Is this correct?

[JohnSmiles]

I put it off and finally bought some plastic airgun pellets and some eastwood powder mirror blue powder.
Correct me if I am wrong here, as I notice there are multiple methods being used, but this is the gist of it:
Dump boolits, 'some' pellets and about a tablespoon of powder into a plastic container or tumbler and shake/tumble for a couple minutes.
Remove boolits and stand them up on a sheet of parchment paper and bake at 400 for 20 minutes.
Do a smash test to verify powder adheres to bullet.
THEN resize and apply gas check if so desired.
That about right?
Will be my first time trying PC, so any and all advice is welcome.
Especially if resizing is in the correct sequence, or if it is even an optional step.
If it matters, going to start with a bunch of boolits I have cast using the Lee C430-310-RF mold.

[CastingFool]

I haven't done any PC'ing, but I understand you bake at 400 deg for 20 minutes, after your oven cones to temp. I'm sure more experienced guys will chime in.

[dangitgriff]

Convection oven (fan) works best. Use an oven thermometer to verify 400 degrees.
Also, I believe 20 minutes is not an exact time, they can be in there up to 30.

[farmerjim]

Plastic container needs to have a 5 on it. Parchment paper works fine, so does non stick Al foil, but I now prefer the silicone baking mats. I find it easier to put the gas checks on before powder coating.
Others say the swirl is the important part of the motion, but I find that without the up and down shake, I will not get a good coat. I see people putting their powder and bullets in a tumbler for 15 to 20 minutes. I always get a good coat after 10 to 15 seconds by hand. I stand up all my short wide boolits, but I use silicone trivets with .25 in an.30 in for the 22 and the 30 cal tall boolits.
I use forceps to stand up the boolits, but as a grain inspector, I used forceps many hours nearly every day for 25 years. They are like a third hand for me. Some just dump them out after sifting the powder, and get good results.

[Conditor22]

I put it off and finally bought some plastic airgun pellets and some eastwood powder mirror blue powder.
Correct me if I am wrong here, as I notice there are multiple methods being used, but this is the gist of it:
Dump boolits, 'some' pellets and about a tablespoon of powder into a plastic container or tumbler and shake/tumble for a couple minutes.
Remove boolits and stand them up on a sheet of parchment paper and bake at 400 for 20 minutes.
Do a smash test to verify powder adheres to bullet.
THEN resize and apply gas check if so desired.
That about right?
Will be my first time trying PC, so any and all advice is welcome.
Especially if resizing is in the correct sequence, or if it is even an optional step.
If it matters, going to start with a bunch of boolits I have cast using the Lee C430-310-RF mold.

Coolwhip containers work great for bigger boolits any #5 or #2 with bb's (make sure you hold the lid tight)
Cover the bottom with ASBB's only add 1 or 2 teaspoons of powder (some powders don't need ASBB's)
start with one layer of boolits (no less than 10 boolits) in the bowl
Swirl/don't shake, you will kill the bowls and make a mess, you want to build static (some powder will cover in 10-15 seconds, open the bowl, look for good coverage.

pick up the coated boolits with tweezers (HF), bang the side of the tweezers against something hard-knocking off all the excess PC then stand up on parchment paper/nonstick foil/baking mats (I sand/file the end of my tweezer smooth/round) then dip the tip in PC before starting

IF you sift off all the BB's and PC you can use rubber gloves with the fingertips dipped in PC before starting.

make sure your oven is reaching 400° set an oven thermometer in the oven and adjust the setting until the thermometer reaches 400°

you can get away with toaster ovens but they limit you to smaller batches, convection type ovens circulate the air allowing for baking large batches.

Powdercoating companies say to bake the coating for XX minutes at XXX° AFTER (1) the powder flows or (2) the substrate reaches XXX°

I find that 25 minutes in a preheated oven meets ALL manufacturers' specifications that I have used.

don't quench before PCing it's too easy to contaminate the boolits AND you lose almost everything you gain when you bake the PC.
quenching after PC COWW will give you around 20-21 bhn.

Hammer test will show adhesion but not tell you if your coating is fully cured. IF the coating is not fully cured it could react to some smokeless powders.

I apply GC after PCing you need to see what works best for you, IF you GC before PC make sure to completely clean what your GC on to avoid contaminating the boolit.

Many of these steps can be modified slightly to better fit your needs

[JohnSmiles]

First batch kinda sucked. Baked them anyway to see the results.
Yup, they still suck. Splotchy, minimal coverage.
Added some Styrofoam strips, tumbled more boolits, doesn't appear to have improved coverage much if any.
Not gonna bother baking any until I see drastically improved adhesion.
This might be a very short lived venture if I don't get some decent results pretty shortly.

