Powder coated today and more lessons learned

[bigarm]

I powder coated about 200 30-30 bullets with sulpher yellow, about 300 45acp with Harbor Freight red and about 400 .357 with John Deere green. Didn't count them, but that is reasonably close. Never have figured out how people know exactly how many bullets they cast during a session. I certainly don't. Anyway, learned more lessons today as usual.

#1 The smaller the bullet, the harder and more work it is to coat. Have to work to keep them upright.
#2 Of the 3 colors I used today, the John Deere green coated the best and easiest. HF red was next and the yellow was last, although that could have been because it was used on the 30-30's.
#3 If you are going to powder coat, might as well do it all day as setting up and tearing down and cleaning up is a big job.
#4 Only use the parchment paper twice. The last tray I did today I used the paper for a third time. It was getting burned and turned some of the John Deere green bullets a dark green-brown. They seem fine, just a different color.
#5 Really like coating the bullets on one tray and then transferring them to another tray with parchment paper to bake as I can get many more bullets on the tray if I coat them first. I can put them much closer together to bake.

For those of you that use multiple colors of powder, what colors and from where do you find coat the easiest using the gun method?

[Beagle333]

I agree with all 5 of your findings. 8-)

I find that red from anywhere coats great. And Smoke's blues and greens coat very well too. Yellow, orange and white are harder to get to hide the lead. I think they make a good coat, but the lead just shows through. I don't think the coat is necessarily thinner.... they shoot well.

Oh, almost forgot.... Smoke's pink and purple coat well too.

[bangerjim]

Using the Amazon self-contained gun minimizes set-up and teardown as there is no compressor.

I use both ESPC methods HF gun and Amazon gun (some call it the craftsman gun from the old days).

I spray out side so there is no clean-up. If you gun is adjusted properly and you are using proper techniques, the overspray will be hardly noticeable.

If you space the ALL 3/4" apart they will all coat just as easily.

I do not transfer ESPC boolits, as that is too close to BBDT tedious handling of them with hemos. I do not have that much patience.....why I do ESPC mostly.

Using a jig with holes, I can set them up by the time the 1st batch is cooked.

I use 5 different colors and HF red, HF black, and Smoke blue coat the best of the lot.

There is a thread on here that lists the different powders and which ones work and which ones not so much.

banger-j

[Blanco]

Jim I thought you were a dyed in the wool BBDT man?
Sounds like you are doing more ESPC now...

[bangerjim]

Jim I thought you were a dyed in the wool BBDT man?
Sounds like you are doing more ESPC now...


No.....started out early on with ESPC and have always been that. I have worked with the BBDT methods a lot as you have seen on here and use it also, but ESPC still gives the best, cleanest, most accurate coat of all.

I get tired of the "pick-up & set-down" with BBDT. Laying out a hundred or so with a pre-drilled form for ESPC is fast. While a batch is cooking, I am filling more racks to spray & go in.

I have both the HF and AMAZON ("craftsman" as some know it) guns and use both. I use BBDT when I have a few I need to coat up fast and dirty. And to do 223's. (shake & dump on HW cloth).

Both are nice coating methods.......ESPC is my go-to fav.

banger-j

[Blanco]

I have the HF ESPC unit. I like it but just have not had much luck with it. Probably due to inexperience.
I would like to see pictures of your pre-drilled form setup.

[bangerjim]

I have the HF ESPC unit. I like it but just have not had much luck with it. Probably due to inexperience.
I would like to see pictures of your pre-drilled form setup.

No big thing. Just a piece of 1/4" thick baltic birch with holes drilled in it at 3/4" spacing. I do not take pictures of everything I do. Many pix on here in the PC threads of similar jigs, if you need visuals. Material you use is whatever you have laying around!

Like anything else, successful ESPC with the HF gun does take some practice and messing around with feed rates, pressures, angles, and techniques. Keep messing with it.....you will get there!

banger

[ipijohn]

I powder coated about 200 30-30 bullets with sulpher yellow, about 300 45acp with Harbor Freight red and about 400 .357 with John Deere green. Didn't count them, but that is reasonably close. Never have figured out how people know exactly how many bullets they cast during a session. I certainly don't. Anyway, learned more lessons today as usual.

#1 The smaller the bullet, the harder and more work it is to coat. Have to work to keep them upright.
#2 Of the 3 colors I used today, the John Deere green coated the best and easiest. HF red was next and the yellow was last, although that could have been because it was used on the 30-30's.
#3 If you are going to powder coat, might as well do it all day as setting up and tearing down and cleaning up is a big job.
#4 Only use the parchment paper twice. The last tray I did today I used the paper for a third time. It was getting burned and turned some of the John Deere green bullets a dark green-brown. They seem fine, just a different color.
#5 Really like coating the bullets on one tray and then transferring them to another tray with parchment paper to bake as I can get many more bullets on the tray if I coat them first. I can put them much closer together to bake.

For those of you that use multiple colors of powder, what colors and from where do you find coat the easiest using the gun method?

I put my boolits in a plastic grocery bag and weight count them with my fish scale which goes up to 50 pounds, but the bag will split way before 50 pounds. Another trick is to use a $4 hand held lap counter to count the number of pours. I use mostly powders from Prismatic (they have 6500 colors) and spray through a HF gun.

[fcvan]

+1 on prismatic powders! I went to their facility in White City OR, and it was neat to see all the available colors on swatches on the wall. Yes, you can take swatches with you, they are sprayed on aluminum strips. The powder sprays very well and ASBBDT extremely well.good powder goes a long way toward success.

[ipijohn]

+1 on prismatic powders! I went to their facility in White City OR, and it was neat to see all the available colors on swatches on the wall. Yes, you can take swatches with you, they are sprayed on aluminum strips. The powder sprays very well and ASBBDT extremely well.good powder goes a long way toward success.

+2 on Prismatic, they have colors that you can't even amagine!! We have a son in Medford (a few miles south) and go there a couple of times a year, when we are in town.

[coffeeguy]

Plus one on parchment paper, but as far as the boolits changing color, are you overbaking them? Most PC powders have some overbake protection built in, but I try not to exceed the cure schedule by more than 20 percent, time or temperature.

ESPC gun is the most consistent way to coat once you get a hang of the technique, I've found some powders that turn out perfectly and others that just won't coat well at all using the tumble methods. You'll get complete coverage once it flows, which is all that matters, but if you want pretty boolits every time then the HF or Amazon guns are hard to beat! That said, I prefer to tumble as I have a few powders which work perfectly and coat evenly. My toaster oven sets on a workbench so I can sit right there, tumble, tray and bake, and get the next batch going all in the same place.

[bigarm]

I don't think I overcooked them, but anything is possible. It was my last tray of the day. I tried to get one more use out of the parchment paper. It turned dark and crumbled and that is why I thought I used it one too many times. However, since it was my last tray for the day, I was cleaning up as they were baking and I could have gone longer that I was supposed to. I usually do 20 minutes. It is possible I set the timer wrong because I was relying on it. I didn't hand time it.