My powder coating adventure today

[VHoward]

So I read the thread about rangefinders wet tumble coating using a tumbler. I decided to try it. I followed the steps and got a mess. The bullets did get coated and required 2 coats to get good coverage. Way too messy for me. Too much splatter.

So I had also read on here of someone dry tumble coating. I decided to try that too. I cleaned up my tumbler from the messy wet tumble coating. Then I put about 150 bullets in the tumbler, Sprinkled a tablespoon of powder over them and turned the tumbler on. Within 3 minutes, all the bullets were coated remarkably evenly. Using a pair of needle nose pliers, I placed the bullets on my baking tray covered with non-stick foil. They came out great. Only needed one coat.

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j262/howard-v/DSCN0073_zpsc1774cd2.jpg (http://s82.photobucket.com/user/howard-v/media/DSCN0073_zpsc1774cd2.jpg.html)

These are from a Lee 6 cavity 452-228-1R mold. They weigh out at 230 grains with the powder coating.

I have been using an ES gun to coat my bullets, but with the results from the dry tumble coating I got, I think I will change to that.

[deadarrow]

I've been doing the shake&bake method as well. It works great.... I want to make a wire mesh tray to fit my oven so I can just dump them out from the tumbler and get'em baked. Setting them up using a pliers is too tedious for me. I coated some 124g TC 9mm's today and when I was sizing them I noticed just how slippery they were to handle. If I grabbed the cone part it would just slip out of my fingers. Thats a good thing I would think. Going to try to get out tomorrow and see how they run.