[Petander]

I shake and swirl longer / add more powder for a better coverage.

It takes some experimenting to find the right amount of powder at first.

Patience,you will get it!

I just started PC last week, I've been Hi Teking for a couple of years.

Smoke's Carolina Blue bonds impressively , even to my contaminated lead.

[JohnSmiles]

I shake and swirl longer / add more powder for a better coverage.

It takes some experimenting to find the right amount of powder at first.

Patience,you will get it!

I just started PC last week, I've been Hi Teking for a couple of years.

Smoke's Carolina Blue bonds impressively , even to my contaminated lead.

Yeah, mine don't look anything like that......

[charlie b]

First, what color BB's did you get. Hopefully the flat black.

Second, Eastwood has baking instructions on their package. The one I have says bake at 450F until the coating goes shiny, then 400F for 20 min.

Third, are your bullets clean? Hopefully you haven't handled them much since casting and you dumped them either on a clean towel or clean water. If they need cleaning then rinse them in some acetone.

Shaking. Right now you should be in fairly low humidity so using the proper tub and BB's and you should be ok. It does take a certain balance between the number of BB's and bullets. If I get too many bullets they don't coat as well. I also find I need more powder in the bowl than some suggest. 3 or 4 level tablespoons in a std size butter tub is about right. It seems forever, but, I shake for at least 60sec and usually for 120sec (two min). It doesn't seem like a long time but standing there shaking the tub gets old fast Don't forget to turn the tub upside down every now and then to keep the powder distributed.

[JohnSmiles]

First, what color BB's did you get. Hopefully the flat black.

Second, Eastwood has baking instructions on their package. The one I have says bake at 450F until the coating goes shiny, then 400F for 20 min.

Third, are your bullets clean? Hopefully you haven't handled them much since casting and you dumped them either on a clean towel or clean water. If they need cleaning then rinse them in some acetone.

Shaking. Right now you should be in fairly low humidity so using the proper tub and BB's and you should be ok. It does take a certain balance between the number of BB's and bullets. If I get too many bullets they don't coat as well. I also find I need more powder in the bowl than some suggest. 3 or 4 level tablespoons in a std size butter tub is about right. It seems forever, but, I shake for at least 60sec and usually for 120sec (two min). It doesn't seem like a long time but standing there shaking the tub gets old fast Don't forget to turn the tub upside down every now and then to keep the powder distributed.

I bought the white bbs and tumbled them for 15 minutes.

[Tonerboy]

Another idea to help with adhesion is to "warm" the slugs before putting them into the container. I usually just put some on the cookie sheet on top of the oven while it is preheating. They just need to warm, not hot. The rest of your steps look good. 400 deg for 20 min after the powder looks wet. Running a little long wont hurt, I have noticed with brighter colors that they will darken if "overcooked". Yellows turn mustard-ish and reds turn burgundy-ish. Don't throw in the towel, you may just need to tweek your process. Maybe shake longer, maybe humidity is too high today, wait for a lower humidity day....ect. Start with just a few bullets at a time until you get it figured out, that way your not recasting hundreds, just a dozen or so. If you want it to work irregardless of humidity and powder, ESP works every time. More equipment and a little more set up time, but fast and beautiful coating almost every time. But shake n bake is the best way to get your feet wet. Experimentation is the key with S&B.

I just noticed your color selection says MIRROR BLUE. The Mirror colors are almost a clear color. You may get better coverage with a SOLID GLOSSY color to start with. Ive seen other posts here that state they had to MULTI Coat the mirror colors to get a good looking finish. Just an observation, I haven't used any MIRROR colors myself.

[JohnSmiles]

Also what pc is on the boolits is cured, just not nearly enough powder adhered to the boolits to begin with.
Going to tumble them a second time and see what happens.

[Petander]

Can you post a pic or two?

Mine looks like this after about a minute of swirl/shake. Take a look in every 15 sec or so , add more powder if needed.

My BB:s are grey,didn't find black.

[JohnSmiles]

Can you post a pic or two?

Mine looks like this after about a minute of swirl/shake. Take a look in every 15 sec or so , add more powder if needed.

My BB:s are grey, didn't find black.

I could take a pic, but it would just show what I have stated. Not enough powder sticking to the boolits.
Tumbler is well coated though.
Boolits have been in a sealed container ever since I cast them.
Dropped in clean water straight from the mold.

