so I have to ask

[white eagle]

I went and bought a pc gun from Eastwoods
now I have one lingering question, when I pc on my oven tray
which is aluminum I believe,I will ground to that tray so will the powder adhere
to the tray as well as the boolits?
Is there any way around this if that happens?
I am excited about this new to me method.
I will be coating all sorts of boolits HP and non HP gas checked and plain based boolits
I am just not happy with the coverage I am getting with SB method so thought I would try this :Fire:

[Conditor22]

use aluminum foil and ground to it. saves the tray
with HP boolits make a tray with screws sticking up and set the HP on them
with GC boolist attach brass to the tray and stick the GC portion in the brass

others can give you more details on this

S&D works well with the right powders and techniques

[rancher1913]

the excess paint covering everything was the reason I went to shake and bake. the hollow point on a does work good.

[white eagle]

some S/B colors give me good coverage some don't
I want them all to work
What I was trying to get away from is covering the oven pan
with powder every time without being able to recover the over spray

[Bad Ass Wallace]

There is magic in the container that you do the shake in; it should have a symbol '5' inside a triangle stamped on the back. I don't use foil but non-stick baking paper. Have 'mirror black' 'wagon red' and 'ford light blue' Eastwood powders and all give excellent coverage.


https://i.imgur.com/02GXeqol.jpg

[white eagle]

I have been using the S/B method for over 3 years
am just trying a different way of doing things is all
was interested in capturing the over spray to reuse

[GregLaROCHE]

some S/B colors give me good coverage some don't
I want them all to work
What I was trying to get away from is covering the oven pan
with powder every time without being able to recover the over spray

Putting aluminum foil down on top of the tray seems like your best bet. Otherwise, spray them on another piece of metal and carefully move them to your baking tray.

[JimB..]

Didn’t someone build a bent wire frame for hollow points? I think he shot them on one pan and then moved the frame to another pan for curing. Or maybe I saw it in a dream.

[slim1836]

Please make sure you use the non-stick aluminum foil, you'll thank me later.
Just ground to the foil.

Slim

[cstrickland]

if you make a wire mesh tray you can stand them up and spray them. you can then tap the side of the mesh tray to shake of extra powder and recover it. doesnt take much just to know of majority of extra powder

I personally use non stick foil. Spray once and turn over and spray again . I then toss it. the residual amount of powder lost is inconsequential to me

[BC17A]

I riveted 22lr shells directly to cookie sheets which I set the boolits on. I just let the PC cure on the sheets and reuse without worry. At 2 mil thick per coat it would take a few hundred uses before ever becoming a problem.

269062

[white eagle]

turns out Eastwoods didn't have the gun and won't have it till January of 2021
so I had to cancel the order. I bought another one off e-bay which I may have made a mistake in buying
but we will see.Needless to say my powder gun trials are going to be delayed

[popper]

I've tried many different methods of spraying, hanging from a wire, set on cartridge case, lazy susan, etc. Biggest problem is the spacing required to get entire bullet coated. Yes I even flipped them over, left noses uncovered, etc. I now shake & bake!

[tomme boy]

Non stick aluminum foil did not work for me. I stude up all the bullets. Then sprayed them. All the bullets stuck to the foil. And yes it was the right side and it was Reynolds non stick so it was not cheap knock offs.

I tried to make a tray with holes in it to stand up the bullets with holes in it. It worked a couple times then the build up prevented them from conducting the electricity. the tray took a long time to make and not worth it. Thats when I went to S&B amd have not looked back.

I have the HF spray gun sitting collecting dust

[birdadly]

I feel I don’t get “much” powder on the foil as waste. Not much powder has to be coming out of the gun for it to work. My cheap HF gun can send a bunch out at once now and then if I’m not careful, otherwise it’s a light dusting of waste each time. Not worth caring about in my opinion.

