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Thread: Powder Coating Boolits

  1. #1001
    Boolit Master

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    I'm tempted to try dumping the whole tray of boolits into a bucket right after they are done cooking. My concern is that the powder coating is supposed to cool slowly so I quick cooling may effect the coating. I do know that the coating is tough and chambering dummy rounds does not deform the boolit or the coating. Range day tomorrow (hopefully) and will be shooting 9mm, 40, 45, and .223 rounds. All have been coated with Harbor Freight flat black powder. More to follow
    Common sense Gun Safety . . .

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  2. #1002
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    Quote Originally Posted by fcvan View Post
    I'm tempted to try dumping the whole tray of boolits into a bucket right after they are done cooking. My concern is that the powder coating is supposed to cool slowly so I quick cooling may effect the coating. I do know that the coating is tough and chambering dummy rounds does not deform the boolit or the coating. Range day tomorrow (hopefully) and will be shooting 9mm, 40, 45, and .223 rounds. All have been coated with Harbor Freight flat black powder. More to follow
    I think something similar had been attempted but with poor results; the coating didn't adhere well and was extremely inconsistent as far as thickness was concerned.

    Quote Originally Posted by rhadamanthos12 View Post
    Has anyone attempted a slick sided bullet (like for paper patching) in any of these endeavors, if there is no reason for lube couldn't we do away with lube grooves? Not sure if there would be any benefits but it was just a thought.
    I've been wondering the same myself; in fact I think that's in my initial post - are the lube grooves even necessary, and if so - which ones are better? Tumble lube or the standard lube grooves? Seeing how these things hold up very nicely - I'd say they aren't necessary myself, but, that's just my opinion. It's debatable whether this is a polymer jacket or a lube replacement for that matter.

  3. #1003
    Boolit Buddy Skip62's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by rhadamanthos12 View Post
    Has anyone attempted a slick sided bullet (like for paper patching) in any of these endeavors, if there is no reason for lube couldn't we do away with lube grooves? Not sure if there would be any benefits but it was just a thought.
    Yup, my buddy is. 9mm, he wanted more bearing surface on a 95 gr bullet, so he wollered out the mold. Says it works great.

  4. #1004
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    Lazy Susan for Powder Coating

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ID:	71647I haven't posted much since the earlier section of this thread. I am still powder coating and am sold on the results. I have kept up on the posts with great interest . The post from fcvan hanging a pan from wires to rotate while coating prompted me to submit pictures of my approach. I am still using the oven pan with a light aluminum plate drilled and tapped for socket head cap screws. I made a "spray booth" to keep the overspray contained but needed a way to turn the tray to PC the boolits from all four sides. I bought a cheap lazy susan for Rockler on which I mounted a scrap of plywood, covered with a scrap of non skid mat. I ran a ground wire to the bottom of the lazy susan where is bolts to the spray booth surface and ran a second wire bolted to the top of the lazy susan to form a loop on top. Next I installed a ground wire on the bottom of the pan that would make contact with the ground loop on the susan when the pan was placed on it. Very positve ground system with an easy way to revolve the tray for coating.
    I recover all the overspray (except for what is left on the pan) by running a plastic putty knife over the smooth surface of the booth into a recycle container.

  5. #1005
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    Well I tried my first batch today. It's worked well. The only issues I had was too much powder causing a build up at the base where the bullet met the pan and or washer that was on it.
    I had a little trouble regulating the air pressure and getting a good flow. My buddy who does a lot of powder coating is going to give me a hand next time. Wether he knows it or not.

    Other than that I had great result. Did a bunch if 401638 and 311365.
    I shaved a touch of paint off while sizing some of the 311365. Mainly just specks here and there. Only one had the driving bands cleaned off after sizing. Operator error I'm sure.

    I hit them with dillon case lube before sizing. Seemed to help sizing a ton.

    I'm going to load some 40 tonight and maybe knock off a few rounds tomorrow.

  6. #1006
    Boolit Master

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    Went to the range today to finally shoot powder coated boolits. The Lyman 225-415 PC'd with flat black, gas checked and sized to .225 over 14 grains of 4227. All rounds fired and cycled my Mini 14 and my brother's AR platform rifle. The rounds grouped well enough but were printing low.

    My brother forgot to bring targets for the target stand and his rifle rest so adequate testing was not accomplished. Most of my carbine shooting with these loads is intended for 25 to 50 yards at poppers and soda cans. Without resetting the sights I decided to try hitting a 4" rock at 200 yards. Once I figured out the Kentucky windage I was able to hit the rock off hand every once in a while. I was keeping within about 6" of the rock but what the heck, it was off hand with iron sights. Fun.

    Next up I fired some Lee 401-175 TC PC'd over 5 grains of Unique from my Glock 23. I pulled the barrel after 13 rounds and noticed general powder fouling. I ran a dry patch down and back through the bore and it was shiny like new. I'm very pleased with that. Just for grins and giggles I decided to try the rock at 200 yards. It took 4 rounds to get the windage and hit the rock. I had to put the base of the front sight at the top of the rear notch to get in the neighborhood. Once I knew where to hold I was able to keep them in 8" from the rock. I really need to get back into distance shooting with my handguns.

