Definitive List - What powders work and what powders don't

[robertbank]

Thanks I will proceed along those lines then. I should be ready to go by the end of the month if USPS/Canada Post do their part.

Take Care

Bob

[kungfustyle]

Non stick aluminum foil is the only thing PC coated boolits wont stick to when baked.

I've used parchment paper every single time and never had any problems with it....

[pls1911]

Somewhere I've read complaints about the HF blavk powder being clumpy, hence hard to ES coat easily.
I found that a mix of 25% Red to 75% black really makes the black ES coat much better, and still appears black. More red gets you through dark maroon, and all seem to work well.
All seem to stand up to heat treating too....425 -450 for 45 minutes and water quenched...

[ChrisCbr]

I bought four different powders from all powder paints.

Ktm Orange
Bullet black
Black slip
Super durable wet black

Using the dry tumble method for all powders I found SDWB to be the best with one coat coverage. Next best was KTM Orange. Again good coverage though little lighter in some areas but still covered. Black slip did not stick enough to attempt curing and bullet black did not stick at all using the DT method.

[william l evans]

Hay guys, William evans here, ran into your thread a few minutes ago about powder coating boolets and was dumfounded. I just retired from a powdercoating company and can get lots of once used powder from a lot of different manufactures. Let me know what you want to try and I will send you some if you pay the freight. I will read more and try this myself.

[fcvan]

Mr. Evans, congratulations on your retirement! Worked at a powder coating company? How cool is that. I never considered getting powder coat equipment until I started ESPCing my boolits. I've even done some ASBBDT coating with good success. Anyway, I'm sure you will become a popular guy with all of your knowledge and experience. I sent you a private message.

[william l evans]

I am not an expert in powder coating, I drove their truck to deliver and pick-up from their customers. About every month, I would haul about three tons of once used powder to be destroyed. after reading more on this forum, I see that "smoke" is selling powder. I do not believe that I want to get into the business of selling powder, but would be willing to look for certain brands or colors that someone wants to test. My main objective right now is to cast some boolits so I can play with some PC myself.

[cga]

Has anyone fired Candy Colors (red, blue, ect.) in a 45-70 / 35Rem. / 30-30? Just wondering if the semi-transparent Candy colors are the same quality and the same process as the standard colors.

[pls1911]

CGA,
I believe the benefit lies in the polyester coating in lieu of the pigment.
I hope an expert in this materials can confirm that, inasmuch as I now have about 100 30-30 and .45 colt bullets In candy blue!
Hope i get the chance to load and try 'em myself soon

[popper]

little silica packets No, it didn't work for me. Attempts to use low heat didn't work either.

[Slenk]

Did my first PC yesterday HF red, shake & bake , used a margarine container. Cooked Boolits for 20 min. at 400 . They turned out great for my first time PC . I did trough in enough Black air soft BBs to cover the bottom of the container. After 40 years of casting , I will not lube again.

[jkcerda]

do you guys resize before of after PC?

[robertbank]

I do both from advice received here. To early to comment on results due to weather conditions.

Take Care

Bob

[1911KY]

do you guys resize before of after PC?

I size after coating.

However, if your mold drops a larger bullet, then sizing before and after may make after coat sizing easier, as PC will add anywhere from 0.001" to 0.003" to your bullet. In my experience, thickness added will be determined by several factors, including but not limited to what process you are using to coat them, how well the PC sticks to your allow, the distribution of your oven heat to produce good PC flow, etc...

[ChrisCbr]

Yeah, my mold drops at .402 and after PC is more like .405. Given I sizing to .401 that's a real squeeze! They fly true though.

[coffeeguy]

It depends on the method being used (what works & what doesn't). Using an ES gun is more forgiving and gives a more even coat regardless of the powder; for any of the dry tumble methods I like higher-gloss powders since they flow a little more and make up for any 'blotchiness' you get as a result of too few BB's, too many boolits, high humidity, not holding your tongue right or whatever. Case in point:
Black Chrome from PBTP...Look close and you can see the blotchy color, this doesn't like to go on well with the dry tumble methods, regardless of the variables involved but it flows so well that you get complete coverage once it's baked. I actually like the way it looks and it's one of my favorites.