I couldn’t for the life of me get attachments in this reply, so i went and found the thread i used them in years ago. Hopefully a copy/paste of that takes you there to look at my setup if you’d like to see it. -Brad

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?224082-Tray-Ideals&p=2613272#post2613272

[white eagle]

well I got my powder gun and aside from getting a system down
I like what I see and have done
I chose a powder that I had trouble with when shake and bake
some of Smokes translucent cooper was only able to make speckled look
with s/b but with the powder gun they come out looking like root beer
barrels<I am coating 400 gr.45/70 boolits so far so good

[cstrickland]

Non stick aluminum foil did not work for me. I stude up all the bullets. Then sprayed them. All the bullets stuck to the foil. And yes it was the right side and it was Reynolds non stick so it was not cheap knock offs.

I tried to make a tray with holes in it to stand up the bullets with holes in it. It worked a couple times then the build up prevented them from conducting the electricity. the tray took a long time to make and not worth it. Thats when I went to S&B amd have not looked back.

I have the HF spray gun sitting collecting dust

Did you by chance use HF powder when they all stuck to the aluminum foil ?? If so I had that exact thing happen with some red HF powder . I have used several other brands and colors , but only the HF stuck to everything. It was like a big pile of melted cheese. it was still to soft .

I thought it might have been my technique, but I have only ever had it happen with HF powder.

[white eagle]

the nonstick aluminum foil is a good trick and part of my procedure now
use a cardboard scraper and scrape into pile and back in powder container
so far its working swimmingly

[Tonerboy]

Can you show us some Pictures? Maybe some of your shake/bake versus your new Spray ones?

[Dragonheart]

For Hollow points I use my "Bed of Nails". They are hardened carpet tack strip nails set through drilled holes in a aluminium half sheet baking pan. A flat piece of sheetmetal riveted to the bottom of the pan which covers the nail heads and keeps them rigid and upright. A piece or pieces of parchment paper is punched over the nails to protect the pan from the powder. The HP bullets are set on the nails. I then put the tray in the oven and do a 400 degree preheat. When I pull the tray out I am ready to spray. I attach the ground cable to the pan and spray. The powder adheres to the hot bullets and flows immediately and it is also electrostatically attracted to the bullets. Very little powder is deposited on the parchment as you can see in the photos. Using this method I can see the coverage immediately. Once sprayed I can return the tray to the still hot oven for final cure or do it later if I wish.

270140270141270142270143

[Dragonheart]

For Gas Checks I drilled/reamed some scrap sheetmetal with holes the size of the gas check shank. The holes keep the bullets upright and in place while being sprayed and protect the shank from the powder. Once sprayed I transfer the bullets to my silicone covered cooking mats. The only difference from this old photo is I now use SS cooling racks to help hold the bullets upright while being transferred to the oven. If your spraying conditions are clean the powder overspray can be swept up with a paint brush and reused.I only have two calibers, 30 & 7 mm that require gas checks. After I seat the checks I do a second coat using shake & bake coat of clear, which increased the PC thickness and bonds the check into a one piece bullet.

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[remy3424]

Don't quit on S&B yet, it sounds like you are furgal with the powder, S&B should make you happy. With your general location given, it maybe be the humidity that is fightin you. I am in NW IA, so maybe not quite as humid (guessing you're eastern IA or MN ish) here. Get a hygrometer, Amazon has 4 paks ($14) of the little digital ones, so you can PC on days with lower humidity. If you have a Dollar General in your area, they have awesome containers ($1) 29 oz, a lid with a seal and 4 snap-down tabs to keep it closed, these work great, I have very little powder left after a batch, I just leave the black BBs and any powder in them until my net session. Just aggressively swirl, don't shake, that will just crack the container and isn't needed. Buy several, one for each color. I use Smokes powder, I would try black or red wine (most solid colors seem to work)WITH the White Aluminum (silver), try using 3 or 4 to 1 (solid color to the silver), I think the results will amaze you. Last thing, keep the powder sealed-up, it comes double sealed in ziplock bags. I store all my double bagged colors in a large ziplock bag and in a sealed ammo can. I don't have a decade of experience, but this works well, the coverage and performance of these PCed boolits is great. I too have a HF gun, new in the box, I would sell cheap to anyone who wants to try it. PM me with you want more details or pics of what I use, I think you can get the results you want with S&B. Don't give-up yet!

A qualifying statement: I have only been PCing for handgun calibers, no rifle boolits "yet", so not sure if my current powder and methods will perform as well with the higher velocities and barrel lengths...but I hope to find out sometime in the not so distant future.

