First try at powdercoating

[DaveTNC]

So you are a newbe too? So am I. Did my first PCing yesterday and I will never go back to waxy lubing again! Yours looks great. I am going to post some pictures tomorrow.

ACC

Yep, I saw your thread, and commented in it. Waiting to see the pictures.

After the sample batches of read and green pictured above, I went on and powder coated every cast boolit I had on hand, which wasn't a lot - about 150 or so. I used all four colors in Smokes Christmas sample pack (Flame Red, JD Green, Traffic White, and Jet Black) and they all came out great.

It's time to get some casting done. Hopefully I can find some time this weekend. I want to cast up a bunch of 9mm to coat.

Dave

[Phlier]

So you are a newbe too? So am I. Did my first PCing yesterday and I will never go back to waxy lubing again! Yours looks great. I am going to post some pictures tomorrow.

ACC

That's great, man, congrats! Look forward to seeing the pics. Did you use airsoft BB's or poly pellets? BTW, I'm truly sorry to hear about your brother. Prayers sent your way.

Yep, I saw your thread, and commented in it. Waiting to see the pictures.

After the sample batches of read and green pictured above, I went on and powder coated every cast boolit I had on hand, which wasn't a lot - about 150 or so. I used all four colors in Smokes Christmas sample pack (Flame Red, JD Green, Traffic White, and Jet Black) and they all came out great.

It's time to get some casting done. Hopefully I can find some time this weekend. I want to cast up a bunch of 9mm to coat.

Dave

Congrats! PC'ing makes casting for 9mm sooo much easier.

[koger]

So am I overthinking this, or just swirl,shake your bb's and bullets with coating in a Tupperware bowl, until they seem coated evenly, take out with tweezers, and tap the tweezers on the bowl to get rid of any extra, sit on a tray and put in a toaster oven till the correct temp, wait the correct time, and remove and cool. I never did see where the amount of powder was put into the bowl. All feedback appreciated.

[bmortell]

its no so much as "x" amount of powder like a recipe. its gonna vary a lot from how big the container is, how much stuff is in it, weather the bb's or container are powdered already from before, humidity, static ect. plus most of what you put in gets left over in the bottom or stuck to the container and bb's. you just gotta get used to what works in yours, start with a tiny bit and youl get a thin coating, then add more till coating reaches as thick as it will get and you got some leftover. only so much sticks. like if one is coated perfect and the other is covered in a heap of powder when you tap it on the side it will look the same as the other one. so theres not so much as a recipe amount as "enough" for your setup, it could be a large range that gives the same result. its kinda like how much water do you need to boil noodles in the sense that a range can work

[Dragonheart]

A teaspoon or a handful, the amount of powder doesn't matter as long as you are getting complete coverage. You may or may not need to tap off excess powder because that depends on the static charge. As long as you have that fuzzy looking coat of powder and don't see bare lead showing it is going to coat. Just make sure you do a proper time & temp cure.

If you got on a little too much powder the worst is you will have a tag around the base of the bullet which usually will come off when sized, so next time tap a little harder to remove excess powder and after a few batches you will know when it is right just by the appearance. After all the worst mistake you can make is not trying powder coating.

[DaveTNC]

So am I overthinking this, or just swirl,shake your bb's and bullets with coating in a Tupperware bowl, until they seem coated evenly, take out with tweezers, and tap the tweezers on the bowl to get rid of any extra, sit on a tray and put in a toaster oven till the correct temp, wait the correct time, and remove and cool. I never did see where the amount of powder was put into the bowl. All feedback appreciated.

That's all there is to it, and exactly what I did. I used a zip-loc bowl, like these: https://ziploc.com/en/Products/Conta...s-Medium-Round . Others have used cool whip bowls, food take-out bowls, or whatever. Just make sure the little "recycle triangle" on the bottom has a number "5" in it.

I just covered the bottom of the bowl with a layer of BBS, added about 50-75 bullets and a couple teaspoons of powder, and swirled and shook. There's powder left over, but I used a separate bowl for each color so after I took the bullets out I just left the powder and BBs in each container and snapped the lid back on to use for next time I want that color.

