Old powder for coating???

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I am just now having a problem getting my bullets to take pc. I am using Harbor Freight Red. In the past no problem. I preheat the bullets to 150 then put them in the pc container to coat them. In the past this has worked great. Now I can take it to 175 or so and still can wipe the pc off after I try to coat them. Is this caused by old power coating material? The oven is working as usual. On bake with both elements working. I have tried different temps but nothing works. If I get it to hot the pc clumps on the bullets. It used to give me a nice coating.
The pc is a couple years old anyway. Watcha think?? If you ran into this problem in the past what did it turn out to be?

thanks

[TexasGrunt]

I've never used HF powder.

I've never found the need to preheat the boolits. I use a #5 container, some black plastic BBs and the powder sticks just fine.

I've powder coated thousands of boolits and thousands of fishing lures and jigs. Never had a problem. Have you checked the temp in your oven?

400° for 12-15 minutes or 375° for 15-20 minutes works with every powder I've ever tried.

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Thanks responded using my cell phone but it doesn't look like it worked.
Yep the elements are working fine. The oven heats like it should. I tried to eliminate any possibilities and the only thing I can think of is old PC.

Ok I tried the beads again. They worked better. The other way use to work great. Anyway I'll pick up some new pc today.
Let me ask you this one. How do you separate the beads from the boolits after coating the boolits? Do you just pick the boolits out of the beads one by one? I guess i could get a bigger screen but wondered how you do it.

thanks

[Walter Laich]

where do you live (unless you're in WITSEC)

has the powder been left open and in high humidity areas? do you PC outside? what kind of weather when you do it?

could be it has taken in enough water vapor to keep it from sticking

As far as picking them out I leave the BBs in and just pick out the bullets from the container

There was a time that I thought mine might be too damp so I brought the container in and left it open for several days--out of drafts and away from fans. Seemed to do better but then that what I was hoping for so might have been self-fulfilling results I was getting

anything different with the lead or casting techniques? Kroil in molds that didn't have a chance to burn off?

[thumbs]

No nothing special area with high or low humidity.
Anyway Powder Coat has a shelf life. I went to Harbor Freight and read the directions. It says "best if use within 6 months of opening container". I bought a new container of pc and brought it home. Did my "normal" routine. Preheat to 150 for 4 minutes. Dump the bullets into the pc and keep them moving for 30 seconds or so. Poured them out on a basket I made of chicken wire. They looked great just like they should. Nice even coating. Put them in the oven for 20 minutes at 400deg pulled them out and again perfect. Nice even coat just the right thickness to size to what I want. Glad that was the problem. So if anyone has a problem with the pc not sticking if the pc is older than 6 months it may be the problem. Mine is at least 2 years old. Maybe that had something to do with it. LOL

thanks guys.

[Smoke4320]

Yes old powder will affect the finish. Especially doing shake and bake. It's a plastic that will suck moisture over time
The contained moisture will kill the static charge

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Yep that is exactly what happened. Kinda surprised it lasted so long. One more disaster averted. LOL

[Bama]

You can take a portion of the absorbed moisture out of powder using a dehumidifier but it will take time. The moisture is what reduces the charge and causes powder to not stick. In the long run you should try some of Smokes powders--they are light years ahead of HF. Sure a lot less problems and has a finer finish as result of finer grind in color components.

[rsrocket1]

This isn't going to fix the powder, but if moisture is reducing the static charge, try this.

If you are using a Cool Whip or margarine tub (or hopefully something strong), shake the living daylights out of it for a while, take a breather, then shake again for all it's worth without letting the container open up and spill all over the place. You might be able to get the powder to stick better that way. In good conditions, I've hardly had to do more than massage the bullets in a gallon Ziploc bag. In bad conditions, I've noticed that hard, vigorous shaking can make a difference.

[thumbs]

I hear ya on the "something" strong. Doesn't take long to crack containers. I have one that looked pretty heavy duty but it went the way of all plastic. Now it looks like a tube made of gorilla tape. The entire thing is covered with it. Any suggestions as to a strong container. I have some sterling food containers that have the 4 snap latches on each side. Haven't tried them yet but they should hold up. Walmart used to have them but can't find them now.