Aluminum Powder Coat

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Ritchie

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I decided that rather than move a small amount of lead alloy bars, I would make them into something useful. In this case, 10mm 175GR bullets. HF no longer has red powder coat, the black in nonfunctional for my purposes, so I broke down and got RAL9006 white aluminum powder from Powder By The Pound. Manual agitation in a sandwich box didn't work. I put a couple of handfuls of bullets and some powder in a HDPE screw lid container and put that in the vibratory tumbler for a while. The bullets came out nicely dusted, with good cling. 1/2 hour at 400* and I had coated bullets, which I ran through a Lee sizer. Now I have bullet colored bullets. Due to lack of primers, I haven't been able to shoot any. This is serious, my stash of 10mm is down to less than a thousand rounds.
 
Sorry if you're experienced, ignore my questions / suggestions.

What are the recycle identifiers on the base of your shake containers? Are you using air soft BB's to help generate static? Have you smash tested the finished rounds?

At 400 degrees, unless you verified the oven set temp and time you're baking IMO you're better off running the oven closer to 425 in case the oven sets temp at the low side. The smash test will verify your that your temp and bake time are good enough.

The only issue I've had with grey and clear is determining coverage so I don't use it. When I started PC'ing I got a lot of powder on Ebay as a "sampler" and then settled on what covers best. When / if I ever run out I'm going to try powder from Powder By The Pound.

Less than 1k ammo? Consider yourself lucky many are out :) I'm what those who are out call a hoarder because I look Waayyyy forward when I buy components.
 
Ritchie said:
Manual agitation in a sandwich box didn't work. I put a couple of handfuls of bullets and some powder in a HDPE screw lid container and put that in the vibratory tumbler for a while. The bullets came out nicely dusted, with good cling.
Click to expand...
Or you could rub the plastic container on carpet to increase static cling.
 
Your results may differ but I use a snap on top plastic container courtesy of my wife, the cook, and Eastwood powder. I have found the red to give excellent results and not caring in the least what color my bullets are that's all I use. It works so no need to fix it. I don't use plastic air soft BBs. I use a few copper clad real steel l BBs. Experimenting has shown me that a one minute shake does the same as a two or three minute shake. I just coated a bunch of bullets yesterday and as far as I could tell they came out perfect. I have also done a smash test that increased the bullet diameter to three times it's normal size and had no flaking or cracking of the coating. Eastwood powder is good stuff.
 
gnappi said:
At 400 degrees, unless you verified the oven set temp and time you're baking IMO you're better off running the oven closer to 425 in case the oven sets temp at the low side. The smash test will verify your that your temp and bake time are good enough.
Click to expand...
I would advise the other direction. My little oven set at 400 melted my bullets in the 10 mins or less while I had stepped away to feed the critters. Those little ovens are terrible at being accurate. My advise is to forget the numbers even exist and starting low work up to where the PC flows to an even cured coverage and put a big permanent marker spot there to line up with, and hope that the little oven is repeatable at that temp.
 
WestKentucky said:
I would advise the other direction. My little oven set at 400 melted my bullets in the 10 mins or less while I had stepped away to feed the critters. Those little ovens are terrible at being accurate. My advise is to forget the numbers even exist and starting low work up to where the PC flows to an even cured coverage and put a big permanent marker spot there to line up with, and hope that the little oven is repeatable at that temp.
Click to expand...

You could also use a thermometer.

I haven't done any powder coating yet, but that's what I'd do. Simple enough to do, and cheap.

You could either install one permanently, or use one to "calibrate" your dial setting on the little oven. Digital thermometers would be easiest, as the sensor takes up very little space and you can easily route the wire lead outside the oven to the display.

A Hotloop digital thermometer runs about $12 on Amazon.
 
Question:

Does it matter what color the paint is? Not brand or quality.
I have used Red from HF and it seems to work just fine. I am not an avid powder coater, I only did 1000 rds of 45 I had,
 
RetiredUSNChief said:
You could also use a thermometer.

I haven't done any powder coating yet, but that's what I'd do. Simple enough to do, and cheap.

You could either install one permanently, or use one to "calibrate" your dial setting on the little oven. Digital thermometers would be easiest, as the sensor takes up very little space and you can easily route the wire lead outside the oven to the display.

A Hotloop digital thermometer runs about $12 on Amazon.
Click to expand...


https://www.harborfreight.com/merch...uys/121-infrared-laser-thermometer-63985.html
 
I've only PCed a few thousand bullets and found the temp to not be as critical. I set my temp on my old toaster oven (bi-metal thermostat) at 400 degrees and the adjust spring wound timer for 25-30 minutes. I have no idea how accurate they are but I use a visual inspection to tell me if they are baked well enough. At first I would get a few with wrinkles, but I adjusted the time and I get good coating, good baked on finish with good powder (I have some of Smoke's powder from castboolits.com). I have done "shake and bake" and electro spray and both methods work (but powder over spray is terrible. That fine powder gets everywhere!). I believe in K.I.S.S....
 
