dry tumble powder coating?

[JessFV]

My first attempts with the thinner-powder coat-wet tumble did not work very well. I purchased four colors from Powder by the pound, red, grey, white, and green. The red mixed with the thinner and bullets made a solution that looked ok but was kind of blotchy. I could tell this process if very sensitive to when you need to stop tumbling the bullets and move them to the tray to "wet out" and dry. It took me several tries before it worked at all.
I then tried the dark grey and white powders, both turned to a thick goo that separated from the solvent and coated the bullets with a very thick layer of powder "paste" no matter what the powder-solvent ratio was.

These two colors (grey and white) seemed to be very attracted to the bullets so I decided to see what happened if I tumbled the bullets in dry powder, same process as the wet method just without the solvents.
It worked great!
I put a table spoon of powder in a Tupperware container, added about 50 bullets (30 cal x 200g) tumbled them around a little until they had a even coat of dry powder then plucked them out with needle nose pliers and set them base down on not stick foil for baking in my new $20 toaster oven. Any excess powder remains in the tub, and can be re-used. No critical mix ratio or wasted powder!
The only trick is the powder will rub off if you try to handle the bullets with you fingers while moving them from the tub to the tray.

I also tried dumping the dry tumbled bullets directly onto a wire tray (gutter screen from hardware store) and that worked but the bullets show spots where they contacted the screen and some stuck together, I think this would happen with any method where the bullets were dumped randomly.
This seems like a method that could take the prize least equipment (no PC gun required), lowest stink factor (no solvent) and ease of use.
Give it a try and let me know if you have similar results.

[Beagle333]

Got any pictures?

[bangerjim]

Well, your boolits will have to pretty good to come close to the perfect, smooth, even-coated, repeatable gun-coated slugs everyone on here is getting every single time!

I have tried the dry method several times and the tedious and time-consuming delicate transfer from the container to the baking sheet discouraged me from that meothod. Every slug had uncoated spots where the tool/finger/wire I used to pick them up slightly touched the lead.

Please post some pix.

But the powder was engineered to be applied with electrostatic dispersion/adhesion, so any other method is questionable in my book. The HF PC gun is not that expensive and works perfect every time.

Post some pix so we can see. Thanks!

banger

[JessFV]

I will take some photos and try to post them in the next day or two, I did a second batch yesterday and they came out looking good but I don't have anything to compare to except my prior poor results. I'm wondering if there is some static charge created by the plastic tub that makes the powder attract to the metal?

[nighthunter]

I have been dry coating my bullets for several weeks. I place 3 or 4 pounds of bullets in a plastic container, add a teaspoon of powder and screw on the lid. Then I shake and roll the container for 3 or 4 minutes. I then remove the lid and check the coating on the bullets. If necessary I add a small amount more powder and shake it some more. The powder seems to become embedded in the lead and does not come off on my fingers when lightly handled. I dump them on my screen baking trays and any excess powder falls through the screen to be put back for the next batch. I have found that lighter coats work better than heavier coats and if necessary I just do a second coat. After a few attempts you will be very able to judge how much coating is right. I have found this method to be far easier than trying to mix the powder into a liquid. Even when doing cast hollow points the cavity remains open after bakeing. This is what made me try the dry coating. The HP's were coming out of the oven all plugged up from an excess of powder in the cavities. I very much prefer this method. Give it a try before passing judgement.

Nighthunter

[JessFV]

Here are some photos of how I did it with the dry tumble method.
I think the photos are self explanatory but basically dump bullets and dry powder in a tub, roll and toss around for a bit , pull out with tweezers or needle nose pliers, lay out on tray then bake.
The tricky part on these was standing the 230 g boat tails up on end and making it into the oven, but that has nothing to do with the process.
Sorry I could not figure out how to post the photos in order.

[xacex]

Not bad! Those look like they will work just fine. I like that you mixed the H/F colors to get another one. It is nice to see what colors we can make from the limited choices there, but I like the powder because it works, and is less than 6$ a pound.

