Powder Coating Boolits

[gds]

I tested some powder coated boolits into wet phone books. Out of my 300 blk 9.5 inch barrel

215 gr modified Lee 235 gr to hollow point. 980 fps







Lee 160 gr and a old lyman I think, 120 gr with exposed tips The 160 gr was going 1625fps and the 120 gr was going 1790 fps

[popper]

I will suggest that when posting results, please indicate who's powder is being used. The HF white has worked great for me in 40SW & 308 My spray booth is now made of plastic election signs (also use em for targets) glued together, used the the garage. I can scrape the excess out, not much sticks to the sides. I do have an extra removable piece for the top which really helps. If I go over 10psi I get it on the floor.

[Russel Nash]

Good write up: ^^^

EDIT: good write up Dolomite_Supafly!!!

My buddy says what he pays for powder depends on how much he gets. He has lots of plastic jars around filled with powder. IIRC, he says a 50 pound box will come out to $7 a pound.

As far as tumbling them with lacquer thinner or acetone, my buddy had not heard of that. I then relayed to him about the Sandstrom 27A liquid, and how I suspected the big 3 moly/poly coated bullet makers probably used something like a heated cement/mortar mixer.

The Sandstrom 27A liquid had a lot of MEK in it. So it would be "hot" but I wonder if it would dissolve the powder coat better???

[bangerjim]

I have tried every solvent know to man in my struggles to get the HF powder to dissolve. MEK does not work either during my trials.....just a bunch of mush in the bottom of the container. Mabe high quality powders NOT from HF?????

bangerjim

[jmort]

Dolomite Supafly wrote over at .300 Blackout forum "Lacquer Thinner not Acetone." He is using Powder By the Pound. He stated that:

"The Harbor Freight powder seems to be a little more finicky than the Powder By The Pound powder. They also sell 2 ounce bags of it for like $3 to try out and 2 ounces goes quite a ways. I bought the 400 degree polyester TGIC powder. There may be better powders out there but I am happy with the results.

Knowing what I know now I would not buy HF powder. It can be made to work but it is less forgiving."
http://www.300blktalk.com/forum/view...84219&start=20

[Russel Nash]

Dolomite Supafly wrote:

...If anyone is interested I can also detail my method of tumble coating and baking bullets.

Okay, I'm all ears. You could post here in this thread or possibly in the piglet method thread. I don't which would be easier to find for later reading. Of course, if your technique is substantially different than piglet's, you could always start your own thread too. I am not a moderator... Just trying to be helpful... Beggars can't be choosers.

[Dolomite_supafly]

*****

[jmort]

^ Good - I like your procedures/recommendations. Thanks for the info. Sorry for the lack of specific attribution.

[Maximumbob54]

I wonder if there is any value in adding the HBN powder to powder coat as it is mixing?

[Dolomite_supafly]

*****

[Maximumbob54]

You plan on shooting faster than 3,200 fps? I had ZERO leading up to 3,200 fps in my testing. The results are on the previous page.

Personally 3,200 fps will cover everything I will likely ever shoot.

I was just thinking out loud. Also:

"If anyone is interested I can also detail my method of tumble coating and baking bullets."

Well, since I have both some HF powder and some PBTP powder on its way to me and I have a toaster I'm picking up Friday I would love to know what steps you used as I would like to do my best to copy them. I read the whole thread about switching to laquer thinner and that's right now what I plan on doing my best to copy.

[Skip62]

Dolomite_Supafly, Thank you! Lacquer Thinner is much easier to work with and you only need 1 coat. I think if you did 2 thinner coats it might look better, but I don't care.

I used silicone base high heat, and it sticks to the bucket, so I'll order some of the polyester, cuz a clean bucket is just cool....

[xacex]

Dolomite Supafly,

I would like to see your results with the coated .223's that you shot without gas checks. You stated you got them to 3200fps without the coating coming off, but did they hit a plate at a 100 yards?

[bangerjim]

Keep in mind Acetone is just that .....ACETONE......no matter the brand.

Laq thinner is made up of (guess what) ...........Acetone (!) and various other hydrocarbon solvents. I have 4 different brands of LT in my shop. Each is a different mix, smells different, and acts totally different.

2 examples of different brands:

#1 Acetone, ethyl acetate, methanol, distillates, and toluene.

#2 Methanol, acetone, toluene, MEK, butyl acetate.

As you can see, even though they sold as "LT", they are totally different formulations and act in different ways.


I have tried all of these four LT products as well as the individual components ( I have them all) to dissolve the HF powder and it will NOT dissolve, only suspend for a short time and leave a very lumpy uneven coat.

Electrostatic gun application, be it with the HF for Eastwood gun, is the only to go.


Bangerjim

[popper]

Dolomite Supafly Darn - now I gotta try 308 w/o GC. Got any targets to post? HF works with GC. Works in 30-30 w/o GC. None are light or plinker loads, no, I'll never get to 3K fps. I'm satisfied with the HF in 40SW but coated & sized some with H-T today for comparison ( 5gr 231 under a 165 TC FB). Ordered a 9mm 130 TC 4x with shallow lube grooves yesterday, as I'll only be coating from now on.

[cstrickland]

Dolomite Supafly,

I would like to see your results with the coated .223's that you shot without gas checks. You stated you got them to 3200fps without the coating coming off, but did they hit a plate at a 100 yards?

I am really interested in seeing what accuracy was as well. Hell I will settle fir 2700, as long as accuracy is good . 3300 would just be icing on the cake

[Skip62]

Hey Dolomite_supafly, are you only coating once? When I tried it, I got enough for one coat, and they didn't looked pretty good but I think 2 thin coats might look better. Any idea?

[clocker]

I was intrigued by the lacquer thinner method and tried last night. I used some Eastwood HotCoat lime green PC with a 3 parts LT to 1 part PC mix (note to self, Lee powder dippers are not lacquer thinner approved). I swirled the boolits for about a minute before they got a decent coating. The mix looked pretty wet, so I kept swirling. After ~2 minutes the coating became very uniform, but thinned out and started to stick to the container. After ~3 minutes the coating started to firm up, but was very thin.

I'll have to try again with less LT. There's got to be an ideal point somewhere in there where the PC sets up perfect.

[sd61]

Just did a couple of batches today (piglet method). First, I used some gray 2 part floor epoxy paint which coated nice, only one coat seems to be enough (adds about .002" to the diameter). Second I used HFPC black which also coated nice and seems to add about the same thickness. I then got the idea of dumping the bullets into some powder talc right after tumbling, just when they become sticky. I tumbled them into the powder talc for about 1 minute and they got a very nice powdery look and feel to them. After that I blew some air on them to remove any excess powder and then cooked them in the oven for 20 min. @ 450F. They did not stick to each other or to the hardware cloth after removing them from the oven...Both batches (floor paint and HFPC with talc powder) sized quite nicely w/o any lube and paint stayed on the bullet. It seems that using the talc powder has some benefits, it remains to be seen how they perform in the barrel. I have the feeling that I'll get lower velocities because they are so slippery...Any thoughs on this?
On the picture below, talc powder coated ones on the left.

[Keola5o4]

Hi all! I'm new to bullet casting and powder coating world, wondering if I need to do additional lubing before running the powder coated bullet through the sizing die?