PC Video

[Mr Peabody]

As popular as this idea has become I want to try it. Would somebody recommend a you tube video

[rancher1913]

stay away from u-tube, to much disinformation and disagreement, use the sticky in the coating subforum. there are several threads with what is guaranteed to work, once you master the way the big dogs here do it, then you can play with times and temps and other powders. get the kit from smoke in the vendor section, it has everything needed to produce results the first time and not leave you frustrated with a lead fouled barrel.

[Mr Peabody]

ok, thanks

[rancher1913]

I love powder coating and the fact that I dont always have to clean the dies of lube but there is a learning curve, a small one if you follow in the footsteps of masters here. there are a multitude of powders that can work but for a first timer get a powder that is idiot proof and you will enjoy the experience, try a harbor freight powder and you will probably think powder coating worthless. a regular toaster oven will work but a convection toaster oven works much better. use non stick foil to cook them on and it saves clean up time. if you get hung up or just cant figure out the why, come back and ask for more advice.

powder coating can be great if you eliminate all the variables up front when learning, and once mastered you can play with the variables to get some very unique results. check out the photos of pc'ed boolits for inspiration.

most of you tube is geared toward shock value or "new" ways that get you to watch so the poster makes money, they dont always have the viewers best interest at hart.

[charlie b]

If you want to look at a bunch of videos this guy seems to not have too many bad habits. I lurked in here a lot and looked at a bunch of his videos before I took the leap.

https://www.youtube.com/user/FortuneCookie45LC/featured

PC is relatively easy. Just have to pick a method, 'shake and bake', 'slurry' or electrostatic spray gun. Convection oven is nice but I use a toaster oven and it works well for small batches of bullets (less than 50 at a time).

As above, use a quality powder. I'd recommend to decide on HiTek or std powder coat. They are different. For PC I would go with Smoke's since he is a bullet guy. I also like Eastwood. Tried HF threw it away.

[Mr Peabody]

Thanks Charlie

[Phlier]

Along with the previously mentioned FortuneCookie45LC, Elvis Ammo on YouTube has a lot of great powder coating videos. He's a good ole boy, and talks a bit slow, but don't let that fool ya... the guy knows his stuff. I've yet to try one of his PC suggestions that didn't work.

[Phlier]

Convection oven is nice but I use a toaster oven and it works well for small batches of bullets (less than 50 at a time).

You can combine the best of both worlds... a convection toaster oven. I made a thread about this oven a few weeks ago. I do 20 pounds of boolits per batch (nearly 1,100 9mm's) in this oven. It's on sale (today is last day) for 70 bucks. I threw my old Black & Decker toaster oven in the trash. IMO, you won't find a better boolit PC oven. Even comes with an air fry basket, perfect for baking your boolits. I love mine so much, I may pick up a second one today (at the sale price) for a buddy of mine's Christmas gift.

[FredBuddy]

Greetings again, Mr.P:

Can't go wrong following the advice
on this site.

Smoke 4320 has a sample pack
and BB's to get you started.

[Mr Peabody]

Hey FB good to see your still alive. The bb's; a must have?

[Phlier]

Hey FB good to see your still alive. The bb's; a must have?

Nope. I don't use them. It's pretty much dependent on: 1. How humid it is where you're at 2. What kind of plastic your shaking vessel is made out of.

Plastic buckets that have the number 5 in the recycling triangle on the bottom of it are generally considered the best at generating the static electricity needed to get the PC to coat the boolit. Number 2 plastic works, too, but generally not as well as the number 5 plastic.

I live in the dry desert and use a number 5 plastic bucket, so I'm able to get great results without BB's. On the rare occasion that it gets humid here, I follow Elvis Ammo's YouTube videos advice; preheat the boolits, 140 degrees for 4 minutes. This allows me to PC boolits even when it's very humid without having to use BB's.

If your local theater offers the "buy our plastic popcorn bucket, and we'll fill it for the year for a buck each visit" deal, those buckets are usually a great size (nice and big) and are typcially made of recyclable 5 plastic. My wife buys the popcorn buckets every year, so when one expires, it goes on boolit coating duty.

You can also buy plastic food storage containers from Walmart et al. that are made from #5 plastic.

8 lb plastic powder kegs also work well.

I now powder coat everything I cast. For me, it has been a game changer.

