a trick for tumble powder coating

[fcvan]

Now that has me thinking. I used to have a table top turbo convection oven that got hot fast, had a decent timer and temp control. No to mention the glass sides would make viewing the coating to see when it went glossy would be a plus.

I've seen one unit where the lid is the heater and sets on like a pot lid, and another where the entire top lifted off a flat base. I can't help but think if you stood up the boolits and lowered the oven over the work you would remove the possibility of knocking them over during transfer into the oven. I may just have to buy another turbo oven!

[silverjay]

I couldn't just watch anymore so I jumped in with some screw on #5 containers I found at Wallyworld, black air sorts, and harbor freight red. Turned out okay, coverage on the driving bands is about 97%, should I do another coat?

[bangerjim]

Picture quality not too good so I cannot really see.

As long as you do not have any bare Pb on the TOPS of the grease grooves.

How are you picking up? I recommend hemostats.

Are you swirling AND THEN shaking up & down hard for 20 seconds? VERY important for coverage.

bangerjim

[silverjay]

Did the swirl and shake for 30 seconds each off a timer. I will try the 20 seconds.

[bangerjim]

Did the swirl and shake for 30 seconds each off a timer. I will try the 20 seconds.

This is NOT rocket science! No timer needed. Just swirl until 90% covered and finish off with the hard up & down shake until 100%. And black Airsoft BB's.

bangerjim

[Pablo 5959]

I couldn't just watch anymore so I jumped in with some screw on #5 containers I found at Wallyworld, black air sorts, and harbor freight red. Turned out okay, coverage on the driving bands is about 97%, should I do another coat?

I have found that after a good hard swirl and shake. Then you want to turn your container over front to back as gentle as you can for about 5 or 6 times will help with scuff marks.
It's like you need to charge the container, Boolits and BB's by the shaking and swirling then gently allowing the powder to fall through the Boolits and BB's without scuffing.
This should leave so much powder you will need to tap the hemo's on the side of the container.
If you do get one with a scratch, tap the hemo's with the boolit with extra powder over the scratched one until the scratched one fills in.
Good luck.
Pablo.

[el34]

I was thinking about that when I was gutting and hotwiring my latest convection oven for PID. The bottom already flips down and unlatches from my convection toaster. All I'd have to do is remove the bottom rods and it'd sit down over the tray perfectly and the air would circulate the heat from the top looping rod. 'Perhaps just elevate the tray on some fire bricks.... that should be about the same height as it would have sat anyway, and it would be directly adjacent to the convection fan..... and that sure would take the pucker factor out of moving any rifle boolits of any caliber! If you can stand em long enough to spray em.... you can bake em!


Now where did I put that phone number to my patent lawyer!?!?!?

Dang! Everytime I get a great idea somebody steals it from me before I had it.

[deerstalkert]

just tried my first shake and bake.
don't have the airsoft bb's and its 30 miles to town. I am not sure what type of mess I have but I tumbled them once, got fair coating and put them in oven for 10 mins.
took them out and coverage was dismal.
waited until they were cool enough to touch and dumped them in tub with another teaspoon full of powder shook them around and they were completely covered.
just took them out after 15 mins at 350 will see what happens.

[deerstalkert]

way to much coating this way. going to order bb's online! sexy looking though.
I couldn't even get them stuffed into 45-70 brass with a 1/4 inch deep bell.

[bangerjim]

I tried that heat & tumble a year ago when we 1st started messing with this. Total failure!!!!! No control on thickness and it DOES get very thick.

Just follow our proven methods and you will be fine.

bnager

[deerstalkert]

yeah it goes on thick. will wait until I get bb's for next try . some of the first batch look pretty good but still to big to get into case with out crushing the case. with brass at a premium that's not happening.

[kbstenberg]

I have 2 suggestions.
The first: was brought up a few posts ago. I now tap my bullets on the side of my DT container to knock off excess powder. The cheapness in me raises it head.
Second: BBDT your smaller dia. bullets (aka 30cal and down) like normal. Have a flat surfaced baking pan ( I have both wood and metal) Put some threaded nuts on the baking surface that are just larger than your bullets dia. The nuts don't have to be attached to the bake ware.
When you take your bullets out of your DT container put them nose down into the nuts. The only thing you have to watch is that no bases of the bullets touch. The noses of the bullets only slightly stick to the nuts. All it takes is s light tap to release them. The only marks on the bullets will be 2 very small spots where the bullets made contact with the nuts. And if you water quench the bullets the nuts make the bullets separate from the bake ware easier.

[bangerjim]

Fender washers under NSAF are the best I have found for 30 cal boolits. Stick the GC area into the washer hole. The foil prevents the powder from sticking.

Without the NSAF with either washers or nuts, you will build up an unwanted coat of cured powder on them after several batches. And you cannot get it off!

