Powder Coating 101 - Electrostatic Method

[C. Latch]

1/4 x 1 fender washers

Grabbed a pack on the way home. Should have some results to post by bedtime tonight.

[bangerjim]

I'm familiar with the limitations of toaster thermometers but honestly I can buy a lot of stuff for what a convection oven and thermometer would cost. I ruined 8 bullets the other night - that's about $0.40 for a mistake that I now know how to not make again. I'll stick with the toaster; now that I know how to run it hot enough to cure paint without getting hot enough to melt bullets, it just doesn't make sense to spend the money on a convection oven.

I'm running another batch tonight and I'll let you know how they turn out.

It's your call. I, being an engineer by trade, tend to lean toward accuracy and repeatability, irregardless of the cost. $100 or so for a tool that allows me to do things easily and accurately without any fudges or tweaks is worth every single penny in my book.

I fiddles and messed with a standard $3 Goodwill *** for many bakes before I realized my time was more valuable. So off to the store to get a new conv oven. I gave that high end one to my wife in exchange for our older one (it still cost about $100 when we bought it) and have never looked back.

Let us know how you do!

banger

[rattletrap1970]

It's regardless... Just sayin.. Lol

[grumman581]

It's regardless... Just sayin.. Lol

It's "LOL", not "Lol" -- acronyms are capitalized. Well, unless it's something like DoD and then the "of" part is often left lowercase.

[Oreo]

Unless you're on a smartphone with auto-capitalization. In which case ". Lol" gets a pass.

[grumman581]

Unless you're on a smartphone with auto-capitalization. In which case ". Lol" gets a pass.

Awh, don't get me started about smartphones and their auto-corrections.

Sometimes I think I spend more time correcting its automatic replacements than I would just typing it letter by letter. And of course the speech to text conversion is lets just say somewhat "creative" at times.

[Hang Fire]

Ya know, I am going to advise you guys to patent these methods, before some major manufacturer snatches them. Think about it. They could save millions in production cost if they can eliminate jackets in manufacturing.

Such patents would have nine ways to Sunday for competition with money to make end runs around it.

As one who has been involved in the patent process with the $, time and effort involved for issuance, that would be a non starter for me.

[Beagle333]

'Coated a few today. Here is the coating facility, ready for production.


I did 320 today while I was smoking some chicken on the Big Green Egg (the base can seen behind the toaster in the first pic)
One of these days I really gotta go fetch my 3-level convection toaster that I bought on Craigslist.
The darker ones had some blue still in the cup when I added red. I had some penta, some cup and some deep HPs.

[sparky45]

Beagle; have you got a video of you making these beautiful bullets? I've been PC'ing my cast Lead for a short time now, but my coverage isn't quite as good as your's especially around the base. I don't have the HF gun, instead I bought the Craftsman gun.
Sparky

[bangerjim]

I have read about people having inferior results with the Sears gun. I have never had the opportnity to use one so I really do not know the problems. But several on here have voiced problems in construciton & usage. Hopefully playing around with it will give you acceptable results.

As you can see, Beagle is getting excellent coatings as do I and all the others on here do using the ESPC HF gun. Mine look the same way.....perfect coatings every time.

Good luck and have fun!!!!!!!

bangerjim

[Beagle333]

I don't have a video. I just have an old Sony DCS-T50 flipcam with a "micro" setting that I use to take most of my pictures. But the key to getting a good coating on the bottom driving band is to have enough room between the boolits (I use a 3/4" spacing) and spray from all sides. If you only did 9mm, they could be close and if you only did .45, 'maybe might need a little more, but for me the 3/4 is a great all-around grid. I spray from all 4 sides of my tray with a sweeping motion and aim for the bases. I don't walk around the table with the cord and hose, and I have to stand on the switch, so I just reach over and to each side and spray from all directions, but at an angle. The HF gun will spray upside down for 8-10 seconds at a time while I reach over, especially with a slight flip or tap to keep the powder agitated while spraying.

I know that a lot of folks don't want to mess with the nuts under the foil, but I find that I get a great coat all the way to the bottom and even some wrap-around effect from having the boolit elevated just a little bit. This lets me know that the contact surfaces are all coated in nice slippery polyester.

[el34]

I know that a lot of folks don't want to mess with the nuts under the foil, but I find that I get a great coat all the way to the bottom and even some wrap-around effect from having the boolit elevated just a little bit. This lets me know that the contact surfaces are all coated in nice slippery polyester.

IMO that's one of the two big reasons to use the nuts. The other is ease of removal after baking.

[birdadly]

Hi PC-ers. I was using a cheap toaster oven while Dry Tumbling (and never had an issue), but I finally purchased things for the ES method and so bought a nicer and bigger "countertop convection oven" and a thermometer. So I crank it up to 375 and toss in the thermometer (oven one from walmart). I go set up some bullets, come back and she's at 550!

Sooo, I'll simply test this tonight by trying it indoors, but does anyone know if outside temperature effects these things? I was in the garage, it was probably 12 degrees out, so maybe it thought it had to keep the burners on??

Here's the one I got, it says convection, but is obviously on the cheap side of the convection line...

http://www.walmart.com/ip/22866805?w...083796&veh=sem

-Brad

[w0fms]

One of these days I'll accidentally find a cheap used convection oven at Goodwill.. but until then do no more than 75 as a time and watch the boolits as the cure. You can see them when the curing is complete from watching the sheen.. go a minute or two past then and you are fine. I melted two batches with the cheap toaster oven too.. but both I didn't pay attention. If you use the $13 oven, you need to do small batches, a single tray at a time and pay attention. I never have had "under cured" ones that way... And the HF powder will cure at 375*F even though 450*F is recommended.. and that's with a thermocouple monitoring the cure....

[kbstenberg]

Birdadly I was baking in my unheated well shed in -5 to-15 and I didn't have a problem. I did try to second guess my oven but I learned to trust its temperature reading. But it is a new oven as well as an upper end one. Kevin

[bangerjim]

Ambient temp will/should have no effect on the inside temp of your oven. It is the cheap thermostats they use in those ovens. You will have to do a test run at different temps and write the REAL temps on your oven front. Those things are about as cheap as you can get.....a bi-metal strip that expands and closed a set of contacts!

But they should be relatively repeatable, so do a cal test.

bangerjim

[MacFan]

Let your toaster oven stabilize for 20 or 30 minutes.
At first warm up mine will hit 500 degrees and then slowly cool and stabilize where it's set. If I'm rushing, I'll open the door a little to cool it back down to temp faster.

[AverageJoe]

I am seeing more and more colors showing up, so I thought that I would show my troops lined up.

[Beagle333]

Nice lookin' ES boolits there, AverageJoe!

[TreeKiller]

AverageJoe;
What is the color of the copper ones on the right and where did you get it? Got some that I thought would be copper from allpowder but it is a nice carmel when applied.
thanks Dan