[JessFV]

Actually I'm using the Powder by the pound products and have not tried mixing colors, the color in the photo is one of the dark greys. The three colors I have tried all work the same dry, this was not true wet.

[dverna]

I for one do not care if the coating is less than perfect if it works. Fast and easy is huge plus. Not needing a spray area/booth, compressed air, foils etc is a bonus. I can also see being able to get more bullets on a tray as with ES spraying some space is needed to get even coverage.

But it boils down to "Will they shoot?". Looking forward to your range report.

Don Verna

[manithree]

My son and I thought we invented this method back in October, but I see we weren't the only ones to come up with it.

We put boolits and HF powder in a pill/supplement bottle and hand agitated them for about 10 minutes. Putting the bottle in the vibratory brass tumbler works well, too. I found that it takes 10 minutes to get the powder to adhere to the boolits.

They're not perfect, but for plinking, practice, and this year's science project they work just fine in my CZ SP-01.

A couple of photos of what my kids call our "candy bullets:"

[RP]

I have been looking and reading on this also and got some powder coat today. Not wanting to wait until I had more time I tried it out tonight. My colors are red and yellow so far I just used red. I have a small tumbler bowl so I put some powder in and some bullets and ran it until they had a good coat, I placed them on the tray that came with the toaster over (yard sale item) which I have tested to see if it would get hot enough. Preheated to 400 I slid the tray in and timed for 30 mins. The bullets came out OK but not perfect coat that's a nice slick even coat and some still had a tacky feeling. next batch I cooked longer and had no tacky feel but still not nice and slick or perfect even. Check temp on stove when I added third batch the bullets were dropping temp so I let it heat back up some and started my time which is about the same time the coating starts to change. This time bullets had a slicker finish with more shine but still not a perfect coat. I am saying perfect coat so people will know what to expect not that it matters to me I am so far happy with what I am getting and am still working on refining my process. I also smashed a few out of all the batches and did not have any flacking. I did notice on the first batch when I sized some of the coating was removed on a few of the bullets. The later batches I have not sized yet. Going to load some up to shoot and check for any problems there. Another thing I tried a very light coat then a second coat which I was not happy with. The red pistol bullets posted about are about what I got but my coating looks to be more even no lead showing but some spots looking on the thin side. My ? is would cooking them hotter or longer do anything ?

[OBIII]

Try pre-heating the boolits prior to tumbling with powder. It is my understanding that warmer alloy coats more evenly.
OB

[crawfobj]

Thanks for sharing this guys. I think this method looks very promising and much less hassle than trying to stand boolits up to spray coat.

[bangerjim]

Thanks for sharing this guys. I think this method looks very promising and much less hassle than trying to stand boolits up to spray coat.

But spraying them looks so smooth and good!

banger

[nighthunter]

Be careful about preheating the bullets before applying the powder. If the bullets are even just a little too warm the powder clumps on the bullets and becomes a VERY thick coat when cooking. If the bullets are agitated in a container with the powder the powder will adhere without the preheating. I think trying to do too large a batch at one time is what causes the little bald spots on the bullets where too many bullets bumped together while shaking the container. Most of my bullets come out looking pretty good and I'll try to get some photos posted.

Nighthunter

[prickett]

I have to say that dry tumbling is perfection! By far the simplest method, with zero wasted paint, that gives a very good looking boolit. Of all the coating methods, this one wins.

[RP]

Love to see some pics of others results I think I am being to picky.

[SDGarrick]

Going to try this method this weekend. will post back.

[Cane_man]

will try and post pics within a few weeks... i have the oven now, the screen, and white PC

[popper]

Compare ES PC & dry tumble. First try with dry, done 2x for complete coat?
Attachment 90403 Attachment 90404
edit: Sorry bout that - red is ES & sized. White is just coated.