Hot sticky powder coated bullets

Or!! How to avoid bullets sticking altogether, permanently.

For this tutorial I'm using "Patented Ultimate Chrome Version 2" from Powder by the Pound.

There are many different powders that can be used for tumble coating bullets. I've also very successfully used Eastwood Ford light blue, Lime green and ultimate gloss clear.

Soon I'll try PBP's clear, super wet clear, and their version of Ford light blue.

They will all get coated the same way.

Set the toaster to pre-heat to an oven thermometer verified 400°F.

Put the hundreds of clean freshly cast hollow pointed bullets into the very large #5 polypropylene square box from the supermarket,

and add powder coat powder using a teaspoon or 5 ml measuring spoon to cover the top layer of bullets. Put the lid on tightly and swirl in your hands, in front of your chest, for thirty seconds. Do not breathe any of this dust make sure the lid is on properly!!!

I prefer there is be a small amount of loose powder at the bottom of the plastic box after tumbling,

and I can see all the bullets are now properly saturated with powder, they look fuzzy and evenly coated in your powder paint of choice.

I put the hard ware cloth basket on top of an open clean pizza box to catch any spillage and make clean up easy.

Dump the uncured coated bullets into a hard ware cloth basket you made from 1/4" grid and spread them out to one layer deep. The excess powder falls through the grid.

I like to use a clean ball point pen or the same powder spoon and spread them out making sure it's only one layer in depth and evenly spread out.

For my results//A small amount of powder is wasted. It's ok. I can still coat thousands of bullets with one pound of powder. I Never recycle powder back into the main supply to prevent humidity or any other contamination from ruining my powder.

Put the basket tray with bullets in the oven and watch through the door for the paint powder to "flash" (become shiny from heat) and start the timer then. I always cook for at least twenty minutes and if it's a big batch thirty is better.

When the cooking and curing time is up put on the super clean leather gloves, take the tray and dump all the hot powder coated bullets into a clean large cardboard box in a big pile. The box is at least one cubic foot.


All the seams inside the box have been taped with painters masking tape to prevent bullets getting stuck inside the flaps.

Use your gloved fingers and roll the bullets around in the box and find for any that are stuck together
And break up clumps of stuck together bullets as they cool.

Again one layer thick is preferable to speed cooling and prevent sticking.

After only a couple minutes they won't stick together anymore and once cooled enough to touch with bare fingers I get ready for sizing the bullets.

Sounds like you have it worked out pretty well.

I will have to try that because I can't get the Lee 230 gr 30 cal to stand-up

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sse

I will have to try that because I can't get the Lee 230 gr 30 cal to stand-up

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Try using silicone ice cube trays. You need a rigid pan underneath for stability, but they work great for standing tall boolits.

https://www.amazon.com/Silicone-Chil...07QZ34SMV?th=1

Cool idea, I just ordered them. Thanks

This is semi wad cutters baking after the powder paint flashes.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...a65f579e3b.jpg

This is 359 hammers before the paint flashes.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...eeedab0ac7.jpg

This is the Elmer Keith bullets with clear powder coat, dumped into the box immediately after baking time is completed.

I use the clean leather gloves to roll around and separate bullets clumped as they cool, so that they do not get glued stick together.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...2c33ab7acd.jpg

Recycled bullet: You might get more responses to powder coating issues if you post questions about it in the "coatings and alternatives" section. There are lots of suggestions there about powder coating issues. When I'm coating pistol bullets I pluck them out of the shaking tub with some long tweezers and set them on a tray that has a sheet of parchment paper on it. Nothing sticks to parchment paper (you can find it at most stores where they sell aluminum foil, plastic food wrap, and wax paper). Just stack the bullets on the paper and bake them. If they're not touching each other they can't stick together. Just let them cool on the tray and you're done.

Hello Mr 405 grain is it possible to move this to coatings and alternative I was unaware that I miscategorised this thread

I'm not a moderator, just a regular guy. Don't worry about it. You'll get some replies on general topics here, but this site has so much information that you can post on specific areas of the site and get lots more responses from people that are experienced in the area that you're posting about. You can even use the search function to look for posts where other people were looking for solutions to similar problems. Welcome aboard.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sse

I will have to try that because I can't get the Lee 230 gr 30 cal to stand-up

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I load mine in the oven, so there’s no vibration to make them fall over. Some due fall, but most make it. I start with a cold oven. No preheating. Thirty minutes bake time.

Look into silicone small ice cube trays as noted. You can stand the bullets up in the trays & bake, they wont stick. Option 2 is a [ice of 3/8" wire mesh cut & bent to stand off the baking sheet 1/2" or so. Stand them up in that.

I use something like these to stand bullets up. Mine have about 1/2" mesh.

https://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/sto...g-rack/5534309

Why do you stand the bullets up?

Something I learned about toaster-oven preheating- until the oven gets up to temp the top and bottom elements come on at the same time. I don't know what the initial temp was, but I ended up with powder-coated cute round blobs. I recommend putting the bullets in the oven rapidly once the oven thinks it's up to temp.
Loren