I usually load up a couple thousand rounds of 9mm blasting ammo every week. I don't bother with the stand 'em up on the cookiee sheet deal, I just shake the powder on them, dump them in the toaster oven's "air fry" basket, and bake them 20 pounds per batch. They come out perfect every time.

I do stand up the rounds that I want to be tack drivers, but I'm mulling over trying a batch in the fry basket. With how perfect the stuff comes out of the fry basket (any dingle berries are knocked off during the separation process), I don't know that it's necessary.

Do yourself a favor, and as previously suggested by FredBuddy, get yourself some of Smoke4320's powder. I had been using Harbor Freight and another brand that I can't currently remember for the last few years, then recently switched to Smoke's powders. I really wish I'd just started out with Smoke's powders, as they really are superior.

[Phlier]

Greetings again, Mr.P:

Can't go wrong following the advice
on this site.

Smoke 4320 has a sample pack
and BB's to get you started.

Nice lipsticks you have there.

Seriously, though, you just gotta love Smoke's Flame Red powder.

[daloper]

I use Smokes powder and I also use his BB's to get good coating. I would recommend getting a convection oven, They seem to give yo a more consistent temperature. Also get some silicon baking mats to set them on for baking. These work much better than the non stick foil. After shaking I pick them out with a pair of needle nose pliers , tape the pliers on the side of the bowl to knock off the excess and stand them on the sheet to bake.

[jessdigs]

I had success my fist time powder coating. And that was using harbor freight red and no air soft bbs.

I now use better powders (smokes), and use the BBs. Much better results

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

[Mr Peabody]

Super help! Thanks

[Phlier]

Super help! Thanks

All of this help comes with a catch... you have to post pics of how it goes for you.

After PC'ing boolits for a couple years now, and if I had to do it all over again, the one piece of advice I wish someone had given me was to not scrimp on the oven. Get a decent oven, with good temperature control, and the convection feature.

I hate to sound like a shill, but I honestly *can not* recommend that oven that I posted about earlier highly enough. It is as if they specifically designed that oven for boolit casting... the temperature is dead on, and maintained accurately through out the baking process, the fry basket and "catch pan" that it comes with are absolutely perfect, and it has the convection feature. At today's sale price of 70 bucks it is an absolute steal, and is still a great value at its normal price of a hundred bucks. And no, the link that I provided to it IS NOT an "affiliate" link... I don't make any money off of anyone buying by using that link, I just feel that it is one of those pieces of equipment that anyone serious about PC'ing boolits should have. It's just *that* good.

After struggling through with a crappy second hand store Black & Decker toaster oven for almost three years, I can tell ya that a decent oven makes a huge difference.

[hermans]

Along with the previously mentioned FortuneCookie45LC, Elvis Ammo on YouTube has a lot of great powder coating videos. He's a good ole boy, and talks a bit slow, but don't let that fool ya... the guy knows his stuff. I've yet to try one of his PC suggestions that didn't work.

I could not agree more!
I decided to get into PC and after reading the sticky's, I watched the video's from these two guys which helped me a lot.
Now PC is easy.....

[charlie b]

The part about Elvis I disagree with is his cook time/temp thing. Some combinations might work ok like that but some need the full cure temp/time that the powder mfg specifies.

[Huskerguy]

You can combine the best of both worlds... a convection toaster oven. I made a thread about this oven a few weeks ago. I do 20 pounds of boolits per batch (nearly 1,100 9mm's) in this oven. It's on sale (today is last day) for 70 bucks. I threw my old Black & Decker toaster oven in the trash. IMO, you won't find a better boolit PC oven. Even comes with an air fry basket, perfect for baking your boolits. I love mine so much, I may pick up a second one today (at the sale price) for a buddy of mine's Christmas gift.

Thanks for the tip and link! I just got home from being out of town over TG, saw this thread and ventured down to my local Target (not my favorite store) and picked up the last one they had. Hope to try it out with the basket method this week sometime.

[Phlier]

The part about Elvis I disagree with is his cook time/temp thing. Some combinations might work ok like that but some need the full cure temp/time that the powder mfg specifies.

That's a great point that I failed to mention. There's no substitute for the hammer test.

Thanks for the tip and link! I just got home from being out of town over TG, saw this thread and ventured down to my local Target (not my favorite store) and picked up the last one they had. Hope to try it out with the basket method this week sometime.

Good to hear. I think you'll really enjoy it.