Powder Coating Boolits

[DangerousDrummer]

An observation on PC bullets.

One of my first batches of PC bullets for my muzzleloader was well over a month ago, I recently ran another batch in a different color and took both batches to the range. Other than the age and color, both batches were identical and the boolits were from the same casting batch.

The older batch was much more accurate than the new batch! I did not run the first batch through the chrony when I first shot them a month ago since I was mostly testing loading/cleaning, so I had no comparison of speeds or accuracy. The new testing revealed that the older batch was a little harder to start in the bbl than the new batch, but the older batch was about 4 MOA more accurate than the new batch shooting from a clean bbl. This must have something to do with curing of the PC.

My favorite load for my 458 SOCOM which is a 420 gn PC RN charged with 27.5 gn RE7, is simply super accurate (less than 1.5 moa @ 50 yds) for a socom, and is a joy to shoot. The length of the bullet makes it more stable than the 350s and especially the 285s which are just plain erratic. I was asked if it was good enough to hit the steel at 200 yds, I punched the numbers into my Strelok ballistics calc on my android phone, used the reticle mode to tell me where the scope lines should be and bang... .58 seconds later... ding! Now for you long range shooters that may not sound like much, but that bullet @1170 fps dropped 29.6 inches in 200 yds.

Overall powder coating is working well for me. My new Lee 160gn 312 2R dbbl cavity will arrive tomorrow. I will now see how much I have to slow down that bullet to get it stable as I have learned that PC cast bullets need to run slower than traditional plated or cast.

[xacex]

I have noticed that the gloss colors feed better in the 9mm, and 45acp 1911 I have tried them in. The Beo got some coated boolits too, but I had issues this time around with feeding the flat black ones. Accuracy is not as good as the same load with 45/45/10. I did coat some of the 311-155's, and lee Blackout boolits to try, but may regret doing them in flat black. The idea of doing a light tumble with a dollop of JPW has crossed my mind. It shouldn't cause any more smoke than what I am getting now.

[popper]

ryokox3 - HT from PC cooking may have caused your accuracy problem, how long after PC did you shoot? I water dropped some PC'd and they definitely are harder.
Flat PC may have more 'colorant' and less plastic, flat spray paint doesn't flow too well. I changed to as complete coverage as I can get due to feed problems, even in a levergun. Definitely the SA are worse.
Some OP used MEK to do the Piglet coating method. I tried dissolving cooked PC in MEK, it gets spongy, never did dissolve. Also don't get your MEK around hydrogen peroxide. Think I'll stick to acetone as it doesn't leave anything behind when it evaporates.

[ryokox3]

ryokox3 - HT from PC cooking may have caused your accuracy problem, how long after PC did you shoot? I water dropped some PC'd and they definitely are harder.

They were over a month from pc to being shot. I was thinking that since the sizer can only hit a small amount of this bullet design due to the early start of the round nose, I may have had issues from one side being thinner than the other.

I will try running my next batch a bit slower to see how that works out.

[popper]

retread - I didn't make a lazy susan like you but did cover a lid with foil that I connect to, so I can manually lift and move my tray without having to disconnect. Thanks for the idea. I recovered quite a bit of powder from my baggie booth, reused this morning. I dumped the baggie and made a booth out of yard signs. Did a bunch of rifle this morning and was surprised how little waste I got. Only had a couple rejects out of ~75 that I'll just redo next time. WD and drying now. Hopefully get to compare the GC, PB, WD & AC performance this month.

[DangerousDrummer]

https://plus.google.com/app/basic/ph...%26pgpnum%3D12

Latest PC bullets. .312 dia 160 gn (orange) bullets next to my 458 socom PC bullets.

I will shoot these tomorrow and give a report. Will likely have to slow them down to make them stable.

[popper]

Shot PC'd 40SW this morning @ 25 yds, resting on TG. 10 shots didn't group, just a 6" horizontal spread, ~ 1" vertical, due to me. Well, 1 was down left a bit. This was after 150 or so rounds @ 15 yds. Don't expect any leading but haven't checked. Accuracy holds up very well. I still notice the up & left 1st shot, bout and inch. Russel, I'd post the target but someone else started using it.

