a trick for tumble powder coating

[lxk308]

7. Non-stick aluminum foil.

[alfloyd]

"3: Black BB's Crosman"
Black Air-Soft Plastic BB's

lafaun

[rugerfan.64]

Well, I gave it a whirl, literally, they didn't turn out to bad if I do say so myself. I did buy a bottle of black. I just had to see for myself. HF black doesn't work worth a hill of beans. Red works fine. I already had the Reynolds wrap no stick. Its all I use. Now to get a few loaded and see how they shoot.

[coffeeguy]

Those look good! The coverage is the important thing. I like to run mine through the sizer to make sure everything's uniform, but I think you'll be pleased with how they shoot and how clean your barrel is afterward.

[JD74]

Wow, new member here, lurking for quite some time. Reading this forum answered a lot of questions about casting for me. And now it is about to launch me into the world of powder coating bullets. I have everything except the HF Red, which should be in my possession some time this week. So if I have this correctly understood I will need :

1: Cast bootlits
2: A #5 Cool Whip bowl
3: Black BB's Crosman
4: Toaster oven
5: HF Red
6: Sufficient time and energy

It cannot be that simple. I shall try this out at the first opportunity. MS humidity should test this rather well

It works for me in Houston, you may have to play around with the balance ofr BB's and paint to lead your working with but it does work. the Ziploc baggy method works good also theres a link to it here somewhere.

[bangerjim]

Well, I gave it a whirl, literally, they didn't turn out to bad if I do say so myself. I did buy a bottle of black. I just had to see for myself. HF black doesn't work worth a hill of beans. Red works fine. I already had the Reynolds wrap no stick. Its all I use. Now to get a few loaded and see how they shoot.

"The proof is in the pudding"..............matte powders just do not work with dry application. The matting agent kills the static. There are few that have got it to sort of coat after 2-3 bakes, but if you want black get some of Smoke's gloss. If it does not fully coat in ONE coat, I move on to something else. Or get a HF ESPC gun and spray your matte black. They DO look sexxxy! I love Ninja Matte Black slugs.

banger-j

[rugerfan.64]

I have a nearly full (- 1 teaspoon ) bottle of HF black if some one close with a ESPC gun needs it. I am pleased with the ASBBDT method of application. I took a sample of my most recent to day out to the pasture and tried them out in my daughters Glock 19. Loaded with 4.5 gn of CFEpistol , 10 sized and 10 un sized , I usually shoot the Lee 125 gn roundnose unsized out of my P 95 , they mike 0.3565 pc'd so I thought they'd work fine. They out shot the sized pc'd by a lot. The sized ones ran .355 by my measurements. Its just a step I don't have to do and they shoot pretty good to me. Thanks for all the info in this thread. Now I have a 185 gn NOE WFN for a 357 mag that I am wondering how it will work. But I think I need a ESPC gun for that. I'd want to drill out the tray so the nose wouldn't get any pc on. Another project for another day. Thank y'all for the great info. By the way those were pc'd in MS while it was raining cats and dogs

[coffeeguy]

Hmm...Empty CD containers (got the idea from elsewhere in this thread) work perfectly! I have to cut the spindle down so that the container will close with the BB's/boolits in it, and just hold my thumb over the resulting hole...Or just use a piece of tape. Scrounged up a few empties at work today, the 25-CD size are perfect for 100 boolits plus BB's and are shallow enough to easily dig out the coated boolits. So I'm keeping one for each color and going from there. I also noticed that the black bases are #6 polystyrene, which helps with the static charge as well. Woohoo!

[Sghinds]

Hmm...Empty CD containers (got the idea from elsewhere in this thread) work perfectly! I have to cut the spindle down so that the container will close with the BB's/boolits in it, and just hold my thumb over the resulting hole...Or just use a piece of tape. Scrounged up a few empties at work today, the 25-CD size are perfect for 100 boolits plus BB's and are shallow enough to easily dig out the coated boolits. So I'm keeping one for each color and going from there. I also noticed that the black bases are #6 polystyrene, which helps with the static charge as well. Woohoo!

I posted the idea a little while back when I noticed they were #5 plastic. Glad it works well.

