1st At PC, need some help

[Zaneiel]

I didnt have much luck with the shake and bb method. I found adding a little laquer thinner to the powder and mixing it well till disolved worked well. You cover the boolits very fast. Also these are going to stick to your pan when you cure them so if you set them up so they arent on thier sides they finish pretty nice. Make sure you push size them.... helps alot. I am about to buy the hf spray gun and try that route next as those seem to get very nice finishes.

[bangerjim]

You mean you change out a light switch with the power on, bare fingers and a non-insulated screw driver in your shorts and bare footed? Don't you know you have to turn off the power, check the wires with a meter to make sure it is off, get insulated gloves, insulated screw driver and pliers before you can even start?? Don't forget the insulated boots and insulating mat. LOL

Some people are afraid of electricity. One should RESPECT it, not FEAR it! I work 120 & 220 AC all the time with the circuit hot. Just takes common sense and care (something many today do not have). After 55 years of doing it that way.......still no problems. When it comes to 480 I will kill the circuit!

[bangerjim]

I'm new to PC but having good results with HF red & S&B. I use screw top plastic containers, not a lot of powder enough BB to cover the bottom of the bowl 2 deep. Shake vigorously for 1min, works out here in Kalif. I use forceps as well to remove them, stand them base down on wire drawer organizers. They stick a tiny bit after baking but pop right off.
Just got some of Smoke's powders to try. Pretty simple w/o the mess of a sprayer.

Use NSAF! Nothing will stick! Even a tiny bit.

I have one rack that has been used for at least 40 bakes with BBDT and the foil is still 100% intact. Boolits litterally fall off. Just be sure and read the foil to get the NS surface up.

banger

[gpidaho]

rosewood: I certainly didn't mean to trivialize starting out problems. Sometimes a statement comes across better face to face with a grin than it does in print. Hope ya get it workin for ya, Gp

[rosewood]

rosewood: I certainly didn't mean to trivialize starting out problems. Sometimes a statement comes across better face to face with a grin than it does in print. Hope ya get it workin for ya, Gp

Nah. My skin is thicker than that!

[Smoke4320]

Biggest issue I continue to see is people afraid to shake HARD enough doing the DT Method.
Nearly everyone who writes directly to me with problems go away when I tell them to shake harder.. Count to 30 while swirling then count to 30 while shaking HARD

[bangerjim]

YES!!!!!!!!!! SHAKE HARD!!!!!!!!!!!

Works every time! That is why you use screw-on ZipLok containers. Or hold on real tight with coolwhip bowls.

bangerjim

[fredj338]

Biggest issue I continue to see is people afraid to shake HARD enough doing the DT Method.
Nearly everyone who writes directly to me with problems go away when I tell them to shake harder.. Count to 30 while swirling then count to 30 while shaking HARD

This how I started, works for me.

[Handloader109]

Guys, it is the cheap HF red, will not hold static nearly as well as other brands. And I'll not be shaking hard enough to ding up the bullets. It doesn't take that much to get powder to stick. No bbs either.

[bangerjim]

HF powders are a bit courser and are a totally different base material (at lease for now!) than Smoke's powder. I am sure their formulae/quality will change when the buy their next big batch from China....as does everything else they sell.

That is the difference.

banger

[gpidaho]

Well friends lol, it seems I've pretty much been doing everything PC wrong from the very start. This goes to my point as to how hard it is to mess up powder coating and maybe two, three or more wrongs do in fact make a right. Here we go and I hope you all get a giggle out of this. From the start, way back when I've used full sized aluminum plates to replace the rack in my oven. Hating Cool Whip I use the plastic cottage cheese containers #5. When ASBBDTing I use a ratio of about 1/4 to 1/3 powder to BBs (much more powder than most of you guys) I don't SHAKE the container anymore than just turning it upside down and giving it a light shake to redistribute the powder BB mix, this to avoid banging the boolits together. I've never checked my oven with a thermometer and relied soley on the 400 degree setting, at what ever temp this is really it works to perfection when I bake for 20 mins. On occasion in poor conditions outside I open a window in my reloading room, set the oven next to an exhaust fan and run a batch or two inside. Yet I've NEVER had a smash test fail and the coating on my boolits looks great! I'd post a pic or two but I guess the fumes have "Tarded" me to the extent that I can't figure out how (I'm no computer whiz) But as to quality looking PC bollits I can keep up with most. Love hearing from you guys and reading all the theories this whole PC thing is lots of fun and very functional, please keep posting what works for you. There truly is a lot of ways to skin the cat. Enjoy the day Gp

