbAtE

[bmiller]

I took some time and shot my powder coated bullets. I am pleased. They were shot at 50 yards. Shot a mild steel plate, they are not AP. myth busted! Shiny pock-mark is pc bullet, old holes are hornady 55 grain fmj. Was shot with a red dot, not a bench rest scope.

[popper]

Clocker - can't solder to steel or aluminum.

[docstodd]

thought this might be good info I have water dropped my PCed boolits and it does not seam to do any harm might harden them back up. I don't have a way to do a test so not sure if this works

[Rich22]

I sized mine first then again after PC. Rich22 - were they cold when you sized? If a hard alloy, you'll have to pound it out. I've done that with LLA lubed too.

Yep, room temp for over 24 hrs. Tried the pounding method, no dice, I have a feeling Mr Drill and his merry band of bits are gonna have to come out and play here, may just call up Lee tomorrow and see if they have any ideas because short of C4, I am out of ideas for getting this thing free.

[Rich22]

You saying this really makes me think I screwed something up BADLY, I added 8.5-9 Thou to mine with 1 coat.

I have had no problem with a good coat at about 6 inches. 356 as cast which means 357-368+. Powder coat only adds about .0001 to .00015. No problem sizing to 356. Does not show any signs of compromise. I use the craftsman.

[popper]

McDrill and band, yup, been there done that. But - I used it to pound a hole in that really hard and oversized CB. I tried to 'drill' a hole and the lead just mushed. I was concerned that I would get it going off center and ruin the sizer die. HF says to cool them gradually. I WD some that I had hot dipped, the coating was thick. It cracked but stayed put.

[Bad Water Bill]

OK back to basics.

Heat EXPANDS. Put the durned thing in the FREEZER for about 24 hours and see if cold really does CONTRACT?

Put PLIERS and proper sized DRIFT in the freezer as well. Less heat buildup that way. OH and wear WARM gloves.

[bstone5]

The picture below is of 1000 9mm 125 grain cast bullets.

The bullets were cast in a MAGNA Caster unit.
This machine in the manual mode will make a 1000 bullets in about 2 1/2 hours.

The powder coating material and the powder coating gun were purchased from "Powder By The Pound".

The powder coating took about 3 hours since I can only do 150 at a time in a counter top convection oven purchased at Target.

The process is the usually method a 14 gage steel plate covered in aluminum foil with a very little lube sparingly speared on the aluminum foil to keep the powder coat from sticking too well to the aluminum foil.

The container on the right are the bullets removed from the foil, the middle container are the bullets after going thru the Lee push thru sizer and the left container are the bullets with the soda can gas checks installed after being push thru Lee sizer upside down with a Harbor Freight 1/2 ton press.

With the powder coat and the soda can gas check on a plain base cast lead bullet, the cartridge can be loaded any where in the loading data.

The loads for jacket bullets can be used without getting lead in the barrel.

It takes some time to go thru the process but the bullets are very good and hold up as if they were jacket bullets.

[popper]

Expanded metal and 9mm cases in each space works fine. Just sprayed from the front and all the CB gets coated. Thought I might have a spacing problem but all is well. Now to find some 25 auto cases for 30 cal. 3 batches so far without needing to clean the PC of the case mouths. I actually ended up gluing the cases to the grid with gorilla glue and only one came loose so far. The PC should help holding in place. Haven't even soldered the cases to the grid yet. To recover the CBs I just bounce the grid on the floor a couple times, the CBs jump out.

[Bad Water Bill]

Why waste valuable 25 cal brass?

22LRs and a center punch should work just fine and be environmentally friendly.

[popper]

bstone5- how much powder did it take for the 1000 rnds? I've done ~400 170 gr. with about 1/3 bottle of HF powder. My poor estimate is about $.004/CB, $.40/100. Bottle is ~$5. Anyone else have data on cost for those interested?

[bstone5]

popper in Murphy Texas

The plastic container on the powder coat gun was filled about 1/4 full of powder coat and this amount coated all of the 1000 bullets with a little lrft over. I have never tried to calculate the cost per bullet. I place the aluminum foil wrapped plated on news paper so the excess powder can be cleaned up easy. There is some powder on the news paper that I put in the trash I would guess there is about 10 % of the powder used that ends up on the news paper.

The Harbour Freight store near me does not usually have the powder coat, I pay about $12.00 a pound for the powder coat material. A pound of powder coating material will coat a lot of bullets.

[popper]

That looks like $.001/CB, probably better than my estimate. I made a mistake and put a full powder can on the gun with 40 psi air, so I wasted a lot. My trash bag collector is getting white on the bottom now so I probably have 10% loss also, but I can reclaim it if I want. At any rate, cost is low even getting the HF gun, amortize over 5K rnds, it still $.01/CB. What is not to like? What part of Houston are you near? Should be lots of PC available in that town.

[bstone5]

popper

I use 20 psi on the powder coat gun, I try to keep the pressure low so as to only make a powder cloud near the end of the powder coat gun.

If I coat bigger items than cast bullets I run the air pressure up to 30 psi.

It is a trial and error thing, find what works best for the application.

I got a regular electric stove from a rebuild of a kitchen, I want to put the stove on a platform with casters so it can be moved easily and will add a small fan o move the air around in the oven.

With this oven I hope to coat 300 to 500 cast bullets at a time.

A bigger oven should reduce the time to coat the bullets.

I live on the north west side of Houston off of Highway 290.