Powder coating questions....

[6bg6ga]

Ok, before any of you jump on me with both feet please keep in mind I don't have three hours to read thru all the info here on powder coating so go easy will you? Going to try powder coating today as an experiment. After taking the wife to the store I will wander across town to HArbor Freight to pick up a lb or two of power coat powder. Been told to stay away from black color...something about it being hard on rifling. Will try white, red,or blue if they have them. Told to warm bullets prior to coating to about 140 degrees so will try that. I saw that putting them in freezer bags and then into the tumbler seems to work well. Will set the toaster oven to 400 degrees and bake for 20 minutes per videos I have seen. Am I missing anything?Will setup Star sizer by removing its ability to inject lube into the groove. Question is does the sizer remove any of the coating on the bullets?

[Wasalmonslayer]

To answer your question about the star removing the powder coat no it does not.
I have sized many pounds of them thru my star and no issues.
You should do a smash test to verify adhesion. If it passes that your good to go!

Wasalmonslayer

[vrh]

Hb freight red does a fairly good job of coating ( tumble or spray method) . Black does good if you spray it onto bullets. ( doesn't shake and bake). Haven't had any issues with black with my guns.

[clearcut]

Don't forget the nonstick foil or parchment paper
cc

[Beagle333]

Red seems to be the best. Black doesn't stick when tumbling, it doesn't hold a static charge well on its own. But to quell rumors, it does not harm barrels or rifling.
Have fun!

[popper]

I recommend sizing raw boolits first, then coat and resize. Don't use a star but with Lee and sizing down a lot every once in a while PC gets removed. If some gets scraped off, just recoat.

[blltsmth]

Make sure after you bake for 20 minutes you remove them with the rack or whatever you are cooking them in and let them cool down for about 5 minutes or so. THEY SHOULD STICK TO A WIRE RACK IF TURNED UPSIDE DOWN AFTER COOLING!. DO NOT just invert the rack after removing it from the oven over something to catch the bullets in. They need to surface harden a little and cool down. If you notice PC particles sticking to your rack, they weren't cooled enough. It is just a matter of inverting the rack and using something light to tap the bottom of the rack with. Hope this helps.

[HABCAN]

Set aside an evening and read all the posts of the gurus who have perfected this over SIX YEARS of their time. We owe them that, and you WILL benefit, and save time and wasted effort in the long run.

[6bg6ga]

Do you really size the bullets first? Thought you just coated them and then sized them.

[6bg6ga]

Set aside an evening and read all the posts of the gurus who have perfected this over SIX YEARS of their time. We owe them that, and you WILL benefit, and save time and wasted effort in the long run.

Actually I don't have an evening that I can set aside to read the entire thread or I would have done so. That is my point of asking a few pointed questions. My aim is to obtain the knowledge I need quickly and move on it when I can make some time to play with the powder coating. After watching a few video's I am of the opinion that I can put bullets in a container or freezer bag and put them into my brass tumbler with the coat powder that is after warming them in the oven at 140 degrees which makes the powder adhere to them better. Cook them for 20 minutes and cool them and then size them. I was under the assumption the bullets only needed to be sized once and that was after coating them.

[RogerDat]

I size twice but that is because I use a push though sizer to seat gas checks before powder coating. I think for non-gas check it would make sense to only size once after powder coating.

There are some good sitickies worth the time to read them. Some HF colors do shake and bake better than others. Red I think works the best, black works so poorly for S&B that you might as well not bother with it unless you have a ES gun. For instance the plastic shaking container has to be a #5 plastic, designated by the number in the triangle on the bottom. Cool Whip container is one that is right type of plastic and works but the lid can leak a little bit.

I see no mention of the air soft BB's that would go in the bowl with the bullets and powder coat. Those certain colors work much better than others. Black specifically works best. Other colors of BB's work less well and some don't work at all.

Also since one has to use tweezers or the like to carefully take the bullets out of the BB's and powders to avoid knocking it off I can see no way you could use a quart freezer bag. However tumble lube with alox is often done in a freezer bag. That is lube rather than powder coat.

It almost seems as if you are crossing tumble lubing with a liquid lube and powder coating. One only needs to shake the bullets for a few minutes in powder coat. Can't think of any reason one would put the container in a motorized shake or mixer and like I said no way it would work in a plastic bag. This stuff is not rocket science but does have certain steps to follow.

There is an old school way of PC coating that involved solvent and stirring and some might have tumbled those. But dry shake and bake is a whole lot easier and what most do, at least with HF colors.

One last thing while HF Red powder is good way to dip a toe in the water at a low cost, but if you plan on doing a lot of this you might want to check out Smoke who sells it here and it is much better quality, he also tests to make sure which powders work with air soft BB's and shake and bake. More colors too. :-)

[nrc]

I'm only sizing once. I'm also using LEE push through sizers. Even with GC I will cast->cool->tumblecoat->bake->size.

[Bzcraig]

Size, coat, size and be sure to get an oven thermometer to verify your oven temp.

[6bg6ga]

I finished the first 4 pages of the high tec coating thread. In the first 4 pages I learned that the coating adds .0001-.0002 to the thickness. One person indicated he didn't size coat and then size again. With a possibility of only adding .0002 thickness I see no need to size before adding the coating as it would seem fruitless to do so in my opinion.

