I learn today you can't PC a bullet twice. I had some bullets that had some missed spots, so I thought I'd touch em up a little. No dice, when I resized the bullets, the PC flaked off.
I used Harbor Freight black matte and I don't think it goes on and cooks as good as the other colors. Black just seemed to be a little thin.
I was at the grocery store looking at aluminum foil for powder coating bullets.
Lately I have been coating the aluminum foil with a mixture of Lee lube and MEK.
I found some Reynolds aluminum foil that was non-stick.
I purchased the foil to give the material a try for powder coating bullets.
The powder coat will not stick to the foil after the powder coat is cured in the oven.
All of the bullets come off of the foil with out tearing the aluminum foil.
This foil worked very well for me in the methods I use to powder coat pistol bullets.
The bullets being coated are semi wad cutter 45 cal bevel base. The bullets were cast with Magna molds in a Magna caster machine.
that orange is sweet! when my white runs out im going to get some of that!
Oh yeah! I need some of that non-stick foil. It looks like the ticket. Thanks for the heads up.
The sizer take off the extra on the base?
I have a Harbor Freight gun, and when you first pull the trigger it puffs out a whole bunch of coating. Am I doing something wrong or is there some technique to get good even flow?
bstone5, you are my hero. That saves me a lot of work. "Quick Robin, to the bat cave"
I have been having no trouble putting on many coats with my lanolin/alcohol mix. Tried up to three coats !nd sized between each. Could not tell difference seems one good coat is enough. I have not had any peel yet.
Finally getting around to posting pics of some of my PC exploits. This first one is of the latest jig using 9mm cases JB welded to a piece of aluminum perf.
As I'd posted earlier, these really came out crisp and clean. Hopefully lubing the case mouths will help them snap free easier without breaking the jig . You can see the fresh gray JB Weld where I needed to stick a few cases back to the perf. You can also see where I used a case mouth tool to clean the PC off the case for the next batch. The grounding wire may end up being snipped off too.
Below is a pic of my first wire mesh jig to take a stab at 100% PC coverage. That turned out to be hit and miss as you can see drom some of the uncoated noses. The jig also proved to be a little weak at keeing the boolits inverted during handling. Some of the cells worked and some didn't. Snipping and bending the wire just so is a little finicky. But I think this approach may still have some merit for someone really wanting 100% coverage.
I still have not had a chance to test the "band only" boolits at the range. The full coats have worked well once I figured out the proper powder load. But at this point, the "band only" coating process has proven to be a lot less hassle.
xyankeeworkshop My band only 40SW shot very well. A slight leading where I didn't get complete coverage.
Bayjoe - I think that's normal, mine does the same. Try shaking the gun to loosen any clumps of powder and don't use a full canister of powder in the gun. I keep mine below the 'J' tube mouth and it gives a pretty even flow. Loaded up the 30-30 yesterday, doing 308 this morning, hope to get to try them this week.
Bstone5, Thank you for that. I'll have to grab some tonight.
I realized after typing my last entry that by lubing and checking the boolits after powder coating I wasnt really doing much usefull testing other than showing myself that the coating wouldnt come off. I have since been coating the 500 s&w boolits with powdercoat only from harbor freight , no gas check no lube starting at 800fps then 900 now 1000 fps and it only takes two passes with the bore snake to have a very shiny bore. Going to try 1100fps tomorrow. xyankeeworkshop I like your idea on the jig but how hard is it to separate the boolits from the cases after cooking?
MJ,
I have to admit that the boolits were harder to snap off the jig than I had planned. I even managed to snap the JB Weld on half a dozen cases before I taped the jaws of a pair of pliers and used them to gently snap the boolits free. No more jig breakage after I did that. As noted above, I plan to swipe a little Alox or silicone spray on the case mouths next time to see if that helps get me to the point where I can simply invert the jig and have the boolits fall out.
Overall I like the direction this is going. I think the fall-out issue is solvable. How to clean layers of PC buildup off the jig will be the next problem. Hopefully the "spray it with flammables and burn it clean" method will work without ruining the jig.
One more thing - bstone5's non-stick foil experiment has me thinking maybe I can drape some of that stuff over my jig and pierce the boolit noses thru and into the cases. That might aid in both getting the boolits out after coating, keeping the jig clean, and providing conductivity if it turns out to truly be needed.
I just scraped the case mouth with the flat end of a box knife blade to expose the metal. Doesn't take much time at all. If I can find the old plastic fuse puller pliers in the junk tool box I'll try that for snapping them off. Most of the ones with GC shanks did just fall off. Got to get some thinned LLA to try, just swipe a dab across the case mouth - PC doesn't stick to that stuff at all. I will also experiment with dipping the nose into thinned LLA, then inserting into case to see if that eliminates the ridge of PC on the nose and sticking problem.
LLA on the noses of my boolits is precisely the reason why I started laboriously dip lubing them "grooves only" in the first place way back when. Years of swabbing all that junk out of my dies is one of the main things that led me to this thread about PC. I plan to keep as much of that stuff as I can off them now.
Has the PC caused any bad effects when remelting the lead for further casting of new bullets?
CD
Remelted PC "jackets" smoke a little and smell a bit funky but they're fine. It's not like they'll pop like an FMJ.
From PCing fishing tackle the PC just burns off long before PB was melting.
All that was left was some ash and I think most of us know what to do with that.
WE WON. WE BEAT THE MACHINE. WE HAVE CCW NOW.
I may have missed the information, but has there been any noticeable wear on the bores of the firearms that have had the PC bullets shot out of?
I work next door to a harbor freight and have a 20% off coupon that I could use on the powder coating gun.
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| BP | Bronze Point | IMR | Improved Military Rifle | PTD | Pointed |
| BR | Bench Rest | M | Magnum | RN | Round Nose |
| BT | Boat Tail | PL | Power-Lokt | SP | Soft Point |
| C | Compressed Charge | PR | Primer | SPCL | Soft Point "Core-Lokt" |
| HP | Hollow Point | PSPCL | Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" | C.O.L. | Cartridge Overall Length |
| PSP | Pointed Soft Point | Spz | Spitzer Point | SBT | Spitzer Boat Tail |
| LRN | Lead Round Nose | LWC | Lead Wad Cutter | LSWC | Lead Semi Wad Cutter |
| GC | Gas Check |
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