[AlHunt]

OK, my 2 cents. I only PC freshly cast bullets. I'm wondering if yours have been contaminated or oxidized since casting.
I've only used Smoke's powder from this site.

I used black BB's a time or two, tried it without and saw no difference. Haven't used them since.

I basically dump up to a couple hundred bullets into a container (HDPE 5), dump in an unmeasured generous amount of powder and shake in multiple directions for 60 to 90 seconds. Peek into the container and most of the time, they're well covered.

Next, I dump them all into a wire basket I made from hardware cloth that's the same size as the tray in my thrift-store toaster oven. The wire basket is on a clean piece of corrugated cardboard.

Pick up the wire basket, shake it a bit and set it into the toaster oven in the tray. Recover the powder from my cardboard and put it back into the shaker tub.

At this point the PCd bullets are in a spread out pile on the wire basket, in the oven. I crank the dial to 375F and set the timer for 20 minutes.

At the end of 20 minutes the wire basket comes out and gets dumped unceremoniously into a waiting cardboard box which I then bang on the benchtop a few times to separate 99+% of the bullets.

There will be a few stuck together and a few spots where the PC comes off due to baking to it's neighbor. Most of the times it's not on a driving band, so why do I care? Even a flake or two off a driving band is of no consequence.

I then size or size and GC.

This is what works for me. Others are not so lucky.

[JohnSmiles]

Coated much better this time. Maybe I simply didn't add enough powder the first time for 200 310 gr 44's.
We shall see. I also put the first ones back in for a second coat. They are useless otherwise.
Will take a look in the oven in 20 minutes.
Bag said 450 until it shows total flow, then another 20 minutes at 400.

[JohnSmiles]

OK, my 2 cents. I only PC freshly cast bullets. I'm wondering if yours have been contaminated or oxidized since casting.
I've only used Smoke's powder from this site.

I used black BB's a time or two, tried it without and saw no difference. Haven't used them since.

I basically dump up to a couple hundred bullets into a container (HDPE 5), dump in an unmeasured generous amount of powder and shake in multiple directions for 60 to 90 seconds. Peek into the container and most of the time, they're well covered.

Next, I dump them all into a wire basket I made from hardware cloth that's the same size as the tray in my thrift-store toaster oven. The wire basket is on a clean piece of corrugated cardboard.

Pick up the wire basket, shake it a bit and set it into the toaster oven in the tray. Recover the powder from my cardboard and put it back into the shaker tub.

At this point the PCd bullets are in a spread out pile on the wire basket, in the oven. I crank the dial to 375F and set the timer for 20 minutes.

At the end of 20 minutes the wire basket comes out and gets dumped unceremoniously into a waiting cardboard box which I then bang on the benchtop a few times to separate 99+% of the bullets.

There will be a few stuck together and a few spots where the PC comes off due to baking to it's neighbor. Most of the times it's not on a driving band, so why do I care? Even a flake or two off a driving band is of no consequence.

I then size or size and GC.

This is what works for me. Others are not so lucky.

My exact procedure:
Boolits are not oxidized or contaminated. Look like I just cast them today. Water quenched and dried, placed in a sealed container.
Added plastic bb's, and also some Styrofoam strips the second go around.
Also added more powder, as it might be as simple as not using enough powder to begin with.
A couple tablespoons might not have been enough for that many large boolits.
Stood them upright on parchment paper by hand, no gloves.
My hands are so dry no need for gloves.
Washed off my little smurf fingers.
Placed in preheated oven at 450.
Just reduced to 400 for another 20 minutes.
They look much better this time. Maybe even useable.
I will post pictures for your opinions on that.

[JohnSmiles]

Not very pretty..

[AlHunt]

Not very pretty..

Powders are not all the same, even from the same vendor. I have several from Smoke on this site. The blue covers extremely well. The orange not so well.

I know you're saying the bullets are clean. I just don't think they are. The pic is a little foggy but it looks like the PC is just not adhering. Maybe an acetone bath.

Were it me (aside from running out of patience, which I'm prone to do), I'd cast a few brand new bullets and try that. Next, I'd try a different powder vendor. I've read good things about Harbor Freight's red and I know Smoke's Blue and Translucent Copper are one coat wonders for me. Failing all that, I'd throw my hands up in frustration and go back to liquid Alox.

Hopefully you get it sorted out.

[AlHunt]

Have others reported good success with that particular powder and method? The powder coming off in big flakes is bothersome.