dry tumble powder coating?

[Maximumbob54]

Attachment 91958 mine look like **** and shoot even worse! i'm not sold on this tumble method

Too much powder applied too thick. I've done the same and got the same results. If you had that amount of bullets to tumble then less than half a sugar packet worth of powder might still be too much. Remember that if you do it too thin you can always try again but too much and you have muck.

[TheDoctor]

Made it to the range over the weekend. Wish I had better results to post, but time and conditions were limiting factors, and I left my darned chrony at home! All bullets were hand tumbled with HFPC red. Anyway, one thing I learned is that my eyes do not work quite as good at 40 as they did at 20. I have the targets, but no pics. Not really worth the time to post the pics with my results, mainly due to the "eyes". First off, fired all my rounds off a bench using my Bulls Bag. Bench not quite rock solid, but not too bad. Target from bench laser ranged at 44 yds. Odd distance. Paced it off, compared to a 50 yd rifle backstop, and I believe that it is accurate.

First gun fired was a Smith 19, 357 mag. Using Lee 158 gr TC, sized .358, 16 gr H-110. 6 inch barrel, black on black partridge sights. 10 shot group 2.15 inch. Probably about the best I can do with open sights, so I am very satisfied with this one.

Second gun fired was a Beretta 92fs. Lee 125 gr. RN. Bullets weighed 128 gr, sized .355, 6.8 gr of HS-6. Feel I might have had better results using Bullseye or Unique. 10 shot group,extreme spread of 6 inches. Horizontal stringing. Height of group was 2.25 inch, but it was WIDE! ( excuse to be used: it was the WIFES GUN, not overly fond of the sights.)

Third gun, Springfield XDm 40. Lee 175 TC, sized .400, 5.0 Bullseye. Some leading in the first 1 1/2 of barrel. 10 shot group, 6 inch vertical string. 2.5 inch wide. (excuse on this one, eyes were getting tired!)

Fourth gun, Smith 25-5. 45 Colt. Lee 200 gr RNFP, sized .452, 6.5 Gr Trailboss. 5 shot group, 5 inches. Was having a very hard time with the orange ramp sight and the sun angle.

Fifth target. Same Smith 25, Lee 255 gr RNFP, sized .452, 7 gr Bullseye. 5 shot group, 5 inches. Same sight problems. Fired the same load through a Vaquero. Group size shrunk to 3 inches. Different sights...

All in all, not satisfied with the range trip. No chrony, sun angle, was not able to recover a single bullet, and there was another group of people there that were really needing a lesson on range etiquette. And for some reason the 15-25 yard targets do not have benches.

[popper]

Doc - @ 44yds and you are upset? What is your alloy? My XDm 40 had some streaking by the chamber but accuracy still held up good, ES coated. A kid was shooting the last maybe 50 rnds, hadn't been cleaned for a while, didn't notice it until I cleaned it.
Coated 50 31-165b this morning, coat, cook till the PC flows then coat again, cook for 1/2 hr (HF white). Got maybe 15 not so good. Some spots just won't take the powder. Seems bouncing them up & down in the powder does better than swirling them around. I was able to stand them up on NS foil in the oven - pick them up by the nose with tweezers. For testing in the 30/30 sans GC over 2400. Using filler I was beginning to get groups. If I can find an accurate load ~ 1600 fps I'll be happy. Got to JB weld some better plates to the buttstock end of the Led Sled Solo & find some silicon potting compound to make a better cradle. Hard to load test from a flimsy mount.

[TheDoctor]

IIRC, without going and digging out the info, my alloy for the .40 was 14 lb range lead, 4 lb lino, 1/2 lb ( possibly 1 lb, been a few weeks...) foundry type, and 1/2 lb 89% tin, 9 % copper, and roughly 2% antimony solder. Was wanting to recover some of those to see how they held up, but with other people out on the range, couldn't berm dig. Brains not in high enough gear right now to tell me why I had streaking in front of the chamber, and the rest of the barrel was like a mirror. Need to get a .401 or .402 sizer...

[popper]

My XDm will lead and have trouble chambering with 0.402, You can lap the 0.400 out but your alloy is pretty high Sb. A lower Sb alloy will size smaller through the die. Youprobably shaved one during loading or possibly BE is a tad fast ( I don't use it but WST is fast for mine). I did 2" horiz. @ 25 3 shot group, on a really good day with 5.5 of HP-38, 175 T/C - PCd. My normal load is 4.5.

[TheDoctor]

I think you are right on the alloy, not to turn this into an alloy discussion. Checked some unsized uncoated 9mm. Should have dropped at .356, instead they were measuring .361! Wow, wasn't thinking about the tin expansion, or whatever the proper term is for it...

[.429]

I think I'm gonna try the ascetone. Does lowes sell it?