[gimling]

Does powder coating do anything for the BHN of the lead bullets??

[olaf455]

No, however the coating is harder than most alloys. Baking the coating on can remove the boolits heat treating making it softer. If you do not heat treat your boolits this will not matter.

[DangerousDrummer]

So I didn't go shooting today. Instead I finished all of the pieces parts required for plating my first batch. It is bubbling away in the shop running at 2v. I do not have a DC ammeter so I do not know what the load is, but my research indicates that low and slow is best. I built a tray out of 3 poly cutting boards. The bottom tray has a hollow core which allows me to pump compressed air into the tray for stirring. There are holes drilled evenly next to the pins to allow the air to bubble up.

I used the same approach for holding the bullets that I used for my PC tray, except I used #8 ss machine screws screwed up through the poly protruding 3/8 in out of the top of the bottom tray. I created a bus bar system in the hollow core and the machine screws are screwed through the brass bars.

I have not stopped the process to examine any results yet, but I can see discoloration on the bullets. It is hard to tell what is occuring looking through the blue solution.

Plating Solution
16 cups CUSO4 solution (32 oz in just under a gallon of H2O)
8 cups H2SO4
900 grains PEG as a leveler
PWR Supply is adjustable 1.2 v to 18 v max 5 A ran at 2V

I will try to take a picture but now that Google has changed Picassa, I am unable to post links to the images. Guess I will have to use one of my own web servers to hold my pictures.

I just pulled a bullet and it is PERFECT! I can't believe that I nailed it first try when so many have failed. I checked to see if the plating would rub off using a scotch brite pad, but all it did is shine up. I just gotta upload some pictures of this. Wow!

First batch


Cathode plate


Anode plate

[gimling]

Does powder coating do anything for the BHN of the lead bullets??

Maybe I should rephrase that question does the bullet become harder allowing for high chamber pressure loads? can I effectively do a hardness test and use that number as my load data?

[gimling]

900 grains PEG what is PEG please??

Looks good though, pictures are kinda hard to see. how long were they in the bath, thickness??

[popper]

Does powder coating do anything for the BHN of the lead bullets No, it provides a jacket that is weaker than copper but stronger than lead. The Cooking HT should be treated just like casting - if you want AC, ok, else WD.
PEG plastic ?

[DangerousDrummer]

900 grains PEG what is PEG please??

Looks good though, pictures are kinda hard to see. how long were they in the bath, thickness??

PEG is Polyethylene Glycol. It is a powdered laxative available from Walmart. I bought too much, the packets should be large enough. 900 grains was about 1/4 cup. The PEG acts as a leveler by inhibiting the flow of electrons to the high points that develope when plating.

I got the acid by pouring old battery acid through coffee filters. CUSO4 was from Zep root killer.

Some bath recipes call for HCL acid, but it acts as an accelerant. Plating too fast without a leveler is what causes the hairy growth leading to uneven thickness.

Plating time was about 4 hrs. I have not measured the thickness yet, but the plating withstood resizing. I was going to shoot them today but a big gob of tropical moisture moved in off of the Gulf so instead I am plating some of my 420 gn 458 SOCOM bullets.

Sorry about the pictures, Google changed Picassa and "made it better", at least that is their story.

I had told UNFY on the thread that I was not going to give up on plating.

[bangerjim]

Have been doing some "playing around" with the HF gun and system.

1st I bought a $5.00 air reg they sell and it is perfect for what this gun needs. See picture. I bought a couple 1/4" MNPT to plastic tubing barb adaptors at Lowe's and used aquarium tubing for the air line. Then "stuffed" the whole thing in some 1/2" black ribbed plastic wire surround. Taped the ends....and now have an "all-in-one" high voltage and air supply hose. I just hate having wires and hoses running around! You do NOT need a standard heavy big rubber 1/4" air line witn big brass disconnects on the ends to run this little dude. I put the disconnect ONLY on the REGULATOR. Air flow seems to be good to puff the powder out at a nice rate.....does not flood the boolits!

