Shake and Bake , not to my liking

[oley55]

as per our PMs, I hope my success with that batch wasn’t a one off. But it doesn’t look like your clear and black liked each other. In a few days I’ll cast up a few and see about recreating my results. As I said, I wasn’t really paying close attention and was mostly just playing around and ended up with surprising results.

[Petander]

Best I can do so far - the only black I have is HF, so I'll have to get some of Smoke's:

There is a problem, I have see that with some powder combinations.

A friend has a hardware store,I have some clear non-tgic -powder coming next week. If that fails I'll contact Smoke again for the tried and true stuff. Smoke's black adheres much better than my non-tgic -black, for example.

That clear/black look is really nice - it won't draw all that stupid attention in public ranges.

[Burnt Fingers]

I always stand my boolits up when using PC.

My OCD won't allow me to do it any other way.

It's one of the reasons I really like Hi-Tek.

[AndyC]

as per our PMs, I hope my success with that batch wasn’t a one off. But it doesn’t look like your clear and black liked each other. In a few days I’ll cast up a few and see about recreating my results. As I said, I wasn’t really paying close attention and was mostly just playing around and ended up with surprising results.

Not as pretty as your nice gray color, but I'll carry on and I appreciate your help

[Driver man]

I shake and bake and have found if I am baking a pile of boolits all clumped together that if I give them a good shaking after about 5 minutes of baking to separate them and then do the same after baking about 20 minutes total I get good coverage with no clumping and just an occasional sticking. I normally bake 200 to 300 at a time. If I am going to use my boolits in a competition then I stand them coated and keep separate from the rest, I also give my coated boolits a very thin coating of carnauba wax and use these boolits for my rifles and larger calibre handguns.

[Tripplebeards]

Buy smokes clear. They will all look evenly coated with little effort. Depends how much humidity is in the air in my neck of the woods. Cold single digits and it’s so dry in my house that the static in my socks feel like I touched an electric fence will give me good even thick coats. Wet humid days I get uneven coating. Smokes clear covers smooth and even year around for me. I do bounce a separate container after tumble coating so I don’t get a thick uneven build up when baking.

[Petander]

I tried some italian non - tgic -clear with 1/3 Smoke's black mixed in.

Very nice and even adhesion in a youghurt bucket (with white airsoft pellets). No need to tap lumps off or anything, just pick and stand up.

[jsizemore]

I tried the shake and bake with black BB's, Smoke's signal blue powder and #5 butter tub. I stood them on the silicon sheet with tweezers. The finish came out OK, but that tweezer thing had to go. Tried the gloved hand with them and no joy. I was all set to sell the lot after the first session. Bought some tweezers at the flea market to give it another try. I watched a fella using a vibrating tumbler on utube using his gloved hands to set his PC bullets. I got out my old 1292, poured in 3-4 tablespoons of powder and 4.5 pounds of just cast Accurate 35-115Y. 20 minutes later I sifted the powder the powder from the bullets with a wire mesh basket. There were some minor marks from base striking bullet side but when I picked them up, the coating was stuck and even all the way around. It took about 15 minutes to set them out on the silicon sheet with nary a bare spot. I started the timer for 20 minutes after the PID showed the oven temp showed 390degF. The result looked like the entire bullet had been sized except the base. It was covered with PC but had a cross hatch texture from setting on the silicon mat. The rest of the bullet looked like it was covered in blue glass. Popped through the Star .357 die with ease even though they went in at .361-2. After 2 weeks, they still measure .357 and shoot great. I recovered bullet parts from the berm with the PC still complete. Found some older HiTek coated bullets with the finish intact on them too.

PC is easy to apply with the vibrating tumbler method in 1 step. Standing them up is slow and tedious. The HiTek takes a bunch of prep and drying and 2 coats. Dump in the wire mesh tray and bake for 8 minutes. Both size great in my Stars. I can do the PC inside so waiting on the weather to coat isn't a concern. I have tumbled 6.5 lbs. of bullets at 1 time in the 1292 with no issues.

Time to go out in the backyard to shoot some PC'ed 9mm.

