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Thread: My powder coating experience

  1. #21
    Boolit Master mehavey's Avatar
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    I use an old used toaster oven to bake my bullets.... As for the
    temperature mentioned above. I bake my bullets at 400 degrees.
    OOC: How are you determining that oven is at 400° ?

  2. #22
    Boolit Grand Master
    bangerjim's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by BJung View Post
    I bought this paint from a local powder paint business. The label, as you see can be deceiving and online, there is a powder lacquer. I finally went down to my garage to pull the box and look at the label and research this paint because of your flaming comment. So, this is a Series 49 TGIC Polyester paint. I wish my bullets looked as good as the picture online. I use an old used toaster oven to bake my bullets. Why do you think I'd use my kitchen food oven! As for the temperature mentioned above. I bake my bullets at 400 degrees. But, because it was lemon peeling, I thought I would try a higher temperature to see if the paint would flow out. Attachment 299560[ATTACH=CONFIG]299561
    So it IS, in fact, a polyester resin powder (and not a nitrocellulose lacquer powder, which is very brittle) like all the other stuff we all use from Smoke and other sources.
    Glad you discovered that. It should work with the right application techniques (it's engineered for ESPC as all powders are, but most poly resin powders will shake-n-bake) and correct baking time and temps. I think the lacquer misnomer came from the company's trademark on the package.

    On the subject of OVENS:

    I was referring to MY OWN PERSONAL use of my ESPC guns to coat other things than teeny weeny little boolits. Believe it or not there are/were some on here that use their kitchen cookstove oven to bake boolits in! I hope they stopped long ago. I have been doing this since 2013 and have seen & heard just about everything possible with trying to coat boolits!

    Remember - the baking time is relative. You should use a pre-heated ACCURATE oven at 400F (check with a good oven thermometer, not the dial on the front). Bake for the allotted time AFTER the powder turns shiny on the boolits. Let them air cool a bit before dumping them in your container to avoid divots. You should have perfect boolits time after time.

    But I recommend you buy your powders from Smoke on here. He tests all of them B4 ever offering them to us for sale. 100% good stuff!

    Good luck on your future PC'ing adventures!!!!!!!!

  3. #23
    Boolit Buddy
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    Latest PC test

    I found some cast 40-170TC cast bullets that weren't powder coated. I shook them for 3 minutes and instead of pouring them out onto a screen, I carefully picked the bullets on and placed them on a sheet of non-stick aluminum foil. The bullets were baked at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. They looked like the bullet in the middle. I then allowed the bullets to cool until they were warm to the touch and then shook half of them for another coat of PC. The second batch was cooled and then powder coated for a second coat. The result was the same and they looked like the bullet on the right. Again, they were carefully picked up and placed on a sheet of non-stick aluminum foil. The bullet on the left is two coats of paint but I ran the bullets across a wire screen to remove excess powder. The bullet on the right is slightly better. I'm wondering if a HF PC gun will eliminate the discoloration and leave a nice even and smooth surface? Can I mail a teaspoon of this PC to test for me?Click image for larger version. 

Name:	PCExperiment.jpg 
Views:	38 
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ID:	299674
    Last edited by BJung; 05-01-2022 at 12:51 AM. Reason: adding a photo

  4. #24
    Boolit Master

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    Quote Originally Posted by popper View Post
    thermal shock on the PC will crack it. Nope, doesn't happen!!!
    That is a correct statement!
    "There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something."
    ~Thorin Oakenshield

  5. #25
    Boolit Master

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    Quote Originally Posted by popper View Post
    thermal shock on the PC will crack it. Nope, doesn't happen!!!
    That is a correct statement! Does not crack when I quench after an hour.
    "There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something."
    ~Thorin Oakenshield

  6. #26
    Boolit Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by BJung View Post
    I found some cast 40-170TC cast bullets that weren't powder coated. I shook them for 3 minutes and instead of pouring them out onto a screen, I carefully picked the bullets on and placed them on a sheet of non-stick aluminum foil. The bullets were baked at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. They looked like the bullet in the middle. I then allowed the bullets to cool until they were warm to the touch and then shook half of them for another coat of PC. The second batch was cooled and then powder coated for a second coat. The result was the same and they looked like the bullet on the right. Again, they were carefully picked up and placed on a sheet of non-stick aluminum foil. The bullet on the left is two coats of paint but I ran the bullets across a wire screen to remove excess powder. The bullet on the right is slightly better. I'm wondering if a HF PC gun will eliminate the discoloration and leave a nice even and smooth surface? Can I mail a teaspoon of this PC to test for me?Click image for larger version. 

Name:	PCExperiment.jpg 
Views:	38 
Size:	24.6 KB 
ID:	299674
    Why not just shoot those?

  7. #27
    Boolit Buddy
    Join Date
    Jan 2021
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    I will. It's the best way to get rid of them.

  8. #28
    Boolit Mold
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    +1 for smokes powders. Great price and colors look great.
    I am not picky and doing a large batch on a screen type pan has no issues for me.
    I’m not going for crazy accurate either. 9mm target rounds

  9. #29
    Boolit Buddy
    Join Date
    Jan 2021
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    PC with tumbler

    I tried powder coating again today. I seriously considered purchasing an Eastwood Powder Sprayer but decided to try using the vibrator/tumbler. I had concerns that I couldn't clean the powder paint out but i was wrong. Soap and water had removed the residue well. Before, I used the shake and bake method and it was tiring and tedious. Slightly more than halve of my paints needed two coats because the paint baked on with blotches. Using my tumbler and running it for 20 minutes, a fine powder was left on the bullets. I baked them and the first coats came out like these. The silver is actually a clear coat. The other is gold. And while thin, it's not blotchy.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails PCTumber.jpg   PC 40-160HP.jpg  
    Last edited by BJung; 05-31-2022 at 01:21 AM.

  10. #30
    Boolit Master
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    Very nice. Glad you tried it again.

    FWIW, you can put a separate container (plastic) inside the tumbler to hold the bullets and powder. Means no mess to clean up.

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Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check