[NavyVet1959]

Hb freight red does a fairly good job of coating ( tumble or spray method) . Black does good if you spray it onto bullets. ( doesn't shake and bake). Haven't had any issues with black with my guns.

But when the flat black does work, it looks pretty good...

http://images.spambob.net/navy-vet-1959/lee-tl410-210-swc-resized-10mm-loaded-320w.jpg

[6bg6ga]

I didn't get a chance to get to Harbor Freight yesterday but I will try again today after church.

[popper]

HiTek is NOT PC. I PC for HV rifle so my alloys are somewhat hard. I don't have a star and don't know how much abuse it can take. Getting a boolit stuck in a Lee is no fun. PC can give 1-5 thou. added thickness and you don't know which ones are too big until you size.

[Bzcraig]

I finished the first 4 pages of the high tec coating thread. In the first 4 pages I learned that the coating adds .0001-.0002 to the thickness. One person indicated he didn't size coat and then size again. With a possibility of only adding .0002 thickness I see no need to size before adding the coating as it would seem fruitless to do so in my opinion.

Hi-tek and powder coating are two different animals. I have had powder coat (dry tumble) add .0025 to my boolits while ESPC has added .001 normally. If your boolits come out of the mold oversized already then you dry tumble PC, you could be sizing .003 or more. When I've tried that it did scuff some of the PC off. Additionally. I size up front to bring out of round boolits into shape so when I size the second time it doesn't scuff the PC more in one spot. I suppose it might be more than necessary but it's what I do.

[HABCAN]

Popper, as you said, sticking a boolit (mostly LEE .45x200RF's from my 6-banger!!) in a LEE push-through sizer ain't no fun nohow. BTDT!! Took a hardended small screwdriver bit and, setting its flat base against the stuck boolit base, put that assembly in my bench vise and screwed it through. Worked for me.

[RogerDat]

If gas check shank gets coated first it can make it hard to get the check started before running through the Lee sizer. The check is after all made to fit a certain sized shank and with PC adding to that.... So gas checks go on first which in my process means running through the sizer before PC, and since as already noted the PC can add an unknown amount of thickness they get run through sizer post powder coat & baking to insure size. Exception is if I wanted the extra thickness to match a bore slugging, say in a mil-surp with worn bore that was more accurate with a little PC wrap.

[warf73]

I didn't see anyone reply to this part, but you don't have to preheat your boolits in the shake and bake process or ESPC.

[6bg6ga]

I didn't see anyone reply to this part, but you don't have to preheat your boolits in the shake and bake process or ESPC.

What I have read indicates that preheating the bullets results in a more uniform coating and a easier coating process. With respect to the diameter increase as a result of powder coating..... My Star and Magma will easily size bullets .003 oversize so I will try 50 or so pullets and see how it works.

[daloper]

I tried the HF Red and Yellow. They did cover but it took me two coats. Maybe I am just to picky about the looks. I just use the shake and bake method. I ended up getting my powder for Smoke on this site and it works great. I get it done with one coat and I also use the BBs that he sells for my shake and bake. I think that I am getting a better charge because I get more paint coat on the BBs while doing it. With the BBs that I got at Dunhams I did not seem to get the paint sticking to the BBs or the bullets as good. I even tried the HF Red with his BBs for a side by side test and the HF still did not coat as will. Maybe the problem is that we are into a rainy spell in Michigan right now and so I cannot get the static I need. I just know that Smokes works for me so I will keep with what works for me.

[Dragonheart]

If you size first you shouldn't have a problem, so not a bad thing to do when first starting out until you become familiar with the process. After PC and if you do not intend to do a second coat, misting the bullets with a 1 part lanolin to 12 parts 99% alcohol will let the bullets glide through the sizer with little resistance.

[runfiverun]

humidity does affect the HF powders and some others.
PC powders have different bases and they react differently to small amounts of humidity and static changes.

[Dragonheart]

Yes, humidity can totally ruin what would have been good results. Also high humidity means you need to go the extra mile in drying your compressor air when spraying. I don't think the air can be too dry when it comes into contact with the powder. Some get good results with HF, but I did not, so I recommend powder from Smoke or Solid Colors from Prismatic Powder. Just starting out, go with Smoke's Powder until you have it down and want to experiment with something more exotic if that ever happens.

[dterninko]

I PC's then sized.. amazing how well they slide through the die after PC really slick

[popper]

I suspect that heating the boolits actually dries them vs heating to the powder melt point (I got globs and powder didn't flow when cooking). Moisture kills the static charge.

[fredj338]

If you are short cutting the learning process, you may end up wasting more time. I read a lot on it before I did my 1st PC bullets & they came out perfect. Just saying.
I don't preheat the bullets unless it below freezing, not often out here. I shake & bake & only the HF red does really well with that. Other colors, buy from Smoke here. I shake in a #5 plastic container with screw on lid, green or black asbb, about 45 sec works on dry days. Pluck them out, onto a wire rack & into a preheated, 400deg measured, with a therm, oven for 15min. You can cook them longer, but doesn't seem to make it better.
I size after coating, in the Star or Lee dies on a cheap inverted Lee C press. If the bullets are really over sized, you might want to put a bit of Oneshot on them to size easily but most of the time, no issues sizing.

[HABCAN]

A big +1 on the 'short cutting the learning process', not reading ALL first!!!!!!!!! This from another 'read it all prior, and first-time perfect' convert.