Powder Coating Boolits

[leftiye]

metal sheet with holes to put noses in? Would have to clean edges of holes. twist point of blade on hole?

[ryokox3]

Last night I tried some spent .22LR cases on top of the tin foil. Into those I placed a .224 sized boolit nose down. The coating results were excellent on the ones that did not fall. The way the boolits make contact inside the case, I do not think any major buildup will stop the electric charge from getting to future runs. Now that the concept worked, I'm going to permanently attach the cases to a piece of aluminum sheet so they do not fall. I'll still cover over the cases with tinfoil to keep down the mess.

This method gave me nice soft points with a fully coated base and sides.

[Bad Water Bill]

Many years ago I electroplated small geodes and slabs of agate. Mix powdered copper with fingernail polish and paint the surface and shortly you had a gold or silver covered item. believe it or not but the mix is very conductive.

Why not try some powdered copper and epoxy to bond the 22s to a sheet of ??? and then put in your cast boolits and have at it with the P C gun.

[popper]

ryokox3 - I thought the gator glue would not stand the heat. I was wrong. I think you could glue the 22 case to a sheet, solder a small wire around each for conductivity, and be GTG. After a few coats, the PC will also hold the cases in place. You could also drill holes and push the cases through, solder the wire on top. You can forget the alum foil. I found that after a few cycles or a heavy coat, they are sometimes hard to remove from the case - the base needs to be pretty strong and the cases well attached. I will just use a sanding disk on a drill to remove the PC from the mouth of the cases. Loaded ~400 yesterday. I did find that the case mouth does need to be well belled, else you scrape th PC off. I did some with a heavy coat and some light, to see how heavy a coat is needed. Also did some hard and soft alloy to compare. Range results next week.
BWB gave me a good idea for fastening the cases to the expanded metal, I'll use a center punch in the primer pocket to expand the case head to fit the slots better. Thanks for the idea. Unfortunately I don't think I can expand the mouth of a 22 enough to work for a 30 cal. LWFN.

[olaf455]

I will just use a sanding disk on a drill to remove the PC from the mouth of the cases.

A case mouth tool in a drill perhaps?

[Bad Water Bill]

Do NOT give up on the 22LR brass. Anneal it expand a LITTLE and anneal again. Keep it up till you have the opening you want.

When I used to work in silver smithing I decided to make my own coffee measure. I took a flat piece of brass 1 1/2 " wide and eventually have a bowl that is 1 3/8 deep. Yes there was a lot of work with a ball peen hammer and annealing but the brass could be worked that deep without a split anywhere. I may have annealed it sooner than necessary but I got er done.

Try the same thing with your brass and you just might be surprised how far it can be STRETCHED before it splits.

[popper]

I'll try that after I get this one finished. I did the copperworking thing as a kid, never annealed it. The steel plate I got has holes I can enlarge, insert case and stretch the mouth. Those long skinny 30 cals fall over easily. Darn, I might have to try this before I finish the other one.

[Rooster]

Could you use a CCI 22lr tray to secure the empty brass bases and keep them from falling over?

[clocker]

I had a bit of free time tonight between work and the family. I looked at the local hardware store for brass or copper expanded metal. Almost lost consciousness at the price, so moved on and found a 12 x 24 18ga 1/2" opening expanded sheet steel for under $10. Soldering between the 22lr cases and this sheet ended up working great with a little flux and a propane torch set on low. The tray has room for 100 bullets and plenty of room for excess powder to fall through (Thanks popper for passing along this wisdom). Hopefully tomorrow night there will be time to do a test run

Rooster: I'm not sure that the CCI tray would survive a trip through the oven at 400 degrees.

[Bad Water Bill]

Rooster: I'm not sure that the CCI tray would survive a trip through the oven at 400 degrees.

Nor would it provide any continuity between gun and brass.

[xyankeeworkshop]

Are you guys using just plain old plumbing solder and flux to attach the brass to the expanded steel sheet? If so, will that hold up well over time cycling back and forth to 400 degrees? I have a scrap piece of perforated aluminum sheet - would this technique work on that?

[Bad Water Bill]

If anyone has the secret of getting lead solder to work on aluminum please share it with us.

[popper]

clocker - if that sheet is galvanized or plated, you got it to solder OK. I'll check mine - it had been in the store for a while and wasn't rusty. I suspect the lead free solder would work better, with acid flux.
I tried to expand the 22LR case with the back end of a drill bit. It was hard to get it expanded evenly, annealing will probably help.
Try epoxying the cases to the alum. then solder a small diam wire to all the cases for a ground. The grid needs to be pretty strong, I had to pry a few CBs off the cases. Alum may bend too much.
I was surprised the gator glue held up so well @ 400. JB weld would probably work OK too.

[xyankeeworkshop]

Thanks popper. I didn't consider having to pry any boolits off.

I'm thinking JB Weld on an expanded metal paint roller grid may work. BTW, JB is rated to 500 degrees. 600 for short bursts.

[popper]

OK, I'm convinced, PC works great. Shot several PC alloys in 40SW this morning, 51F out and freezing my fingers. Still put everything in the 10 @ 7 yds. I just rest the trigger guard on a padded 4x4. Alloys were 2% Sb, 1%Sb sulfur treated, 1% Sb Cu treated. 165 TC, 175 TC & SWC. Didn't see much difference in base or nose coated, as others have stated. Now for rifle, got to make that setup.

[bmiller]

Shot the same powder coated loads through my Rem 700 tactical. Shaky rest, kneeling at 50 yards. 4 shot group. (All I had loaded).

[bayjoe]

OK I took the plunge, went to harbor freight and bought gun and supplies. Then went to Wallyworld and bought toaster oven this is what I spent to get started.
Harbor Freight -$85.96 for a Chicago Electric Powder coating gun and 2 16 oz bottles of paint.
Walmart - $21.36 for a cheap toaster oven
I don't think that is to bad of an investment to get started

[ItZaLLgooD]

I ordered the same stuff from Harbor Freight today. I already have an old toaster oven. Please share your results and set up.

I am in the process of looking around at powder suppliers. Are there differences in the compositions of colors as far as effectiveness? Anyone have bad results with a certain color or manufacturer?

[ryokox3]

Thanks Popper , BadWaterBill, and everyone else. Some great info from all here. I'm actually at a point that I need to stop powdercoating and start shooting Not a bad problem at all, and being a 3 day weekend I'm sure I'll get to test some boolits out.

[retread]

Got back from the range this afternoon. Shot a pile of PC 9mm in my SR9. Didn't remember to take the camera or bring back targets but was impressed with my groups. Can't say I am a top shot but I will say that my groups have tightened up with the PC Boolits. Not only that but the real benefit is the total lack of leading. My SR9 was terrible from the factory as far as leading. Tried moly lube, NRA, Felix, Red Rooster and many homemade concoctions with limited improvement until PC. It may be time consuming but is less so than working to removed the lead from the bore.
I am using HF powder and am happy with it. Can't beat the price anywhere. Colors are limited but I have been mixing their colors together for some interesting looks. Hope you guys keep up the good work. Main thing is to enjoy the process.

Retread