Powder Coating Boolits

[dudits]

thanks bstone5, much appreciated

[corey012778]

went to test my custom made powder coating tray. basically, I made a mold that has rubber bumpers in the bottom to make indentations, and used plaster of paris, lined the out side with the non stick foil. did use a aluminum grid used on grills to help reinforce the plaster. don't think I need it.

[bryonbush]

On a similar note, is there a way to get a stronger static charge on the foil? I'm using the sears coating gun and it works fine but I was thinking a stronger charge on the foil/boolits might pull in some more pc and have less waste.

i was wondering the same thing. that craftsman PC gun is just junk. the handle is all cracked up and the powder holder either wont come off or cant close the lid without some serious force. some batches come out great while the others sometime suck. the only thing that i can think of is either the ground inst strong enough or the current into the powder isnt either.
Today i tried putting the 40's ontop of a 38 spc case with the bullet nose first and it came out ok. i think if the cases were secured better to a more solid base it would be better. but this goes back to the Static issue; with the cases and the bullets all resting ontop of a metal sheet with foil, it seemed to take forever and a lot of powder for them to be covered. it appears to me that the more bullets you have on a tray, the harder they are to coat; as in the charge to each bullet is way down when you compair 50 on a tray to 100.

[ryokox3]

I have done well with the Craftsman pc gun, but I do think next time I get a really good coupon for HF I'll pick up theirs.

Now Somewhere I know some people asked about stringing the boolits by the lube groove. I did that and took some pics. These are .223 boolits, the toaster oven made it impossible to focus on them, but I hope you all get the idea. They look very good when first coated. No final results yet though as they are curing as I speak.

[popper]

It's not the charge on the boolits but that they shadow each other if too close together. Got some hack saw blades last nite and played around with some CBs. Looks like it will work for regular groove pistol, not sure about rifle yet as the blades are pretty flimsy (china again). Basically 2 parallel blades bolted to wood spacer at each end. Rectangular to load CBs, then push to diamond shape to hold them, tighten wing nuts to secure. If it doesn't work well at least I have replacement blades, the one I have now is dull after 15 yrs.

[xyankeeworkshop]

I've been finding that the quality of the PC coverage is more about the pre-heat than the charge. When I heat them at 400 deg for 10 minutes or so and then snatch the boolits out of the oven and get the powder on them quickly i get better results. Popper's right about the tray spacing as well. If they're bunched up too tight, you'll get shadows in your coverage.

[popper]

OK it works. Need a stiffener on the blades.
Attachment 63914Attachment 63915
I moved it around quite a bit without dropping any. Set the CBs nose first on the plate and then tightened the jig up.

[dudits]

double up the blades?
small piece of aluminum angle?

[popper]

No, I'll just glue a 12 awg wire to them. Still have some tinkering to do. These are 180 gr 30-30 plain base I want to completely coat. I've started with 2400 but want to try 4895 or LeverE and see what the load limit is. These are sulfur toughened but after I shoot up the 5# I'll change to Cu toughened.

[xyankeeworkshop]

How would a groove-holding jig made of aircraft cable wound around bolts mounted into a carrier plate to look like a really weird guitar work? You could turn the bolts to tighten the cables as needed. Would the cable droop at baking temperature?

[popper]

Anyone run a long string of PC rifle over a crony? Wondering if my vertical stringing is me or the bore. Don't think you can get enough tension on a wire to hold.

[doubledown]

I use the Craftsman gun, I find the best powder is red. I don't know why but of all the colors I have tried it gives the best coverage by far. I also use tin foil on my tray, when I pull them off the tinfoil I lightly run the base of the boolit in my chamfer/debur tool. It get rid of the fillet and make the base of the boolit nice and smooth still keeping the corners sharp. I am getting very good accuracy with my PC boolits, I PC all my big bore boolits and will never go back to lube again. Whoever thought of this should get the Nobel peace Prize!

[coleman]

Here is a place for differrent powders.
http://www.prismaticpowders.com/

[bstone5]

Another place to purchase powder and powder coating guns and other equipment is
Powder Buy the Pound.

The gun I use for cast bullets and other items was purchased from this company. The gun is a little more expensive than Harbor Freight but the power supply voltage is adjustable and at higher values.

It looks like the gun part was made in China by the same people who make the Harbor Freight gun.

The gun works very well for what I powder coat.

http://www.powderbuythepound.com/

[rcav8r]

A thought on holding the bullets with wire. Maybe if you can hold the wires together with small springs between each bullet? Not sure if finding such small springs is possible, and to buy them in bulk. I'm talking about putting the bullets between 2 parallel wires, of course.
Of course, you'd have to remove the PC between coating sessions. That's where a PC remover solution would come in handy.

[dudits]

if you could get the wire idea tight enough it would work like a champ!
maybe wound piano wire with a bit of alox on them?

[Bad Water Bill]

All of the piano wire I have handled seemed to be way to hard to bend around boolits and hold that shape.

I never tried to anneal it tho.

AND it is more expensive than binding wire.

[rcav8r]

How about aircraft safety wire? usually .035 and .040 (and others) diameter, very bendable, should also fit in grooves just fine for wrapping in grooves.

The piano wire would be good for the spring solution. It's not really meant for tight bends, w/o annealing anyway.

[dudits]

wasnt thinking of wrapping.
picture a jig setup like this

I----------------I
I----------------I

I----------------I
I----------------I
the boolits would go between the wires hanging by the lube groove.
was thinking the piano wire would hold alox better due to the winding?
any wire that would be strong enough to stretch taught enough to hold the weight of a mass of boolits would do the job.

[bpratl]

I just ordered some retaining clips from McMasters which I plan to tig weld to a plate or hang on a wire. I am hoping to snap in the boolits by the lube groove and try to get complete PC coverage. I will test next week and report.