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allenmcclaran
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brigettecuneo
I’m new to casting and also using lube. I’m going to be trying both ways and see what I like more.
Today actually I’m powder coating some for the first time. So far, it’s super easy. Currently I have some resized boolits being dry coated using my tumbler. In about 20 minutes they are going into a small toaster oven at 400 degrees for 10 minutes. I used maybe 1 tablespoon of powder and it looks like that was plenty for about 100 boolits. ( 30 cal and some 50 cal)
Some use an empty plastic butter or yogurt type container and dry mix it that way. For me just dumping them into my extra bowl on my tumbler and letting them go on their own for about 30 minutes is a lot easier and keeps my hands free to do something else.
Their are some awesome folks in here that will chime in I’m sure. They helped me with lots of newbie questions and got me on the right track. Good luck Sir.
The color I’m using right now was from powder by the pound. ( night blue ral 5022). I’m trying both tumble lube designs and also the standard lube groove style boolit. So far prior to baking they look great.
My plan after baking is to let them air dry and then resize again. Some folks like to water quench the hot boolits right after the baking time is done. I’m still researching for myself if the heat treatment actually does lose temper, but some quench thinking it re-hardens the boolits.
I can not say for sure and am going to try my own experiments first, but that’s the jist of it.
Easy, no mess and allows the operator to use a softer alloy if he or she desires.On paper it sounds like a dream and so far while making them, it’s been just that also.AlvinYork
Ahoy there, Irishtexan,
I’m new to powder coating myself so about the only thing I can tell ya is don’t start with the clear powder coat paint. It’s almost impossible to tell if it’s really coated! It’s funny but that’s what happened to me.
I’ve been putting them in a plastic tub and swirling it. They come out powder coated and all sealed up but the appearance is patchy. I recently upgraded my polishing system from two, 1 qt. drums on a tumbler to the smaller cement mixer you can get from harborfreight.com (just put the cases in with your mix and water then let it run for an hour, don’t forget the Jet-Dry when rinsing). So after reading Mountain Man’s entry, I think I’ll try tumbling them in the now unused tumbler.I forgot to mention that I made a small mesh pan from some beekeeping wire I had. Tight enough pattern for the powder to easily drop threw but still keep the boolits in. Used it as like a cooking strainer on top of the solid pan the toaster oven came with. I just dumped my dry coated boolits on the mesh tray, made sure they were laying on an even layer and baked for 10 minutes, per the instructions on the powder coating type I purchased.
When the buzzer sounded I took them out and dropped them out over some foil. Some were stuck together and had to be broken up. Not hard to do but be aware they are warm little buggers at this point.
I have seen videos were casters are taking the time to stack all there powder coated boolits upright prior to baking but I did not want to even attempt that with my old hands,lol. I was picturing a scene from a game of never ending dominoes.
So once they were cool enough to touch, I resized them again. I did not use any sizing lube or imperial wax during this step. I did however initially when I sized the boolits prior to powder coating. I used alittle imperial wax every third or fourth boolit. They were gliding through with no coating coming off. I was surprised.
I was even laughing at some of them being sizing because with the powder coating my .502-375-sp were launching out of my Lee .501 sizing die. It was cracking me up, as if they were telling me they were ready to fly.
As far as overall appearance, the blue looks great. There is some almost marbling type look on some but I think it looks pretty nice. In the grooves on both the tumble and standard designs it’s very well coated.
I’ve read where some folks instead of dry tumbling use a wet method and mix a small amount of either acetone or paint thinner with your small scoop of powder coating, strain, then bake.
That might give you the best overall appearance but for my needs, the dry tumble and bake is where it’s at for ease of use and ability to reproduce the same results every time.
I’m still going to use the traditional lube method for some applications, but I got to say powder coating is a nice alternative.
I have a few colors and plan on using those to mark out different loads within the same cast.
I hope you try it out. I think you also will see its benefits.
