1st stab at powder coating. Got questions.

[blueline541]

Having no clue what I'm doing I bought some HF red, a used $6 toaster oven from the Goodwill, and some black airsoft pellets from Walmart. I did the shake and bake method in a No. 5 marked plastic container with lid. A did one coat on my .45 acp boolits and baked them for twenty minutes at 400 degrees.

This is what I got...splotchy finish with plenty of visible areas that appear to have no powder coating at all.





Next I tried a very small batch of my 405 gr. .45-70 Govt boolits. I did two coats just like the one I did above on the .45s.

Much better....





At this point I realize I don't really know what I'm doing. Are the .45 acp boolits any good as they are, or do they need a second coat? Any suggestions on how to get a better first coat on these boolits? Two coats makes the process so slow, compared to my Star, that powder coating doesn't seem to be a viable option for regular handgun shooting.

Forgot to add that it is raining today, although I'm doing all this in the kitchen.

[silverado]

I noticed that if I have too much pc in my tumble container they come out splotchy. I have never used the airsoft bb method. I would bet as long as they are mostly coated along the barrel riding surface you might as well shoot them... no harm is wasting all that hard work.

[Taylor]

yours look a lot better than mine.I have tried every method.read all the post and stickies,watched all the you tube videos,just can't make it work for me.wet and dry tumble,shake and bake using a vibrating tumbler and hand shake.used numerous #5 containers also.used rubbing alcohol,denatured alcohol,paint and lacquer thinner and..acetone,both to clean and wet tumble.All this with harbor freight powder.the red sticks to everything but the lead.the yellow just globs up.you my friend are way ahead of me in results with this pc.good luck.

[RED333]

I use 2 or 3 coats sometimes to get a full coat, not a big deal to me.
Still in the learning faze here.

[Bill in Ky]

I too am new to PCing but I have found that when my boolets are not completely covered i add a little more HF red and shake.
The powder has to become charged with static electricity, so I swirl the boolits., 50 452 200 SWC's at a time, then I shake the CoolWhip bowl up and down, this will get the powder in the air and let it find the boolits. I do use the WalMart black bb's.
If its humid sometimes it takes a couple of tries to get them covered, and sometimes I will put half on the tray and shake the rest again.
I wear a latex glove and with that hand, I pick up a boolit and gently roll it between my finger and thumb, You can even dip your fingers down in the powder and it will add some coating to the boolit.
Just my $.02

[Taylor]

Bill,where you at in Ky?

[Beagle333]

The ASBBDT is still sort of a mystery to me as well. Sometimes I get nice almost-as-slick-as-ESPC boolits, and other times they still have silver showing on the second coat.
It's great when it works, though! I still have 3 powders that I haven't tried yet, so I don't know if it is powder related, or some other influence. So far though, I have had the best (probably 90% of the time) coverage with Smoke's green powder. HF red is working out about half the time.

[JohnH]

Your first picture looks like what I get. When shooting yesterday with plain lubed boolits, I had a failure to feed that I'd not had with ASBBDT boolits. I think that the slickness of the PC coat does aid feeding, just not yet sure that the pleasure outweighs the pain.

[Bill in Ky]

Taylor,
I am 2 hours up I24 from MusicCity. Near the lake.

[el34]

There have been enough positive comments about the powder from Smoke so I ordered some. A vigorous 30sec shake back-forth and a gentle shake up-down and they were completely and thickly covered. Rolling between thumb and finger before setting them on the foil evened out everything.

So if 1 out of 1 tests is conclusive I'd say I found the recipe.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...Smoke-s-powder

[Beagle333]

There have been enough positive comments about the powder from Smoke so I ordered some. A simple shake back-forth and another shake up-down and they were completely and thickly covered. Rolling between thumb and finger before setting them on the foil evened out everything.

So far.... Smoke is the man!!!!

[True.grit]

When using the tumble method do not forget to rub on the carpet. It seems to build a better charge than not doing it. I also use white air soft pellets as they were cheaper than buying the black ones. I have been pc for about a month now and have had no problems at all. Great processes , never going back to grease.

[mdi]

May be unrelated, but in my area, Coastal Southern Oregon it's pretty damp and not much static electricity "in the air". Sometimes I get good coverage with one shake session, at other times with the same components the coverage is a bit more spotty...

BTW, been away for a few days so I guess I missed Smoke's powder sales info. Link anyone?

[el34]

This is what I got...splotchy finish with plenty of visible areas that appear to have no powder coating at all.

Next I tried a very small batch of my 405 gr. .45-70 Govt boolits. I did two coats just like the one I did above on the .45s.

Much better....

At this point I realize I don't really know what I'm doing.

yours look a lot better than mine.I have tried every method.read all the post and stickies,watched all the you tube videos,just can't make it work for me.wet and dry tumble,shake and bake using a vibrating tumbler and hand shake.used numerous #5 containers also.used rubbing alcohol,denatured alcohol,paint and lacquer thinner and..acetone,both to clean and wet tumble.All this with harbor freight powder.the red sticks to everything but the lead.the yellow just globs up.you my friend are way ahead of me in results with this pc.good luck.

mdi- Sometimes I get good coverage with one shake session, at other times with the same components the coverage is a bit more spotty.

Have y'all tried the Harbor Freight ElectroStatic gun? All that stuff goes away, it just works. Any powder. Any phase of the moon. Any humidity. Just can't do it in the kitchen unless it's an outdoor one.

[Beagle333]

This one?
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...ver-fund-Drive

[Beagle333]

Have y'all tried the Harbor Freight ElectroStatic gun? All that stuff goes away, it just works. Any powder. Any phase of the moon. Any humidity.

But I done collected all this stuff!!!!

[el34]

Beagle, you're a bit more complicated than I realized. Something about your youth activities I guess.

[blueline541]

My second attempt, with 158 gr bullets, turned out real nice with two coats. Here they are on top of 12.8 gr. of AA#9. Accuracy was what I was wanting, and I had zero leading. When I finished shooting I swabbed the barrel with a single patch of Break-Free and the barrel was mirror clean.

I'm sold.

[mdi]

Have y'all tried the Harbor Freight ElectroStatic gun? All that stuff goes away, it just works. Any powder. Any phase of the moon. Any humidity. Just can't do it in the kitchen unless it's an outdoor one.

Yep, have one. But, I can only use it when it isn't raining, 'cause it must be done outdoors. I tried spraying in my reloading shed, and that extra fine powder gets everywhere! Two windows open, door open (2' away from bench), one 12" fan, 1, 6" fan. Still wiping green powder off tools from my last PC session, 3 months ago...

[bangerjim]

I am able to coat any boolit with any powder (except matte finishes) using the modified method I have posted many times. It is a version of the original BBDT using black BB's in a #5 screw-on lid ZipLok container.

Swirl for 1.5-2 min vigorously.

Then......VERY IMPORTANT for 100% coverage.........

SHAKE up & down hard for 20-30 seconds. (the reason for the screw-on lid!)

This gives 110% coverage every time. 110% means you have to tap your hemos against the lip of the container to knock any loose powder off. This works GRRRRRRRRRREAT! Every time. The shaking suspends the powder/bb/boolit mix in the air and allows the powder to really stick to the boolits. Don't ask me how............it just works.

The ESPC method is still by far the best and most reliable. You just need to be willing to invest around $70 for the gun. And have a compressor and hoses and regs.

Have fun a-coatin'!

bangerjim

ps..........that is ONLY one coat......no more. If it takes 2 coats, I use a different powder or method. And bake at 400F for ONLY 10 min. Any longer is a waste of time and electricity. 10 min is the industry standard.