Trouble Powder Coating Help

[highmountaincaster]

[highmountaincaster]

There is still some places that didn’t pc, I don’t know if these in this condition are acceptable to shoot with out getting leading assuming the bullet is the proper fit to the barrel. I tried to stand them up wearing gloves and dipping my fingers in the pc first however as soon as I touched them it took the pc off. So, I had to retumble them again to coat. Got them to 450 then back off to 400 for 20 mins. They do stick to the screen but they do look alittle better than the ones I did the other day. I will try sizing them later and see what happens.

[highmountaincaster]

They passed the smash test, just wrinkled no flaking. They also went VERY easily thru the sizing die both the 9mm and 38spl. They felt like they barley even touched the sizer however each mics out at .358 and .356. And NO removal of the powder coating at all. 100% improvement from yesterday. Now I just need to figure out how to make them look alittle better with improved coverage. The boolits are also lighter in color than the previous batch and the coating mics 0.003 thinner?

[oley55]

those look good and your smash tests look good as well. your bare spots are no doubt from their sticking to the hardware cloth mesh.

I do wonder about the uncured powder coming off while handling. I usually use nitrite gloves, but occasionally I'll move a few with powdered fingers. I just don't seem to have any problem with the powder coming off while handling to stand them up. Perhaps you are not swirling quite long enough to build up more static cling.

[El Greco]

I have tried the 275F 15 minutes. It’s an absolute disaster. The coating was flaking and I was getting serious leading. Now I go 400 F for 20 minutes with excellent results.

[highmountaincaster]

Yea I couldn’t believe the difference in the results from 275 for 15 vs heating to 450 then backing down to 400 for 20 minutes def improvement. They don’t look to bad just have marks from sticking to the wire basket and also from stick to each other. I have a #5 container and swirled and shook for a few minutes and they looked completely covered. However just by straining the access powder off left a few small bare spots and when I had to break apart the ones that stuck together left marks. I tried to stand them up using gloves dipped into the powder but as soon as I touched them the powder came off and I have to put them back into the container and redo them.

[mehavey]

tried to stand them up using gloves

Use a pair of needle-nose pliers

[rfd]

.... I tried to stand them up using gloves dipped into the powder but as soon as I touched them the powder came off and I have to put them back into the container and redo them.

Base down is the way to go for me. Using surgical gloves insures I won't deform or even mar the alloy - I like pristine bullets that are as perfect as I can produce, mainly with the big ones for the .45 rifles. If you left a bare spot from using a glove with too much finger pressure or too little powder on the glove (don't do that!), touch a gloved finger to the powder, then touch that to the bare spot. You'll figure it out, and know what's best for your PCB process. So far, yer looking purty good.

[highmountaincaster]

Thanks I’ll have to post more pics after I make more boolits this weekend

[DHDeal]

I've noticed folks get to the final destination different ways. The OCD's will stand them up in rows looking for a perfect coat (I'm in that group). Some dump on a screen for high volume and report the minute area that stuck to the screen doesn't cause any leading issues. I don't doubt them as they are doing some serious PC numbers.

An OCD trick I do is that I use an aluminum baking sheet that has a cooling rack and I dump the shake and bake bullets with BB's onto the cooling rack. The BB's and excess powder will drop through the rack (the rack has approximate 1/4" grid) and I shake or slide the pan back and forth a few times and the bullets more of less line up. I then pick them up and sit them on the silicone baking mat lined pan for curing. I use bent nose forceps for the picking up and not gloves. I can easily fill another pan up while one pan is in the oven. I did right at 500 32's today and it took about 1.25 hours total.
Just the way I do it and YMMV....

[David2011]

YouTube is a great resource for many things. Maybe CastBoolits is a better resource for PC. Lots of knowledgeable folks here. No matter how accurate the temp is, if it’s too low the powder won’t convert into a solid polymer coating.

Harbor Freight carries some large hemostats that are pretty handy for setting boolits upright when powder coating.

[cwlongshot]

Much better!!!