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

shake hard and up and down , not swirl like you do with alox

I started with a brand new rubber maid reusable/disposable 2 quart container , after about 500 boolits I had a crack in the bottom but was getting much better coverage with the vigorous up down shaking , I duct taped my crack from the outside and and still going , I will have to replace the container if the duct tape won't hold the crack but it is holding for now

I got ok coverage with more moderate shaking, just sort of tossing the bullets up and down 15-20 seconds but 30 seconds of vigorous up down shaking so that they hit the lid and hit the bottom every time seems to be the ticket for a very god coating for me

I am using harbor freight red , there are some times I don't get 100% pigment coverage but if it is smooth an shiny the clear coat part has done it's job and that is ll you really need

I started by adding 1 table spoon of powder with my first batch of bbs and boolits , after the first few runs a table spoon every 200-300 boolits seems plenty I am mostly doing 9mm and 40cal so not huge boolits but about 100 -150 at a time
I must have near a thousand coated , most of them also already shot and it hardly seems like I have made a dent n my first pound of HF red and I bought a second pound already , I need to fire the pot up again and make several thousand more to coat

I size after the coat and they slip right through a Lee push through I am pushing the Lee 356-120tc that weigh 124gr so that they feel just like and print the same as factory ammo perfect to the factory sights on a G17 with the original barrel , and it is very clean after hundreds of rounds only powder residue left , one pull with the bore snake and it looks spotless

this is my son moving them to trays from the rubber maid container , I get a few more on a sheet than he does but free labor is worth what is paid for it some times , baking 400*F for 10 minutes in my good will special convection oven

you can see we use the niterill glove method of transfer , as long as you dip the fingers in the powder to get them coated well first it seems ot work very well it takes about 10 minutes to fill a tray If I get 1-2 more trays and have 3-4 going , then the only slow down will be how fast I can cast them.

[rosewood]

I think I wasn't shaking hard enough. Maybe we can turn the shaking into a work out routine. Should be good for the forearms and shoulders. I will also use less powder and more BBs next time as I now think I had way too much powder in my bowl. Will give an update once I have cast some more boolits I can PC. Thanks for all the suggestions!!

[gpidaho]

Just read GREENCOUNTYPETE's post. Sounds like another convert to me! Welcome to the gotta cast more so I can coat more so I can cast more addiction. I'm never going to lube a handgun boolit again myself. Gp

[MT Gianni]

You mean you change out a light switch with the power on, bare fingers and a non-insulated screw driver in your shorts and bare footed? Don't you know you have to turn off the power, check the wires with a meter to make sure it is off, get insulated gloves, insulated screw driver and pliers before you can even start?? Don't forget the insulated boots and insulating mat. LOL

You always see some that don't trust the house circuit and feel it is best to kill it at the pole.

[rosewood]

Got to test some PC'd boolits yesterday. Shot some in 40S&W and they shot well, no leading, minor paint chips in bbl that wiped right out. Shot some in 45acp and had some feed issues, seems I had them loaded too long and some of the boolits were jamming in the rifling and not letting the action close. Was quite a chore to safely open the action and remove the boolit. Guess I will have to seat these coated boolits deeper than I did lubed boolits. I think the coat is harder than the lead and is more of an issue when driving into the rifling with recoil spring power over lubed boolits. The did shoot clean also. I think I am gonna like this PC'ing once I get all of my kinks worked out.

Rosewood

[popper]

Rosewood - just drop the mag and pogo like an AR. I use a mag loader around the barrel to make it easier BUT make sure it's pointed in a safe direction AND you hand is NOT in the line of fire. I've not had one go off yet, but mine are striker fired. Don't know if 45 safety system will prevent accidental discharge.

[rosewood]

I dropped the mag and then pressed the slide against a wooden table clearing the barrel in a safe direction, it came out. However, I didn't like it. It is a series 80 which requires the trigger to be pulled to fire.

[gpidaho]

rosewood: I had quite a fight on my hands getting my old Ruger 97 DC to accept cast boolits of any kind, lubed or PCd. The old 45 is tough as nails but has no throat and just wouldn't go into battery without seating deeper than I would like. (should just have it throated) I started with a dummy round and a Lee FCD until I found a workable COL and then using my chronograph just worked the load up until I got the power level I wanted. Anytime you PC your adding dimension and this can be either a problem or a very handy asset. Gp

[rosewood]

Never had any issues with lubed boolits, just these PC'd boolits. Guessing the .002" of paint is causing a clearance issue. Kind of paranoid to use the FCD as that seems to cause more leading issues, but the PC may have solved that.