What's the best way to tumble powdercoat method

[Chickenfarmer]

With harbor freight powder coat do you guys recommend the one with paint thinner and powder or something else... This is gooing to be for 300 blackout

[500MAG]

I was strictly using the HF gun to apply and was happy. I tried the tumble method with the black airsoft bb's and the cool whip bowl and I am hooked. The coating is absolutely awesome. It may be a while before I pull out the HF gun again. I can't do anything now because we have had rain for over a week and the humidity prevents any coating from adhering.

[Beagle333]

I got a friend who just started tumbling this week, and he's doing 300blk with HF red, using the ASBB coating technique and he said it's working great! He isn't even standing them up, just tumbling and spreading them on the non-stick foil.
I have only done .30-30 and don't have a 300blk gun.

[bangerjim]

Paint thinner does NOTHING to powder coating. And the liquid method (laq thinner) has been far surpassed by the dry tumble method with Airsoft BB's and coolwhip tub. Read the many threads in the stickys.

I use both the ESPC gun and the BBDT method with great success.

PC works for every cal and gun I have and have ever heard of on here.

bangerjim

[Wild Bill 7]

Did some 9's this afternoon even though the humidity was high. Mixed smoke's orange and pbtp mirror blue. Came out lavender with some orange streaks. Ugly. 4 spoons orange and 2 blue. Tumble coated and they coated very well. Can't seem to get photos on though.

[mdi]

Yep, dry tumbling is a very good way to get started. The airsoft BBs (black) and powder in a "Cool Whip" tub has been making a whole lot of PCed bullets around here. HF red seems to work quite well, better than HF's other colors. I tried acetone and/or lacquer thinner several months ago and the coating was not at all even. I have tried tumbling with air gun BBs and have had some success getting good, even coverage (BBs, powder, and bullets in a rotary tumbler for 15 minutes). Check out the stickies (I know, a whole lotta reading) and try a few different methods, some may work better for you than others.

[Chickenfarmer]

Thanks for all the help guys

[Scout800a]

I put powder coat, ASBBs and a couple hundred bullets in a small inner bowl (for molly coat?)in my vibrating tumbler. Run for 15-20 minutes while I do something else. then bake. Very consistent coating and very repeatable.

[Thompsoncustom]

How much powder, BB's,and bullets should u Put in the cool whip container at once?

[Beagle333]

This depends on your coverage due to the static in your area at the time of coating. Of course you'll put more powder in there initially, because the BBs have to get coated during the first use, but I like to put about 1/3 full of BBs, and about 30 boolits (.255gr). Add powder slowly while shaking until both BBs and boolits are coated smoothly. Too much powder isn't gonna ruin the mix, but it's not needed and might clump or cause the coat to be uneven if humidity is present at all. You can always add more powder if needed, and if you see that you have too much powder left when finished, you can just add less for the next batch of boolits.

These amounts all vary by user. Some guys like to bury the boolits completely in BB's (me) and some like only a single layer of BB's in the bottom of the container to do their coating. You can always start off with a handful of boolits and just add some BBs, and then add powder and BB's slowly until you are happy with the results. The great thing about tumbling is that you can always fish the boolits out, bang em on the table or in a clean bowl, pour the BB's into something else, dump the powder back in the jar, and start all over. If you have some boolits that fall over after sitting them on your baking tray and it knocks off more powder than you want, or if you scuff any while picking and moving them to the tray, you can just toss em back in and re-tumble. It's very versatile.

I just can't say there is one perfect measurable recipe for making up a Cool Whip container full of BBs, boolits and powder..... it's influenced by so many individual preferences and variables.

[Thompsoncustom]

Thanks for the info. I picked up some harbor freight red for testing. I did some reading about PC with a gun they recommend humidity between 40 and 60%, the interesting part was they said at really low humidity static electricity would be a problem, but since that's what we are using with the tumble method wouldn't the lowest humidity be the best?

[Beagle333]

I try to keep the humidity in my gun room (where I tumble) at 45-49% and that works well, but I don't live anywhere near really low humidity... ever, so I can't say.

[Thompsoncustom]

Winter time!


I tired powder coating for the first time to today, one coat has everything covered but can't say it's very even. Using number 5 container, white BB's, and about 50 158gr's at a time.

[Beagle333]

I have never used the white BB's. Only the black ones. But some guys are using the white ones. Maybe you gotta shake those harder! Put the lid on it and give it a good shakin'! ;)

[bangerjim]

Winter time!


I tired powder coating for the first time to today, one coat has everything covered but can't say it's very even. Using number 5 container, white BB's, and about 50 158gr's at a time.

My best results are swirl hard for 30-45 seconds or so and the shake REAL HARD up and down for about 15 seconds. HOLD ON......to the lid with one hand and the bottom with the other or you have a BIG mess. Tap lightly on the side of the bowl if the powder appears too thick.

Here in AZ the humidity is about 10% so I cannot speak about your success with higher moisture. I was born & raised in IA and I still disagree the hot humidity makes the corn grow!!!!!!!

Black BB's work best for me. I tired them all, as I shoot Airsoft guns a lot. Also pick them up with curved nose hemostats....those give an excellent grip and do not damage the powder as bad as tweezers or needle nose.

banger

[vrh]

HF red is my go to powder. Regular steeln BB'S ( single layer in my Cool Whip tub) 1 tea spoon ( level) of powder. 25 bullets and shake for about 30 seconds. remove and place on baking tray. Have enough left over powder to do 25 more w/o adding anymore powder.

[Anyracoon]

I finally tried the shake & bake BB method today on some 147gr 9mm with no lube groove. Ran them through a .356 Lee push through sizer. I noticed some got a little powder coat scraped off leaving a little uncoated lead showing through. Have given some a second coat but still have the same problem. Want says the Hive?

[AKholicBubba]

I've never make a liquid. Shake and bake everything. Going too use my vibratory tumbler. Next batch

[rjathon]

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?299197-Powder-Coat-Primer

[SkookumJeff]

One thing I learned the hard way about PC (using the BB's/tumble method) is don't use TOO MUCH POWDER. After first starting out and getting good results, I got carried away with the amount of powder I was putting in the bowl. Eventually my boolits were coming out caked with powder and after baking them they had too thick of a coating. After dealing with this for a couple of batches, I sifted out about 2/3's of the powder (about 1/4 of a cup), leaving about 2 tablespoons of powder max and things got back to normal with a thin, but complete coating baked onto my boolits.

Skook

[LAKEMASTER]

I recently switched to a vibratory tumbler. I bought one educated to my PC.

I took ( dead ) powder that wouldn't stick despite my several attempts @ ASBB,bowl changes,bag in bowl... ect. And made it stick perfectly.