Powder Coating Bullets Question

[Englishmn]

My HF red and white mix. Shake in plastic tub and dump on to 1/4 hardware cloth shake to even out bullets and drop excess powder on a tray for reuse then baked in Walmart toaster oven. Made these first part of February coincidentally. I get a few bare spots from where they sit on the screen but way easier than placing each bullet on foil sheet. I size after coating them.

 

[Vern Humphrey]

Just ordered some powder coating from Amazon. Guess what popped up in the "People who ordered powder coating also ordered this" window? A toaster oven!

I'll bet the Amazon people are scratching their heads over that.

 

[gojuice101]

I used airsoft bbs originally, but then I found a better method. I use those plastic containers that ice cream comes in (can't remember brand, but they have blue lids). Dump in the powder and bullets and shake a couple of times. Then I dump them out on screen and bake them. Once they are done I let them cool for like a minute, just to harden a little, then dump them into another (empty) plastic container and shake them up. That breaks all of them up in case they stuck together while baking. Then just let them cool completely.

I don't have any pictures of finished ones at the moment, but you wouldn't be able to tell in a picture anyway since I usually use clear powder coat.

 

[Stationary Smell]

Do you guys put on just 1 coat or 2?

 

[Englishmn]

Do you guys put on just 1 coat or 2?

Just one coat.

 

[tech45K]

Amazing job on the bullets. It's time to learn new skills. I have talked to a nearby powder coating company https://www.reliantfinishingsystems.com/ to help me understand the process. I think, up-coming time is going to be super fun.

 

[cfullgraf]

Just a tid bit of info to for powder coating. Some powders work great some not so great.

The red colors do well from at least Harbor Freight and Eastwood. I've used only Eastwood colors and have good luck with red, the Ford Blues, MG maroon and clear. Yellow and white covered the bullet with polymer well but the colors were a bit splotchy.

Some of the U-Tubers have videos trying different colors with varying success which gives some more information.

I did not find the air soft bb's have helped me. I might have to try some styrofoam bits. For a container, Eastwood sells empty bottles that are the same as their 1 pound powder bottles. I bought some empties to get started and once the full bottles are empty I'll have more to use.

Mixing colors gives interesting results.

There are lots of different ways to skin this cats and folks get good results with them.

 

[Rule3]

Boil off the lube then rinse with mineral spirits to get the rest off. The cheap way to powder coat is whet I use. Get a toaster oven for $5 at goodwill, get some red powder coat powder from harbor freight $7, grab a container of black air soft bb's from Walmart $8 and a roll of nonstick aluminum foil $3. Get it all home and acquire a glad/plastic bowl with a #5 in a triangle on the bottom.

Put about 2 layers of bb's in the bowl followed by 2-3 heaping spoonfuls of powder. Add in two good handfuls of bullets and snap the lid on. Swirl it and shake it kinda vigorously for 2 minutes. Line the pan for the oven with the nonstick foil. Either powder your fingers and grab the bullets n stand them up on the foil or use forceps or needle nosed pliers. Put the pan in a preheated 400* oven for 20 minutes and viola.

Thanks for this info. I have a lot of lubed bullets and want to try this.

Doing some internet searching, after boiling the lube off, what is the best solvent to really clean them? It seems xylene would work best to cut through a "wax" lube??

 

[res45]

PC,ing bullet is fairly easy. You will need a plastic bowl with a snap or screw on lid of some sort I use a old cool whip bowl and use the shake an bake method,other will just put there powder an bullets in a vibratory tumbler and let it run till there coated.

Some people use plastic air soft beads mixed in with the powder,I've done it with an without and can't tell much of a difference. An environment with low humidity that helps create static electricity is your friend when it comes to coating bullets when I can't do it out in the shop on hot or humid days I coat them in the house an toast them out on the back porch.

You will need a toaster over. You can buy a new one fairly cheap or see if you can pick a used one up at a local thrift store for a few dollars. People bake the bullets in different way but I line my toaster tray with non stick aluminum foil,non stick side up and stand my bullets up on the base using a pair of large tweezers,it's slower but I like the results I get. I don't mind the extra time as I can coat and set up the next tray to bake while the first other tray is in the oven.

As to powder many use the Harbor Freight powders Red works best for shake and bake followed by the Yellow. The HF Blacks seem to work much better if it's sprayed on with an ES gun as will the Red an Yellow the HF white is pretty much useless for PCing bullets by itself but can be mixed in with other colors that work well by themselves.

There are many companies online that sell powder coat by the pound or you can get it form Smoke over at Cast Boolits http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...raying-bullets He has good powder,prices and shipping it's where I get my powders.

All my coated bullets are baked at 400 degrees for 20 min. if you buy online from a mfg. they will state what temp and time to bake there powders at for it to cure properly. It's a good idea to preheat your over before putting the bullets in an use a oven thermometer to verify your oven temperature as the dial doesn't always match the temperature required.

Also of note if you water quench your bullets straight from the mold before coating the PC curing process with negate the first water quenching so you will need to requench them after removing them from the toaster oven even then they still want reach a final BHN as close to the original quenched BHN but it will be fairly close.

A few samples of bullets I've coated using the shake an bake.

 

[Vern Humphrey]

By and large, I find powder coating works better than traditional lubes. It's faster to apply, cheaper, not so messy, and leaves your bore clean.

 

[bullseye308]

Thanks for this info. I have a lot of lubed bullets and want to try this.

Doing some internet searching, after boiling the lube off, what is the best solvent to really clean them? It seems xylene would work best to cut through a "wax" lube??

Xylene should work, I don't know for sure. The few I had that were already lubed I just recast. I'd expect diesel, kerosene, paint thinner, stuff like that would work.

 

[Duvel]

Thanks for this info. I have a lot of lubed bullets and want to try this.

Doing some internet searching, after boiling the lube off, what is the best solvent to really clean them? It seems xylene would work best to cut through a "wax" lube??

You can strip traditional lube off by soaking in white gas (Coleman, camping section) for 20 minutes then stirring.