PC tumble coating in a vibrating tumbler?

[Reverend Al]

Greetings all!

Excuse me if this has been covered on here before, but I've seen a few posts on FB lately about using a vibrating brass tumbler for powder coating boolits rather than swirling them in a plastic container with air soft BB's. Has anyone played with this method yet? What sort of results did you get? Do you still include the plastic BB's to generate more static and get better bullet coverage? Just wondering about giving this method a try ...

[bangerjim]

Yes I and others have played with it! Aa few still insist on using it.

Personally I find it an absolute total waste of time. Why waste 15-30 minutes when you can swirl and shake boolits in 20 SECONDS in a #5 ZipLok screw-on container with ASBB's????? No one has ever explained why the vibrate.....in over 3 years. I get PERFECT (85+% ESPC finish quality) doing this the swirl-n-shake method......and 100% coverage. Even with HF red!

Vibrating does grind/sluff of lead from that long violent action and causes your lighter coats to get dark from the lead dust.

And look at the mess you have in your brass vibrator above!!!!!! And my vib bowl is NOT #5 plastic.....the best we have found after much experimentation.

Swirling and shaking gives you a little upper body work-out!

bangerjim

[Dragonheart]

When I first started powder coating about 2 years ago I did what a fellow gun club member was doing using a coolwhip container. Since I was shooting 200 rounds a week in IDPA plus practice, I just couldn't get the volume I needed with the shake and bake, so I started experimenting with tumblers. I built my own by converting a small tumbler (see photo). I tumble 5-6 pounds of bullets with BB's at a time in just a few minutes. I drop the load in a flat bottom plastic dishpan and soldier the bullets base down on three oven racks covered with sheetmetal for a a smooth flat surface covered by a silicon mat. I am getting 3-4 hundred bullets on each rack and cooking 1K+ bullets at a time. I get complete single coat coverage and the bullets look great. I have volume, speed and good bullets, I really don't know what else anyone could ask for.
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[shoot-n-lead]

When I first started powder coating about 2 years ago I did what a fellow gun club member was doing using a coolwhip container. Since I was shooting 200 rounds a week in IDPA plus practice, I just couldn't get the volume I needed with the shake and bake, so I started experimenting with tumblers. I built my own by converting a small tumbler (see photo). I tumble 5-6 pounds of bullets with BB's at a time in just a few minutes. I drop the load in a flat bottom plastic dishpan and soldier the bullets base down on three oven racks covered with sheetmetal for a a smooth flat surface covered by a silicon mat. I am getting 3-4 hundred bullets on each rack and cooking 1K+ bullets at a time. I get complete single coat coverage and the bullets look great. I have volume, speed and good bullets, I really don't know what else anyone could ask for.
Attachment 159056Attachment 159057

I like that...volume production...without volume time...and it works.

I have gone from "shake and bake"...to tumble...but I just dump the bullets, shake off the excess and cook'em...yields clean, good shooting bullets, every time. So, like you said, "What else can you ask for"?

[Dragonheart]

I like that...volume production...without volume time...and it works.

I have gone from "shake and bake"...to tumble...but I just dump the bullets, shake off the excess and cook'em...yields clean, good shooting bullets, every time. So, like you said, "What else can you ask for"?

Yes, my method works and it doesn't grind off lead or change the color of the powder. When I said I started experimenting with tumblers two years ago I met exactly that, experimenting.

I knew the shake and bake was not for me and my first experiment was dropping the bullet mix into a case tumbler. I immediately found the scalloped shape of the bowl on many case tumblers and the aggressive action, although great for cartridge cases, was too aggressive for my PC bullets. Apparently, this is what the "Case Tumblers Don't Work" tried and then stopped at that point, and if I had stopped there I would agree.

Since I could identify the problems with bullet tumbling I continued on by trying different commercial tumblers. I found my large Dillon tumbler with a big smooth interior bowl made a big difference, so the smooth bowl interior was needed, but the vibrating action on the big Dillon was still too strong. Additionally, I didn't want to have to clean powder out of my big tumbler when I needed it for cases.

I decided to get what I wanted I would have to make my own and started with what I knew worked, a smooth bowl. I also needed a large bowl for volume and it needed to be heavy duty. So I used what I had on hand, an old plastic 5 gallon painter's bucket. It was simple to remove the rod attaching the original tumbler's bowl to a small case tumbler and substituting the painter's bucket in its place. A cut out from a thick floor mat under the bucket and a 1/4"x20 screw and fender washer held the bucket tight and upright. My bucket worked well, but the unit was still more aggressive than I wanted.

I found by placing my hands on the top edge of the bucket and gently applying a downward force I could control the amount of agitation. At that point I had my answer, I just added a base and a couple of tie rods that would duplicate the duplicate the same effect. By adjusting the tension on the rods I was able to control the amount of vibration of my mix. The base and rods also provided more stability. Shoot-n-lead, you stated it quite well...volume production...without volume time...and it works for me.

[Walter Laich]

I've been known to put bullets in my #5 container and then put that in a tumbler. Works but is slower than straight 'shake and shout' method.

