First time with BBs What am I doing Wrong

[wrinkles]

Harbor Freight red and yellow BBs. Couldn't find black. I put them in a plastic tub and shook them for about 3 minutes. Can't get them to coat. It's pretty dry here in the Chihuahuan desert and I'm about 4700 feet above sea level. Lot's of static in the air, jacket sticks to me and I get shocked.

[maliveline]

It could be the container I want to say it's suppose to have a number 5 in the recycling triangle

[wrinkles]

Bought it at a thriftshop. It says rubbermaid, had a large C on it and on the other side has the recycle symbol with a small 4 under it. I'll have to go to the store to see if I can find one with a 5 on it.

[Anyracoon]

Harbor Freight red does not work with the shake and bake method. Tried it the other day and had same results, only works with the electrostatic spray gun.

[wrinkles]

I looked around and found a Country Crock container that has the 5 on it. It worked better than the other container but still not getting enough coverage. I have all the HF colors does one of the others work better. I hate the ES gun methond too much work standing the bullets etc...

[rancher1913]

stop playing around with harbor freight and buy some quality powder from smoke, he lists the colors that work with the shake and bake method and has lots to choose from. harbor freight is ok once you master things but its much easier to get a good powder to start. if you don't follow everything to a T it is hard to get the shake and bake to work, a lot of experimenting has gone into perfecting it here, you just need to follow it and you will be successful. I recommend john deere green or carolina blue, both cover good and seem to be forgiving of tiny mistakes.

[vrh]

Sorry to disagree with you Anyracoon. I tumble with Harbor Freight red and get great results. Now with their flat Black, I have to use my spray gun.

[wrinkles]

That might be the problem vrh. I mixed read with a bit of black to get a dark red color. I'll chunk that mixture and go straight red. I ended up doing two coat to get good coverage.

[edler7]

HF red will shake and bake, but Smoke's powders work a lot better.

Instead of shaking, try swirling the tub. Works better for me. I put in about 2 layers of bb's and 1/2 to 1 teaspoons of powder along with a handful of boolits.

[wrinkles]

Well after a second coat they came out fully covered. Didn't get the dark "blood red" I wanted more of a chocolate bullet.

[RP]

Those look bad better load them up and shoot them quick and start over lol just messing with ya.

[mistermog]

I dont know why no one said this yet but the number on the container says what it is made out of. The goal is to build up static electricity. The 4 may not be able to build it up as well, find a cool whip container and try that. should be able to do it in a single coat. straight red works fine, i havent tried mixing it with black though. interesting.

[Smoke4320]

And shake HARD

[HABCAN]

Swirl in a small circle VERY fast about 20 revs (static), then shake HARD vertically about 20 shakes (coverage) USING SMOKE'S POWDER IN A CLEAN "5" PLASTIC TUB works (for ME) every time, all colors. YMMV.

[454PB]

I don't use BB's or a bowl. I use Ziploc freezer bags and HF red. Mine come out fine.

[wrinkles]

I'm thinking I was being to gentle. I was doing I'll work on a faster harder shake next time.

[Anyracoon]

Actually got the HTF red to work. I think I had to many bullets in the container, I did have to really shake them really well. On the flip side I made some Hershey shape bullets, left them in to long! LOL

[mistermog]

whoa if you melted the bullets youre WAY too hot... 400 deg give or take for 20 minutes.

[Motor]

I'm not a high volume user but I started with HF a cool whip bowl and white .2g BBs and never had any problems getting coverage in one coat. Yeah they aren't like a new car but they are covered.

Then I got some .25g black BBs and coverage got easier. Now I have screw lid zip lock #5 container and am very satisfied.

HF red is the quickest and cheapest way into shake and bake powder coating. Many have tried it as their first powder and many like me are still using it.

Motor

[Anyracoon]

whoa if you melted the bullets youre WAY too hot... 400 deg give or take for 20 minutes.

The interesting fact is I had 2 different powder coatings colors on the same bullets. One color did the Hershey Kiss melt while the other did not. Also the oven thermometer was right around 400 degrees for .