Any Advice-First Coating

[1989toddm]

Tried my hand at coating today at lunch hour...swirled in a cool whip tub, stood on tin foil on cookie sheet, cooked for 7 minutes at 400. I was afraid I would have all the powder run off the boolit if they went longer..what do ya'll say? Seems as though most guys report baking for 20-25 minutes.. As it was I still have little fins on the base of most of them that will need trimmed with a knife or ran thru a sizer. Since I dont have a .458 sizer I hope the trimming works! What do I need to change? All in all, very encouraging- speedy and fun!
http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/14/10/27/de9b38ebcdfb332221fc157a51388dd5.jpg
http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/14/10/27/80dc368c732639d0fa2e5027da019726.jpgReady to bake!
http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/14/10/27/d8cbb31f22bed0fec17d272e0d1ead10.jpgAt 2 minutes.
http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/14/10/27/b5b2c0a6261a2667a446f1277b0d67e9.jpg4.5 minutes.
http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/14/10/27/fac78f6b6a77c878b6d3fee4171144e4.jpg7 minutes. Took them out and stuck in freezer for 5 minutes.
http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/14/10/27/68e5c01f08f530be3bf32d22a1e6c436.jpg
http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/14/10/27/4e1ccf8de694cff2f16fd346a1e73054.jpgThey are a bit patchy..but it seems like a plenty thick coat. I dont think I want any more. Maybe I had too much powder per amount of boolits?
http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/14/10/27/4a41b0a14b2d84dd160103079ebc0e63.jpgAnd my awesome wife let me use our kitchen stove and even peeled most of them off the foil!

[Jupiter7]

DON'T cure PC'd lead in your food prep oven!!!! Freezing not necessary. Curing per manufacturer as directed is a must. Most are 10minutes at 400. Buy a proper sizing die. Try a brass deburr/chamfer tool for the base flash removal. Otherwise, they look good to me.

[1989toddm]

Jupiter, can you explain? From your post Im going to guess its a health hazard, but I would like a little more explanation please.

[Ido356]

Too much powder, dump them on a screen after coating to get the excess off, then bake.
7 minutes is not enough time, HF red cook time is 20 minutes after they have glossed over, I cook mine for 25 minutes total. Smash test them, and try to re cooking them for 20 more minutes.

Safety, I use and old table top roaster and a film coats the inside walls. Guys on here use toaster ovens and there are a couple of threads on cleaning the PC off the glass of the oven door, so to keep your selves safe and your wife happy, get something else to cook them in.

ps. I use parchment paper for my shake and bakes, it's cheap and 1 piece last for many bakings.

[ipijohn]

Jupiter, can you explain? From your post Im going to guess its a health hazard, but I would like a little more explanation please.

Simply put, burning plastic puts off some nasty smelling and toxic fumes. Depending on content, PC is plastic based that at 400*F is just short of burning.

[1989toddm]

Simply put, burning plastic puts off some nasty smelling and toxic fumes. Depending on content, PC is plastic based that at 400*F is just short of burning.

Yep I savvy. Thank you for the heads up! I was surprised by how little smell came from the boolits but better safe than sorry I reckon.

[1989toddm]

Too much powder, dump them on a screen after coating to get the excess off, then bake.
7 minutes is not enough time, HF red cook time is 20 minutes after they have glossed over, I cook mine for 25 minutes total. Smash test them, and try to re cooking them for 20 more minutes.

Safety, I use and old table top roaster and a film coats the inside walls. Guys on here use toaster ovens and there are a couple of threads on cleaning the PC off the glass of the oven door, so to keep your selves safe and your wife happy, get something else to cook them in.

ps. I use parchment paper for my shake and bakes, it's cheap and 1 piece last for many bakings.

Thanks! I'll try the smash test today.

[popper]

Get a convection toaster oven, verify temp, use non-stick foil or the parchment (baking) paper. She won't have to peel them off. Cook in the garage or outside where there is a breeze. You DON'T want what is on the front of my oven anywhere near your food. Once cured, it is safe. You got a little one to take care of, if I see correctly, so don't leave then where the rug rats can chew on them. Treat like bare lead for the little one.

[1989toddm]

Get a convection toaster oven, verify temp, use non-stick foil or the parchment (baking) paper. She won't have to peel them off. Cook in the garage or outside where there is a breeze. You DON'T want what is on the front of my oven anywhere near your food. Once cured, it is safe. You got a little one to take care of, if I see correctly, so don't leave then where the rug rats can chew on them. Treat like bare lead for the little one.
The book is for a nephew but yes we have a little girl, and I am careful to keep stuff out of her reach. I plan to hit up the thrift store for an oven. I see this PCing as addicting as casting! (almost) Also thinking of setting the boolits on small machine nuts but this may not be necessary if using parchment paper?

[dilly]

Safety issues have been addressed by others above.

It looks to me like you used too much powder. I've been known to pick up the bullets and drop them 2-3 inches back into the tub to get the clumps off when I have too much powder like that. It's a pain in the can so I try to avoid that scenario.

[Sneakybuffalo]

Haha, did you dump the whole pound of powder in the tub? :P

I dunno about DT w/o BBs, but w/ BBs you only need around a tablespoon (or less probably) for that many bullets.

[1989toddm]

Haha, did you dump the whole pound of powder in the tub? :P

I dunno about DT w/o BBs, but w/ BBs you only need around a tablespoon (or less probably) for that many bullets.

Well no but I probably dumped in 2-3 tablespoons! [emoji15] Ah well live an learn. [emoji477]️

[dilly]

It's very easy to add more, but kind of difficult to remove it.

When I'm filling a clean container with powder, I try to sprinkle it in very slowly, shake, see if it needs more, add a tiny bit more, etc. until you get the desired consistency. Once I get a good batch it takes quite a few bullets before it really more powder added. Certainly not close to every time you shake some.

[1989toddm]

Smash rest with a 2.5 lb hammer revealed a couple cracks when smashed to 3/16" but smashed down to 1/8 it certainly splintered and chipped.

[fcvan]

Wow, that was a lot of powder! I use a Cool Whip container, 2 layers deep of AirSoft BBs, 50 boolits, and about 3ccs of powder (Lee powder dipper). Swirled and shaken for 30 seconds and the boolits are coated very well. I dump the whole tub onto a cookie sheet so the BBs can roll away. If there are boolits with too much powder I just roll the boolits by moving the cookie sheet side to side. that makes for a very even coatt. I pick up with hemostats and set onto parchment paper and it leaves no marks. When baked, my ASBBDT boolits have the same thickness as when I ESPC coat. The sprayed boolits look way better because I can use different powder combos but when I want a lot of boolits coated in short order, I tumble.

My Black and Decker toaster oven stinks to high heaven when baking boolits and the residue on the inside is nasty. I wouldn't want to cook any food in a boolit oven. Besides, those small ovens are cheap and plentiful at garage sales. I'd like a nice table top convection pizza oven but I'm getting by just fine with the toaster oven.