    I was going to shoot some PC'd 9mm but figured the results would be the same so I saved that for another day. I'll shoot those along with some PC'd 45 200 RNHP boolits. After that my brother wanted to pop off some rounds with his new 1858 Remington Copy 44 percussion revolver. I hadn't shot mine in 15 years. After shooting the old cap an ball both my brother and I were sorta powder coated. Good times
    Common sense Gun Safety . . .

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  7. #1007
    Boolit Grand Master popper's Avatar
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    I shaved a touch of paint off while sizing some of the 311365
    I've not had problems while sizing in push through, but do get a shaved one when seating - bad results. As for lube grooves, I see NO reason to remove them. May not make a diff for pistol but those long rifle CBs need someplace for the grooved lead to go. You really want to push all of it back to make a 'tail' on the base? I drove a pin nail well into the nose of a 175 40SW (~ 1/2"). Made a small round divit in the base so it shear'd the center vs expanding it. Normally it just makes a small crater ring around the hole so no accuracy problem (1/8-1/16" depth). Don't bother with the HF pins as they are cheap china junk and bend like pretzels. I used hitachi with good results, I only had a few pins to straighten. Haven't tried the porter-cable ones.
    Last edited by popper; 05-27-2013 at 01:58 PM.
    Whatever!

  8. #1008
    Boolit Man rhadamanthos12's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by fcvan View Post
    I'm tempted to try dumping the whole tray of boolits into a bucket right after they are done cooking. My concern is that the powder coating is supposed to cool slowly so I quick cooling may effect the coating. I do know that the coating is tough and chambering dummy rounds does not deform the boolit or the coating. Range day tomorrow (hopefully) and will be shooting 9mm, 40, 45, and .223 rounds. All have been coated with Harbor Freight flat black powder. More to follow
    Wouldn't you be able to let it cure, then do a heat treating process afterwards? I'm talking about once it cures (and cools down) sticking it back in the over to heat them up and then water dropping them.

  9. #1009
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    Quote Originally Posted by rhadamanthos12 View Post
    Wouldn't you be able to let it cure, then do a heat treating process afterwards? I'm talking about once it cures (and cools down) sticking it back in the over to heat them up and then water dropping them.
    You could probably get by with dropping them straight out of the cure. This PC is pretty darn tough. I really don't think that you'll need them harder.YMMV!

    EW

  10. #1010
    Boolit Grand Master popper's Avatar
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    I tried WD some a while back when I just dipped hot CBs into the powder then cooked. I didn't have a problem with the PC sticking (never shot any as they were gross looking) but wondered about the time for cooking vs the time for HT. I usually bake 45 min for HT, PC cooking takes ~ 20 min. Do we overcook the PC? My HT is before GCing, but PC after, heard about problems HT with GC. Going to PC some 308 GC this morning, I'll WD a few, mark and test next month. Question, questions. No answers yet. Edit: the 30-30 PB I shot were originally HT 50/50 #2/Pb with As & Sulfur added, then PC'd. Accuracy was worse than my normal HT/GC load.
    PC'd 60 308 GC'd WD all of them. Used needle nose to pull them out of the cardboard and dropped into tap water. Don't see any problems with coating, alloy is 50/50 #2/Pb with As & S. I'll wait a couple days to size to see if they are harder.
    Sized the WD 308, they are harder & coating is fine even on the GC. Loaded the PB 30-30 with 4 gr more - I'll see how hard I can push before they really go squirrely.
    Last edited by popper; 05-29-2013 at 02:56 PM. Reason: more data
    Whatever!

  11. #1011
    Boolit Man rhadamanthos12's Avatar
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    this weekend I will be attempting to powder coat a few bullets, has anyone made a jig for 225 dia bullets. I would be interested to see what you guys have created for it.

  12. #1012
    Boolit Master Russel Nash's Avatar
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    I've been absent from this thread for a while. I haven't forgotten about it, it just got pushed to the back burner for now. No, I have not made a jig for .225 boolits. I've only ever casted for pistol boolits, 9mm, .40 and .45 ACP .

  13. #1013
    Boolit Man
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    my jig for 224 boolits is a sheet of 1/8" aluminum sized to fit my small toaster oven(12"x10") with 80 holes drilled in it for used 22lr shell casings with a slightly smaller sheet of alu. on the bottom to hold the 22lr casings in place and I insert my 225 cast boolits nose down and then everything but the tip of the boolit gets powder coated very nice. have shot them and no leading.

  14. #1014
    Boolit Grand Master popper's Avatar
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    HF has their pin gun on sale this week for ~$25. Did 75 30-30 this afternoon in <5 min. including set up and charging compressor. It'll take < 5min to load 100 on the board, 30 sec to coat and 20 min to cook. Faster than 3x tumbling, drying & cooking. Good 0.0015 complete coating.
    Whatever!