Last edited:
RetiredUSNChief said:
You could also use a thermometer.

I haven't done any powder coating yet, but that's what I'd do. Simple enough to do, and cheap.

You could either install one permanently, or use one to "calibrate" your dial setting on the little oven. Digital thermometers would be easiest, as the sensor takes up very little space and you can easily route the wire lead outside the oven to the display.

A Hotloop digital thermometer runs about $12 on Amazon.
Click to expand...
I used a hot loop thermometer that is part of my multimeter. I wouldn’t expect most folks to have that tool handy, or know how to use it. The hot loop thermometer from Amazon is cheap enough though. I wouldn’t have guessed they would be so cheap. I may buy one of those for myself.
 
For those experienced, and those just starting....need tips on how to...

What does bullet look like if temp is too low / hot?

Paint sag; too hot, time too short/ too long?

I guess I'm looking for a "troubleshooting chart" for beginner to save time and money. Understand need for accurate temp control, assume temp is calibrated.

Thanks all.
 
Rule3 said:
Question:

Does it matter what color the paint is? Not brand or quality.
I have used Red from HF and it seems to work just fine. I am not an avid powder coater, I only did 1000 rds of 45 I had,
Click to expand...

I used Harbor Freight red for my fist adventures in powder coating and it worked fairly well but it has disappeared. It was not as good as the Eastwood powder. I tried the HF black and melted down the bullets I used it on and threw the rest of it in the trash because it was so bad. I have also used Eastwood white and it works but doesn't give as smooth a coating as the red.
 
PWC said:
For those experienced, and those just starting....need tips on how to...

What does bullet look like if temp is too low / hot?

Paint sag; too hot, time too short/ too long?

I guess I'm looking for a "troubleshooting chart" for beginner to save time and money. Understand need for accurate temp control, assume temp is calibrated.

Thanks all.
Click to expand...

Just follow the instructions on the powder container. That is all I have done. Eastwood say to bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes after the powder flows out smooth and turns shiny and that has worked for me. Apparently my toaster oven is fairly close as I set it on 375 and it works. It takes around 5 minutes for the powder to flow and become shiny and I time the 20 minutes from that. I don't use a mesh basket. I cover a thin aluminum plate I cut to fit the slide in tray, wrap it with no stick foil, and set the bullets up using tweezers. It's slow but they don't stick together and I am in no hurry. I get two to three uses out of one piece of foil.
 
Cure too cold is pretty obvious in that it looks dull. Too hot and it flows and kinda puddles on the tray. Too short and too long I can’t really say, but based on what the powder paint is made of, I would be suprised to hear that the length of time has a significant impact. I take the cure time to mean that they want to make sure that the coating and material are both warm enough to allow good adhesion from the powder to whatever the substrate is. You don’t want it to be like a good steak where it’s cooked on the outside but not in the middle. Uncooked in the middle means it will flake off.
 
I've had good luck with Eastwood powders. Red, Ford Blue, MG Maroon, and dark green have done well for me.

White and yellow tend to be splotchy but the bullets are covered.

I have not tried any other colors or different manufacturers' powder.

Eastwood sells the same bottles empty that the containers that one pound of powder comes in. They seem to work well with coating the bullets by shaking. Once you use up a bottle of powder, you have another shaking bottle.

I tried airsoft BB's but they were more trouble to deal with than any perceived benefits they might provide.

.
 
I tried using plastic beads when I first started but it seemed more trouble than it was worth. The container that didn't work so well is marked triangle 5. The one that works in the tumbler, partly because it fits pretty well and stays closed, is marked triangle2. The coating came out very even and stood up to the smash test and sizing. This is a Lee Precision TL bullet with upper and lower driving bands which sized well, the lube grooves are not touched by the sizing. Running the plastic jar in the tumbler works very well since it rotates slowly during agitation. Oven time & temp are the same used with HF red and seem to work fine and are consistent with the factory instructions.
 
RetiredUSNChief said:
You could also use a thermometer.
Click to expand...
Seems an awful lot like cheating to me:D

I've used the Eastwood Ford Light Blue with good results. Too hot and I get melted bullets, too cool and/or not enough time in the oven and the powder coat remains a little soft. The color isn't quite right either. Its a little darker than when its fully cured. Powder coating in a toaster oven I've found is a bit of a touchy feely process. Best results I've found is lower temp at longer bake time. 400(ish) for 30 minutes gives me pretty consistent results. As for tuning in to the proper temperature without an accurate oven or using a thermometer, its the same procedure as an apprentice pipefitter making threaded connections, "Tighten 'er down till you hear the crack, then back a half a turn...."
I increased the temperature till I started melting bullets, then backed it off a bit. Now I don't touch the temp settings at all
 
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