a trick for tumble powder coating

[Artful]

Got my black 'uns at WM and are Crossman.

banger

Well as of today, I've got 5000 .25gram Crosman High Impact black ($15+)
- I got Harbor Freight Red
- I'm working on a #5 Container, Non-stick foil and an Oven
- so we are getting close now

[Beagle333]

You are on the way now, Artful!

Yesterday I found a small sample of some forgotten tumble lube boolits that someone had given me. I think they got tumbled twice, because there were waaaay too thick with lube...


But I gave em a quick swirl in some gas to remove the Alox, then a quick swirl in some thinner to remove the gas, and they shined right up......


then tossed em in the Airsoft BB bowl for a quick tumble. I baked them up real nice and red and now they are ready for heavy loading for some high speed water jug detonating.

Not nearly as slick as usual, but they didn't start out real slick, as they were already kinda beat up before tumbling, but it was fast (especially for this few boolits)and they'll shoot just fine.

[bangerjim]

Stripping the old lube off boolits is something I do all the time and it works VERY well as you show above.

I have quite a few thousand Missouri boolits with the blue grease and I am gradually stripping them down with laq thinner and Simple Green to PC.

They coat perfectly!

banger

[bangerjim]

Well as of today, I've got 5000 .25gram Crosman High Impact black ($15+)
- I got Harbor Freight Red
- I'm working on a #5 Container, Non-stick foil and an Oven
- so we are getting close now

By the time we head to Payson in July, you will be an olde hand at this! Let us know if you run into any glitches.

banger

[Polecat]

Well I did it I tumbled some 44 cal 240gr for my wife's 444. Used the soft black BB's PBTP cobalt blue 340 degrees 10 min. They are not as smooth as es but They are covered good enough. I'm happy.

[kryogen]

will have to try this. might be the fix to my ESPC rage. Will buy those black pellets tomorrow and try dry tumbling in a #5 container.

[xacex]

will have to try this. might be the fix to my ESPC rage. Will buy those black pellets tomorrow and try dry tumbling in a #5 container.

Your welcome! Let us know how it works for ya.

[tpc_knight]

I went to walmart and grabbed the .2g white Crosman bbs. HF red and a gladware container, along with 100 9mms.

It has been a little humid, so perhaps I didn't have enough static. The coverage on some was pretty good, but it wasn't nearly as good as some of you guys seem to be getting. Maybe the gladware isn't as good as cool whip bowls-- my wife has cool whip she has promised to use this week so I have a bowl to make pretty bullets in lol.


This was before baking.

Here they are after baking, 400 for 15 minutes:


I have not shot any PCed boolits yet. I am looking forward to it, as LLA is not ideal for me. Hopefully I can figure out the coverage thing, but if the coverage I've got is enough to prevent leading, I won't mind.

Thanks to all the contributors here!

[Beagle333]

I don't know if the white makes static as well as the black, but I do see that you have boolits touching boolits in your shaking pan, and they are probably scraping the coating off each other. Perhaps on the next try, use half as many boolits and make sure they are floating in colored BBs only and see if that doesn't help get rid of the scuff marks.

It does look like you have enough coverage to prevent leading, but I bet you could get it much smoother using fewer boolits during tumbling, even if you have to tumble and pick them out two or three times to get a pan/rack full.

[bangerjim]

tpc..........2 things........

I found the white bb's did not work nearly as well as the black. Some said the crossman white did work but I cannot attest to the quality (my standards are very high!). I have generic white ones. Black Airsoft bb's give me 99+% coating quality.......with RED only.

Round #5 containers are the only ones I have found that work and prevent impact divots! Square corners lead to many quality problems. Get some #5 ROUND containers and try it again. Coolwhip, ZipLok, and other ROUND containers of polypro (#5) plastic.

Your mileage may vary, but that is what works for me!

banger

[xacex]

TPC, I would shoot those! they may be a little imperfect, but I bet they will do just fine. Great first try!

[Jr.]

This thread is a perfect example of why this forum is so great. Can't wait to try this method got a friend that's gonna give me some Eastwood yellow to try.



I think it is time to scream sticky!

[Walter Laich]

Got to try the black BBs and hf red last night. The red had some yellow in it but the method worked as described.
Was thinking of putting the container back in the tumbler and see what that does. That might work now that we have the BB buffer material in there.
Will report back--but do like this method too.
walt

[Love Life]

I think it is time to scream sticky!

Then nobody would read it.

I got my BB's so I hope to give this a try this week. I just have to get over picking them out with pliers or something similar.

[bangerjim]

Then nobody would read it.

I got my BB's so I hope to give this a try this week. I just have to get over picking them out with pliers or something similar.

Agree. There are sooooooo many of those darned gooey things you cannot find anything. Best way is a Google search and it will direct you RIGHT HERE! I use that all the time now when searching for something I saw on here.

Amazing how a foreign system can interrogate and know what is in this system better than this system knows what is in itself!

[hanleyfan]

I have only tried two types and come to the conclusion that the 25g bbs work best, I tried 20g bbs of two colors and they worked but not as good as the 25g bbs. of which were geen and black and they both worked equally well.

[Beagle333]

I'm using the .25g black, but that's what they had. I guess I got lucky the first time out.

[Walter Laich]

followup
putting the container in a vibrating tumbler does no good at all
.
Did learn you can shake the container too hard. I backed off and got good coverage. Had several teaspoons of hf red in the container and put about 1/4 teaspoon of commercial blue in--ended up with purple bullets. Probably could have used half that amount--will try next time.
.
I like this method but ES gun is still my favorite. I may get tired of it now the road but right now too much fun to quit.

[Rushthezeppelin]

followup
putting the container in a vibrating tumbler does no good at all
.
Did learn you can shake the container too hard. I backed off and got good coverage. Had several teaspoons of hf red in the container and put about 1/4 teaspoon of commercial blue in--ended up with purple bullets. Probably could have used half that amount--will try next time.
.
I like this method but ES gun is still my favorite. I may get tired of it now the road but right now too much fun to quit.

Ya I think the tumbler method is only good for copper BBs the way Ebner is doing it. I think these two systems while looking remarkably similar work of different principles. The airsoft BBs seem to work off static same as ES gun and dry tumble whereas the copper BB method actually impregnates a thin layer onto the lead much like moly coating. Personally when I get around to it, I'm going to be trying the copper BB method as it seems like it can use powders that aren't good for DT (like the APP Pink I've had problems with).

[MacFan]

Crossman black .25gm. Extreme Mirror Black from All Powder Paints (Ebay), 15 minutes at 375.
Seems a little thick but it flowed out nicely with very few flaws.