Powder Coating Boolits

[cylinderman]

Just a mention about the lube messing up the coat. I tried to clean some other bullets that had been lubed and used the lanolin to adhere the PC and the coat didn't stick well but bullets as cast with the lanolin to adhere did very well. I guess the lanolin being an animal product reacts very different than possibly a petrolium base product in the lube. BTW I am using the HF powder that they carry

[xyankeeworkshop]

I figure it'll be just as much trouble to to effectively clean the thousands of 45-45-10 boolits I have to get them prepped for PC as it would be to simply chuck them back in the casting pot.

[popper]

I cleaned a bunch with mineral spirits and then coated them without any problem. I swaged down the 9mm, works great. I can put 30 cal in GC shank or nose first. Now to grind down the bases and put them in the mesh. Got to get a large center punch to use in the primer pocket to swage the case into the mesh.

[MJohnston]

I couldnt wait for the weekend and was up late last night trying to figure it out. The spots that the powder didnt stick did indeed have some lube on them. The thrift store oven was the cause of the powder not properly setting and being brittle. I put my casting thermometer in the oven and it took a long time to get up to temp, and only got to 300 when set to 400. I turned it up a little more and cooked longer as suggested. Heres the result. Cant wait to get to the range this weekend. I couldnt resist and did a 500s&w boolit as well.

[popper]

So you are advertizing Komen? Under cooked is not good, looks like it didn't all flow, little spots. Overcooked gets powdery.
Attachment 62501
Now I can do 30 cal, nose or base, I might even try both for PB 30-30.

[Bad Water Bill]

Now aren't you glad we beat you viciously about the head and shoulders to get one of those new fangled lead pot thermometers?

Let us know how they work. PLEASE.

[MJohnston]

Yep I put off getting a thermometer for a long time, and now kicking myself for not getting one sooner.

[bayjoe]

This is my first attempt at powder coating. I used Harbor Freight gun and powder. The dull red ones were my first coat, I pulled them out of the oven to fast. The bright red ones were my second attempt. I used a block of wood with holes drilled on 1 inch off set blocks to give room to coat everything. I heated the bullets to 250 degrees first, it didn't make any difference between using the ground and not using the ground. I had tin foil down this time. I think next time i will put some little bolts on the wood and wrap window screen around the block. It's not as hard as I thought it would be, but 12 psi is to much!!!!

[HDS]

Maybe you guys think I am overthinking this now, but I was thinking of making a reuseable jig for PC'ing bullets and how to get an even coat. So I dreamt this up:



A few metal rings welded together with a center shaft. On top of the rings I have spaced out tubes (thinking copper) that will be .214" inside, so you can place .223 bullets in them by their gas check shank. The whole thing will be electrified and you can spin it on it's center.

So when PC'ing bullets you just stand there, spinning the thing to get an even coat on the bullets. When done you lift the whole thing by the center shaft into the oven and bake it. All the excess powder will fall by the wayside, into a suitable container hopefully for reuse.

Eventually the whole setup will be coated, which should prevent further buildup, the inside of the tubes where the bullets shank touches the tube shold conduct electricity still however.

After the bullets are done they are fitted with gas checks and sized. That's how I have it planned out in my head anyway.

Edit: also what would happen if you filled the lube groove on a coated bullet with lube? Would it become too slippery?

[popper]

HDS - cool looking. I don't think it will hurt to add lube, so far I don't see a reason to do that. PC'd a bunch of 30/30 PB & GC this morning with my 9mm rig. GC shanks were perfect, no PC on them at all. I washed the LLA off but it didn't all get out of the lube grooves. Still coated pretty well. Now to load them with 2400 and go shoot. Anyone have a good PB 2400 load for 180 RDs?

[HDS]

The only reason for the lube would be if I wanted to use my star sizer and did not want to drain it every time or plug the lube holes and make it unuseable for regular bullets.

Tbh looking over it all, it could become quite expensive and time consuming to PC bullets. Part of me thinks I might as well just keep to normal lubed lead or go all out with a swaging setup.

[ItZaLLgooD]

I have been using the Lee push through sizer and can size 4-500 in about 15 minutes.

I plan shooting at least 4000 rounds of .40 this year. That's $600 for j-words or $450 for plated. At $1/lb for lead and a pound of powder at $6 it will less than $150. As far as the time consuming part, Casting and coating just keeps me off of the couch.

[MJohnston]

I tried out the s&w 500 boolits that I powder coated and they shot great with only powder residue. I was worried about having to scrub my baby so they were lubed and gas checked as well. I am going to try some this weekend without the gas checks.