I also preheated the oven to 400 before putting bullets in it, and cooked for 15-20 minutes.

If I knew how easy it was, I'd have started sooner. I've seen a lot of "tweaks" on here and in YouTube videos that had me thinking It was more complicated than it really is, but this basic procedure worked great for me.

Go for it, and Good Luck!

Dave

[DaveTNC]

A teaspoon or a handful, the amount of powder doesn't matter as long as you are getting complete coverage. You may or may not need to tap off excess powder because that depends on the static charge. As long as you have that fuzzy looking coat of powder and don't see bare lead showing it is going to coat. Just make sure you do a proper time & temp cure.

If you got on a little too much powder the worst is you will have a tag around the base of the bullet which usually will come off when sized, so next time tap a little harder to remove excess powder and after a few batches you will know when it is right just by the appearance. After all the worst mistake you can make is not trying powder coating.

I agree... I wish I'd have tried it sooner. And if they don't turn out right they can go into the next casting pot, so nothing is wasted except a little powder and time.

[Dragonheart]

Dave, you have it figured out. I still remember doing my first batch and was totally amazed how easy it was to turn out beautiful bullets. The the only other things to learn now are if you need or want to increase your bullet production. When I needed several hundred bullets a week and working full time the cool whip method just couldn't keep up.

[Phlier]

Next time you go out to a movie, check out their cotton candy containers. Our local theater sells cotton candy in very nicely sized plastic tubs with tight fitting lids that are made with the #5 recycling stamp. Perfect for PC'ing up to 300 9mm boolits.

[Dragonheart]

Next time you go out to a movie, check out their cotton candy containers. Our local theater sells cotton candy in very nicely sized plastic tubs with tight fitting lids that are made with the #5 recycling stamp. Perfect for PC'ing up to 300 9mm boolits.

Wow, that makes me look back, way back, when the weight of something didn't matter. I do applaud your ability to shake 5-6 pounds of bullets, but for me the rigors of old age and arthritis has taken a toll, making this feat if not impossible at least undesirable.

If you intend to crank out several hundred coated bullets as a routine I would suggest taking a little time to alter a small tumbler, like lyman or Midway sells. Here is a photo of one I altered that will coat 6 pounds of bullets with little effort while you do other tasks. Actually. it does a much better job as the amount of vibration is adjustable.

[DaveTNC]

Great tips but I don't foresee going into high production. I do like that modified tumbler, though.

You never know...

[Phlier]

Wow, that makes me look back, way back, when the weight of something didn't matter. I do applaud your ability to shake 5-6 pounds of bullets, but for me the rigors of old age and arthritis has taken a toll, making this feat if not impossible at least undesirable.

If you intend to crank out several hundred coated bullets as a routine I would suggest taking a little time to alter a small tumbler, like lyman or Midway sells. Here is a photo of one I altered that will coat 6 pounds of bullets with little effort while you do other tasks. Actually. it does a much better job as the amount of vibration is adjustable.

I really should setup a tumbler like that. Right now, I'm doing my big batches (20 lbs) in a 2.5 gallon plastic (#5) movie popcorn bucket. I have my son do the shaking on those batches. But the entire 20 lbs has been working in one batch in my Hamilton Beach oven using the included "Air Fryer" basket. I've increased the bake time on the big batches to 30 minutes, as I still haven't cast a type K thermocouple into a boolit yet, so I have no way of being absolutely certain that full cure has been reached. The 30 minute bake does seem to be enough, though... no problems with incomplete cures.

I don't think the air fryer basket could handle any more weight, though, so I'm stopping at the 20 lb point, and may even back it off to 15 pounds just to prevent any possible surprises.

I really need to get off my butt and cast a thermocouple into a boolit.

[Dragonheart]

I promise the length of time it takes to set up a tumbler is paid back almost immediately. You don't have to use a #5 bucket but I happened to have a couple so I did two tumblers and both are still going strong. If you have any question I will be happy to tell you what I did.