[coffeeguy]

I posted the idea a little while back when I noticed they were #5 plastic. Glad it works well.

Indeed, my browser on my other computer had a problem displaying pictures so I had a tough time finding your post to give proper credit. But, yes, it works like a charm...Thanks for the idea!

[Landshark9025]

Hi all,

Have waded through this entire thread and am considering it. I have tried Hi-Tek but just cannot get it to work for me. I get leading. I purchased the coating from Bayou Bullets and while their actual commercial cast bullets have worked well for me, using their coating has produced leading in both of my S&W Mod. 66 revolvers.
I just have a couple of questions:
1. Most of the posts talk about how good they look, some talk about leading, but very few talk about accuracy. I'd like to do this in a .357 and a 9mm and am looking for decent accuracy. "Decent" means 25 shots in a 4" circle at 15 yards. I don't think I am capable of much more than that.
2. Does the baking need to be done outside? It would be nice if I could do this inside. Live in Florida and less humidity inside for sure.
3. What's a reasonable "per hour" output? 150? 500? Looking to do pistol boolits and we can go through 'em for sure.
4. Has anyone shot these in a polygonal rifled barrel?
5. Have you experienced feed issues in 9mm semi-autos?

Thanks and much appreciated.

[ioon44]

I have been using the HI-TEK and there is a learning curve.


Using a 1911 with .45cal 185gr cast boolits with HI_TEK coating I am able to get 1"to 1.25" 5 shot groups at 25 yds. off a rest and no leading. also no leading or feeding issues in factory Glock .40cal and 9mm.

I size .002" over bore diameter. With the HI-TEK I can bake about 750 to 1000 boolits pre hour.

[coffeeguy]

@ Landshark:

First photo is 9mm at 15 yards, Lee .356-102 RN. Second (blue background) is 40 S&W at 20 yards, Lee .401-175 TC. I notice no difference accuracy-wise between PC'd and jacketed.

2. If you're going to bake inside, I'd do it in the garage or an outbuilding; the vapors/fumes from curing and baking are not good for you. Risk of birth defects and possibly cancer, the MSDS for the powdercoat will tell you what you need to know. Needless to say don't use the same oven for food, etc, etc...Sometimes humidity messes with the adhesion but it's more dependent upon the powdercoat you're using...Nothing to lose by trying except a teaspoon of powder!

3. At least 500 for sure. Hi-tek goes faster because it's just shake, dump and bake, you can do that with PC but get more marks and when they stick together they stick GOOD. I'll pop one batch in the oven and while they're baking, place the next batch onto the tray, etcetera so not a big problem, and can turn out 500 in a hour easily in my toaster oven.

4. Haven't shot them out of a Glock or anything with a polygonal barrel myself but I think there's some here who have with no problems

5. No feeding problems at all, in fact they should feed easier because of the slick coating. I only use RN and TC designs in my semi-autos and save the semiwadcutters for revolvers because I HAVE had those hang up in a semi-auto before.

I size after coating just to keep them uniform, and as long as they're a couple thousandths over the bore diameter for that particular firearm I don't have any problems with accuracy, and no leading whatsoever.

[Landshark9025]

Thanks for the replies. Not sure why Hi-Tek yields leading in the revolvers when it passes all the tests. Same boolit, same charge, sized to the same diameter with traditional lube runs like a champ with no leading.
I have purchased pre-coated bullets from Bayou and shot them in my HK with no issues, but do not want to chance leading that barrel up.

I can cook outside on the patio with no problem. Just was hoping to do it in the hobby room. Likely not wise. I do have a dedicated, convection toaster oven for this, so that is good.

In terms of different powders being more sensitive to humidity, how is the Harbor Freight red? There is a HF near my work I can pop into.

Thanks in advance.

[coffeeguy]

In terms of different powders being more sensitive to humidity, how is the Harbor Freight red? There is a HF near my work I can pop into.

Thanks in advance.

HF red works pretty good, I think Rugerfan (look a few posts above for the red boolits) did pretty well on a high-humidity day too. Plus, for 5-6 bucks it's hard to beat!

