First time ASBB powdercoat Half good

[farmerjim]

I had electrostatic gun powdercoated once about a year ago and it worked fine, but I found it too much work.
I have been watching the ASBB method, but never took the plunge until yesterday. I bought some black ASBB's from WW, and a plastic tub with lid and a "5" on the bottom( I don't use cool whip) . I put 125 125 gr 9mm boolits in the tub and covered them with the BB's. I opened a new HF red powder and put about 3 tablespoons in the tub. I put on the lid and swirled the mix for about 30 seconds. I took of the lid to see how it was going and WOW, they were coated like I had done it with the gun. I picked out the boolits with a pair of tweezers and put them on a tray covered with non stick foil. About 15 of the boolits were not fully covered so I put the lid back on and gave it a 15 second shake and they were all covered. I put these on the tray and baked them for 20 min at 400. The powder melted at 5 min. The Boolits all came out fully covered and passed the smash test. If you notice my location I am in south Louisiana and the humidity is somewhere near 100%. First batch finished and there was still a lot of powder in the bowl, I decided to do another batch.
I put in another 125 boolits and gave it the shake. I opened the lid and the boolits only had about a 10% coat. Put the lid back on and swirled and shook for another minute. Still only 10% coated. Thinking that it might be the humidity, I microwaved the powder to drive off the moisture. ( Note to self, Microwaves will concentrate on some of the BB's and melt them) Shook the mix and still only 10% covered. I put the mix in a jar and pulled a vacuum on it and let it sit for an hour while I baked some Boolits that I Hi-Teked. I put this mix back in the tub and shook it again with still only the 10% coverage. Discouraged, I poured 2 Tablespoons of fresh powder into the mix and shook again. 95% coverage this time. Not as good as the first time, but I baked them to see how they came out. They came out ok useable , but not near as good as the first batch.
Do I have to throw out all the unused powder every batch?
Any sugestions?

[gtgeorge]

I feel strange replying to a PC thread but from my limited experience of a few times, no the powder should work fine. I did my first ones while it was raining and they did fine. I know everyone talks about humidity but from my limited experience this method seems to work easily and just plain work. I am using Smoke's powder so not sure if that is the difference and I rub the tub on the carpet a little until it attracts.

BTW, never thought I would PC but it seems so easy....a mechanic like me can do it LOL.

[jcren]

I have never had that sever of a problem with left over powder. I just do more until I don't have much extra in the bowl then add a little more powder. Did you cast these bullets? I wonder if they had something on them that contaminated the first powder (graphite maybe)

[Beagle333]

I don't always get a good coat, but it helps if I absolutely shake it like a good dog on a possum. Don't baby it... shake it til you are scared the lid is gonna pop off, even with a good grip on it.

Anyway... that helps mine when they are being stubborn.
Good luck!

[farmerjim]

I Cast the boolits a week ago.They were stored in a box in an air conditioned room. Even in the first batch there were about 10 that did not take a coat while the rest took a heavy coat with minimal shaking. When the second batch did not coat I shook the p out of it. Then I tried drying the powder which did not work. Adding fresh powder to the tub did, but there were still (probably the original ones) about 10 that still did not coat. I may have to get some of Smoke's powders, everyone says they work better.

[Motor]

I never put more than 2 teaspoons of powder in my shaker bowel. I have had to add powder because there wasn't enough in the bowl to coat the boolits.

I have about 2000 BBs in my shaker bowel. Humidity here in WV can be as high as anywhere I've never noticed a difference yet.

All I have used so far is HF red so I think my comparison is valid.

I have no clue why you are having trouble.

Motor

PS: Sorry I lied. I put 4 teaspoons in when I switched to black BBs. The extra was to coat the BBs.

[Beagle333]

If you're only getting 10 out of 125 that won't coat.... put them aside and when you get enough of em to make it worthwhile..... drag out the ol ESPC gun again for those.

[jcren]

May or may not help, but smokes powders are high quality and proven to work with asbb.