No those small hickies wont hurt a thing.

Some powders dont like basket baking some dont care. For me I stand up to impress and basket bake for speed/bulk. Eastwood powders REQUIRE standup. Your mileage could vari.

Good luck & God bless

CW

[oley55]

These guys who originally came up with the idea of Shake and Bake sure deserve some serious credit!

Yes they do!!!

[charlie b]

The little spots won't hurt anything.

I stand up my rifle bullets. A pair of angles tweezers (big hardware store type). Slip some plastic tubing over the tips (I use the matte heat shrink tubing). Dip the tips in the powder and swirl a bit to get the plastic covered.

Then pick the bullets up with the tweezers and set on the tray. I find it much easier than using my big fat fingers

Sent from my SM-P580 using Tapatalk

[highmountaincaster]

Well my new lead pot is coming today so hopefully I’ll get to make a new batch. I love casting boolits, I had a custom NOE mold made years ago for a WFN 45-70 and did ALOT of experimenting with alloy hardness. I took 3 deer with that bullet style and 2 ran less than 10 yards and 1 was DRT and it wasn’t a central nervous system hit either, it went right behind the shoulder between the ribs and exiting between the 2 opposing ribs. Deer was about 25 yards away, I guess it was just the shock of getting hit with a 437gr WFN moving at 1550fps that did her in.

[cwlongshot]

Yup 100%. Much pride in that!!

CW

[Smoke4320]

Hey fellas, so I tried PC my first batch of 9mm and 38spl bullets yesterday. I can say I was not please at all with the results. My method is as follows, I use Eastwood Ford light blue pc is a #5 container. I add the bullets and shake them for a few minutes until the bullets are covered. Then screen to remove access powder and pre-heat the oven to 275 degrees and bake for 15 minutes. While the bullets came out looking OK the real trouble came when I went to size them. Sizing the 9mm bullets using a lee push through sizing die it removed the PC from the driving bands. This also happened to the 38spl bullets aswell. Tried the smash test and the PC flaked off in spots. The 9mm drop at .357 and the 38spl drop at .359. My sizing dies for the 9mm is .356 and .358 for the 38spl. The 38spl mics at .362-.363 with PC applied, I didn’t measure the 9mm before I put them they the die. Can anyone find a fault in my process? I’m going to have to remelt all the boolits and recast to try again. I did add alittle lee sizing lube in a container an swished the boolits around for a bit and it did help some but I am still not satisfied with the results.

275 is not enough. please forget the internet movies They are wrong .. MFG recommends an actual 400 degrees at 15 minutes . I get a much smoother finish at 400 for 25 to 35 minutes . bigger bullets the longer time .
also check your oven temp with a 2nd tstat . we find 90 + percent of the oven dial or readout to be wrong some as much at 75 degrees

[highmountaincaster]

I actually called EastWood Powder company and they said that they recommended 400 degrees for 20 minutes. I inquired because I’m sure you all know how hard it is to go from 450 to 400 degrees in a toaster oven is at least accurately anyway. Till the oven reaches 400 it’s time to take the boolits out. Mine doesn’t maintain temperature very well and while I was able to use their 450-to 400 successfully it was a lot of screwing around. If you can dial it in to 400 and leave it there it would make life a lot easier.

[cwlongshot]

REMEMBER ITS 400/20 bullets dont start at 400. So you need to add the time it takes to REACH 400 THEN LEAVE FOR TWENTY!! So most say 20min once the powder glosses.

I use lava rocks in the bottom of mine.

Others only buy a convection oven. I just powder coated three batches to ight. https://youtu.be/oAXX_oA6_TE

Good luck

CW

[highmountaincaster]

Yep I started timing then once the powder starts to “flow”. It’s coincidence that you mention a convention oven cause I just was out earlier this afternoon and bought a new on to replace my 8 year old toaster oven. Hopefully these come out nice, I just cast 300 9mm and 38spl so we will find out just how good they come out. Watched your video also, nice looking boolits, I need to find me a HP mold like that one.