I have closely tracked RH and quality for 2 years now. I have both an analog hygrometer and a recording temp/humidity unit in my shop and I can definitely see a difference from a bone dry desert day to a muggy "SW desert monsoon" day. One of our muggy days is probably considered nice and dry to you folks on the gulf!
Swirling/shaking IS something we can control and is a REALLY wild variable in the mix of getting good acceptable coats with BBDT.
Appreciate the responses. I'd read back in the thread 30 second swirl then 30 second shake up and down. Sounds like maybe it's now less swirl and more of the all important shake for best coverage.
Sounds about right but I don't time it, swirl and shake then check repeat as needed.Originally Posted by Redwoode
Lead bullets Matter
There are three kinds of men: The ones that learn by reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence and find out for themselves. - Will Rodgers
With manual shake method, low humidity DOES help. With electric vibratory tumbler I have seen no real difference and get good results without lead darkening my finish. Different strokes, I reckon.
prs
We don't get much humidity in Nor-Cal but I do know after you get done with all that swirling and shaking.
If you gently tumble your container over / under a few times, the extra powder falls though and covers the scuff marks from all that shaking.
I've been meaning to try this for a while now. The Hi-Tek guys bake the coating and while they are still pretty warm they take the tray full of curing coating and then shake them. I've always baked a minimum of bullets to prevent too many of them from touching too much or they glue together once cured. Hmmm...
This is more than twice as many as I usually bake at a time. So while wearing my casting gloves I gave the tray a good shake until it looked like they were all moving freely and then set them back down to finish cooling. Also like Hi-Tek I run them through two shake and bakes. Before everyone rages about the time this takes... Realize that I shook up the bullets for half a minute, dumped them, baked for fifteen minutes, washed up and made a sandwich while I was waiting, shook the tray, let them set in front of the fan for a few minutes while I picked up the garage a little, tumbled in PC and repeated. Not another sandwich though, I went and started typing this post. And then I did a second batch the same way. Now from a short batch of 320 (strange it was exactly that much) I have them ready to load after an actual maybe ten minutes on hand. Not counting running them through the sizing die of course.
All sized up and ready for the LNL AP to get running again.
Disclaimer: Reloading and casting I only look at cents/round and ignore any other costs
I tried using a polyurethane powder coat and have had really poor results. Does anyone else had a problem with this type of powder coat or is everyone using a polyester type coating?
Where in the HE## did you get PU powder?
Everybody uses HF, Smoke's, or other powders off the net. I have not seen PU power. PU is much softer and pliable.....would not make good boolit lube coatings at all.
Get some standard powders we all use and excellent success with!
I sure see a lot of exposed lead on the lube band tops. Is that actually there or is that just a reflection from your lighting?????????
banger
All of my pics are crummy cell phone pics. It's all I can do to get them to focus much less have color saturation correct. They are fully coated for sure. Everything that is reflecting white is really blue. It's weird because the camera doesn't like to focus and I end up with a fuzzy picture if there isn't enough light and yet this is the result of just having the living room light on. I did switch out for some LED bulbs so now I'm wondering if that has something to do with the potato quality of the pics.
Disclaimer: Reloading and casting I only look at cents/round and ignore any other costs
I stopped tumbling !!!that does not work for me at all! I mixed acetone into the pc and sprayed it on with a paint gun . Works great!
I have never tried this, but will. As a general matter two light coats seems better than one, especially if you can dump on hardware cloth. Before I dismiss it, I will try it. I don't mind placing the single coat bullets by hand, but the idea of a two coat shake and dump and repeat would be nice if the coverage was uniform and there were not problems as has been seen with dumping a bullet with more PC and getting the problems associated with it. Always some innovation. This may become the standard operating procedure.
Some powders will not dissolve in acetone at all, so check with the powders you have before going off the deep end with a paint sprayer. The wet method is from the old days and was called the "piglet method". Did not work for most due to the types of powders and other stuff. Never did work for me. That is why I bought ESPC guns early on and then helped develop & improve the various BBDT methods with others on here over the past 3 years.
Test your powders!
banger
Works with every powder , u have to use virgin acetone tho . Most acetone u find in diy shops is reclaimed and has silicone in it . Thats why it wont work !
The acetone at Lowe's, Home Depot and WalMart must not be virgin then, because not all of my powders would dissolve in it. It still worked for Piglet, but it sure couldn't have been sprayed. I don't know where one would find virgin acetone?
KE4GWE - - - - - - Colt 1860, it just feels right.
I get my acetone, laq thinner, naphtha, methanol from a pro paint supplier locally and it is the real stuff. NOT big-box carp. And it is cheaper because I buy it as a professional shop.
Still will not work with my PC powders. But I have great luck with much cleaner ESPC and BBDT.....no paint guns to clean up! I have 6 paint guns of varying sizes and I hate cleaning ANY of them!!!!!
banger
Have done the dissolved method several times but the ESPC is much easier doing large volumes of powder coating bullets.
Started with the acetone but finally purchased a ESPC gun and uses this method only now.
Maybe i said it in a wrong way ... (srry for my bad english)
Pc wil not disolve in acetone ,but the acetone will carry it . If i put the mixture away in a jarr for like 1minute ... it separates again . Is kinda like spraying metallic flakes .
That is exactly what I found. Acetone makes a slurry of the powder but NOT a liquid paint. It is only a fast-drying vehicle for the powder and not a good solvent at all. I have in my wood and metal shops literally every VOC solvent made by man and none of them completely dissolve powders that I have that well. That why the piglet method was a total failure for me.
MEK will come closer to dissolving it than acetone. MEK is used in vinyl manufacturing...somewhat akin to polyester resins in PC. But still no-go for my quality needs. Best bet is to stick with ESPC and BBDT and apply the powder like it was engineered to be used.............with static attraction.
I may do some Piglet style tomorrow. Now you done got me missin' my ol' technique!
KE4GWE - - - - - - Colt 1860, it just feels right.
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