powder coating with rotary tumbler

[Dragonheart]

Smokes is a quality powder!

[tbobbo]

I thought I had this down.........I used hf red in my dry tumbler. Put them in the tumbler for a few minutes while the oven preheated......., Sift, then dump on a pan with parchment paper......it was beautiful! Now a few months later.......2 coats are almost not enough. I hope my powder just got old or moisture in it. I did just leave it in the tumbler for a few months.

[Dragonheart]

Powder needs to be kept completely dry with as little air as possible when stored. Your powder picked up moisture, just dump it and start again with fresh powder.

[RP]

DO NOT TRY TO DRY IT OUT IN THE OVEN sorry I could not help myself. I will go back to PC soon I am kind of worried all my powders have gone bad on me.I think next time I will vac seal them.

[Dragonheart]

Vac seal sounds like a good idea and I use it on many things, like my molds, ammo, seldom used tools, etc. but trying to get a fluffy fine powder where it will not be picked up by the vacuum tube is something I have not figured out.

Moisture and heat are the big problems with powder storage. For years I have stored my powders in airtight canisters and the canisters are stored in the garage fridge. I let the canister come up to room temp before opening. So far they all continue to work and some powders are several years old.

[RP]

I was thinking a ziplock bag then vac seal the ziplock should keep the powder in check I just want to seal it. Heck just drawing some air out and then sealing would keep moisture out a vacuum is not a must.

[Lloyd Smale]

must be the type of pc your using. I use smokes black and got much better results with my vibrating tumbler then I did a plastic bowl. I tried plastic bbs and lead buckshot with the bullets in it but found it works just fine with just the bullets. I have Frankfort arsenal cheap tumbler I keep just for pc coating. 15 minutes in the tumbler then I dump them in a strainer to get the powder out and just dump them on a cookie sheat with non stick aluminum foil and bake and it get perfectly coated bullets. No need at all for a second coat.

I guess I'd say the simple fact of just experimentation and knowing it could be done you never tried something just for fun I don't see how your vibrating tumbler knocks the powder off mine makes it cling to it pretty well and not knock any powder off

[Dragonheart]

I agree a tumbler will set powder when a coolwhip container won't. Problem is most tumblers are too aggressive and have too small of a bowl. That is the reason I used a tumbler base; removed the bowl and replaced it with a 5 gallon #5 plastic bucket. It is secured to a plywood base using two allthread rods, which allow me to adjust the tension and the vibration of the tumbler. This allows me to coat 300+ bullets at a time.