I was thinking too, in your Model 66, have you slugged both the chamber throats and the bore? Are you using a super-heavy crimp? Heavy crimp can strip the coating off the boolits, and if the chamber throat is undersize relative to the bore that'll cause problems too. They're great guns though, at 10 yards I can put rounds through a 1-inch hole all day.

[Landshark9025]

Thanks for pointing Rugerfan's post out. I did not catch the reference to Miss. humidity. Good to know.

My barrel slugs at .356 and the cylinder throats are .357-.3575. This last batch was .359-.360 after coating and I was tempted to not size them, but I think that would have been a bit much. They do not slide through the throats easily, but have to be driven with a mallet and brass rod. Not like doing a barrel slug, but it does taken few taps.

Thanks for the response.

Just pulled four of them and they look good. One has some minor scuffing, but not much. I have about 150 more to pull, so will know for sure by the time that is done. Not using a heavy crimp, just a light roll.

HF red works pretty good, I think Rugerfan (look a few posts above for the red boolits) did pretty well on a high-humidity day too. Plus, for 5-6 bucks it's hard to beat!

I was thinking too, in your Model 66, have you slugged both the chamber throats and the bore? Are you using a super-heavy crimp? Heavy crimp can strip the coating off the boolits, and if the chamber throat is undersize relative to the bore that'll cause problems too. They're great guns though, at 10 yards I can put rounds through a 1-inch hole all day.

[rugerfan.64]

Yes sir I did the ASBBDT right before a rain in muggy Mississippi. I have ran them through my daughters Glock 19 at 25 yds . I had a pic of the group I thought. If I recall correctly , 5 went into about 3 1/2 "- 4" at 25 yards. I haven't really given them an accuracy check out of my P 95, but as soon as I get some cast up and coated I will be loading and checking them. HF red works well. Good luck

[fcvan]

The other day, I got some new colors from Prismatic Powders, and couldn't wait to try them. I had been using a Cool Whip tub but decided to try the Gladware snap top food containers, ASBBs, and the new colors. Both Sinbad Purple and Sexy Copper coated like the dickens. The purple is a very deep shade and glossy. Sexy Copper is still a dark copper brown so I still haven't found the right shade to look like a jacket. Oh well, they will shoot too.

After coating quite well with a repeatable .001 increase in thickness I decided to see just how thick the new powder would cover. I put in the usual amount of powder (sexy copper) and shook. Great coverage. Added another scoop and shook some more until there was no visible left over powder on the bottom of the container so I added some more. I kept doing this until I started having some powder in the bottom. After baking, my .3575 boolit was now .363, a significant increase for sure.

I also did a separate test on various colors. I tumbled and dumped onto the cookie sheet, shaking them side to side so the BBs and boolits were spread out. This also tends to even out the powder on the boolits. Anyway, I dropped a few of each color into a tuna can. Once a day, I shake the can to see if the powder will come off and it is still adhering to the boolits. The green ones have purple spots, the purple have green, etc., but they are still covered. Pretty impressive that the powder hasn't started dropping off because the static charge of application is surely gone. Just thought I'd share, Prismatic Powders is some good stuff!

[coffeeguy]

fcvan, if you feel like buying some more from Prismatic, look into their Transparent Gold and Transparent Copper.
This is the gold...Haven't tried their copper myself but if the gold is any indication it'll look pretty close to jacketed as long as the boolits are freshly cast and still shiny. Thanks for sharing what colors worked for you!

[fcvan]

Thanks Coffeeguy, I will be buying more powder from them for sure. I already have a few colors picked out. I have mixed some of their colors and got a good close to copper look, but they have to be ESPC to be even. Their solid colors work so well and of course the top coat colors are clear with a hint of color and agree intended for going over something else for an effect. I can ESPC and get great results every time. Ink Black looks so wet you'd think it was going to run. ASBBDT and it comes out like urban cammo because the tint doesn't spread evenly during tumble. The boolits are smooth and some folks have commented it looks cool. That, and they shoot every bit as good as ESPC. If and when I get the color I'm looking for I will certainly post more pictures. Thanks again for the color feedback. Next trip to White City I will definitely look at some other swatches, there are 3 walls covered with all of their color. They also have some car rims and cerrocoated AR15s on display in the lobby. Neat place, good prices, great service.