[rfd]

I'm new to the PCB game and have only baked a few hundred, but these are .45-70s, not pistol PCBs yet. Only standup, no toss 'n' bake, I want clean PCBs with good bases for best accuracy out to 300 yards. I did my research and went with Eastwood Powders, Ford Light Blue and Full Gloss Clear. Both turned out fantastic.

[PhatForrest]

Eastwood gloss black comes out very well using shake n bake. As easy as Ford light blue.

[475AR]

I started out with Hi-Tek, but wanted to try pc, so I got some Smokes signal orange (for hunting rounds....) did the shake & bake first batch was good, but I did have a bunch stick. So I took a page from a baking show, that said to flower your hands and work surface so dough won't stick... so after the shake portion was done I flipped the container over on the lid and removed the bowl so all bullets and extra powder is on the lid. I then pressed my thumb and first 2 fingers in the extra pc on the lid then started standing bullets op then moved them to my baking pan on a silicone baking sheet then baked them. By keeping my fingers coated I was able to stand up bullets and move them to the baking pan without wiping off pc on the bullets, and if there is any thin areas on the top of the bullet I can get some pc on my fingrt and touch it up. Very happy the way they came out.

[gnappi]

When I first looked into powder coating I read of all the success stories on SnB method and came to the conclusion that if my first attempts didn't come out right that it's not the process, it's the variables.

Luckily my very first powder selections and oven combinations worked great, enough so that trying other powders that did not do well made it clear it was the powder and nothing else. If getting to that point is elusive reading this thread in its entirety again is the best bet for success.

[rfd]

Yes, the powder is important - as is the process. I did my research and chose a powder that guarantees if I do my part with the process it would be instant success. I was right for once. Hooked on PCBs!

[Jim22]

Couple things:

1. Don't let the boolits cool before separating them. I use Smoke's powder and find if I take the hardware cloth trays out of the oven before they cool any and shake the tray the boolits separate easily. Sometimes an air soft BB will find its way into the oven and it will stick to a boolit. That just means a bare spot on the boolit.
2. I have been using 1/4" mesh hardware cloth to build my trays but think I should use a bigger mesh like 5/16". The BB's will fall through the mesh easier before baking.
3. I don't worry about thin spots in the powder coating mostly. If I do I will coat and bake twice. Don't know if an extra layer will increase boolit diameter.

Jim

PS: I somehow think the process is important enough that I watch it closely. I wait until temperature on my Taylor oven thermometer reaches at least 375 Deg F and then start timing. Twenty minutes at 375-410 and the boolits are good.

[rrob692326]

Get a spray gun outfit and they will come out like you poured liquid molten glass on your bullets, and you will never look back on that tumble process again. Personally I love flamingo pink and radiant orchid!

[farmerjim]

The main problem is the sticking together . I have good coverage and the stand up one look awesome , but the shake and bakes I don't like the way they turn out . LOL Using Eastwood powder , got a over thermometer so I know it's at 400 and again it might be timing droping them in water .

Try one of these timers
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Clip it on your shirt. I am high frequency deaf and I can hear it. I go into a different room to coat my bollits and forget the oven. This timer makes me remember no matter where I go.

[38SuperAuto]

Has anyone tried, using the shake n bake batch method (random boolit orientation), removing the tray of bullets after cure and dousing them with cold water? Seems like that might reduce sticking to neighbor boolits and also increase hardness.

[Rapier]

You might get an air tight sealing large mouth container to keep your powder and pellet mixture dry in any humidity. I had problems with mine near 10 years ago in our humidity, until I found a good container with a rubber seal. Once I poured the old stuff out and remixed, it was obvious to me the old had gotten moisture in it. No more problem with moisture.

[dogmower]

Eastwood Ford light blue will coat anything with minimal tumbler or shake time, like on the order of a minute or two. I generally toss the boolits into the tumbler for 5 minutes, that's all it ever takes. Smoke's powders are great too. I've never had any luck with any type of black. I coat pistol boolits red and rifle boolits blue to keep things simple.

[barnabus]

Tried the shake and bake method and I'm not impressed , or I'm doing it wrong . Defiantly like the way my coating comes out when I stand each boolit upright .

id ur not using smokes you prolly wont be impressed.