a trick for tumble powder coating

[scorpion]

Well the only thing that keeps me from buying a pc gun is the price here in europe . I pay 4times more than american prices for the same thing ! And dont think that is worth it ! So im waiting till friends or family go to the usa and bring one with them . Till that time ill use the piglet method .

[Gray Fox]

OK, I've read all 36 pages and haven't seen this covered. I have an S&W 696 .44 special and am wondering if the Hornady 240 grain .44 swaged HP boolits would work for this if the factory wax lube was cleaned off with gas/solvent? Has anyone tried this? If it does work it would be much simpler than trying to cast soft alloy HPs with a mold I don't have for what for me is a revolver that is shot less than most others I own. GF

[Beagle333]

I don't have a 696, but these Hornady swaged bullets work fine in a .45 Blackhawk. I boiled the waxy stuff off them, gave em a quick swirl in some thinner to remove any oils and then when dry, tumbled and baked twice in HF red. You might could do it once, but I never have good luck with shake-n-bake, so I usually have to do it twice. I think I'm just jinxed with that method. It works great for so many others.

[Gray Fox]

Beagle333: That's exactly the info I hoped to get. I'll let you know how the .44 HPs work out once I get some in from Midway as they list them in stock. GF

[Maximumbob54]

That dry powder lube whatever it is doesn't work worth a darn. And those are some bullets you need to handle with tweezers or something because that stuff sticks to your fingers more than the bullet during loading.

[russs]

Try warming your bullets before powder coating. I deal with high Humidity and cool temperatures here in North Carolina and have found if I warm the boolits to a feel of very warm before I try to tumble coat them I get good coverage with or without airsoft BB's. My guess is about 110*F. Not to hot or the powder coat will start to melt and you get a thick coat that sticks the boolits together.

[bangerjim]

OMG..................another reason to buy another oven!


Sorry, wife!

[fredj338]

I don't have a 696, but these Hornady swaged bullets work fine in a .45 Blackhawk. I boiled the waxy stuff off them, gave em a quick swirl in some thinner to remove any oils and then when dry, tumbled and baked twice in HF red. You might could do it once, but I never have good luck with shake-n-bake, so I usually have to do it twice. I think I'm just jinxed with that method. It works great for so many others.

I did a little coating yesterday. We haD rain in the air so high hum. The HF red just doesn't work as well as any of smoke's powders in shake & bake. I got it to work but required more time shaking. Can anyone tell me the diff composition of the HF red vs smoke's powders?

[bangerjim]

Ask Smoke directly..........he knows.

banger

[Maximumbob54]

HF's powders are epoxy based and Smokes are polyester based.

[fredj338]

HF's powders are epoxy based and Smokes are polyester based.

Thx Max. I find Smoke's powders so much easier to shake & bake. The HF red is a good starter powder but tough going back to it after the good stuff.

[bangerjim]

I use both HF red and Smoke's powders interchangeably all the time....straight and mixed.

Both work GREAT for me every time.

[scorpion]

Maybe its me but i like the coat to be smooth ! And shakenbake doesnt provide the finish i want . Some pics of my boolits using the spray gun and acetone .

[fredj338]

I'm shooting them, so I really don't care if the finish is perfect. I also don't wet/ss pin tumble, I don't care if the brass is shiny new. The mess of a spray booth & such, careful handling of bullets, etc, seems like shake & bake works fine for many of us.

[Spanners]

Whats the consensus with Shake and then Bake on a mesh rack rather than standing up 1000s of bullet with tweezers..

[bangerjim]

Whats the consensus with Shake and then Bake on a mesh rack rather than standing up 1000s of bullet with tweezers..

For me:

You are already sacrificing quality and finish with BBDT over ESPC. Pick-n-set give a reasonable finish. Just dumping them leaves lay marks, bare spots and at times VERY rough and uneven surfaces....especially on the critical grease band tops.....where the lead meets the barrel!

I only dump (actually pick and lay down) 223's, as the little buggers are just too tiny to do anything else with. And that is on NSAF channels made by running my finger along it to create grooves beteween the rack rungs. That keeps them from rolling around and touching. Minimum lay marks because they are laying on SMOOTH NSAF and not wire strands of hardware cloth. And they do not stick to NSAF like they always do to the cloth mesh....and coat it also! So you have to replace the HW cloth every few bakes. Foil is much cheaper and easy to handle.

If you use surgical hemostats (like suggested on many threads) instead of tweezers, you will have much better luck and it goes much faster! Stronger, better grip, easier to use. Not the fish pliers from Walmart (those are NOT hemostats!)........real med hemos, the 45 degree curved ones.

Good luck in 2016!

banger

[Boogieman]

Spanners , While I have great respect for Bangerjim ,He makes great looking boolits. I have to disagree. You can make good shooting boolits by shaking in a peanutbutter jar & dumping them on a wire mesh to bake. I don't even use the airsoft BBs. I size them after baking which smooths the drive bands' even use HF red & an old toaster oven . I tried standing them up but they didn't shoot any better. It won't cost any thing to try. Banger's boolits look better than mine but nothing I've shot has complained yet.

[jcwit]

Spanners , While I have great respect for Bangerjim ,He makes great looking boolits. I have to disagree. You can make good shooting boolits by shaking in a peanutbutter jar & dumping them on a wire mesh to bake. I don't even use the airsoft BBs. I size them after baking which smooths the drive bands' even use HF red & an old toaster oven . I tried standing them up but they didn't shoot any better. It won't cost any thing to try. Banger's boolits look better than mine but nothing I've shot has complained yet.

I concur, I shake, dump, bake, load, shoot.

Most of the time i load as cast even.

Course, I'm far from being a bulls eye competitor.

[drklynoon]

Thank you to all who have contributed to this thread. From reading this I went from being unsuccessful to making a fairly good powder coated bullet from the information here. I did go non-standard on the bbs and used Monarch .20 gr black from academy sporting goods. They worked for me in a #5 dish and with HF red.
Nathan

[kryogen]

Dont they bond to the hardware cloth?