NSAF is a god-send for what we are doing. Just be sure to READ the foil and use the side that says "NONSTICK"!

banger

[SniderBoomer]

Okay I tried my first batch this method, with some 405 grain 45-70 boolits.

After baking, I got a ring of melted powder extending out around the bases of the boolits (I stand 'em up in the bases) - so that when I went to size 'em, all the coating on the base ripped clean off, leaving a bare base.

Apart from that, quite pleased for first attempt, not givin up...

So how do I stop the PC melt pooling around the boolit bases?

The powder I got has bigger grains than I expected, it's not super-fine like talc - how 'fine' are the correct powders meant to be?

(sorry no photos, I can't find my camera memory card right now)

[Beagle333]

It should be super fine, like talc.
Tumbled boolits shouldn't pool around base and have flashing. Flashing only happens with PC when it is sprayed against a boolit that is sitting flat on the foil and the powder builds up against the base like a tiny snow drift, then melts into a puddle. This flashing will rip off when sized and the base will be bare due to sitting on the foil while sprayed. Tumbled boolits should have a 100% coating. (not that it is needed on the base, but the process coats it anyway)

[SniderBoomer]

Hey Beagle333, thanks. The powder I got was marketed for 'heat-object-first-then-dip', eg coating fishing weights, that involve heating the weights up first, then dipping them in the powder to coat then hanging or quenching. I am guessing I got totally the wrong powder for boolits. I'll use it up to coat some of my outdoor tools instead.

I have to keep trying this to get it right, got the bug... As an aside, touched off 25 paper-patched 45-70 rounds Sunday, as always with PP, come away with a 100% leading-free shiny bore (nothin cleans deep into the grooves like paper), super-accurate, pure soft lead used...

I kept thinking, will PC really replace PP? I have to try it.

[Beagle333]

I'm just starting to learn about PP, but I don't think (from what I have read, as of now) that PC will replace it. I believe that if you get your soft lead going too fast with PC, it'll just strip the rifling. I believe that PC will let you go faster than a lubed boolit of same alloy, but not as fast as PP.
But I'll have to wrap a few to find out for certain.

[w0fms]

I should note I tried the screw top Ziplocs (#5 PP) since I found some, with the same ASBB's that I used last time, and it didn't work as well as the other container, which was an older Ziploc #5 PP container. I have a theory on this... I machine washed the first Ziploc before putting it into service, and I used the Jet-Dry rinse aid. This coating is known by my homebrewing friends as death to the head on Beer so they warn against machine washed containers unless the machine is run dry of the rinse aid.

I noticed that on that container the powders did not stick to the sides but they did on the new container.

Next batch I will first run the same container through the wash and see if it makes a difference..

I also tried HF Yellow and that didn't work at all. The Temperature was up a lot and the humidity was up too.. I did finally get some 45 ACP 230gr cast to coat with a mix of mostly red and yellow and they will shoot fine but were a little more speckled than I'd like.

ESPC does work better, but man this is lower mess and faster. I also bought some hemostats so that will help my process as well.

I did more 9mm with the HF red only and the other container and even though they were a little more difficult with the humidity they turned out as good as the other batch.

One last thing I noticed on my last batch is that less ASBB's are more. I think a 1/4" is all you need at the bottom of the container.. I'd start off with less than you think you need and add them if you need it...

[bangerjim]

Hey Beagle333, thanks. The powder I got was marketed for 'heat-object-first-then-dip', eg coating fishing weights, that involve heating the weights up first, then dipping them in the powder to coat then hanging or quenching. I am guessing I got totally the wrong powder for boolits. I'll use it up to coat some of my outdoor tools instead.

I have to keep trying this to get it right, got the bug... As an aside, touched off 25 paper-patched 45-70 rounds Sunday, as always with PP, come away with a 100% leading-free shiny bore (nothin cleans deep into the grooves like paper), super-accurate, pure soft lead used...

I kept thinking, will PC really replace PP? I have to try it.

People that do fishing stuff do not really care about the thickness as we do on boolits. Hence the heat-n-dip method.

Stick with known powders we all use. HF red is the go-to for most starting out. Coats very well with ESPC and BBDT. Once one gets good results you can branch out to other powders that have been proven on this site to work. I would avoid fishing stuff powders. From what I have seen they are ridiculously prices also.

banger

[SniderBoomer]

Ha, well waiting on some 'proper' powder coming. Meantime, I am stuck with spit 'n paper.

Look... kinda powder-coaty..

I'm just starting to learn about PP, but I don't think (from what I have read, as of now) that PC will replace it. I believe that if you get your soft lead going too fast with PC, it'll just strip the rifling. I believe that PC will let you go faster than a lubed boolit of same alloy, but not as fast as PP.
But I'll have to wrap a few to find out for certain.