Powder coating questions-i'm a newbie!

[cheese1566]

Looking to explore powder coating and have some questions. I have searched and read the threads but find some to be so long that its exhaustive.
Anyways, sdcitizen gave me some coated bullets to try and briefed me on his method. He will be teaching me hands on in the weeks to come.

But I have a few questions....

A) Are bullets still sized to fit groove diameter (sized to fit your bore as any other cast boolit) or can you size to "jacketed" diameters?
(i ask since I have a bullet feeder that isnt being used since my cast boolits' larger diameters give it problems.)

B) I am really looking at doing boolits from my NOE (Saeco 221) clone for 223REM. I think powder coating will sure beat lubing and gas checking by hand in my RCBS LAM luber. I could size them quickly in my Star after coating.

C) I have a used B&D toaster oven or can I use my electric stove (kitchen style) I already have in my garage for doing non-food nasty stuff? The big oven may be more consistent in temps but I can do a PID on the toaster over (i think).

I cast and load for many handgun calibers and a few rifle. I already lube and size them on my Star and have no issues.

Wondering if I'll gain anything...

[Beagle333]

A) You still size them like lead boolits. I use .001" over groove.

B) They will size nicely through your Star.

C) I use a plain B&D toaster oven with a PID with no problems for my smaller batches (80 at a time). Convection is better, but you can get away with non, if you can regulate your temp well.

[el34]

Convection prevents hotspots like the area just above a heating element. Some folks have had boolits melt in that area. It's kinda hard to predict how much temp variation will exist in a non-convection oven without using thermometers.

[bangerjim]

A t/c stuck into a standard oven going to a controller will measure the temp at that EXACT spot and will not prevent hot/cold spots and melted/saggy/under cooked boolits.

The key is the air circulation that happens inside the convection style oven. The movement reagulates the temp pretty evenly, even though most tstats are reading only one spot right behind the dial!

I have checked my conv oven cavity at different spots and it does not vary over 5 degrees due to the air movement in and around the boolits and racks. Space around the sides is most critical. Do not make solid wall to wall racks.

I size all my coated boolits just like I did raw lead from the "early" daze BPC (before powder coating).


You will still most likely need GC's on those 223's if you are shooting them at full velocity! I do. If subsonic plinkers, I do not GC them. PC'ing does not protect the back end from gas cutting at higher velocities and loads.

You will gain getting away from concocting and mxing greasy lubes, handling greasy sticky boolits, smoke from shooting grease lubed boolits, and most (if not ALL) of the leading in your barrels. My barrels are almost perfectly clean after shooting hundreds of PC'd rounds thru many cals. One swipe with a patch is all it takes to clear any powder residue that may be there from light loads.

Have fun!

bangerjim

[cheese1566]

my 223 loads will be for AR-15's, nothing too fast....but loaded enough to run the action.

i guess I won't have too much invested in a pound of powder from smoke to experiment. Any of his colors better in application? not looking for color- just ease of use. I will use the tumble method in a #5 container.

[fcvan]

I've been ESPCing my Lyman 225-415 55 gr boolits for over a year. 14 grains of 4227 cycles the Mini 14 and AR just fine at about 2250 fps. I need to chronograph the loads and see if I can push the velocities a tad higher with different powder. For now, coating the boolits using a tray with holes drilled has been working great. I switched from sizing with my Lyman 450 to Lee push through dies and making my own checks. The checks are made with CheckMaker dies from PatMarlins. They seat just fine but work better when I anneal the aluminum strips by dipping them into molten alloy for about 5 seconds. Of late, I've been spending more time working up subsonic and supersonic loads for my AR pistol and carbine in 300 blk. I need to get back to the 5.56 and hope to do so in the very near future.

[Beagle333]

In my experiences, greens and blues seem to tumble better than reds, yellows and whites. They all shoot, but you can hide all of the lead color easier with a green or blue, even the light shades. YMMV.