Powder Coating Boolits

[Ken73]

Just thought of something - silicone withstands 400 degrees for 20 minutes easily. In fact, the Sears PC gun comes with some silicone plugs for masking off holes.

Wonder if it would be too hard to make a silicone mold to hold boolits? A jig for certain ones for that matter. Wouldn't be conductive of course but you could spray them bottom's up, bake, then spray standing up on foil for a top coat afterwards. It'd make it a 2-step process but if you made a jig for standing them up it'd go a LOT faster. (That's usually the biggest pain.) They sell silicone mold making supplies at some craft stores.

[Bad Water Bill]

Here is where you can get the pro grade.

RIO GRANDE LAPIDARY

http://www.riogrande.com/Product/Zer...s/701227?***=6

I have dealt with them for OVER 30 years and never a problem.

[olaf455]

Bizzy lately, looking forward to more xperementin...

Sent from the cold Northwoods.

[ryokox3]

Can someone please help explain how to set up the powder coating with an Irfrared heater, in my case I have the recommended optimus H-5210. What I'm doing is I'm propping my sheet of metal covered with tin foil about 6 inches off the floor to get in the center of the heat. I put the heater on high, and close as possible to the boolits. I tried a few rows but the ones in back were not 'melting' the powder, and even the front ones were not doing well.

To make it work I had to make a tin foil cover... like a box or an oven. Should I need to do that? How close do you need to be to the object to melt the powder?

Thanks in advance,
Ry

[Bad Water Bill]

You MUST get the boolits up to temp or the powder will not flow nor will it bake the coating. Your back rows are just to far away from the heat source and any slight breeze will also deflect heat. A small oven as mentioned is your best friend as it keeps everything at a measured temp and prevents wind cooling.

[Ken73]

Can someone please help explain how to set up the powder coating with an Irfrared heater, in my case I have the recommended optimus H-5210. What I'm doing is I'm propping my sheet of metal covered with tin foil about 6 inches off the floor to get in the center of the heat. I put the heater on high, and close as possible to the boolits. I tried a few rows but the ones in back were not 'melting' the powder, and even the front ones were not doing well.

To make it work I had to make a tin foil cover... like a box or an oven. Should I need to do that? How close do you need to be to the object to melt the powder?

Not sure, typically the IR heaters are used for larger items that won't fit in an oven; the best way as Bill mentions is to use an actual oven that retains the heat. Your box is acting as a sort of oven, but probably isn't retaining the heat so well. The powder has to come up to ~400 degrees and stay there for at least 15-20 minutes. Easiest thing to do is buy your wife a new toaster oven and take her old one for this. (At least, that's what I did.) Otherwise you can get a new one at Walmart for ~$30 or so. You just don't want to use an oven that will be used for food later on as these powders can release fumes (and who knows if they're toxic or not.) Definitely do it with ventilation - that being said, I do mine in my office here at the house, with the door directly behind my desk open and a fan blowing the fumes out.

[PAT303]

The only problem I see is we have 240V power in Oz were's you guys use 110.Those powder coating guns are a great idea. Pat

[ryokox3]

Thanks for the replies guys. I went with the heater as it was reviewed well for this purpose and I have several items around the house that I want to powdercoat, which will not fit inside a toaster oven.

I use a harbor freight heat gun to get the boolits warm before coating them. My first coating attempt was ok, the second try went much better. All in a line at the front, and covered to make my foil oven. Maybe I'll get a toaster oven also to use just for boolits and small things.

[farmerjim]

Are you using a regular or a convection toaster oven?

[N1YDP]

what do you use for voltage for powder coating

[N1YDP]

just did some research.the sears powder gun comes with everything but powder and oven,right?

[Bad Water Bill]

just did some research.the sears powder gun comes with everything but powder and oven,right?

That was what was in the big box the brown truck delivered yesterday.

[ryokox3]

Here are some firing results. This is my first batch of pc boolits, so they were not as nice as the others you all posted. First pics show them this morning. The last 3 are after firing. One picture right as they came, the other 2 had a light rinsing to remove some surface dirt. Mushroomed boolit was around 10 yards into the berm. The other 2 are at about 50 yards into a berm.

[doubledown]

I have a question I can't find the answer to, for gas check bullets how do you size them? with lube then wipe off?, with no lube? or if you PC first then size will the GC still fit on the base? I'm a simple man.

[Jailer]

Pop a gas check on and run through push through sizing die. Works perfectly.

[doubledown]

Pop a gas check on and run through push through sizing die. Works perfectly.

Jailer, are you saying put a gas check on a non lubed, non powder coated boolit and run it through the sizer?

[popper]

ryokox3 - Thanks, very good. How do the grooves look? Nice & sharp? Any PC left on the CB bore? To me it looks like only the grooves have any left but I can't get the pic resolution up enough to tell.

[Jailer]

Jailer, are you saying put a gas check on a non lubed, non powder coated boolit and run it through the sizer?

Add the gas check and size after they are powder coated.

[doubledown]

Thanks Jailer, I'm going to give this PC a try and see how it works. I have some real long bearing surface bullets I cast and I'm interested to see how well it works.

[ryokox3]

ryokox3 - Thanks, very good. How do the grooves look? Nice & sharp? Any PC left on the CB bore? To me it looks like only the grooves have any left but I can't get the pic resolution up enough to tell.

Unfortunately I lost the coating on both the lands and grooves. A little remained but not much. I'm not sure if I cured them enough though. They look like they are cured, but this was the first batch I did pc on, so my technique may not have been there yet. I'm going to look for a used toaster oven at good will to see if I can get better results from a constant measured 400 degree temp as opposed to my ir heater..