"Powder coating will not stick"

[bangerjim]

I have heard that phrase many time on here. Dry tumble works for most....not for some.

I found an interesting thing today. I was BBDT'ing a bunch of 40 175TC slugs and while waiting outside my shop for the bake to ding, I found four 9mm slugs on the patio I had dropped last week. They had been laying there since then and we had some rain. I just threw them in with the next batch.

POWDER WOULD NOT STICK AT ALL!!!!!! ZERO. ZIP. NADA. The 9's looked perfectly clean and shiny, but there must have been some oxide or something formed on there that prevented any static and cling. Not a bit of powder would stick. And it was Smoke's blue!

So.........from what I discovered......do NOT try to coat old boolits unless you clean them with laq thinner or mabe even vibrate them for a few minutes in new clean walnut shells. I always PC my slugs the next day after casting and store them in ZipLok bags until coated.

I have stripped old grease lube and coated many hundreds of old boolits in the past with PC......but all were soaked/washed well in laq thinner and then rinsed in Simple Green and VERY hot water.

Hopelfully this info may help those out there that are having coating problems.

[popper]

You get rain in the desert?

[LAGS]

Here in Arizona, it is a Dry Heat,
It is also a Dry Rain

[bangerjim]

Last week or so I gor over 1.2" in the bucket in about an hour! Bursts of rain....very heavy. One night week (after I came down off the ceiling from the flast-bang!) the rain was so hard it roared for 20 minutes.

And it is WET rain! We need it..........here in the Valley of the Surface of the Sun.

[62chevy]

I have heard that phrase many time on here. Dry tumble works for most....not for some.

I found an interesting thing today. I was BBDT'ing a bunch of 40 175TC slugs and while waiting outside my shop for the bake to ding, I found four 9mm slugs on the patio I had dropped last week. They had been laying there since then and we had some rain. I just threw them in with the next batch.

POWDER WOULD NOT STICK AT ALL!!!!!! ZERO. ZIP. NADA. The 9's looked perfectly clean and shiny, but there must have been some oxide or something formed on there that prevented any static and cling. Not a bit of powder would stick. And it was Smoke's blue!

So.........from what I discovered......do NOT try to coat old boolits unless you clean them with laq thinner or mabe even vibrate them for a few minutes in new clean walnut shells. I always PC my slugs the next day after casting and store them in ZipLok bags until coated.

I have stripped old grease lube and coated many hundreds of old boolits in the past with PC......but all were soaked/washed well in laq thinner and then rinsed in Simple Green and VERY hot water.

Hopelfully this info may help those out there that are having coating problems.

The other day I did four baches with Smoke's blue and they looked good but the 5th batch had a very thin coat on them so I backed them thinking a second coat would fix it. It might have if I had let them cool off first. Anyways they had been cast over a month ago as I didn't need them yet sooo thinking Jim is onto something with oxidation.

[jcwit]

Haven't had that problem and I've tumble coated cast bullets that were 4 to 6 years old. They have been stored in cardboard shotgun shell boxes.

I'm going to have to find out what brand/kind of powder I'm using.

[62chevy]

Haven't had that problem and I've tumble coated cast bullets that were 4 to 6 years old. They have been stored in cardboard shotgun shell boxes.

I'm going to have to find out what brand/kind of powder I'm using.

In that case it had to be humidity even thou weather.com said it was 35 % at the time the powder would not stick. What's the chance the wrong number got reported?

[jcwit]

Here in No. Indiana we seldom have low humidity.

[62chevy]

Here in No. Indiana we seldom have low humidity.

I have no clue as to why the powder stuck to some and not the others. They were all cast at the same time and sat in the same plastic container.

[Beagle333]

Nobody knows why the powder sometimes sticks perfectly, sometimes too much, and sometimes not at all. It's great when it works though.

[VHoward]

Last week or so I gor over 1.2" in the bucket in about an hour! Bursts of rain....very heavy. One night week (after I came down off the ceiling from the flast-bang!) the rain was so hard it roared for 20 minutes.

And it is WET rain! We need it..........here in the Valley of the Surface of the Sun.

My dad worked for the Arizona hiway department in the 1970's and was stationed at the yard just across the border from Needles California. We didn't get much rain in a year, but when it did rain, it was a flood every time. Dad would have to go out and plow sand off the roads and repair damage.

[gpidaho]

I've coated boolits that were three or four years old with no problems but were all stored in plastic bins in the house. Southern Idaho is an arid climate and we don't have the humidity problems some of you have. Makes for good powder coating DT or electrostatic. GP

[Beagle333]

I don't know how much blame to give the humidity, but it hasn't rained here in 8 days and we're still at 88% humidity. (South Alabama)

[RP]

Well the good thing about the south during the summer its a wet heat so its not so hot right . I PC in my shop that has a concrete floor and seems to stay dryer feeling inside the shop I think it may have to do with the plastic I placed under the concrete. I think it may be acting like a moisture sponge.

[62chevy]

Not one to like guess work and would like to know what caused to go from good to bad. Went back and looked at the black ASBB and they didn't have any powder on them either. So they got swirled and the small amount of powder left in the ziplock coat the ASBBs. Checked Weather.com and humidity for my area is 55%. next I'll test some bullets a get back.

[kbstenberg]

Its good to know. That if or when I get some that will not coat that I am not alone.
I have had a couple of individual bullets within a batch that wouldn't take being coated.

[62chevy]

Finely got the test the last 50 boolits and yup they coated just fine and the humidity is at 35% the same as the other day when they would not coat.

Now I have to wonder if the Ziplock tube just needed a recharge kinda like a battery.

[Dragonheart]

I also have coated bullets weeks after casting with no problems.

But here in the Gulf Coast humidity really is a problem. To tumble coat your are depending on a static charge being generated. High humidity is not conducive to building a static charge. For that reason I run the air conditioner in my garage for several hours before tumble coating. I also heat my bullets to 200 degrees before dropping them into my tumbler. I have even installed a light bulb on the lid of my tumbling bucket to help dry the air. These things work for me as I produce large quantities of very pretty bullets.

[62chevy]

Static, how does it work? If you buy a PC gun that creates a charge that on the move or has a path to ground. Using the DT method there is not direct path to ground, might work in you bare feet but I always wear sneakers. I thinking static may not have anything to do with it unless it has a way to get to ground to create magnetism in the bullets. Could the static charge jump from bullet to bullet.

[Dragonheart]

Static, how does it work? If you buy a PC gun that creates a charge that on the move or has a path to ground. Using the DT method there is not direct path to ground, might work in you bare feet but I always wear sneakers. I thinking static may not have anything to do with it unless it has a way to get to ground to create magnetism in the bullets. Could the static charge jump from bullet to bullet.

A static electric charge is created whenever two surfaces contact and separate, and at least one of the surfaces has a high resistance to electrical current (the plastic is the electrical insulator). This is the reason the tumbling methods work whether you are using a plastic bucket, tub or cool whip container.

A powder gun has a charging electrode at the front of the spray gun. The charging electrode emits a field charge, which is imparted to the powder particles. This causes them to seek out and attach themselves to the grounded work piece. Many applicators say the powder attraction is increased by sinking a ground rod into the earth and attaching that lead to their working surface for a better ground.