Do NOT PC GC's. I have tried it and they come off and get really messed up. It it a tight enough squeeze to get the GC's thru the sizer to lock them on anyway. Adding the PC thickness will create way too much thickness for success.
And I think my matte black boolits with shiny copper GC's look really cooooool! So do others.
banger
Hi Powder Coaters! After reading this and other threads here at Cast Boolits, I decided to give PCing a try. I want to thank all of you for all the posting. Sharing your ideas, successes and an occasional failure is like taking a class or buying a book but here it's all free. I jumped in today with a HF unit. I bought yellow, red and flat black powder. I tried a few yellow first and it was a spectacular failure. Just didn't get very good coverage. Then did a some red and am blown away by how good they look. everyone has a good solid coating. Now to my problem Next was flat black. Has anyone had any problems with the black powder coming out of the jar in clumps. My new jar of flat black was foil sealed but when I broke it open and poured the powder into the spay cup I noticed it seemed to be coming out of the jar in clumps. I closed the spray jar up tight and shook the heck out of it and in looking into the jar, it looked like the clumps had broken up but then when I tried to spray, rather than the nice cloud of powder I got with the yellow and red, the powder puffed out and then the gun seemed to be stopped up. I could hold the gun upside down and shake it and then with the pedal depressed, get one burst of powder and then it seemed plugged up again. Repeated this two or three times and finally had what I thought was good coverage but after curing in my yard sale special $5 toaster over, I discovered that several of the bullets looked great on one side but light, thin coverage on maybe of third of the surface of the bullet. Air pressure, ground connection to the tray, stepping on the pedal, all seemed to be right. Have any of you experienced an issue like this with black or other colors of the HF powder. Any suggestions to resolve the clumping. Shake or stir? And finally, if I missed this answer, please forgive me but can I take the black ones with the light coverage and give them a second coat of powder or should I just melt them down and start over?
Thanks again for all the great info you guys have posted. Great help for a newbie.
Drysound, I have used a few different colors with no problems. I have the flat black from HF but have not had an issue. I do sometimes tap the plastic bottle while applying for a stronger flow of powder. I have my setup on a small table in the middle of my garage and am able to walk around it while applying to get full coverage. I have never applied a second coat but suspect that it won't matter as long as you are resizing after coating.
"If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn't sit for a month."
Theodore Roosevelt
Roll the storage bottle SEVERAL times before you open it and pour an inch or two (NO MORE) into your gun jar. That "liquifies" the powder. During your spray session, lightly bump the jar with your palm to keep the powder stirred up. What you have in there is a "fluidized bed" and you must keep it in liquid form. You just have to play with air pressure and the gun flow valve to get the feel that is right for you. Use the smallest nozzle in the box.
I have gone thru 3 jars of the HF matte black and am on my 4th with ZERO problems! Yellow sucks....it will not coat well....even after 3 coats! I do only ONE coat using red or black. Red is nice but in 45LC, it looks like tubes of lipstick! White is too pristine for me. And changing colors is a pain, especially from black to white. I may buy another gun system for alternate color. I have mixed red, black, and white to come up with an earth brown-ish look. I have not mixed the yellow with anything because of the poor coating it exhibits.
I cannot see paying $15-25/pound for powder thru the net when the ONLY functions of it are to eliminate greasy lubes and barrel leading. Not a technicolor beauty pageant!
Good luck ..............and welcome to the addiction!
banger
Drysound, I would worry the jar of HF black you have may be old or had been sitting in a hot truck or warehouse. I've never seen clumps in HF powders.
When I use it I just shake the original jar a few times, pour a couple ounces in the gun jar and shoot. It does settle, so shaking the gun jar sideways or bouncing on my hand keeps it moving as bangerjim points out.
I shoot at 20 psi. I point the gun away from my bullets for the initial quick puff, then shoot.
I do not think the ambient temp even here in AZ in the summer in a warehouse would cause the stuff to clump. Humidity.........That's a different story! Your listing does no state where you are so I am only guessing. Really helps to at least put a state in your description. "State of Confusion" does not count! HA.....ha. We are all there!
banger
Your posts inspired me to try ES PC. But I like adding more than 13 pieces of flair, going to 11, so I couldn't resist the beauty pageant part. The price is stupid but 1lb covers a lot of boolits.Originally Posted by bangerjim
When I got my HF gun I put on the smallest diffuser cone but later just removed it altogether. I point the gun straight down just high enough to prevent arcing, and move across each row of boolits slowly, boolit at a time watching for it to get coated. More like mowing the grass than spray-painting.
"The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule." --H. L. Menchen
"Excellent......my plan is coming together nicely!" (MR.Burns...TheSimpsons)
I left the small one on to get enough diffusion to cover on & around the boolits I coat. But sounds like the diffuser is not even needed.