[popper]

HDS - My guess is ~$.004/ CB. Cost is greater than LLA, but I do see some advantages so far. My goal at this point is that I don't have to worry about leading, alloy hardness, exact sizing, etc. Almost like shooting j-word bullets. My testing in 40SW holds up to that theory. I haven't tried pure yet and probably won't but 1% Sb/99% Pb works and is as accurate as I can shoot. The biggest problem I see is making a coating/cooking rig that is simple, cheap and fast or at least does a large quantity easily.

[xyankeeworkshop]

Other advantages:

Low smoke compared to conventionally-lubed cast boolits.
You can push 'em harder than conventionally-lubed cast boolits.
Won't gunk up your seating and crimp dies.
Cleaner to handle in general.
You can run 'em in a Glock barrel without as much worry (yeah, can of worms there. I get it)
They look cool.
It's actually kind of fun.

IMO, the process will probably through trial and error turn out to be no more difficult and costly than pan lubing or dip lubing the way I had been previously. Sure, there's a learning curve and you need to buy a gun and powder. But I had to buy beeswax, JPW, Alox, silicone trays, a lube sizer, etc, etc for those particular methods in the past. So what's really any different?

For me, Cycling a tray of 112 powdercoated boolits from preheat to spray to bake is a 30 minute proposition - and most of that is standing there tapping my foor waiting out the 20 minute bake time. Filling, melting, and popping trays of pan-lubed certainly wasn't any faster. Individually dipping tumble lube bases into a jug of 45-45-10 is tedious to the point of exhaustion. Getting a lube sizer is more expensive (generally) as are punches. It's also it's own special kind of messy as well.

When I make a second or third powdercoat tray jig, that turnaround time'll be reduced quite a bit.

Barring some unexpected, unlikely catastrophe like PC being proven to strip out rifling or some such crazyness, this process has nothing but a huge upside, IMO.

[Willbird]

I wonder if you have one of the "drive through" pizza ovens, even the smaller ones they use at the gas station..the ones with the continuous belts how it would work out if you could keep loading trays and setting them on the belt ??

Bill

[popper]

willbird - I think any of our resident machinists that comes up with a good working toaster oven loading tray solution for processing 200/cycle and is affordable for us home brew guys will make a bunch of $$. Somewhere in the $10-20 range and I'd certainly buy a few. In the meantime, suggestions and ideas to evaluate are certainly welcome as would be reports about successes in different cals and fps. Bmillers comment about the HV problem was very good.

[olaf455]

I tried out the s&w 500 boolits that I powder coated and they shot great with only powder residue. I was worried about having to scrub my baby so they were lubed and gas checked as well. I am going to try some this weekend without the gas checks.

I have fired PC'd 308 win at 2400 fps with no problem. I use polyester TGIC powder.

[HDS]

HDS - My guess is ~$.004/ CB. Cost is greater than LLA, but I do see some advantages so far. My goal at this point is that I don't have to worry about leading, alloy hardness, exact sizing, etc. Almost like shooting j-word bullets. My testing in 40SW holds up to that theory. I haven't tried pure yet and probably won't but 1% Sb/99% Pb works and is as accurate as I can shoot. The biggest problem I see is making a coating/cooking rig that is simple, cheap and fast or at least does a large quantity easily.

True but my only interest is for .223, I have no desire to coat any of the pistol caliber bullets I shoot, they all work pretty much perfectly for me. And it seems the advantages for PC at such a velocities are still unknown for .223 (I've now read of both failures and successes but only with larger calibers than 223). Hence I am now considering starting saving up for a swaging setup for next year and keep to plain lube & cast for 2013.

I will soon be in a position to load my first .223s, just need titan reloading to get the stuff I ordered back in stock.

[ItZaLLgooD]

True but my only interest is for .223, I have no desire to coat any of the pistol caliber bullets I shoot, they all work pretty much perfectly for me. And it seems the advantages for PC at such a velocities are still unknown for .223 (I've now read of both failures and successes but only with larger calibers than 223). Hence I am now considering starting saving up for a swaging setup for next year and keep to plain lube & cast for 2013.

I will soon be in a position to load my first .223s, just need titan reloading to get the stuff I ordered back in stock.

Ooohhhhh. Now I get it. My primary concern was smoke and lube issues associated with shooting pistol rounds. Mainly the .40 through a Glock barrel not a .223 at 3000 FPS. Big difference.