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Thread: a trick for tumble powder coating

  1. #841
    Boolit Bub
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    Still cannot type -boolits

  2. #842
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    Robby yes I warm my boolits up before coating.

  3. #843
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    I have several ovens, one is set at 150° which is about the max you want to heat them. If you can touch them barehanded they are not too hot.## make sure you keep them clean and don't water quench when casting, too easy to contaminate the boolit and mess up the PCing.

    You can give them a bath in Acetone to remove any contaminants.


    I've been on this forum a while and now have a hard time writing bullets

  4. #844
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    Yea seems like BBs help DT for sure. Smoke320's powder I don't have to use BBs.

  5. #845
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    Thanks to all for the advice, the tips, and the motivation to give this a try. I read all 43 pages of this thread and then jumped in with both feet.

    FWIW I figured I'd post a few notes on my experiences as a VERY new Powdercoater. I'm no expert by any means but it seems like some things work for some folks and some don't.

    I used the take along bowls to start. The hard shaking recommended by some folks led me to a split bowl; and a bunch of boolits and black airsoft BBs in the grass. The boolits were relatively easy to pick up (RCBS .309"180 FN). The BBs required my shopvac. Now I just swirl for about 3-5 minutes going back and forth between the take along bowl and a ziplock 2 cup screw top container. [My Tip- use a timer. 3 minutes is a lot longer than you think.]

    I'm using Protec powder coat paint because I have it from making jigs. I started with red, but red boolits just seem weird to a hunter and former infantryman. I tried "watermelon" which is actually more of a slightly glossy OD green and it works well. I also have tried brown and while it doesn't seem to cover as well, my OD and brown (camo) boolits definitely fit my sense of order better.

    My other experiences tell me:
    -Don't put too many boolits in the bowls. As others have said, if they are banging together you'll have bare spots. IMO its better to do more "loads" and get better coverage quicker. I might do 20- .477" 400gr LFN; 25- .311" 180gr. or 30-35 .401 175 SWC or .358" 158 RFN in a load.
    - I do 2 coats. One coat is usually "shootable" IMO; but I like them fully covered and "pretty". (I'm also the guy who use a mineral spirits dampened rag to get LLA off the noses of my loaded rounds.)

    - If you do a second coat, 30 seconds of swirling is plenty to get full coverage for Coat #2.

    - I modified a set of HF long skinny spring-loaded needle nose pliers ($1.49) like was shown in on the posts above. I tried nitrile gloves and they worked pretty good too but the pliers seemed to leave less bare spots.

    - If you don't have a little loose powder at the bottom of your coating bowl, you need to add some.

    - The more you use them, the better the BBs will coat your boolits. When I was starting each of my bowls (red, green, and brown), each time I was concerned that something was wrong with the paint because the BBs and boolits weren't getting coated well. Stick with it- getting them started seemed to take a good bit longer than the normal swirl coating time. Once the BBs get coated and charged up well they'll work quicker on each subsequent load.

    - I size and gas check the boolits that need them before coating. Don't see any reason to wait and I figure the PC will help lock them on. I have a Lee 325 gr. .476 WFN that the boolits lose checks in flight on occasion. This causes them to be flyers. I'm hoping the PC will help prevent that.

    - I normally use speed green for lube. To clean it off some boolits to allow PC I just put them in pan and ran hot water over them for a few minutes while gently shaking. Then I drained and dumped them on a scrap towel and roll/rubbed them clean and dry. They coated like my freshly cast ones.

    I know there's nothing earth-shattering here. I just want to encourage people thinking about it to give it a try. There seems to be no magic solution and to be honest, one isn't needed. It's a lot simpler than it sometimes sounds. The BBs are the most expensive part of getting started and, for me, the possibility of getting some boolits that were leading in my guns back to the casting pot made it worth a shot.

    I'm glad I did. Thanks again to those that blazed the trail for the rest of us!

    John

  6. #846
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tripplebeards View Post
    Your going to be disappointed with the HF results. That PC grabs as well to my boolits as a cowboy does to a greased pig.
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    Just like everything else with this method, different people have different experiences. I never have had any problem with HF Red.

  7. #847
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    I bought some cool whip but just can't eat enough of that to get enough containers. But my wife and daughter like Asian food and have been buying these at Costco and they are #5 containers with lids. They seem to be be thicker plastic than the Cool-Whip containers as well. A box of these is like 5 or 6 bowls so I'll be set soon.
    Click image for larger version. 

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  8. #848
    Boolit Buddy hollywood63's Avatar
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    So I'm tossing around the idea of PC'ing I currently use Hi Tek and have for awhile but I do get some leading at times. How many of you PC'ers are doing the tumble dump and bake method?

  9. #849
    Boolit Master flyingmonkey35's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by hollywood63 View Post
    So I'm tossing around the idea of PC'ing I currently use Hi Tek and have for awhile but I do get some leading at times. How many of you PC'ers are doing the tumble dump and bake method?
    This has been discussed on a different post.

    Large mix. But you will find a majority of people use a shake n bake method with standing the bullet up.

    Less do a bake in a pile method as it leaves divits and spots.

    And even less that use ESPC. Wich is still the best.

    You can have great results with whatever method you choose. But outside factors come into play.

    Humidity. And brand of powder being key.

    Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

  10. #850
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    Quote Originally Posted by Grampie not Grumpie View Post
    I have some questions on the concept of powder coating. I take it that you tumble coat the bullets after they cool coming out of the molds? Not coating them with any lube? I get the concept of putting airsoft BBs in the tumbling pan with the bullets and powder. Am I on the right track?? Also I have several boxes of bullets I bought from Missouri Bullet several years ago that where supposed to be BHN 12 and turned out to be over BHN 22. I called them and they sent me free replacements and told me to keep the other ones. I thought I would some time get around to melt them down and recast them with some added pure lead to get the proper hardness. However hasn't happened. Question: If I powder coated them as is it wouldn't work because of the lube on them, right?? They are .44 & .45 Colt.

