PC not working for me.

[Kevins750]

I recently cast my first bullets and the 160gr .312 TL Lee bullets came out well.
I also cast some 230gr .452 TC TL Lee bullets that came out decent.

My powder coating excursion isn't turning out well.

Bought some Eastwood orange and translucent purple, I can't get either right.

I have a #5 tub.i also have a
Franklin armory tumbler.
Neither make a good coat. The purple will cover with a smooth/slick coat but its blotchy.
The orange gives me a rough uneven coat. Actually HB white tumbled for 1/2hr gives me
A better coat than the orange.

So now I ordered some air soft black bbs to see if that works, I am ready to give up.

[Sig556r]

Several factors affect static adherence of PC to lead.
If you water-quench, it can be surface contamination. If you're in a relatively damp area, it can be humidity.
Try warming up your CB's before tumbling. BBs will help create static.
Make sure to thoroughly bake 'em at least 20mins at 400F
I've used Eastwood ford blue & even HF red successfully but not light-colored ones.
Search for posts by Dragon Heart, he's kinda the guru here for PC.
Good luck.

[slide]

Are you standing bullets up or dumping them in a basket ?

[Kevins750]

Are you standing bullets up or dumping them in a basket ?

the PC doesn't cover enough to worry about heating usually. the rifle bullets are really bad, I stood them but still didn't help.

[slide]

How much powder are you putting in your tub? How many bullets? It could be the powder itself. Some powders will not stick. There is a guy on the forum,goes by the handle Smoke. He sells powder and makes sure it sticks before he sells it. Order a sample pack from him. I bet you will have better luck. Orange is always hard to work with. I have used purple but not the translucent.

[Conditor22]

try mixing them together, you'll be surprised how combining 2 powders get a mix that coats well.

Check the translucent purple directions, it may need to go over something.

Don't give up, probably just something simple.

need more information.
the humidity
did you knock off All the excess PC,
did you check the temp of your oven with a thermometer
what type of oven and how many did you bake

Pictures always help

[brstevns]

Things that worked for me
Sometimes too much powder will cause it not to stick, seems as if it cannot get enough static to grip to the bullets.
Try a little less powder.
Bullets to cold for powder to stick, warm them up to around 150 or so and it will stick.
Doesn't make sense, but for me to few bullets does not work as well as a good amount.
Something is on the bullets, did you use a mold release on the mold that made them, could be that?
I have used acetone. alcohol, ( not rubbing alcohol because it has water in it) and one time at last resort plain old gasoline. Just make sure they are completely dry before putting them in the oven (Fire Risk)
Put some in a small baggy with the powder and let them vibrate in your brass cleaner for around 20 minutes.
Hope one of these helps
The translucent purple needs to go over a base color such as silver or chrome. It comes out like you said otherwise.
The bullets are coated with a clear finish and blutchy purple otherwise but they are fully coated and can be use,they are just not that pretty.

[Kevins750]

the orange is not sticking at all. I did clean about a 2 dozen 160gr with rubbing alcohol but let them dry for hours. I am in California so no humidity.

[1616s16]

to much powder in the tube. to much will not charge the powder.

butch

[elmacgyver0]

A quote from Dean A. Grinnell "I'm becoming convinced there are souls for whom it is ordained in the stars that they just plain can't cast bullets. A sort of cosmic, "Not you, Clyde!" edict is in force to thwart and humiliate them."
Perhaps it is the same for powder coating.

Don't be that guy, you can do it.

[Silvercreek Farmer]

Try 20 dozen. I probably tumble coat 8-10 lbs worth of boolits at a time. +1 for slightly warm boolits.

[DHDeal]

I use many different translucent colors and they cover very well. Gotta remember that the translucent's by definition have a lot of clear in them so they will be, well, they'll be translucent.

I have got into the habit of mixing some clear in every color I coat. The clear is just such a good powder to use to get a complete coverage with. I would just use clear for everything, but I like to see all that color (translucent though it may be).

As others suggested, use a good powder known to cover, use the Goldilocks amount of powder, use a #5 container, some say no but I use a good amount of black bb's, shake like he||, and see how they cover. I'd try the translucent purple first as I suspect you'll have better luck there (it's going to be blotchy as you called it, but it'll be coated).

I've never used anything but Smoke's until a few weeks back when I bought a couple pounds of Prismatic Powder. Both are very good powders and coat very well via Shake and Bake.

[cwlongshot]

Either of those colors has worked for me either. Some colors simply don’t work shake n bake.

I bought two last week green and blue. Blue has always been great for me. But never bought this brand. Wouldn’t coat at all. Left a “frosted” look. But the green was dynamite! Coated even and complete produced a beautiful bullet.

I have bought three diff brands of orange. Not one produced well for me.

Purple is a good color but anything metallic or translucent simply won’t fork for me.

Static is the deal. Need to produce static. So swirling is better than shaking but some shaking knocks off excess if you find too much is sticking. (Yea that can happen too)

Orange yellow and red are problematic for me. Greens purples and blues have been nearly 100%. Metallics nope. Candys. Nope. Probably would sprayed but not S&B.

Eastwood Ford Blue. Smokes Clear are probably THE BEST reported coatings.

Good luck

CW

[Kevins750]

I just got home from work and I left my 45 acp cast bullets in the tumbler last night (not running) because they didn't coat (orange)
And went to take them out and it looks like they partially got coated mostly around the lube grooves. So I took all the powder and bullets out of the tumbler, put them about a dozen in a sandwich bag with a small amount of the orange and they are tumbling now.

I will report back to you all with progress, if any.

[Pablo 5959]

Orange never works for me ether.
Gloss black works for me and that all I have used for a couple of years.

