New wrinckle to my easy pc.

[Mike Hughes]

Thanks for info, I don't have a HF rock tumbler but I do have a spare vibratory tumbler. I think I will combine your way and Frank's method. I am going to dump the dry powder and boolits in the tumbler, let them vibrate for a while, then dump it all out on a wire mesh and catch extra powder below. then put them in the oven and hopefully they will not stick and have a smooth finish. If this works good, I will post some pics

[3006mv]

Cool yeah it should work for you, just don't put hot bullets in powder they will react and stick and get all goopy. I dug out my old VibraTek tumbler but could not find the rubber bowl for it plus it was too loud and obnoxious with the container I had in there and it had a tendency to crawl across the floor. Are you coating the smaller boolits too? They seem to coat better than the pistol and heavier 170 gr .309s I put in, at least they were much more even.

[Mike Hughes]

yep, this technique will mainly be for the .223 62 gr Mihec Nato. Looking for a way to streamline the process and this may be the ticket. Most of my bigger boolits are HP and I use HF PC gun with a jig that is a bed of nails. All pistol caliber, I use Hi-Tek coating.

[Beagle333]

just don't put hot bullets in powder they will react and stick and get all goopy.

This was my experience too.

[Freightman]

need a picture of the bed of nails

[Mike Hughes]

need a picture of the bed of nails

These work good with hollow point boolits coating with HF PC gun

[Beagle333]

That is one wicked looking contraption Mike! I like it! 90% of my boolits are HPs.
I don't have a welder, I wonder if I can just JB-Weld a bunch of roofing nails to the back of a license plate.
I'm not sure about the conductivity of JB-Weld, but I could push some foil down over the nails before hanging the boolits on them and clip to the foil.

[Mike Hughes]

yea, I think the JB weld would probably work. The pic to the right is a piece of OSB plywood and a piece of aluminum roof flashing with finish nails shot through. That one was really easy to build and works good

[Garyshome]

Use drywall screws in a piece of sheet metal.

[Beagle333]

Use drywall screws in a piece of sheet metal.

This, I have. Thanks!

[sparky45]

Well, I did my first batch of cast with PC. I received some 45's from a member and decided to try Pc'ing a few. Got the yellow HF PC and DRY tumbled them in my Lyman 500. Seemed to coat just fine. I slipped on a pair of Nitrile gloves, placed the cast on a sheet of al. foil. Ran them in my Goodwill Toaster Oven and set the timer on my iphone.
Ding!! Pulled them out and let them cool and this is the result.


Now, they haven't been through the Acetone/Lacquer Thinner/smash tests yet, but I am impressed with the simplistic method of dry tumbling and "cooking" these cast 45's.
What say you?

[xacex]

Very nice! I might have to give this a try for my boolits that are a pain to E/S P/C. Was that one coat, and bake? how long was the tumble?

[sparky45]

Yes, just one time through the bake cycle. I turned on the Lyman 500 for about 1 to 2 minutes. One caveat, I warmed the tray of cast prior to coating, supposed to help the PC to stick.

[Freightman]

It is so simple it is hard to get people to try it.

[sparky45]

I tell you what Frank, If I can make it work ANYONE can make it work. Thanks for the info.

[bangerjim]

You need a thermometer to test your oven. I have seen toaster ovens make a puddle of boolits. They will get quite hotter than 400 degrees in some cases.
A lot hotter.

Early on in the infancy of this PC process, I used a $3 oven from Goodwill. Set the temp at 400 and came back to nice little puddles of lead! Turns out the temp control (very cheeeep) did not work and the temp got waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay over 400. Checked it with my IR and it read upwards of 540!

Now I use a high-end convection oven that keep the temp dead on 400 every time.

banger

[bangerjim]

^ yes it is, I refer this for people to join from other forums to search and learn.

So sir frank, do you think it would be possible to coat one color and then add another on top? I only have black but do you think your yellow topped with blue would give a nice green color? I really want to have o.d. Green or even just a dark green boolit.

If you will search the threads on PC, I posted several pix using VHT hi-temp copper and Krylon green frig epoxy (both baked on) sprayed on top of my standard pre-baked HF matte black. The matte finish helps other "paints" stick very well. Nothing scrapes off. The key is the base PC coat and then apply the color to the top and bake again.

You can tap the bare end of a pre-coated slug on a rag with acetone and then tap it in a saucer with a different color powder and re-bake for a "PC GC"! Or do it to the business end for that two-tone effect.

banger

[Stilly]

If you will search the threads on PC, I posted several pix using VHT hi-temp copper and Krylon green frig epoxy (both baked on) sprayed on top of my standard pre-baked HF matte black. The matte finish helps other "paints" stick very well. Nothing scrapes off. The key is the base PC coat and then apply the color to the top and bake again.

You can tap the bare end of a pre-coated slug on a rag with acetone and then tap it in a saucer with a different color powder and re-bake for a "PC GC"! Or do it to the business end for that two-tone effect.

banger

Pics or it didn't happen!

I was wondering about this myself. I had sprayed a light coat of Killz oil based primer spray paint onto some 44 mag and I wanna say that one of the bullets was burned through the coating some how. I sprayed it on, then let it dry for about 15 minutes, then dumped them all into the tumbler and let them roll for an hour. I have a timer that will turn off the power after an hour (shortest time) so I let them all roll for an hour. That trick did nothing really, but I think it was because I "cured" them at 450f @15-18 minutes. On the way out now to get some nonstick foil.I have been playing with stuff at my house using the oven. I think the problem I had was most PC I see say cure at 10 minutes @400f Well, I was hitting 15-20 minutes at around 450f so I think it tends to darken/kill the cure perhaps. Some of my earlier ones look like ****, but lately I have dropped a LOT of them in the oven and they have been coming out NICE.

I was thinking what were to happen if I started maybe placing MORE different colors or minor designs on some and popping them back in the oven, like giving them eyeball effects , maybe red streaks down the sides but with a black dot in the middle and a base coat of white. I aint there yet because I am not thrilled about how the powder "sticks" to the first coat. I guess some powders need help sticking to others. HEH, This whole process reminds of working in ceramics class and mixing glazes to see what cool effects you can come up with. I guess there is a potter in all of us... Dry tumble is crazy though, I can not believe how EASY it is to just drop a handful of bullets in the tumbler for an hour and come back, take them out, bake and presto you are done... I do not use gloves to handle them though at all, I just get green cheeto fingers. Should I be wearing nitrile gloves? As a side note it has a funny taste when some fell on a piece of pepperoni that was on a pizza slice I had. Kinda blech, but anyways...
Examples of my green and blue powder mixed.
The stuff in the metal tray was done last night- dropped in bare lead into the powder tumbler, pulled after an hour, put on the tray, some on parchment paper/foil (I do not like the bottoms of those, they look, odd) then baked for 10 minutes @400-425 (the toaster oven is really old and temp adjustment is difficult- it will also stay buzzing all the way through sometimes...) then pulled out and cooled. I think they are the best ones yet so far. Once I size them I will see if they need a second coat. Sometimes resizing jacks them up, but only if the coating is REALLY thick on one side or so it seems...

[3006mv]

this IS the easiest method for sure. one more tip the Reynolds non stick aluminum foil is the ticket for me, no more black marks on my non black PC boolits that was coming from the metal tray.

[Mike Hughes]

I coated some little 223 boolits with Franks easy PC method. This is 2 coats, was real quick and easy.