If you are doing 20 pounds (1000+ 9mm) in a basket you really do need a thermocouple in the middle. Even when I coat several thousand in my 30" oven you might be surprised at how long it takes two 220 volt elements to heat up the bullets to 400 degrees. The oven's air temperature will be at 400 for a long time before the thermocouple tells me to start the timer. When it comes to full cure the bullets can look great well under 200 degrees. As long as I have been PC and even with my coating more than 50K bullets I can't look at a bullet and tell you if it is fully cured. Problem is under cured PC can bond to the inside of your barrel with the tenacity it does to a fully cured bullet.

[bmortell]

the other day I wanted to test a color real quick to see what it looks like 'not powder' so I just cooked it till it flowed for maybe 2 - 3 minutes I didn't want to shoot them just check color. I press squished one for the heck of it because people usually show a squished one as proof it cured or reached temp, but it looked great just as good as any I cooked properly. thought that might be helpfull

[ACC]

Here are my first powder coated bullets. I like this stuff. If I had my choice I won't have picked black but hey it's OK. These are LEE 125 gr. RNFP boolits.

ACC

[Phlier]

I promise the length of time it takes to set up a tumbler is paid back almost immediately. You don't have to use a #5 bucket but I happened to have a couple so I did two tumblers and both are still going strong. If you have any question I will be happy to tell you what I did.

If you are doing 20 pounds (1000+ 9mm) in a basket you really do need a thermocouple in the middle. Even when I coat several thousand in my 30" oven you might be surprised at how long it takes two 220 volt elements to heat up the bullets to 400 degrees. The oven's air temperature will be at 400 for a long time before the thermocouple tells me to start the timer. When it comes to full cure the bullets can look great well under 200 degrees. As long as I have been PC and even with my coating more than 50K bullets I can't look at a bullet and tell you if it is fully cured. Problem is under cured PC can bond to the inside of your barrel with the tenacity it does to a fully cured bullet.

The bucket on the vibrator looks like one of those projects where i won't have a clue what to ask until I actually get started on it.

And I really am baking 1,000 rounds in one go. If I'm going to cast anything less than 40 lbs in a session (which isn't very often, but does happen), I'll count to 130 throws with my 8 cavity mold, which gives me 1,040 boolits, or pretty close to 20 lbs (1,129 of my boolits per 20 lbs to be exact). That gives me 40 extra to account for any culls, as I like to keep my ammo production pretty close to units of 1k per batch. But most of the time, I sit down and cast 40 lbs of alloy in one sitting.

I just ordered a new four channel thermocouple reader. You have me convinced to get a thermocouple cast into a boolit sooner rather than later. Are you just casting a bare tip type K thermocouple into a boolit, or are you using a shielded version?

[Phlier]

Here are my first powder coated bullets. I like this stuff. If I had my choice I won't have picked black but hey it's OK. These are LEE 125 gr. RNFP boolits.

ACC

Those look great! Nicely done.

[charlie b]

FWIW, the crush test is not foolproof. A scrape test is better but still is not an exact thing either. I'd rather leave them in an extra 10-20 min than have less that fully cured powder.

[facetious]

When you start shooting them you will have to let us know how thy shoot. Now that I'm retired this is on the list of thing I want to do when i get cought up with every thing else I need to do. I realy want to try it with my .308

[Dragonheart]

the other day I wanted to test a color real quick to see what it looks like 'not powder' so I just cooked it till it flowed for maybe 2 - 3 minutes I didn't want to shoot them just check color. I press squished one for the heck of it because people usually show a squished one as proof it cured or reached temp, but it looked great just as good as any I cooked properly. thought that might be helpfull

The smash test only proves the elasticity and bond of the polymer and not the hardness and that is what we are most interested in for coating bullets. The Charles Darnall scrape test may not be perfect, but it is quick, simple and it works. It may not be capable of indicating a complete full cure, but it will definitely tell when the polymer is soft.

Probably the best we can DIY would be to compare the powder hardness specifications with pencils of known hardness using the scrape test. In lieu of that I would suggest scraping your bullets with a 2H pencil, if that doesn't cut into the coating my thinks it's good enough.