first time powder coating = need help

[rp85]

hello;

did something wrong, need help.

used the dry "shake and bake" method, using red powder coating from harbor freight. cooked at 400 deg for 20 min. bullet looked like other powder coated bullets posted, plenty of powder coating. temp was correct.

bullet was a lee tl-124 grain cast, sized to .357", powder coated bullet size went to .359", resized back to .357". bullets were washed in acetone first then dried before coating with powder coating.

pistol is a ruger p-95, load was 3.8 grains of ww231, o.a.l. 1.140". load is on the light side but works the slide and is accurate.

checked barrel after the first 25 shots. inside of barrel was totally covered in lead. patching was a waist of time. 10-12 passes with a tight brush and chore boy to clean up barrel.

fired another 25 rounds, some thing happen again, barrel totally covered in lead.

any suggestions. wet shake and then bake? thanks for any input

rp

[lukewmtdew]

Did you slug the bore?

[rp85]

bullet size is .002 over. leading was not an issue with lla/jpw. something else is going on.

thanks for input.

rp

[USMCamp0811]

I just did my first attempt at powder coating using this same method. I haven't shot any of mine yet but think maybe I might know whats up or at least have an idea. I don't think this method gets the paint as thick as it needs to be. As mine though coated its very minimal and the ones that were oversized had much paint stripped when they were resized. So maybe try electrostatic? I dunno; thats my plan.

[prickett]

how many coats? you may need two for 9mm. i do two for my 9mm, 1 coat for my .45.

[bangerjim]

Never did the DT method on 9's yet. I know the ES gun works with one coat every time. Will be interested to hear your feedback on your results with 9's in the future. I do not do a lot of that cal but the ones I have done with black and red yielded clear barrels every time.

I know the bottle says 20 min, but almost every other commercial powder calls for 400F for 10 minutes. I use only 10 and works perfectly (preheated oven). You may be over baking. If you have not checked your oven for temp accuracy, you probably are either way below or above 400F! Those cheap ovens are horrible. I recommend convection ovens only for good temp profiles. And get an oven thermometer or a HF IR gun to shoot the boolits that are baking.

Good luck, Hope you find the solution!

banger

[prickett]

Just thought of a possibility. Do you normally water drop for hardness? When baking PC you lose any WD hardness. Maybe you lead was too soft as a result. How long between baking and shooting?

[gefiltephish]

1 coat of HF Red DT'd has worked great in all 3 of my 9's. Sig 938, LC9 and 5" XD9. The Sig will eat anything, coated or not. The LC and XD have both been very bad with cast bullets for me. Both have responded very well to PC. The XD was always so bad, strings of lead lifted like the slag off a fresh cooling weld. Since the LC9 responded so well to PC I just had to try it in the XD. 3, 15rnd mags and the barrel was so clean I didn't even bother to push a dry patch through. I've wrestled with that gun for 5 years to try to solve it's leading issue and had about given up, it's spent a lot of time in the safe.

<edit>Baked at 400 for 10min</edit>

[rp85]

thanks for replies.

added an additional coat of powder coating. also after 15 min at 400deg, dropped the bullets into a bucket of cold water. very possible the first bullets were way to "soft". after the second coat and dropping into cold water the bullets were very hard. very little fouling in barrel.

using a lee tl124 grain bullet, 3.8 grains of ww231, and using lla/jpw lube gave me very good accuracy. used the same load but with the powder coated bullets, but accuracy was just awful.

this friday will shoot powder coated bullets in very accurate 38spl. if accuracy is not there...will write off my powder coating experiment a failure. as always it's operator error, have no clue to the problem but not going to fight powder coating when I get great accuracy with old type lube.

thanks again for replies

rp

[Walter Laich]

Got the same oven as you and found that at 350 indicated on dial it was 450 actual!
When I bought mine at wally world I stopped in next aisle and picked up a stand-alone oven thermometer. Well worth the $6 or so it cost

[popper]

My XDs 9 load is a lot hotter with 231, no leading (3 of them). Same with 2 40SWs. Got the 30/30 to 1500 fps with D-T method (HF white) so IMHO, you first alloy was weak. Try 4.5 gr W231, see if accuracy improves. I did find that oversized would lead, 358 did, 357 didn't. Same with 40sw.