Hardwater & powdercoating?

[zubrato]

Hey all! Been a while since I last posted but in the meantime I moved to the great state of Texas!

Something I've not had to deal with before is the extreme water hardness & humidity!

Now, I usually drop my boolits into a water bucket with ice, but using the ice from the fridge looks almost milky when it begins to melt. And that's with the water filter!

Knowing things like humidity can interfere with powdercoat adhesion, are there known issues with water hardness interfering with powdercoat adhesion?

I figured I ask before I cast up a years supply of boolits and make more trouble for myself than it's worth.

Thanks guys!

[Rcmaveric]

Florida water is crazy hard and doesnt bother a thing.

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[StuBach]

I used to have a similar issue before I got my softener. I think it had something to do with the particulates in the water adhering to the cooling boolits which in turn interferes with the PC coating. If I cleaned the boolits with acetone the issues went away but I opted to just stop water dropping and switching to air cooled. Haven’t had the issue since though I do have a softener now so probably wouldn’t be an issue.

Don’t forget, in the PCing process you lose the heat treatment offered by water quenching so no real benefit to water quenching other than speed of cool down.

[Dragonheart]

I stopped water quenching because it is just too easy to contaminate your bullets when PC. The little extra bin gained is not needed if you properly coat and cure your bullets in the first place. You are in fact putting a jacket on the bullet not just lube and the bullet is riding on the jacket.

I live in the Gulf Coast so I know all about hard water, heat and humidity. We have well water. The fix for hard water is a couple of whole house water filters installed in front of a water softener. Then put at least one carbon filter on your fridge water line if it has water & ice as most of ours do.

[FLINTNFIRE]

No benefit to water drop before coating really , if you want to make harder do it when taking tray out after coating , or reheat and quench , I water dropped back in the late 1990's and figured out I did not need the bullets to be harder , was shooting mostly 45acp at the time and cast from wheel weights they were harder then I needed anyway thats my take on it I do not bother water dropping anymore

[Conditor22]

quenching before PC isn't worth the risk for the minimal gain

[DHDeal]

I suppose I'm one who likes his bullets not too hard. I usually use 2 parts WW and 1 part pure (or close as I can get to pure) and I'm not upset that PC curing may soften the bullets some. My revolvers like 12ish BHN, or at least the target says they do. I've never water dropped a bullet yet and I'll shoot those 12ish BHN out of FA83's in 357, 44, and 45 Colt/454 wide open and leading isn't an issue.

Anything that might hinder a good coat of PC is not my friend, but I'm just a knuckle dragger from way back....

[zubrato]

Thank you to everyone for the information! That chart is fantastic conditor, something I've always been curious about. I used to dump the boolits in ice water after PC but found I had a lot more mega-stuck boolits than when I let it air cool.

I primarily cast for 9mm high volume so waterdropping is more convenient, but I feel I get a little extra hardness as I cut my coww 50/50 with soww + some tin for flavor.

Hmm. Maybe I'll have to do a test batch, but in the meantime I guess I could grab a bag of ice from the store pretty cheap. 40lbs of contaminated boolits aint worth it after investing all that time and work.

[Walter Laich]

Welcome to The Republic!
If people bug you about being new to the state remind them that even Sam Houston wasn't born here.

I tried water quenching just to see results--then stopped once my test was over

PC is my go-to method for a number of years