[Kevins750]

Translucent purple covers very nicely.

But them in a plastic bag with just a little powder and tumbled for 20minutes.257081


Fingers crossed on the orange.

[charlie b]

Sounds to me like part of the problem is not enough bullets. Partial solution is to add bb's or something else to increase the static. As stated above, more powder can make the problem worse, not better. I specifically started with Eastwood Ford Light Blue because it is so easy to tumble coat. My next order with be for one of Smoke's powders.

I do not cast a ton of bullets at a time so I use black air soft bb's in the tub with the bullets. When I am digging out the last few bullets they have some blemishes on them. So, I leave them in the tub until I do the next batch of bullets.

[Kevins750]

Well the orange is DOA, not worth showing. They are a conical bullet and just can't get powder on the cone.
My BBs should be showing up soon so I will make another go at it then.

[Budzilla 19]

I had to ESPC the orange to get it to be really orange!!! Same thing for the copper color from Eastwood. The blue from Eastwood? it does awesome in shake and bake style. But when I found Smokes powder I put the Eastwood aside!! Carolina blue? My favorite blue color, Traffic purple, traffic yellow, and last, but not least, CLEAR!!! The clear is also the best covering of all, in my opinion!! Looks like powdered sugar before baking, then that awesome clear! YMMV. Good luck to you.

[Kevins750]

Just ordered pink,red, and blue from smokes.

[brstevns]

Glad the baggy way was of help.
I had to warm my bullets to get orange to stick

[Kevins750]

Glad the baggy way was of help.
I had to warm my bullets to get orange to stick

Orange didn't work with the baggie method just the purple worked.
I will try the orange with the bbs and failing that I will heat the bullets.

[cwlongshot]

I loaded my oven with lava rock. It helps allot with even heat but needs to be warmed. So I run the oven full timer before first bake. I keep two baskets on top and warm bullets in there before coating. It absolutely helps! My bullets make it just over 100-110 degrees sitting up there. You don’t want them so hot that it melts powder. Just warm “enough”. I have read powder also should be 68-72 for best results. My powder is cold in I heated garage.

Read about tumbler use for years. But DREAD that clean up and I use DOZENS of color combos so nope not me!! Never thought of a zip Lock! I gotta try that. Maybe double just because. ;)

Good luck

CW

[Doubles Shooter]

It maybe just blind luck, but I've had great luck with Smoke's traffic orange using the ASBB method.
257127
257128

[Kevins750]

Read about tumbler use for years. But DREAD that clean up and I use DOZENS of color combos so nope not me!! Never thought of a zip Lock! I gotta try that. Maybe double just because. ;)

Good luck

CW
I would recommend double bag especially if you are using the cheap dollar store sandwich bags like me.
Seems to make some tiny cuts in the bag when tumbling.

[fredj338]

the orange is not sticking at all. I did clean about a 2 dozen 160gr with rubbing alcohol but let them dry for hours. I am in California so no humidity.
I am in Socal, about 15m from the beach, & have no issues shake & bake. I use a #5 w/ ASBB, 30sec shake & then bake. A good powder like one from Smoke or powder by the # works fine, including Smokes traffic orange. Good coverage, smooth & glossy. I do stand them up for baking, use plastic ammo trays for a jig, way faster than by hand.

[bangerjim]

Some powders will not "static cling"! I have been doing this since we all started researching it back in 2013 or so. The shake-n-bake method works for MOST powders. Smokes stuff works because he tests it! But if you go off buying odd brands and weird color and finishes, no guarantees.

I now stick with (pun intended) ESPC for everything, because EVERY powder works with that method because they was engineered to be applied with a corona static spray gun...........not a silly little#5 plastic tub!

Stick with proven powders listed on here. And you really do NOT need to use a tumbler. 30-45 seconds hand-shaken REAL HARD in a CoolWhip container is all I ever used and always got PERFECT smooth finishes.

bangerjim

[Kevins750]

Smokes powder showed up so I will be trying the shake and bake method first, then with BB's.



SMOKES WORKED. Tumbled for just a few seconds and had excellent coverage and shiney melted powder.

[Drew P]

I could never get good results. Switched to HiTek and have been very happy ever since. Much easier, like much much much easier.

[rubinschmidt]

I've often wondered if many problems with poor adhesion of the powder is due to the the tumbling container or media rather than the powder.

I've not had problems with dry tumbling HF Red and Eastwood powders. And yes, we have humid, rainy days in Arizona too

I use only unused polypropylene containers that have not been washed. This means they have never had soap, dawn, dishwasher detergent, water, alcohol, moistened wipes, or even Cool Whip in them. I just keep the containers covered and segregated and never washed.

I am more and more convinced that many people's problems are due to something affecting the surface charge of their container, not their technique.

Has anyone else looked at it from this angle?

[Kevins750]

I use a clear #5 container from the dollar store. never touched anything inside it before powder and bullets went in. harbor freight white and the eastwood orange
will not stick on 60% of the bullet bodies I have tumbled in it.

same tub and bullets with same tumbling method eastwood clear purple and ALL SMOKES powders cover well.

I have heated some bullets and dropped them in the tub with powders one at a time and they worked, but takes way to long.

[AndyC]

The translucent purple needs to go over a base color such as silver or chrome. It comes out like you said otherwise.
The bullets are coated with a clear finish and blutchy purple otherwise but they are fully coated and can be use,they are just not that pretty.
Aha - I was wondering why my Purple ones were coming out blotchy - but I do have a bunch that I coated in Chrome beforehand, so I've re-coated those in the Purple and busy baking them now.

[AndyC]

Nope - still blotchy. No biggie, they'll shoot just fine.