First PC - Thanks to this forum

[RegisG]

Back into casting after 20 year break and am learning new things. Powder Coating seemed to jump out at me so I thought I'd give it a try. Spent $4.50 at local GoodWill for an oven and $5 for HF-red. Didn't have non stick foil so, tried parchment paper that my wife uses for baking. It did blacken and maybe why the red is darker than I expected. I used black air soft bb's and a plastic butter container. Shook it a lot and held it against my vibrator (for brass). 75% humidity here in middle Tennessee did not seem to harm me.

142311

Appreciate any tips. I do need to improve my casting....practice practice but, think I like this clean PC'ing.

Regis

[rancher1913]

just loaded my first pc boolits and I noticed I had to open the throat of the shell more than I liked but if I didn't it would scrape down to lead on the micro groves and that defeated the whole pc thing. all I had was parchment paper and it worked fine for me. in case anybody say's the scraping was from oversize casts, I sized everything before I loaded it. our goodwill is so overpriced that I have found I can buy new at wallyworld for about the same price as goodwill, my wife was appalled that they want a buck a canning jar nowadays. I found the darker pc colors seemed to coat better. If you want some different colors give smoke a shout in the vender section, I picked up a sample pack of 4 colors and it was less then 20 bucks, he also lists the colors that tumble the best.

[Beagle333]

If you get the heat a little too high, the HF red will darken up on you. Be sure to pre-heat the oven and if you have a cheap baking thermometer to verify that it is a true 400°, they'll be a bright red after baking. I haven't noticed any detriment to making them a little dark though. I suppose you could bake them to being a little brittle, but if they pass the smash test, you're good to go! :grin:

[mongoose33]

Too hot or too long. Toaster ovens are notorious for poor temperature control. Heck, the first time I set mine on 400 degrees some of the boolits MELTED! Which means, what, 550 degrees or more?

Get an oven thermometer and use that to determine temp. Once the matte appearance of the powder starts to turn glossy, about 10 more minutes at 400 degrees should be fine.

And +1 to the smash test.

[Spector]

Did you size the boolits to final size after powder coating? Some size before coating and after. Others only after coating. Both ways seem to work.

[depoloni]

+1 to what was said above - watch the temperature on your PC-ing oven.

I've used non-stick Reynolds Wrap, as well as parchment paper - with vendor Smoke4320's powders, never have tried HF and having tried his the "word" is that I should feel no need to bother...

But nonetheless, parchment baking paper is parchment baking paper. It's worked fine for me, but it has *never* browned or worse-yet blackened during a 20-minute bake at 400F. I suspect that if it is for you, your oven is cooking much hotter when set for 400F, thus blackening the parchment. My toaster oven (convection, goodwill buy like yours) happens to require a setting of about 355F for PC-ing. At that setting, as verified by a probe thermometer, it's actually running between 370-394F range as it cycles the heat rods off and on... it works perfectly for the PC there.

If I'm recollecting correctly, the vast majority of folks that have thermometer-tested their toaster ovens have said they run hotter than the dial says. Seems perfectly reasonable that yours would fall amongst the majority in that regard. For reference, mine actually runs 472-495F range when set to 400 on the dial!!

Welcome to the club - good luck and good fun!

[bangerjim]

Your boolits turned dark, not because of heat, but because you SHOOK them too much! You actually ground off lead dust and darkened the coating.

Do not use a vibrator.......waaaaaaay too much action and not needed at all.

Just swirl in a coolwhip bowl for 30-40 seconds and then up and down HARD for 10 seconds. That's it!

Doing that, you will not grind any lead off and your boolits will be bright & shiny red.

I have never had high head darken PC. Except when I remelt bad ones in my casting pot!!!!!

Yes.......bake in a preheated 400°F oven for ONLY 10 minutes after the powder turns shiny. Any longer is a total waste of your time and electricity as I have found out.

Can't get much simpler that that.

Also check your "el-cheeeepo" oven with a good oven thermometer...chances the dial is waaaaaaay off. Find where 400F is and mark it and ignore the markings on the front.

banger

banger

[VHoward]

I have had espc'd bullets darken due to too high a temp in the oven baked for too long.

[RegisG]

I will try this but, will have to wait a few days. Getting a house full of company..
Thank you,
Regis

Your boolits turned dark, not because of heat, but because you SHOOK them too much! You actually ground off lead dust and darkened the coating.

Do not use a vibrator.......waaaaaaay too much action and not needed at all.

Just swirl in a coolwhip bowl for 30-40 seconds and then up and down HARD for 10 seconds. That's it!

Doing that, you will not grind any lead off and your boolits will be bright & shiny red.

