Yet another first time coating thread with some questions.

[chumly2071]

I finally got around to casting my first run of projectiles, in 9mm and 45. I am working on powder coating them using the pre-heat method as presented by Elvis Ammo on YouTube, using HF red powder. As far as the shake and coat part of the equation, the method has worked fine for me so far, with good coverage, and good adhesion after curing as confirmed by the hammer test.

My issues seem to come from the bake part of the process. I started out with a re-purposed expanded metal pizza pan that I bent four sides up to make a basket that fits in my toaster oven. Being expanded metal, the sharp corners of the mesh left a lot of un-coated contact spots on the projectiles, and a lot of sticking to the tray.

Next, I tried some perforated metal drawer organizers from Bed Bath and Beyond, which filtered the powder off very well when moving from tumble to bake, and had less bare spots from tray contact, but still had a lot of sticking (to the tray, and to each other).

My last attempt, I talked my wife out of a silicone baking sheet she no longer uses. Contact with the tray bare spots all but disappeared, but on the second use, I apparently did not remove enough of the extraneous powder, as I ended up with clumps of projectiles glued together.

In all of my attempts, even though I steadily improved tray contact marks, I still had a number of issues with bare spots from the projectiles touching each other. Almost all the reading here and YouTubing I have done, show users doing what I have tried, running their hands though the baked projectiles after initial cooling, and ending up with a pile of seemingly perfectly coated bullets.
I guess I have a couple questions after the novel above... What are you all using with success for bulk coating (I know some imperfections are inherent with the shake/dump/bake, but trying to do this without individually touching every projectile for bulk pistol range use), and how much of an imperfection is acceptable before you start having issues with potential leading in the barrel? I did notice projectiles with too much coating tended to be very difficult to push through the Lee sizers, and tended to wipe one side of coating completely off (they were set aside for remelt). Most sized very easily with a bit of lanolin based case lube, and only had small bare spots from contact with either the tray(s) or other projectiles. A small bare spot isolated on the projectile is not overly concerning to me, but I keep observing bare lines that run the length of the contact area of the projectiles, which to me means contact on the bore at those tangency points...
Thanks in advance for your input.

[LakeviewBulldog]

The most important part of the boolit to have coated are the driving bands as these are what actually contact the barrel. I would say the second most important part to have a good even coat on is the base to help make a more uniform surface for accuracy. The rest is just how perfect you want them to look. I would load them up and shoot them. After about 5 or 10 rounds check the barrel for signs of leading and proceed from there. The only way you are going to get that perfect smooth finish is with a powder gun. I strive for mostly perfect with the shake and bake method and standing the individual boolits up on Non Stick Aluminum Foil.

[tzzler44]

You've got the right idea with the silicone.

First I'd put a thermometer in your oven to make sure the bullets are preheating to the right temp and not getting too hot. Preheating bullets always gave me clumps and uneven coating so I abandoned it.

Have you tried shake n bake with airsoft BBs and a #5 container? You shouldn't need to preheat if you build up static.

[farmerjim]

It does not take that long to individually stand them up on the silicone mat. I have used latex gloves with the powder on the fingertips or tweezers. aprox. 140 boolets in 10-12 min either way. I bake for 15 min, so I get trays ready faster than I bake them. I also use Smoke 4320's powder with black ASBB's. It works better than HF powder.

[DerekP Houston]

i use the blue nitrile gloves and stand mine up on a silicone mat for baking. Shake and dump didn't come out well for me, I had the same problem of them sticking together and not coming out even. For shake and dump I just use hi-tek instead. For higher pressure loads I use PC and just deal with the slow setup.

[OS OK]

Look fellas, try to look at this in another light, another perspective...
If you want fast, bulk, what you describe as 'range quality', not picture perfect...that's one thing.
If you want boolits that are as picture perfect as you can do whether it's pictures your after or whether its the thought of doing the PC as perfectly as you can because you just can't settle for less...then that takes a little longer and requires a little more effort.
The only way you can speed the second method is to work faster, working faster will require another oven or a bigger one for larger batches to begin with.
These threads keep discussing the same limitations...time and effort and shortcuts and less quality, why not decide what you want and then go for it, improve your skills in handling or your tools to do larger batches but each method has been pretty well worked out and each method has it's limitations regardless.
Since PC is relatively new and I have old timer loader/caster friends who look onto new improved ideas with skepticism I want to show them something without visual flaws first and foremost, they do their initial estimate of your work and skill by looking at the quality of the PC'd round, in their minds they compare it to the lube-sized rounds they make...if it doesn't cosmetically compare you won't convince them it will shoot better or not lead the barrel no matter how hard you try.
Then there's that other thing too...the 'satisfaction' you have in a job well done.

[HABCAN]

OS OK............absobloominlutely+1!! I see so many newbies jump in on this 'new method' with questions that have been answered here a hundred times over........if only they'd read the posts! Guys, READ ALL THE POSTS: the gurus here have spent SIX YEARS developing these methods for us and ironing out the kinks. Decide what you want as the end result............and goferit.

[shoot-n-lead]

The info about all of the methods is here...DEEP. All it takes a little searching and deciding what suits your needs. What I do works perfectly for me, but then, I am not trying to convince anyone to try powder coating. If they want to try any of these methods, they all work...if they don't want to try, they can carry on with what they are already doing...matters not, to me.

[chumly2071]

You've got the right idea with the silicone.

First I'd put a thermometer in your oven to make sure the bullets are preheating to the right temp and not getting too hot. Preheating bullets always gave me clumps and uneven coating so I abandoned it.


Used an oven thermometer, and am setting the temp accordingly. No real clumps, unless I did not shake enough excess off before putting them on the trays.

Have you tried shake n bake with airsoft BBs and a #5 container? You shouldn't need to preheat if you build up static.


Used an oven thermometer, and am setting the temp accordingly. No real clumps, unless I did not shake enough excess off before putting them on the trays. This is one I did confirm.

Haven't used the BB's as I am getting very good coverage with the small pre-heat and limited shaking. Not observing any gelling of the powder at all at the preheat stage.