Full.Lead.Taco
Been doing it for a while–I should try to post an instructional video sometime. If you have questions, feel free to pm me or ask here. I’ve tried several methods over the last few years (including the wet pc method, dry tumbling, non-stick aluminum foil method, plastic bb’s etc…) but have ended up doing it this way to save time:
1. cast bullets and then put them in a sour cream or yogurt container (if you need to touch the naked bullets wear gloves–the oils from your hands will make the powder not stick well)
2. after the bullets are room temp and dry (if you water drop them), add a couple of teaspoons of powder (TGIC powder that cures at 400 for 10 min is usually best) powderbuythepound.com sells good powder. Cheap harbor freight powder works, but doesn’t seem to coat as well.
3. shake them gently for like 15-20 seconds or so inside the container and then pour the bullets out on top of a wire mesh (hardware cloth) baking tray.
4. throw them in a toaster oven and bake them for 10 min at 400 degrees.
5. pull the tray out and tap them out into a bucket of water (it cools the bullets quickly and doesn’t seem to harm the powder coat)
**Tips&Tricks**
*make sure to not add too much powder or it will get clumpy on the bullets.
*spend the extra money to get a high quality powder.
*if you let the bullets cool inside the tray after baking, you will have to break them apart which is kind of a pain in the butt
*don’t worry too much about the powder not coating the entire bullet–it usually doesn’t affect it too much.delbertmccord
I have been powder coating for a couple years now. I have used PowderByThePound Black Wet powder for hangun bullets and it works great. Its a little thick they way I do it (yes I am one of those nut jobs that places them one at a time on their bases. I get PREFECT bullets that way for handguns but when I tried it for Rifle bullets I could not get them to stand up very well on the way to the over. I even would stand at my over and place one at a time in the over standing up and that worked but I ran into another problem, The powder was so thick that the part of the rifle bullet that was a few thousands smaller than the part of the bullet that goes into the rifling. Not with my bullets, when I sized them I lost the skinny nose and it was giving me problems with chamber fit.
I was watching some YouTube videos of a guy with a channel name of Elvis Ammo and he did a video of a light blue powder form another company. It is a little less in price but that was not why I noticed it (I have loaded thousands of rounds and have only used a pound of 2 of powder in my 2 years). It was a lot easier to apply and stuck well in just a min or two of shaking and then place it in a wire basket, shack any extra powder off and cook for 20 min at 400 degrees and when they come out removed them right away and they come apart easy (as long as they have not cooled) and the coating works GREAT!
Here is his video, everything up to 2:30 is reviews of all the different methods he has used with Harbor Freight powders.
https://youtu.be/KGqLzWzKfesI tried another batch of powder coating today and a different color from powder by the pound ( ral 3001 signal red). I have a hand injury so it’s the reason I first decided to try the electric tumbler first since the exact mixing motion the powder coating is what really can make for a not so nice day. I may have been alittle too cautious and over mixed them in my first attempt.
With that being said, I tried the “about a minute” dry mix of a smaller batch of boolits, recommended by Mr. Cornmastah.They came out excellent and no more marbling appearance. Completely coated and looked imo, outstanding. Even after resizing.
Both ways work, but the hand mixed smaller batches for me just look top notch. For all my work that goes into the total casting and reloading process, I guess I really do enjoy the purdy boolits more. It must be the pride of it all, because like many have said before, marbled or fancy, they both shoot great.I did another batch today, again using the dry manual tub method for maybe a minute. They came out great for my needs. I took a photo from my first batch that had that “marbled” look for a comparison.
We are a big baseball family, so it’s Giants vs Dodgers in our neck of the woods.
If I can mange it Sir, anyone can. I look forward to hearing of your success also.Those look good. Shot any yet?
The red ones, not yet. The first batch of marbled blue ones I already shot up.
I was impressed how clean the bore was, especially in the larger caliber. My girl likes the trail boss loads so far. I like it because it gets her to shoot with me, so it’s a win win.
I feel real good now about the technique and wanted to thank you for helping. Your ideas made my mistakes quickly into a success.
brigettecuneo
AlvinYork
delbertmccord
donaldbottcher
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