I have never had high head darken PC. Except when I remelt bad ones in my casting pot!!!!!

Yes.......bake in a preheated 400°F oven for ONLY 10 minutes after the powder turns shiny. Any longer is a total waste of your time and electricity as I have found out.

Can't get much simpler that that.

Also check your "el-cheeeepo" oven with a good oven thermometer...chances the dial is waaaaaaay off. Find where 400F is and mark it and ignore the markings on the front.

banger

banger

[bangerjim]

I have had espc'd bullets darken due to too high a temp in the oven baked for too long.

I have ran tests all over the map while we were developing this technology over the past 2 years. When I heated the RED boolits hot enough to cause a color shift, the boolits were slumping and/or in a puddle!

Will over heat (within the range of good boolits) change color.....didn't happen for me. But that could also depend on your alloy and it's melt/slump temp.

That is why a good oven thermometer is an absolute necessity AND not baking longer than the industry standard of 10 minutes.

banger

[VHoward]

The OP did not specify what temp he used or how long he baked for. My experience shows that pc will darken from just heat and is the more likely reason his darkened. Your "lead is turning to powder from too much shaking" just does not make sense as he would have had to shake them for a lot longer than a few minutes to accomplish that.

[bangerjim]

The OP did not specify what temp he used or how long he baked for. My experience shows that pc will darken from just heat and is the more likely reason his darkened. Your "lead is turning to powder from too much shaking" just does not make sense as he would have had to shake them for a lot longer than a few minutes to accomplish that.

Shaking will not do it.......vibrating WiLL do it.

There have been several others on here in the past posed the exact same question and they too used their vibrator tumblers to PC. I tried it and, sure enough, they were darker. Same with my rotary tumbler. And it has to be the lead rubbing off due to the extreme action over time. If the vib can clean brass, then the action probably can scuff off a bit-o-lead. And it would not take much. Just rub a neeked booilt on your fingers for couple seconds and observe the black! The softer the darker.

One does NOT need a vib or rotary tumbler to PC. Just a teeny bit of elbow grease is all it takes!

[RegisG]

I thought I would try the vibrator because I saw that in a youtube. Will just shake next time. I did preheat but relied on the dial for the 400 degree temperature. "Mistake."
They were in the oven 20 minutes. I'll work on getting that temperature accurate but, with a house full of company for the weekend, I'll have to wait until Monday.
Thanks for all the tips.
Regis


Shaking will not do it.......vibrating WiLL do it.

There have been several others on here in the past posed the exact same question and they too used their vibrator tumblers to PC. I tried it and, sure enough, they were darker. Same with my rotary tumbler. And it has to be the lead rubbing off due to the extreme action over time. If the vib can clean brass, then the action probably can scuff off a bit-o-lead. And it would not take much. Just rub a neeked booilt on your fingers for couple seconds and observe the black! The softer the darker.

One does NOT need a vib or rotary tumbler to PC. Just a teeny bit of elbow grease is all it takes!

[bangerjim]

Any stooge can post a vid on that horrible site! And I have seen a ton of them.

[62chevy]

Any stooge can post a vid on that horrible site! And I have seen a ton of them.

It's like life in general you just need a good filter between your ears.

[ebner glocken]

Any stooge can post a vid on that horrible site! And I have seen a ton of them.
Stooge here, some vids are good, some are bad. I'm pretty glad youtube doesn't filter much, would be a shame for THEM to decided what we should and should not watch.

Ebner

[RegisG]

Well, put digital thermometer in that oven today and found out that the temperature dial was basically and on/off switch. Temperature went straight away to 489F before I cut it off. So, into the trash and bought a brand spanking new toaster convection oven. Cost less than even a Lee mould [lol]. So, we'll see what tomorrow brings.

Regis

[Beagle333]

That's pretty hot, especially if that was a stabilized temp and not the run-up from a cold start. Convection is better anyway. :-) Hopefully this will work for you.

[bangerjim]

Well, put digital thermometer in that oven today and found out that the temperature dial was basically and on/off switch. Temperature went straight away to 489F before I cut it off. So, into the trash and bought a brand spanking new toaster convection oven. Cost less than even a Lee mould [lol]. So, we'll see what tomorrow brings.

Regis


Glad you found that out! I went thru two of those $5 *** ovens from Goodwill when I 1st started this. Went with a good ~$100 convection and have had perfect bakes ever since. I was lucky to have the tstat within ~6 deg F of the real temp!

Just confirm you dial setting on the new one to be sure.

Many try this on the cheap and get burnt (pun intended) on the process early on rather than buying a good convention oven right off.

banger