My biggest problem is keeping enough bullets cast for I can PC. I'm forever running out of freshly case ones.

such is life

[coxa2]

My biggest problem is keeping enough bullets cast for I can PC. I'm forever running out of freshly case ones.

such is life

Must be a rough life

[454PB]

I'm new to PC'ing, but I use a vibratory tumbler. I place the boolits in a Ziploc freezer bag, add a teaspoon of HF red, and drop them in the tumbler for 5 minutes. I then dump the boolits into a dollar store screen strainer to eliminate excess powder, then onto parchment paper. I place them in my preheated toaster oven and cook 20 minutes at 375 degrees.

[IMG][/IMG]

[Dragonheart]

I've been known to put bullets in my #5 container and then put that in a tumbler. Works but is slower than straight 'shake and shout' method.

My biggest problem is keeping enough bullets cast for I can PC. I'm forever running out of freshly case ones.

such is life

Walter have you tried running two 4 cavity molds simultaneously? That's what I do and in an afternoon I can cast several thousand bullets. I try to get as much as possible done during the winter & spring because I don't have to tell you about Texas summers.

[dahermit]

Walter have you tried running two 4 cavity molds simultaneously?

In most cases (most calibers I cast for), I use two 6-cavity Lee molds at the same time to obtain maximum production. I started using one, single cavity Lyman molds in the early sixties but now I do not have the patience for that.

[dahermit]

[IMG][/IMG]

Is that one coat of Harbor Freight Red? Wow! I cannot get that good of coverage with it with one coat using the tumble method.

[454PB]

Yup, one coat.

[bangerjim]

Mine all look like that using the ZipLok round container manual BBDT shake-n-bake method. I have always had excellent luck with only ONE coat of HF red. Just gotta hold your mouth right.

banger

[chutesnreloads]

Why don't I run out of boolits that fast?Must be spending too much time aiming....

[Dragonheart]

I'm new to PC'ing, but I use a vibratory tumbler. I place the boolits in a Ziploc freezer bag, add a teaspoon of HF red, and drop them in the tumbler for 5 minutes. I then dump the boolits into a dollar store screen strainer to eliminate excess powder, then onto parchment paper. I place them in my preheated toaster oven and cook 20 minutes at 375 degrees.
[IMG][/IMG]

The problem I have with the dump method is it does not leave a flat base on the bullet. Granted, it's faster and if all your shooting is short range it probably doesn't make a lot of difference, but for Bullseye accuracy it's all the little things that add up to an accurate load and since the base of the bullet steers it, flat is better.

[rototerrier]

I use my Tumbler on large runs. I use the exact same BB method, but swap out the tub with the tumbler. Only let the tumbler run maybe 5 minutes and come back and all 1000 boolits I put in are fully coated. I then use a plastic media sifter over a bucket and start dumping a little at a time onto that. Shake to separate loose powder and bb's and then, using those blue rubber harbor freight gloves with dusting on the fingers, I xfer the bullets base down to a pan. Repeat until the pan is full. Place pan in oven and fill another pan while those are baking. Simple and effective process.

5 min in a tumbler replacing countless swirls by hand in a tub. Again, only do this when I am processing 500+. Anything less and I just use the tubs.

[Dragonheart]

I use my Tumbler on large runs. I use the exact same BB method, but swap out the tub with the tumbler. Only let the tumbler run maybe 5 minutes and come back and all 1000 boolits I put in are fully coated. I then use a plastic media sifter over a bucket and start dumping a little at a time onto that. Shake to separate loose powder and bb's and then, using those blue rubber harbor freight gloves with dusting on the fingers, I xfer the bullets base down to a pan. Repeat until the pan is full. Place pan in oven and fill another pan while those are baking. Simple and effective process.

5 min in a tumbler replacing countless swirls by hand in a tub. Again, only do this when I am processing 500+. Anything less and I just use the tubs.

Another satisfied customer. The point is Tumblers can be made to work for powder coating.

[NYBushBro]

For those looking to do VOLUME coating, I'd have to say that this is something to at the very least 'look into'...

[jimb16]

I'm playing with using the tumbler to do the shaking on #5 containers. Seems like 30 seconds is enough to get a good coating. I'm using nitrile gloves to remove and place the boolits for baking. seems to be working well for me. The short time seems to prevent the PC from discoloring. I do agree though, long rifle boolits are a bit of a pain to keep upright when placing a tray in the oven. There has to be a better mousetrap.

[Dragonheart]

In another post, my problem with using a small tumbler was the action was too aggressive, especially with a bowls that were not completely smooth inside. This design works well with tumbling media for cases, but no so for powder coating. I did try placing the containers into the tumbler, but volume was a problem and the containers tended to bounce. So far I am happy with the action of my tumblers, I made two, and I can coat volumes bullets, more than I have time to shoot. I tried the nitrile gloves, but age has robbed me of the dexterity I once had, so I use self closing tweezers, which is by far the fastest method of removing the dumped bullets from my plastic dishpan. The tweezers allow me to stack the bullet very close so I can get a lot on a tray; using a finger means your bullets are a finger's width apart. The silicon mats keep the bullets from sliding. The methods and materials I recommend to new powder coaters comes from my trying other methods and materials then deciding what works best for me to get a volume of quality accurate bullets, the fastest way possible. Everyone should do the same, as needs vary.