a trick for tumble powder coating

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

bubba blue , I can work with that , reminds me of blue bullets brand bullets , seems like blue in more than one brand works well

do you remember some of the attempts at silver trucks in the 80s they had several years where any silver truck had paint peeling by the 90s or you could buy a blue truck and the paint stuck fine different formulas to make them work in certain colors , I prefer not to swim up stream so hard blue will be fine with me.

[borg]

I must be doing something wrong, I can't get more that about 70% covered.
One thing I have to ask, is the Cool Whip bowl gently curved on the bottom?
The one I have is square sided, and flat bottomed with a ridge on the bottom.
Also, gotta ask, how do you get the boolits to float on top of the BBs? LOL

[Dragonheart]

Since I live on the Gulf Coast, Humidity is a problem, right now it 80%. When the humidity is high the bullets just don't want to take the powder. To overcome this I do several things. I turn on the AC in my shop in advance and let the air dry what it will. I place my bullets in a pan and heat them to 200 degrees, not much hotter or you will end up melting the powder and get a glob of powder & bullets. I start my tumbler running with the powder and BB's then drop in the hot bullets. Limiting the amount of starting powder will keep from over coating the bullets, you can always add more while they are tumbling. I run the tumbler long enough to get good coverage. The time can vary from 5 to 15 minutes. Since my tumbler is a 5 gallon painter's bucket I have a lid to keep in any powder dust and I also have a light mounted on the underside of the lid that goes into the bucket to help dry the air. It has taken me a lot of time, trial and error to work out the details, but now I coat 6 to 7 pounds of bullet at a time and do 3 batches before I cook. This gives me somewhere between 1000 and 1200 bullets depending on where they are 45 or 9's.

[bangerjim]

I must be doing something wrong, I can't get more that about 70% covered.
One thing I have to ask, is the Cool Whip bowl gently curved on the bottom?
The one I have is square sided, and flat bottomed with a ridge on the bottom.
Also, gotta ask, how do you get the boolits to float on top of the BBs? LOL

Several thing could be causing the "magic voodoo" coating not to work completely.

Higher humidity will minimize the slight static charge that occurs in the #5.

Too many BB's......or not enough! I use 1/2" only. The do not float. If you cannot see your boolits, you are use waaaaaaaay too many BB's. Read the stickies and look at the pictures people post of their coating bowls.

Are you shaking up and down for 10-15 seconds after your 30-40 second swirl? That is the trick to getting almost 100% coating. I get it. And in only ONE coat.

Coolwhip is round NOT square. I also use ZipLik screw-on bowls with excellent success. Get either a coolwhip or Ziplok. Your square edges could be causing your problmes. I have NEVER use anything with square sides and edges.

[borg]

I guess I described that wrong.
I meant does your container curve down from the top, like 1/2 of a circle?

[bangerjim]

I guess I described that wrong.
I meant does your container curve down from the top, like 1/2 of a circle?

I would recommend just going to your local food store, buy some Coolwhip, enjoy some excellent desert and use the standard container most of us use......rather than using some unknown container.

[borg]

I am using a Cool Whip container, it's just when people show the boolits in the container, it looks like it's sides are curved to the bottom and not straight down.

[bangerjim]

The sides to bottom of my containers are curved and the bottom rises up slightly. And the sides are tapered slightly. I think the REAL brand of coowhip still makes their containers that way. Off-brands or store brands may not be that way. Check it out next time you at the store. Stick with what we have proven works.

Or buy a package of ZipLok screw-on lid containers. That is ZIP-LOK BRAND, not walmart or Glad or store brand. There is a definite difference I have seen. I use the small ones for various color for load work-up ID. They do not hold as many boolits as a Coolwhip, but work very well. My Zip's have blue lids and last a long time. Others will shatter after only a couple swirls and shakes......what a mess!

banger

[62chevy]

Didn't know that Jim thanks.

[Rattus58]

How do you separate the airsoft BB's?

they just fall through the screen on mine for the most part and the two or three left are easy to deal with.

[Spector]

Plus one on what Jim said about the 3 pak Ziploc "Twist n Loc" round containers with the blue screw-on lids. Smaller than a Cool Whip container, but easier on arthritic wrists and the boolits and powder stay inside until you take them out. No Cool Whip lids flying off unexpectedly.
Many use Cool Whip containers with great success, but for me and others Ziploc is the better solution. A 3 pak is less than $4 so it is small investment if you want to experiment. In southern IN I find them in the local Kroger Stores.
I think Jim uses both types of containers to get great results.....Mike

[bangerjim]

Yes I use both. Problem with Coolwhip...........I tend to gain weight emptying them!!!! HA.....ha!

You cannot eat the stuff without pies, cakes, desserts, etc.......all those fattening things we all love.

Shelling out a few bucks for ZipLok saves my waistline.

[borg]

Actually got some boolits coated yesterday.
Found out that it WILL NOT STICK if the humdidy is above 50%, below will somewhat.
Yesterday is the first day we've had below in the last couple of months,, but the lakes are full.

[bangerjim]

We rarely have humidity above 50% here in the desert SW. Our Dew Points do go over 50 during our monsoon season (that is just around the corner). I have had BBDT coating problems during high(er) humidities. That is why I own 2 ESPC gun systems. They will work, probably even in a rainstorm! But we have so few of those, I cannot say for sure. I just know they work every time, all the time when I fire them up.

Just got 1/2" overnight in the gauge. DP is 37 and RH is 17% - - JUST after a rain storm! That is why they call it a desert!

bangerjim

[borg]

I know the humidity is low out west, I'm from Glendale, west of Phoenix.
Now near Austin TX

[bdicki]

Well it looks like I'm in, I quit/retired from my job so more time now. Picked up some of Smoke's 4th of July sale powder, then stopped at the local goodwill and $5.99 later I have a toaster oven. Ziploc small containers with the screw on lid and black balls. Tumbled them and the coverage was spotty so I shook them up and down hard and better coverage. The black balls got stuck in the hollow points, you can see one with no powder in the hole.

[MacFan]

Congratulations bdicki, both on the great looking PC'd chunks of lead and retiring. Hope you enjoy powder coating.

I quit my job and semi-retired a couple of weeks ago... spending way too much time reloading now.

[RegisG]

Now those look great. Can't wait for my order to come from Smoke. I've been using HF red and it is ok but, not near as smooth as yours. I like that gloss.

Regis

[destrux]

Tried this out, works better for coating the long Blackout bullets than anything else. I do two coats though, since it seems to apply pretty thin. They'd probably fire fine with one coat but I want solid coverage so no lead buildup ends up in my AR or my silencer.

I put non stick foil on my toaster oven's wire rack and I lay the bullets down in the troughs that form between the rack's wires and they bake without any marks or flashing or bare spots. I can bake 75 at a time in my little oven which is only 25 less than when I was standing them up and spraying them, but not having the flashing around the tip or base is worth the extra time and effort to shake and bake them twice.

[destrux]

I must be doing something wrong, I can't get more that about 70% covered.
One thing I have to ask, is the Cool Whip bowl gently curved on the bottom?
The one I have is square sided, and flat bottomed with a ridge on the bottom.
Also, gotta ask, how do you get the boolits to float on top of the BBs? LOL

Try less BB's. I had too many in and it wouldn't coat very well. I only use about an inch of BB's in the bottom of a cool whip container, to coat 75 .30 cal 230gr bullets at a time. Worked for me even when it was pouring rain outside (it's been reported that high humidity makes it harder to coat this way).