  15. #1015
    Boolit Buddy olaf455's Avatar
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    Definitely shorter total time, and much better looking finished product.
    The upside of the tumble and bake method is that it requires a great deal less handling of each boolit. I tumble a hundred or so, pour out onto a mesh rack to dry, give the mesh rack a quick shake to loosen the dried boolits, and into the oven they go. I have plenty to keep me busy between steps. Boolits are definitely not as pretty though...lol...
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  16. #1016
    Boolit Buddy ryokox3's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by rhadamanthos12 View Post
    this weekend I will be attempting to powder coat a few bullets, has anyone made a jig for 225 dia bullets. I would be interested to see what you guys have created for it.
    Hello all, Been away for a bit, but now back with some mixed results. As for the 225, I did some .224 for an ar and it was accurate and non leading, but the mold necessitated it be a single shot. (nothing about pc, just bad boolit for my gun causing chamber issues pc or normally gas checked ramming the boolit into the chamber and getting stuck.) Making those, I put the nose into a 22lr casing that was jb welded to a metal sheet. Worked great to make soft nose boolits. Sizing took off the little 'bump' where the boolit met the 22lr case.

    Now today I got to try some of my boolits I made when it was way too cold to shoot

    For 9mm, I had excellent results. I had great accuracy from slow fire and also rapid fire. It even surpassed some carry ammo I was function testing in my gun. Not a touch of leading.

    Next I did some 30-06 shots at 50 yards. This is a new rifle, not long from the break-in procedure. Jacketed bullets did well in her, but was having issues with PC boolits. I was shooting my Remington at 100 yards with jacketed, but had to move in to 50 because I was not on paper with the pc. Finally today I took a stand about 3' across, and put about 6' of butcher paper on it. The boolit is a lee precision ctl312-160-2r. Powder was Accurate 2520@ 44.3 grains.

    Lubed and gas checked were within 2" at 50 yards. Same boolit but PC'd was all over the place. There was a 3 foot + variance on the impact height on the butcher paper. Needless to say I do not think these will be pc'd anymore. I did in the past try another powder but did had similar accuracy issues but I did not have such a large target to be able to track it. Just berm impacts showed it was way to variable. It is a shame as I like that boolit... but now just going to have to be lubed and gas checked.

    I borrowed my bud's chrony and was getting around 2550 give or take for all the loads. ( I need to find my notes tomorrow to verify that but I'm pretty sure that is it)

    anyway those are my results. I wonder if pushing that boolit slower will help. It is too late now though for me to think. Good night all.

  17. #1017
    Boolit Man rhadamanthos12's Avatar
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    My first attempt has been rather unique, on a few bullets the powder didn't want to stick to one side. I will have to reprocess those, but the other problem I encounters is that the bullets don't want to break away freely from the jig or for those that won't tip from the base of whatever I set them on. I was reading some of you are using non stick aluminum foil, i was curious if you had that problem?

    here is one of the better ones
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    and a batch of 70gr 225 bullets
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  18. #1018
    Boolit Grand Master popper's Avatar
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    The boolit is a lee precision ctl312-160-2r. Powder was Accurate 2520@ 44.3 grains. Lubed and gas checked were within 2" at 50 yards. Same boolit but PC'd was all over the place.
    I assume no GC on the PC's 1's (@ 2550?). My PB 30-30 are only 70% of my GC load ( so far - I have some loaded to 82%). Slow them down &/or change alloy.
    non stick aluminum foil
    Best results for me was to remove them with a twist before the PC got very cold. I'd have to tumble (process) 500 at a time to make it worth the effort in pistol, at my age I can't handle 10-15# at a time.
    Definitely shorter total time, and much better looking finished product
    . I'm after a more consistent product. I could be way off but now my thinking is that a .002 off center due to coating and sizing won't work as well. Weight imbalance due to the pin should have no effect in 30-30 & 308 AR carbine @ 100; ~ 1/20 gr. off center in the nose?
    Whatever!

  19. #1019
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    Quote Originally Posted by rhadamanthos12 View Post
    My first attempt has been rather unique, on a few bullets the powder didn't want to stick to
    one side. I will have to reprocess those, but the other problem I encounters is that the bullets don't want to break away freely from the jig or for those that won't tip from the base of whatever I set them on. I was reading some of you are using non stick aluminum foil, i was curious if you had that problem?




    here is one of the better ones
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    and a batch of 70gr 225 bullets
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    can I ask what mold those 70 grain 225 bullets dropped from . was it an NOE ??

  20. #1020
    Boolit Bub
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    Less hassle with baking sheet

    I use a pan that I pre-drilled holes and inserted dis-assembled pop-rivets as a riser. The rivets must be smaller than the base of the bullet. After cooking, they just snap off. The secret is to NOT rivet it to the sheet, just pre-drill the hole just larger than the body of the rivet, insert the dis-assembled rivet body in the hole. It might be loose on the 1st coat, but after that the rivet is held by the PC. I line the sheet with foil, before I insert the rivet, so I can take them out and replace the foil when the build-up gets too high (6-7 runs).

    Attachment 71221
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    I did a batch of 9mm last night, worked like a champ.

    Attachment 72449
    Last edited by AverageJoe; 06-03-2013 at 11:08 AM. Reason: Pictures added

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Abbreviations used in Reloading

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