The little reg and the small tubing give more than enough air pressure/flow to "puff" the powder out of the gun. I have found if I gently tap the bottle against my hand B-4 pulling the trigger, it give a perfect flow and coverage.

Also do NOT screw the full bottle of poweder on the gun. That is why they give you 2 empty bottles with the gun. Put only about an inch of poweder in the empty bottle!

The coating is perfect, as seen by the red and black 45 cal slugs I coated this morning. Coat-bake-coat-bake is the perfect thickness. Sized perfectly.

See the "charpy" impact test on one of them. I hit that sucker hard several times from the top and the side with a 4# hammer and could not get the coating to crack or come off!

I have found my new "madness" !!!! BWAHH-HAAA-HAAA!

To the wife was said a few years ago: "This reloading hobby will save us hundreds of dollars!"...........(it is now costing us thousands!).

bangerjim

Attachment 73134Attachment 73138

[Smoke4320]

I have now been carrying around in my pocket a single powdercoated 45 ACP boolit for over a month ..
Along with keys, a knife, loose change and 3 45 long colts..there is no damage to the coating at all ..

[bangerjim]

Attachment 73139

Lat night I "thunk up" a pretty simple (and cheeeeeep) way to hold the boolits on an oven tray while powdering their cute little faces.

A lot of good thought and effort has been expressed in this thread as to holding methods. Thanks to those! This is a very simple and cost-effective method using stuff you probably already have or can get at Lowe's or Home Depot.

The oven I stole from my wife has 9x12 racks. ( I bought her a new & better convection one yesterday!)

I took some aluminum rolled roof flashing I had left from a roof repair job I had to do last summer and cut it to fit the racks with a 1" overlap bent over each side to hold it in place.

The rack's rungs are 3/4" apart, so I took my 12" steel wing dividers and set them at 3/4" and, laying the sheet on soft pine, started to punch thru for the screws with a light tap of a ball peen hammer. Make sure the punch goes thru a little....check by holding it up to the light when done to insure all holes are thru or the screws will just revolve and skate around...... and mabe end up in your finger!

By using dividers, you just lay the 1st row out 1" or so apart and then space over 3/4" with the divider points! Goes VERY fast & easy.

Once the holes are "pricked" thru, bend the aluminum sheet ends around the rack.

Take 1 1/4" long fine thread drywall screws (coarse will not be rigid enough) and drive one in each hole. They go in very easy with your battery drill (slow speed, please!) and they are solid! If one is a bit cock-eyed, just lightly bend it up into vertical.

You can determine the length you want them to stick up. Use longer screws if you want. Even "stadium seating?"

This whole thing took about 45 minutes to make. The drywall screws are cheap, readily avaialble, and have a very wide
head, making a stable base for our friends to sit on. You can see some 45cal slugs from a previous fluidized bed test (failed) I set on there for the picture.

The screw heads will not get coated, so there is no clean-up required after each coating. This rack holds 108 boolits. At this low cost and ease of "fab"-rication, you can crank out several for spares & different colors!

Good coatin'............!

bangerjim

[bangerjim]

I have now been carrying around in my pocket a single powdercoated 45 ACP boolit for over a month ..
Along with keys, a knife, loose change and 3 45 long colts..there is no damage to the coating at all ..

The wife handed me four 45cal PC boolits I left in my shirt pocket that went thru the washer last night. Not a sign od any deterioration from tumbling in hot water. They rattled and banged around in there for almost an hour......hot water, soap and the whole nine yards.

This stuff seems to be very tough if you cure it right!

[Copper75]

I've come up with two different ways of coating my 45 acp 200 gr swc boolits. First I drilled holes in a board that the tapered part of the boolit would fit in nose down. Then I had the idea to just sit them in a pan that was covered in non stick foil.
Pics show the results



My question is am I better off with the completely coated base and uncoated nose or the other way around?

Opinions ?

[Copper75]

Btw,
Powder by the pound powder is giving a nice shiny hard coating !!