[remy3424]

Dragon, that set-up looks to work great and to be very effiicient with the powder. Maybe that is what the OP needs if the S&B method isn't in the cards for him. I am guessing we do have S&B sucess in the upper midwest, so he must be close, might just be one thing that needs to be tweaked.

[white eagle]

I am in Wisconsin
the problem I have with S/B is coverage
when I coat I want it to coat not come out looking speckled
some colors do S/B well some don't with a gun they all do

[popper]

Spraying big FN bullets nose down gets the base & bands coated good. Then pick up and place on baking mat to cook. I drilled holes in a sheet of steel for 30 cal noses, sprayed and flipped over onto another (NSAF covered) plate for cooking. Worked fine but rather slow process. I GC before coating.

[Dragonheart]

Humidity, doesn't get much worse than where I live on the Texas Gulf Coast. Humidity can be 100% and not raining. so what to do if I shake & bake powder coat?

First and foremost, Keep Your Powder Dry! I seal my powder in glass containers that are stored in my garage freezer at zero.

Second, make sure you are using a powder that will fully coat with the shake method. All powders will spray, but not all powders will coat by shaking.

Third, make sure your bullets are not contaminated; if you water drop that is one of the best ways to contaminate your bullets causing spotty coverage or no coverage. I air dry and as soon as they are cool to the touch they go into airtight storage containers. All of this is basic, but the basics will kill the process.

As far as coating in the summer I can turn on the AC in my garage, which will drop the air moisture level considerably in about an hour; that usually makes it better.

But the sure way is preheat your bullets to 120-150 degrees F. Don't go over 150 or at least not by much because if you get them too hot the powder will start to flow on contact and you end up with a lead ball. Maybe it's Ok if you have a cannon, but a mess if you want individual bullets. You will not be able to do this reliably without a quick reading accurate thermometer in your oven. I recommend the Glass Taylor Oven Guide Thermometer about $12.

Since I use a modified tumbler I typically heat 6#'s of bullets and drop them into the running tumbler containing powder and BB's. The heat along with the static charge causes the powder to stick and coat quickly. You will also notice the powder is better set less likely to be damaged when transfering the bullets to the cooking racks.

When the tumbler has done its job, I dump the load in a #5 plastic dishpan and pick out the bullets with self locking tweezers. if I drop a bullet and damage the coating I can drop it back in the pan give it a shake and repair the coating. When finished I dump the powder and BB's back into the tumbler, which is now ready for the next batch.

If you do these basic things then I cannot see any reason not to get excellent shake powder coverage

[RP]

I get old no parking signs and handicap signs placed some pegboard over them and marked the pattern spacing seems to be great for 45 cal bullets. I took a 1/8 drill bit in my drill press and drilled all the marks two at a time and came out with 181 holes each. I used Zip screws you can get them from a heating and air supply store I had number 8 by a inch and ran out could not find anymore had to go with 3/4 they work I just like the 1 inch better.
I used tinfoil and parchment paper tamping it down with a brush. I loaded the trays up about 5 times each and sprayed they worked very well.
Afterwards I went to remove the tinfoil I used on one tray and paper on the other 3 to find out all the holes allowed PC to bond to the base of the screws and the screw as well so it did not come off as planned. I am thinking of trying some pam or something like that as a release agent.
On the other hand I was using nails shot threw a thin sheet of metal wood and another sheet of metal for a few years never covered it with anything and the PC was about 1/8 thick and started to bubble when I baked. I placed them in the oven got them hot and bubbles forming then ran a screwdriver under it to remove the PC. They cleaned up ok but I went ahead and made the new trays which holds more and store better.
Thinking if nothing works I just run them until the build up was to much remove the screws heat them up and scrape like I did my other trays.

[fredj338]

One reason I dont bother spraying. It is more time consuming & wastes a ton of powder.

[TjB101]

Timing ... seems if I coat within a few days of casting the SB coating is better than bullets that have sat around for a few months. Not sure what this is the case. Also don’t handle any freshly cast rounds with your bare fingers. Any oils on your fingers will prevent powder from sticking.