a trick for tumble powder coating

[Rushthezeppelin]

God Bless all you folks in the "alley". I grew up in IA and was very used to the spring/summer "storms" that rolled thru.

We had a tornado here in Phoenix 2 years ago for the 1st time since most can remember. Went right thru my neighborhood....took off over 200 shingles and made a mess of the entire area.

Hopefully when the weather settles a bit you can give it another try with success! I cannot attest to the high humidity effects on tumbling.

Good luck!

banger

Ohhh wow I musta moved outa AZ right before that happened. I was living up in Marble Canyon for a while (between Glen and Grand canyons) and we had a cloud wall roll down from the north rim that spawned two funnel clouds on each side, thankfully they didn't touch down because half of that canyon is trailers for the employees of the lodges.

[cs86]

banger, what brand of airsoft BBs are you using? I gave this a shot tonight and went with some Crosman black .25g BB's that I had ordered from midway when I ordered an airsoft gun last year. Overall my results where good. Not as perfect as some I've seen here, but I think shootable after doing the swirl, shake and bake one time. They seemed to show small uncoated spots from probably other boolits colliding into one another(I thought I had plenty of BB's in the tub). Something I did notice from the regular shake and bake to using BB's is that they went through my sizer easier. The coating seemed thinner and more even.

This was also the first time I've tried some riffle boolits. I did some with gas checks and some without to see if they would slip on after coating. To my surprise it was thin enough that the GC slipped on. I had to apply a little pressure to get it all the way on, but it went. I'm sure that won't be the case for all GC molds.

[jimbo1950]

Did you do as in post #5?

The hard shake up & down for 30 seconds after the hard swirl really makes a difference! Without it, the coating is probably ~85%. I was moderately happy with the that B4 the bb's, but now get almost 99% coverage and after baking there are virtually NO lead areas peeking thru because the RED melts and runs.






















Humidity, I am sure, makes a BIG different!!!!!! That is the advantage of the ESPC gun. It generates such a high potential field, even coating in higher humidity areas should not be a big problem. Here in AZ, high humidity is a dew point of 60! Right now our DP is about 30. I have seen it as low as -5 at times. That is bone dry.

banger

Being that i live in the Florida space coast area,where humidity is high, i do not think it has a effect
on the shake and bake method as i get excellent results.

[popper]

Keep your powder dry! I tried last nite after 4" of rain, almost worked, pretty spotty, clumpy powder in the tub.

[MacFan]

What brands are people having success with? Airsoft brand is tough to find around here. Crossman and Aftermath are easier to find.

[jimbo1950]

Crossman black bbs from Wall mart

[bangerjim]

Got my black 'uns at WM and are Crossman. My white ones are just a bulk bag I bought on-line several years ago. They do not seem to work as well as the black ones.

Good to hear some out there are having some success in very humid areas. "tis the season" for more rain! If 'yall on the gulf coast can get it to work, it should work just about everywhere else!!!!!

banger

[hickfu]

Im getting slightly better results with some old copper BB's I had sitting around from years ago then the AirSoft ones. Maybe its because I cant shake and swirl very long without my arms hurting too much.. But 2 coats seems to be working good for me and its fun to just do something.
Still need to get them pics taken and posted...


Doc

[hickfu]

Ok, here are 2 pics of my PC'ing 35-200 boolits...
Im not a good picture taker!




Maybe I should start taking pics with my phone.... I see better pics being taken with them.
Doc

[hickfu]

Hmm, Lets see if my camera takes better close up pics...



Yup, looks like it does... sorry about the redundancy of pics here

Doc

[ebner glocken]

Im getting slightly better results with some old copper BB's I had sitting around from years ago then the AirSoft ones. Maybe its because I cant shake and swirl very long without my arms hurting too much.. But 2 coats seems to be working good for me and its fun to just do something.
Still need to get them pics taken and posted...


Doc

If your arm gets tired try this method. If you already have a vibratory cleaner this takes the hand work out of it for the most part. Somewhere between 5 to 10 minutes works. I'm sure the time can vary due to powder used, humidity, size, contours of bullets used....etc. It's much easier to just watch the video than explain in text here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fxn-cbDikRk

Ebner

[hickfu]

If your arm gets tired try this method. If you already have a vibratory cleaner this takes the hand work out of it for the most part. Somewhere between 5 to 10 minutes works. I'm sure the time can vary due to powder used, humidity, size, contours of bullets used....etc. It's much easier to just watch the video than explain in text here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fxn-cbDikRk

Ebner

My arms dont get tired from it, I have Fibromyalgia and a lot of other things wrong with me.. It causes a lot of pain to move but if I dont move then all of my joints stiffen up so bad. Kind of a catch 22... move and hurt / dont move and hurt LOL
I saw that thread and thought about getting one to do that with but figured it wasnt worth the cost when I can do 2 coats real quick.
I have the Stainless pin tumbler to clean cases...

Just finished up a small batch of 45acp boolits with powder coating.. I really want to get some other colors now, but I will wait to see how they shoot first before spending the money.

Doc

[rondog]

So, is it the HARDNESS of the black airsoft BB's that makes them work better? The hard plastic BB's or even cheap beads, as long as they're hard? I'm assuming the softer, more rubbery BB's are NOT the right ones?

Or do I have this backwards?

[bangerjim]

Hardness seems to be the thing.

I started my testing with the lightest Airsoft and ended up with the heaviest 0.25gm (black). They are made from different plastics as they shatter differently when hit with a hammer or hitting a hard surface. Several of my Airsoft guns have almost 600 FPS and really hit hard.

The phase of the moon and how you hold your mouth are also very important variables in this method.............

banger

[MacFan]

Got my black 'uns at WM and are Crossman. My white ones are just a bulk bag I bought on-line several years ago. They do not seem to work as well as the black ones.

Good to hear some out there are having some success in very humid areas. "tis the season" for more rain! If 'yall on the gulf coast can get it to work, it should work just about everywhere else!!!!!

banger

Thanks Banger,
Just picked up the Crossman black .25gm at WM. Probably won't get to cast bullets until Sunday.

[kfarm]

Just a reminder, if you are using one of the take a longs container, don't get carried away. The bottoms break out very easily with bb's and rifle boolits.

[Scout800a]

I'm not sure how you guys come up with this stuff but I love it. i just come along behind and do what has worked. Mirror blue tumble violently with more boolits than I can fit on one tray and cross man BB's works great. First ones I've shot performed as hoped. Awesome.

[xacex]

Good enough for an afternoon of fun!

[Beagle333]

That's a nice color of blue. I like!

[popper]

OK, got the fog out of the brain. Polyprop(#5) works as it HOLDS static elec. longer than anything but virgin teflon (DF elec. char.) & glassy crystals - diamond, sapphire, etc. Yea, studying I did in the 70's. Swirling powder generates the static & humidity kills (drains off) the static. My really conductive skin also drains it off! AS BBs may increase static but also cushion the boolits from collision that knocks off powder. Both the AS & Cu plated bbs may hammer some powder into the lead, suspect this is more of a vibrator tumbler effect. Seems like the high impact variety ASBB are made from a silica compound (glass?). Don't think the biodegradable would work well but I haven't tried them. I did try the ES gun to increase static in the tub - didn't work even with the tub on a grounded plate. Maybe too much info for many but I like to know why stuff works. Anyway, first time I tried with out AS worked, second didn't -same jug, same powder. Each time with AS it did work, unless the humidity was high.