Powder Coat Piglet style VS Klass Kote

[Balta]

@pricket

You MUST wait 30 to 40 min to components react/Induct...even better if you wait min 40 min...ad thinner AFTER induction time..Just follow the instructions!

[prickett]

Thanks for the info Balta. I'm trying a 3rd batch now.

Do you guys wait before cooking? i.e. Do you allow the paint to dry/cure first, or use the cooking to promote that?

[Lights]

Thanks for the info Balta. I'm trying a 3rd batch now.

Do you guys wait before cooking? i.e. Do you allow the paint to dry/cure first, or use the cooking to promote that?

Wait for them to dry before cooking. Heck you do not even need to cook them if you wait a week to load them. Give them a coat wait like 6hrs, give them a second coat and let them cure for a week.

[Balta]

Thanks for the info Balta. I'm trying a 3rd batch now.

Do you guys wait before cooking? i.e. Do you allow the paint to dry/cure first, or use the cooking to promote that?

I wait 20 to 40 minutes to dry ,and them puthem in the oven...Lethem dry just enough so i can take them with fingers and there ar not sticky..

[Maximumbob54]

My KK didn't work left out for a week air drying but as soon as I baked them they started to work. Now I allow them to air dry to touch and then bake them. I usually wait no more than an hour. After baking I let them set a few days and load them up. They have worked all the way up to .357 magnum so far.

[prickett]

My KK didn't work left out for a week air drying but as soon as I baked them they started to work. Now I allow them to air dry to touch and then bake them. I usually wait no more than an hour. After baking I let them set a few days and load them up. They have worked all the way up to .357 magnum so far.

What time and temp do you bake KK at?

[Maximumbob54]

What time and temp do you bake KK at?

200 for about 10-12 minutes. Any hotter or any longer and I see the epoxy start to scorch.

[prickett]

I have to say that KK is my least favorite of the three methods (KK, Piglet, HI-TEK). The paint is thick and messy when pouring from its container. I tend to lose almost as much as I use when pouring (due to the design of their container).

Tonight, I tried sizing a .45 coated w/KK and had to hammer it out of the sizer. That stuff is HARD. I ended up tumbling them in JPW, at which point they slid through the size w/o problem. But, part of this experiment was to get away from having sticky, waxy bullets.

I have yet to shoot any KK boolits, so I can't comment on that.

[Maximumbob54]

I have to say that KK is my least favorite of the three methods (KK, Piglet, HI-TEK). The paint is thick and messy when pouring from its container. I tend to lose almost as much as I use when pouring (due to the design of their container).

Tonight, I tried sizing a .45 coated w/KK and had to hammer it out of the sizer. That stuff is HARD. I ended up tumbling them in JPW, at which point they slid through the size w/o problem. But, part of this experiment was to get away from having sticky, waxy bullets.

I have yet to shoot any KK boolits, so I can't comment on that.

I use some cheap plastic spoons from the dollar store. They just fit inside and a spoon of each is usually enough for what the paint mixing bucket will hold.

But to be honest, now that I've bought the HF matte black and found it coats far more even than the gloss red I have used almost nothing but HF matte black in my latest batches. I was doing two thin black coats with one final thin gloss red but I'm just going to use the black for now.

I may go back to the KK though as I enjoy the nifty color selection.

[nighthunter]

I left the metal cap in place and punched 2 small holes, 1 in opposite sides, so I could pour a small stream of both A and B. Works pretty well with just a small amount of dribble accumulation. Just put the screw on top back on when done measuring.

Nighthunter

[prickett]

I did that with the part B, but unfortunately, when trying to do it with part A, the entire metal piece broke free and sank into the paint.

[Balta]

cheap plastic spoons works also for me..

[prickett]

Cheap plastic spoons might just be the answer! I shot my KK coated boolets today and like everything but the mess when coating them. Disposable spoons might just fix that.

[Skip62]

I have to say that KK is my least favorite of the three methods (KK, Piglet, HI-TEK). The paint is thick and messy when pouring from its container. I tend to lose almost as much as I use when pouring (due to the design of their container).

Tonight, I tried sizing a .45 coated w/KK and had to hammer it out of the sizer. That stuff is HARD. I ended up tumbling them in JPW, at which point they slid through the size w/o problem. But, part of this experiment was to get away from having sticky, waxy bullets.

I have yet to shoot any KK boolits, so I can't comment on that.

I just give them a quick shot of Hornady OneShot and tumble them around. They slide right through the sizer, and it takes very little spray.

[Maximumbob54]

I'm really starting to settle for the HF matte black as my favorite coating. It's cheap, it's easy, it gives a good even coating as long as you don't add too much, and they don't tend to stick so bad once again as long as you don't add too much. And the cost of the HF powder and lacquer thinner is about as cheap as this coating business is going to get. The only slightly dificult part is judging just how much is enough.

This batch got just a bit too much for the first coat:



And this batch was just a bit too thin:



But too thin is still better than too much. In fact I would rather have to add a third thin coat than put up with uneven coated from too thick a coat. But still, it's like each time I do a small batch I feel like for the most part it gets easier to judge and there are fewer mess ups than before. The matte black doesn't leave a clean bucket from tumbling but it doesn't seem to add a messy layer the way the Klass Kote does. I have been tumbling in the same bucket with the matte black for a while now and there's no reason yet to use a new bucket. I may still use the KK just because I paid for it and it does work but man is that stuff a lot more of a mess than the matte black HF powder.

[prickett]

With regards to too little or too much, simply come up with a recipe for a fixed number of boolits (e.g. IIRC I use 1/2 tsp of HFPC + 3 tsp of thinner per 100 124 gn boolits - or 75 230 gn boolits). This amount is sufficient for two coats. Sometimes the first coat will be too thin. Sometimes it'll be too thick. But, the second coat (the remainder of the paint) will make up for the first coat (i.e. first coat is thin, second will be thicker, or vice versa).

[Maximumbob54]

The very last batch I did was about a hundredish as that seems to be the max I can easy get into the rack and not have them setting on each other. I used about a half a teaspoon and that was just right. But I only use just enough thinner to melt the powder and try not to use any more than that. Excess thinner seems to do nothing but flash off and make the melted powder goopy enough to clump. And if I just keep shaking them to try and spread it out all I end up with are boolits that are beat to death with edges being rounded off.

[Skip62]

When I was doing PC and LT, I didn't bother measuring the LT, just the PC, cuz the LT evaporates off, and it's not actually part of the coating. I believe I used 1/2 teaspoon of powder for 1050grams of bullets, didn't matter whether I did 9mm or .40. BTW, that's the same amount I use for KK. It will at least give you a good starting point.

[wrinkles]

Didn't read through all 9 pages so forgive me if this has been posted. I was doing some powder coat bullets using the piglet method and accidently ran into this. Here's the setup. 1 part HF powder coat to 4 parts mineral spirits. Tumble bullet to coat then stick in oven at 400 for 15 min. I then covered the bottom of the tumble can with the PC mixture and dropped the hot bullets straight from the oven into the can and tumbled. The mineral spirits smoked and instantly evaporated. The bullets got covered with the PC in a nice heavy coat that dried instantly into a paint like coat. I then baked again. Bullets are almost 100 percent covered in a thick coat. I'll post pics when I get home. Only issue is that the coat sticks to the mesh in the oven and comes off the bullets when removing them. I'll have to look into a way of getting them to not stick to the mesh.

[Maximumbob54]

You can't coat them thick and not have them stick to the mesh. You could try the non stick foil or parchment paper. I feel like the key to is is to do a thin coat. Yes this means you have to coat them twice but it's easy enough and they turn out much more even.