Definitive List - What powders work and what powders don't

[runfiverun]

sticky-time.
good work guy's, keep it neat and on track...

[Mlcompound]

I did some more testing with my HF red and matte black. I found that preheating the boolits @ 150 for just a few minutes (warm to touch, not hot) makes the powder adhere very quickly and uniformly. I can tumble for 2 minutes or less and have more consistent coverage than 6 minutes at room temperature. Although, the matte black still does not work. I will be trying it wet soon, but red works great. Good bye wax!

[Nikolaus]

I casted my first boolits a couple days ago. I decided to go PC route off the bat. So far I am using inexpensive tools and equipment to test. I used the HF yellow, and HF red, shake and bake method. Placed 50 boolits in a cool whip container. Shake for aprox 5 minutes, in circular, or sanding motions. Baked 20 minutes in my Walmart toaster oven. Coatings were applied to 9mm, and .45 acp. 2 coatings applied. The yellow does not work as well as the red. At least for me, the red is probably usable after 1 coat, but it takes 2 to make them look really good. The yellow after 2 coats, looks worse than the red after 1 coat. I have not tested either other than sizing, and hammer testing which they all passed. Even though ugly I would assume the yellow would not led the barrel. If anyone is on the edge for testing this stuff, I highly recommend giving it a try. I got my toaster oven for 15 bucks at Walmart, and the HF powder was on sale in January for 4$ a lb. Sorry no pics today, I cant seem to get my phone to take a decent photo tonight to save my life. But the red ones look really good, except for a little textured look. They come out more matte red than the candy red shown in previous posts from es guns. I think I am going to use the red until its gone, and chalk up the yellow as a loss, or experiment with it with wet tumble, mixing, air brushing, etc.

[prickett]

sticky-time.
good work guy's, keep it neat and on track...

Thanks for making this sticky!

[prickett]

I think I am going to use the red until its gone, and chalk up the yellow as a loss, or experiment with it with wet tumble, mixing, air brushing, etc.

Yellow makes a decent second coat after using red for the first coat. Leaves kind of a speckled appearance that isn't unattractive, and allows using the yellow rather than throwing it out. As a bonus, it simplifies knowing how many coats you've applied - red means 1 coat, yellow means two.

[popper]

Super Durable Wet Black we will need range reports on that powder - looks really good for D-T .

[prickett]

There is a review for SDWB (PbtP) on post #18 of this thread.

Looks like both PbtP and AllPowders have a "Super Durable Wet Black" powder. I've been eyeing those myself.

I Wonder if PbtP and AllPowders paints are from the same source.

[Mortonspoint]

HF has 16 oz containers for $3.99. One of there items is #93309. Is this the stuff you all are talking about to shake and bake your bullets?

Sorry, newbe here.

[Mlcompound]

Yes. That is the one (93309). It is very simple and easy. Having warm boolits helped me alot with more even and thick coverage.

[Mortonspoint]

Great, this looks like a super way to coat bullets! Cheap to try out so if it doesn't work, well, no big deal. But one question. How much PC do you use in the cool whip container to coat 100 pills?

Thanks.

[Nikolaus]

I would start with a tea spoon, you can always add more if needed. If you get too much in there it just stays in the bottom and can be reused for the next batch. I only do 50 at a time, you really want them scraping the plastic to make static charge. Not saying more wouldn't work, just have not tried it.

[Mortonspoint]

And there is no liquid involved, right? So just PC in a plastic container the causes a static effect to adhere the paint to the pills when shaken. Correct? Do a couple of coats for best effects.

[jmort]

Yes - "Dry PC" Not sure about static electricity generation. Seems like two coats works well.

[hunter12]

This is all new to me and you guys have me curiosity peeked. Although the lime green really catches my eye, my biggest concern is eliminating the leading and still have hollow point that will work correctly.

why not use the same tumbler you use to clean brass, to coat the bullets?

Is there a go-to thread related to "how to" all the different methods of application?

[popper]

Prickett - waiting to see how it shoots. I suppose there are several dist. for that powder. One coat coverage sounds good, I'm interested in HV performance. Almost anything works in LV pistol.

[totalloser]

Nikolaus- I have had *some* luck with yellow. Not spectacular, but looking workable. I haven't gotten to the range to try the load workups so I can't vouch at this point, but here's what they look like.

I couldn't get a decent coat until I preheated them relatively hot.

This is single coat Harbor Freight ES gun. Preheated to about 300F before coating. FWIW I blow off powder from jig with low pressure and the ES energized before cooking, and the SS roof nails clean up quickly with a pass on the wire wheel.

[Nikolaus]

Total, those are about how my yellows came out. Yours are a little better coverage than mine. Last night I made a thread about my experience with the cheap HF air brush. I made some really nice HF black coatings. Almost perfect! I'm going to experiment more with it tonight.

[totalloser]

Or you could use the yellow to make orange. Nowhere near as hard to work with as yellow. I kinda like it. Enough that I intend to buy more yellow. Once mixed it seems to work fine. As opposed to barely. The shop lighting is misleading- the color is quite vibrant. Much more than red or yellow alone. Ancient cell pic doesn't help either.

And I did take the yellows out for the load workup. No quirks. Some had iffy coat, too. I think I'm over trying to make ballistic yellow though. :P

Oh and per Prickett's instructions: this is all HF stuff, ES gun, single coat. Orange is NO preheat NO solvent wash (yellow got both) and baked at 400 for 20 min unless I get impatient.

I highly recommend my racks. They work VERY well compared to non-stick tinfoil. Every few bakes I run them across the wire wheel. Boolits do stick to the nails with some variation. Some will fall off after baking, some require some persuasion.

Two 1x4's predrilled and screwed together. Lay out pattern (I use 3/4" centers) and predrill for nails. Pop apart and slip in aluminum flashing and screw them back together. Then tap in nails into all the holes. The flashing sticks out to energize all the nails which are pushing through the flashing. Puny toaster oven bakes two of these at once for a total of 80 boolits per batch.

[Super Sneaky Steve]

Super Durable Wet Black we will need range reports on that powder - looks really good for D-T .

So far it shoots wonderful in .38 spl. As long as I hold it steady it goes right in the bullseye. 50 rounds, no leading and very little filth on my old Model 10.

[russs]

like the orange ! I will have to try with tumbling.