[Beagle333]

Lowes, WalMart, HomeDepot.....

[popper]

Crown brand, may have more water in it, so dry longer. IMHO the dry approach works better for me, only tried white so far. 429 - the bases have to be good on that boolit to get any accuracy. Yours in the pic are globby and the wet method will probably give the same results. I need to work on it a bit bt I'm approaching good groups @ 1400 with 2400 in the 30/30, NO GC.

[bangerjim]

Crown brand, may have more water in it, so dry longer. IMHO the dry approach works better for me, only tried white so far. 429 - the bases have to be good on that boolit to get any accuracy. Yours in the pic are globby and the wet method will probably give the same results. I need to work on it a bit bt I'm approaching good groups @ 1400 with 2400 in the 30/30, NO GC.

Acetone will not absorb water. It is a hydrocarbon-based solvent and as such, is not hygroscopic.

Acetone should be acetone....no matter what brand. Now, lacquer thinner...........that is a totally DIFFERENT story! Every brand has their own unique formulation and none are the same.


banger

[earthling121757]

Acetone will not absorb water. It is a hydrocarbon-based solvent and as such, is not hygroscopic.

banger

Actually acetone is a ketone, not a hydrocarbon. It has a double bonded oxygen atom on the center carbon. This makes it a polar molecule which is miscible with water and it will absorb water from the air the same way pure alcohol will.

Not trying to be argumentative, just trying to set things straight.

[nighthunter]

Hmmm .... you don't need acetone to do the dry application method and that's what I thought this thread was about.

Nighthunter

[Cane_man]

Hmmm .... you don't need acetone to do the dry application method and that's what I thought this thread was about.

Nighthunter

so all you are doing is maybe 50 bullet batches, teaspoon of powder in a container, shake it up for a few minutes, place on a wire screen, bake in the oven for the required temp and time? repeat for a second coat as necessary?

btw, all powder paints is excellent... fast shipping, good prices, and for $3 more you get a resealable plastic container

[bangerjim]

Actually acetone is a ketone, not a hydrocarbon. It has a double bonded oxygen atom on the center carbon. This makes it a polar molecule which is miscible with water and it will absorb water from the air the same way pure alcohol will.

Not trying to be argumentative, just trying to set things straight.

Well I have used perhaps 100 gallons of acetone in my career and never had ANY water problems! I guess I don't live in a swamp. Humidity down there is extremely low.

I use methanol to dry things out after cleaning with water-based solvents. It DOES absorb water readily.

If one is worried about water in the acetone, keep the darned cap on it like you should.

Thanks for the info.

banger

[prickett]

so all you are doing is maybe 50 bullet batches, teaspoon of powder in a container, shake it up for a few minutes, place on a wire screen, bake in the oven for the required temp and time? repeat for a second coat as necessary?

btw, all powder paints is excellent... fast shipping, good prices, and for $3 more you get a resealable plastic container

I do 100 at a time with 1/2 tsp of powder (am probably going to up it to 1 tsp). Tumble in an old rotary tumbler (though doing this by hand works just as well), dump on wire screen and cook. I do one coat for .45 acp. Am currently determining whether to do one or two coats for 9mm.

[nighthunter]

One coat pretty much does it for me. I have done second coats a few times when I wasn't quite satisfied with the first result but has only been a few coats at the beginning of the learning process. After you do a few batches you will know when you open your container if the bullets have enough powder on them. If not just add a little bit more and shake-n-bake. I did up almost 3000 30 caliber today in a little over 3 hours. All of them came out very nice with just one coat. Don't pee and moan if your first ones don't come out perfect. You aren't going to believe how easy this process is once you get going.
If you order from all powder paint get the reusable container for $3. It's well worth it.

Nighthunter

[prickett]

I do 100 at a time with 1/2 tsp of powder (am probably going to up it to 1 tsp). Tumble in an old rotary tumbler (though doing this by hand works just as well), dump on wire screen and cook. I do one coat for .45 acp. Am currently determining whether to do one or two coats for 9mm.

Upped the amount of powder from 1/2 tsp per 100 .45 to 1 tsp per 100 and got better results - almost ES quality.

Next experiment is to see if there is such a thing as TOO much powder in the tumbler.

[Beagle333]

Throw up some pictures. This is encouraging. It's foggy/misty outside today and I can't spray.

[Cane_man]

here is my first try at shake-n-bake, three coats, boolits on the right are gloss clear coat, 10mm 200gr:



just have to shoot them now to see if there is any leaeding and what the accuracy is like... but overall it was a very easy process... i was a little concerned about getting too much powder on each coat, but next time i think i would add more powder when i put them in the vibratory tumbler...

[jmort]

It will be nice if the dry PC works. Those bullets look real good.