    Thanks, Grampie not Grumpie,
    I know this is an old post but just for the sake of getting the info out I thought I'd add my experience with this.

    I did a pan lube on a batch of 9mm that were too soft and were leading badly. Not wanting to waste a days work I removed the lube by putting them in a pot of boiling water. Lube floats to the top. Skim and dump the water.

    I dried them off and powder coated them with no issues.

    The PC batch didn't lead at all.

  11. #851
    Boolit Master
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    43 pages! I may have commented above about my method. I wet tumble my brass now, so I had no real use for my dry media vibratory case cleaner. That Lyman vibratory cleaner came with several orange poly bowls. I made a top for the smallest bowl, added a cup of black air softs, a couple of tablespoons of Smoke's powder and a couple big hands full of boolits. I let buzz away for 10 or 15 minutes and the lead is very well coated. Black nitrile gloves powdered on the outside with same paint powder and no finger prints on the boolits as I fish them out and stand them on trays with non-stick foil. I bake two trays at a time in the convestion toaster oven, as many boolits as I can place without them making contact with one another. I use 400F to bake for 35 minutes as it takes a little longer with such heavy load. While they bake I am repeating the vibratory tumbling and staging upon more non-stick trays. I have 6 trays and I can do a lot of boolits PDQ. I add a teaspoon or so of fresh powder per load. I size them nose first in a Lee sizer kit and have a sandpaper block handy to take care of any bottom flash.

    prs

  12. #852
    Boolit Buddy gnappi's Avatar
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    Forty three pages is a LOT of reading, but I'm nibbling at all of them. So far I have that which I need (now where did I hear that before?) to make a decent product and I'm surely happy I found this site.

    Anyway, as of now including prep time of initial sizing, tumbling and setting 100 coated bullets on a tray, I can do 100 per 20 minute cycle, making my max productivity 300 per hour. Not good for a determined USPSA / IPSC shooter who trains a lot but for my needs it's OK.

    I'm not going to shoot any until after I get several thousand prepared and ready to go. Maybe at some point I'll invest in a two tray convection oven, or even a second single tray oven.

    Since I'm coating outdoors, and with the paint I'm using I'm not smelling any noxious fumes and I'm wondering if I could actually bake them in my kitchen turbo 2 tray all electronic convection oven?
    Regards,

    Gary

  13. #853
    Boolit Master prickett's Avatar
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    When looking at the insides of my convection toaster oven, that would be a huge NO! The glass on the front of the oven is now translucent, covered with paint residue. I wouldn't want food within 15 feet of that thing.

  14. #854
    Boolit Mold
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    Quote Originally Posted by gnappi View Post
    Forty three pages is a LOT of reading, but I'm nibbling at all of them. So far I have that which I need (now where did I hear that before?) to make a decent product and I'm surely happy I found this site.

    Anyway, as of now including prep time of initial sizing, tumbling and setting 100 coated bullets on a tray, I can do 100 per 20 minute cycle, making my max productivity 300 per hour. Not good for a determined USPSA / IPSC shooter who trains a lot but for my needs it's OK.

    I'm not going to shoot any until after I get several thousand prepared and ready to go. Maybe at some point I'll invest in a two tray convection oven, or even a second single tray oven.

    Since I'm coating outdoors, and with the paint I'm using I'm not smelling any noxious fumes and I'm wondering if I could actually bake them in my kitchen turbo 2 tray all electronic convection oven?




    Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

  15. #855
    Boolit Buddy gnappi's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by prickett View Post
    When looking at the insides of my convection toaster oven, that would be a huge NO! The glass on the front of the oven is now translucent, covered with paint residue. I wouldn't want food within 15 feet of that thing.
    That's what I thought but I HAD to ask.
    Regards,

    Gary

  16. #856
    Boolit Master prickett's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by hollywood63 View Post
    So I'm tossing around the idea of PC'ing I currently use Hi Tek and have for awhile but I do get some leading at times. How many of you PC'ers are doing the tumble dump and bake method?
    I just tumble and dump mine. My goal is speed, not beauty, and this works great for that.

  17. #857
    Boolit Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by Beagle333 View Post
    And I've tried 3 different kinds of nitrile gloves now, and had 3 failures, while others make it look so great.
    I'm thinking of employing my Ouija board now, and building a small pyramid structure over it and handle the boolits under that as I burn some raspberry incense and play In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida loudly in the room.

    This glove thing has whipped me!
    Don’t forget your tin-foil hat!

  18. #858
    Boolit Buddy
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    Any Aussies on here.
    Where can we get these Airsoft BB,s as Airsoft and paintball is banned here. I found some black ones on Amazon but they were unavailable. Also found some in the UK but turns out too expensive.

  19. #859
    Boolit Master Jim22's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Leoparddog View Post
    I bought some cool whip but just can't eat enough of that to get enough containers. But my wife and daughter like Asian food and have been buying these at Costco and they are #5 containers with lids. They seem to be be thicker plastic than the Cool-Whip containers as well. A box of these is like 5 or 6 bowls so I'll be set soon.
    Click image for larger version. 

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    I found that the 1 quart cottage cheese tubs, Darigold in my area, have the triangle and 5 on the bottom.

  20. #860
    Boolit Master
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    If you look at the 1 /2 gallon jars with the screw on lids at the Dollar Tree, they say#5 on them too. Be careful you're not being followed by the lube only guys though or you might get beat up in the parking lot.

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Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check