[Stilly]

I purchased some Mayan Gold Black from PBTP, and Gold Vein and B&W vein from The Powder Coat Store. Then I purchased an Emerald Green from Afterhours Mech (ebay for all three sellers) and I think he said it was made by prismatic.

I dry tumbled them all in a No. 1 plastic container (PETE I think) that I picked up from Smart N Final Express for $1.49 each (got many of them) and put in about 1/4-1/3rd of mixed black .25 and white .20 airsoft pellets. Put in a tablespoon or two of powder, drop in a handful of boolits and put the lid on and the container goes into my Thumler for 15-25 minutes.

That is how I dry tumble everything. Once out I pluck the pills from the container with hemostats (curved) and place them on a pan.
The Green was not all that great, but it DID work out with a small mark here and there. I think it is thin, the others seem to cover very well.

This is the result of my last purchase:

Oh The top two are of Gold Vein and the bottom from left to right is mayan gold black, gold vein, emerald green and bright red on mayan gold black that I will call either mayan gold or mayan black gold (because they do not know how to name things apparently).


The yellow is a mix of HF yellow and another urethane bright yellow to see how many boolits it takes to make the bright yellow bright. These are 9mm.

[MBTcustom]

I just wanted to give my 2 cents here.
I have wanted to PC some bright green bullets for my 45-70 lever guns, and Beagle333 turned me on to Kawasaki green from PBTP.
The bullets I am using are cast from three molds of similar design, which is the 350 grain Ranch Dog bullet. One mold is an original Lee that I removed the GC shank from, another is a mold I borrowed from Bjornb which is the NOE version, and my own Accurate molds clone. To date, I have only tried the later two, but I will be trying the PB very soon.
The bullets I have tried were prepared as follows:
1. cast of House alloy and air cooled
2. installed the GC
3. sprayed with Frankford Arsenal lanolin case lube.
4. Sized .358 (the 1886 has a .357 groove diameter).
5. laid on a T-shirt and dowsed with 90% rubbing alcohol and rubbed to remove the lanolin.
6. after the bullets were dry, I rolled them into a container with the black airsoft BBs and PC, and then shaken vigorously.
7. a pair of stainless steel forceps was used to reach in and seize the bullets gently on the ogive.
8. after getting hold of the bullet, the forceps were tapped twice on the edge of the PC container. This evened out the coat, and gave a uniform thickness on the bullet.
9.The bullets were baked at 400 degrees for 12 minutes.
10. the bullets were sprayed with case lube.
11. the bullets were sized a second time through the same .458 die.
12. bagged and tagged for future loading.

The bullets prepared in this way produced accuracy equal to that of the best standard lubed bullets in my rifles (3MOA at 100 yards iron sights),
I'm very pleased with them so far.

[popper]

GOODSTEEL IS POWDER COATING - YEA. Tim, just coat and then size - no reason for the other stuff. I've had trouble with the GC popping off or going crooked when cooked and some fluid is under the GC. I've sized from 313 down to 3085 without lube, doesn't damage the PC (Lee die).

[MBTcustom]

Did you think I wasn't? Sheesh! Who do you think helped move a bunch of threads from all over the forum to this new section? Who made the airsoft BB thread a sticky? I've been dabbling in PC for a couple years now and I fully supported the creation of a new forum for it.
I've not done much with it though, because most of what I do is the HV thing and I can't get much lift with PC in that regard, but the 45-70s have been calling to me in sultry tones. I decided to step back and do a side by side test of paper patch, PC, and standard lube. The PC hang right with the lube at the speeds I am shooting. It's about as much work either way, but it could be that PC does better in cold temperatures than lube, so I'm going to test it out and see.

The reason I do "all that other stuff" is that if I PC first, then try to seat the GC, damage to the PC around the shank is present. Not only that, but the GC hasn't got as good a hold on the PC surface.
Also, all of my GC bullets get GCs seated on them as soon as they are cool from the mold, so sometimes the first steps are done months before I clean with alcohol and continue.

The reason why I lube the PC bullets before sizing is because I don't like rolling a blister ramming those babies through there, and the case lube makes them slide through really smoothly, and it does no harm that I can tell.

These are accurate and useful. I'm hoping I can get the PB bullets to work as well as the GC version, because honestly, those 45 cal GCs get expensive.