New wrinckle to my easy pc.

[Freightman]

I was reading Rangefinders thread on using a tumbler, and I have a extra tumbler container so. I put 60 500gr 45 boolits in and put 1 tbl spoon of Harbor Freight yellow powder in and NO solvent then turned it on. It coated the boolits great and it stayed on while I set them up. They are now baking and look great will post picture tomorrow as it is late now.
I used ONLY powder NO solvent and it covered great and even. YEMV but I have been PC ing dry for a while now with no problems. I have pushed a 200gr PC boolit no GC to 2500fps accuracy was as good as lubed and FPS was much higher . Hope this helps! and I had 1/2 tbl spoon powder left!

[3006mv]

Whoah, wow I would never have thought to do that. So what do they feel like before you bake them? What would happen if you sprayed them with lacquer thinner or acetone and then baked them?

[Freightman]

Why? the powder sticks be careful picking them up set them up and enjoy. The .30 cal boolits I just spread out on a piece if 1/4" hail screen and bake, never been able to sit them up. Now I did drill a 100 holes a little larger than the 30 cal and sit them in it with good results, and will do that from now on. I took the GC out of my 200 gr boolit mold and it works fine, so it is now a PB but if I had to do it over I would just order a PB mold. I got a little to deep on it and took the next band out.
The holes were drilled in a 2X8" cut to fit my oven and it don't catch fire
If you are not happy with the first coat do it again, but you will have to size them as it adds 0.0025" to the boolit per coat.

[Smoke4320]

Freightman is that a vibrating tumbler or a rotary tumbler ?
thanks

[Beagle333]

I must have a different kind of powder. Mine just clumps to the boolits in globs (like it was wet, but..... it's not). But fortunately, when I pour thinner over it and tumble, the clumps dissolve and it just goes back to being the Rangefinder method without messing up any boolits.
(But I had rather do it dry....) 'May need to try other kinds of powder.

[3006mv]

I just thought you needed solvent to activate and cure the epoxy. But I guess all you need is baking.

[popper]

200gr PC boolit no GC to 2500fps That is an accomplishment! 30 cal? Accuracy? I assume you pick them out of the tumbler with tweezers or something?

[Freightman]

Popper I backed off the load that was just a test to see if I could do it and that is a max load for Jacketed with the powder I was using. Accuracy is more like 2000-2100 fps. The tumbler is a vibrator and never had a problem with it not covering, I do warm the boolits it helps. NOT HOT! Just seems less messy and I can use the powder again if they need a second coat. I pick the boolits out with my fingers carefully I try to do it by the nose but it don't hurt to just pick up YEMV but it works for me

[3006mv]

Wow glad I stumbled upon this thread!
I have a small HF rotary tumbler, I put a small cream cheese tub in one of the small rubber drums and added flat black HF powder coat and .224 boolits in. I baked them and repeated process a second time for better coverage. They came out much better than my lacquer thinner mixed ones that's for sure. But I ran into a strange issue. I culled a few that were bent or melted oval/flatter or tips bend downward? I know they were not like that before I put them in the oven at 400F for 20 min.s! I think that in my little oven the ones over the element are the ones that got misshapen? Is this possible?

[Beagle333]

You need a thermometer to test your oven. I have seen toaster ovens make a puddle of boolits. They will get quite hotter than 400 degrees in some cases.
A lot hotter.

[3006mv]

Yeah thanks I will get one, for the time being I will set the temp down and possibly move the tray height higher, I made screen trays that I can put on top of another thinking I can do two layers thus more bullets at a time, but I will get it down pat first. I don't like to have to cull so many of these little pills after going through this whole process, but it is easier using this dry method at least for me. And with better results, not a smooth finish by rifle bullet standards, almost looks like a hammered finish, which would look great on handgun bullets. But it keeps my AR fed for plinking. I don't plan on doing handgun boolits cuz I am fine with my recluse mix. I may try .358 to push through faster out of my marlin though, I have a .44 mag load that does not lead out of my model 94 with alox

[Freightman]

Glad to share! this board helped me when I started and is the most helpful on the web.

[3006mv]

^ yes it is, I refer this for people to join from other forums to search and learn.

So sir frank, do you think it would be possible to coat one color and then add another on top? I only have black but do you think your yellow topped with blue would give a nice green color? I really want to have o.d. Green or even just a dark green boolit.

[Freightman]

Try it never tried two different colors might be unique.

[sparky45]

Hey Frank, I missed your after pictures showing the finished product. I'm going to try this (your) method this weekend.
Thanks for the information.

[3006mv]

Here are some of my .224 using this method, note round on top of .300 whisper in mag for photographic purposes only

[Shooter6br]

Old moly coating technique for jacketed bullets. Used small peanut butter jars in Lyman 1200

[Mike Hughes]

Frank, looks like your method is working good

Here are some of my .224 using this method, note round on top of .300 whisper in mag for photographic purposes only

3006mv, those 224 look good. Are you pulling bullets out with your fingers? Are you standing them up in the oven or just laying on screen or foil? I am trying to figure out a way to quickly coat large amounts of the small boolits

[Garyshome]

Need to give this a try!

[3006mv]

No I basically put them in my old moly tub that has a screw top sealing lid, kinda like the dimensions of a lady's cold cream container or something. I was using a philly cheese tub but that lid leaks. I then put this in one of my HF rubber barrel tumbler drums, stuff foam around it and close end w/ aluminum lid and run for 20 mins. I then shake this out on my oven screen over newspaper, you could probably handle them with gloves, the powder is on there coated pretty well and excess shakes off through screen. Then I take screen and bake at 350 for 15 min. I over temped and timed my first batch and it warped the boolits! So those went in the melting pot for ingots. Then I let them cool and take the excess powder on the paper and put them all back in the tumbler drum and repeat. One coat they are speckled, two coats and they are as seen in photo. Someone else on here washes his freshly cast boolits with 50/50 water and liquid dish soap and let's them dry tacky, he finds the powder sticks better (but I have not done this cuz I learned about it later) and this method really works for me. Pm me your load data and I will share mine too. Or I can post here or elsewhere in reloading.

I made my own tray out of some screen I found that looks like honeycomb. I bent the sides so I can stack on top of each other and double or triple volume in my small second hand store oven.