Thanks for the update.
I am glad I cause inspiration.....rather than perspiration!
banger
Drysound, I have never had your problem, but have read other guys running the powder through a sifter to break up any clumps.
War is peace.
Freedom is slavery.
Ignorance is strength.”
― George Orwell, 1984
Dang it. You guys have me about to stop at hf. I found myself eyeballing a toaster oven at the thrift store. Trouble is I would be coating everything in sight
I dunno Banger. The epoxy based PC's are chemical reactions waiting to happen. I once worked at a harbor Freight for a few months while I waited on a decent tool maker job to come through. Even here in IL. it gets really hot in those HF semi trailers sitting in the sun. I wouldn't discount prolonged hot storage conditions messing up the powder. Anyhow, I'm off today, gotta go do some powder coating. The toaster oven is calling...
You'll have fun. I've looked all over the house for something other than boolits to PC. It has to fit the toaster oven, and has to have a spot to attach a ground wire and a spot it can sit on (maybe just hang). I had a couple ideas but they were too dumb to try.
BTW, when shopping for a toaster oven, it's reportedly wise to get a convection type. All that means is that it has a little fan inside to circulate the air and it prevents hot spots. However, I haven't tried a non-convection unit.
"The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule." --H. L. Menchen
I made all of my own quick-change lathe carbide tool holders + the post in the shop and got tired of spraying them with matte Krylon paint, just to have it come off with normal usage. Now I am PC'ing all 25 of them as well as some of the other lathe tools that get used a lot.
Ant that is only the tip of the iceberg!
Also will be coating my wife's garden hand tools. Gloss red for those.
banger
I've been thinking about pimping the brake calipers on my truck. Lol
"If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn't sit for a month."
Theodore Roosevelt
Thanks for the advice to deal with the powder clumping. I will try shake, stir and sifter when I break out the powder coating this weekend. Bangerjim I am in central Florida. Been a hot, humid summer, who know how long the powder sat in a hot HF warehouse. Also gun came with the large diffuser cone on it. I am switching to the small cone and may try el34's no cone method. I'll post an update this weekend.
Any advice to someone looking to do this for .223 working up a cycling load for an AR15?
Cost effective vs buying FMJ assuming i'd enjoy doing it and not taking time into consideration?
Possible to get below 2moa with a very accurized ar15(match barrel,2 stage trigger,free float etc)?
Do you still need gas checks?
I cast for 9mm and .45 and have been considering .223.
I tried but could not get any better than 6 MOA at 100. My problem may be the powder choice. I would like to try with H4895 but ran out about 8 months ago and have not been able to get any more. My results were with H335. I have some other powders to try, but haven't played with loading anything new since deer season started. Got my buck, but I am working on another load before elk season starts.
Next year I should have a PC boolit ready for prime time. This year it was jacketed due to what I had loaded and had not shot during testing.
I made these yesterday to deal with the "sticking" issue. I used JB Weld to attach to cookie sheets. JB Weld has a max temperature threshold of 600 degrees. I'm going to put the foil over this and push it down around each nut.
"If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn't sit for a month."
Theodore Roosevelt
I finally got around to casting some short ("Kurz", right?) Lee 356-102-2R's for my 380s, and I decided to black powder coat them pretty much right after the casting session. Yeah, it took me almost two months to get back to PC'ing and casting...
This time I turned down the heat a bit on my non-convection toaster oven and kept a close eye on the process, used the upside down wire mesh tray then flipped it over and re-coated the top. I didn't melt them this time! The 100 "test run" was okay.. but I need to use either another wire mesh rack or the non-stick for when I flip them on the re-coat.
I didn't attempt to size them first, and they are a little big after PC.. about .3585 on the MIC. When running these through a Lee sizer (I have a .357 sized one that works well for 9mm cast with Alox, anyway), what do you lube these with? Should I just Alox them too and call them good, or standard sizer/case lube or what?
The nuts and JB weld, by the way is a GREAT idea. That will become the replacement tray for the wire mesh experiment. I'll put on 2 different size nuts, about 50 of each on a sheet and then I can set them ball down for the first pass on that. I don't know why I didn't think of that one myself.
Anyway.. this time... they turned out good. Slightly better than my yellow coated .45's.. I must be the only person in the world who yellow worked out for...
This looks interesting. Please post a follow up and let us know how this works. I have been looking at doing something like this but was thinking about the time it would take to solder each nut down. Hadn't thought about JB Weld. You use the Non-Stick foil?
Good Luck on this.
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| C | Compressed Charge | PR | Primer | SPCL | Soft Point "Core-Lokt" |
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