More Powder Coated bullets. "Taste The Rainbow" well sorta.

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res45

New member
Had a nice day out today so me and my friend Andy broke out the powder coater and did a few different cast bullet coating test. This isn't all the different ones we did but all I had time to size and or add a gas check to. From L to R Lee 30 cal. 150 & 170 gr. RNFP sized to .311" checked some and left it off some others that I shoot for plinker loads. Lee .314" tumble lube RN some gas checked,some not. Lee 158 gr. plain base tumble lube SWC sized .359" and Lee plain base 9mm 124 gr. TC tumble lube sized to .358"

Plans are to load up a series of loads with each type bullet just to see how hard I can push them with and without a gas check as well as the non gas check versions. How soft an alloy I can use at higher velocity and pressure and last but not least which gives the best accuracy. Hope to add some more color's soon
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Mike / Tx

New member
Those look really good there res.

Call me old fashioned, I guess I'm sort of liking my cast bullets the way I like my women.......:eek:



Plain with not a lot of bling....



Well what did YOU think I was going to say....:D
 
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mikld

New member
Method of application? I have been resisting PC as I don't need (?) another aspect of my hobby (yeah, right) and am really curious...
 
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snuffy

New member
Painting boolits has come and gone several times in the past. There was a black paint that was a suspension of molly, it was a thin coat. The solvent was nasty, because the base of the paint was a plastic substance. I can't remember the name of the stuff, but it was only moderately better than normal wax lubes used at the time.

You did that with PLENTY of ventilation, OR you would be found on the floor/ground. The boolits were sized first, then coated, leaving some of the paint on the driving bands.

I will not bite on this process, I consider it another fad that will run it's course. Just like the dry molly coating fad that's now dead. I did bite on that one, I still have the molly, steel BB's and the tumbler bowl. I haven't molly coated anything for over 10 years.

Don't let me stop anybody that's contemplating getting into it,(not that i would even if I could), have fun! I really don't have anyplace to do it, or the means to dedicate a room just for it. I can't see how you would get away with it anywhere inside a house, or even a garage. There must be over-spray!?? If left to doing it out on my small lawn, that means maybe 20 days out of a year in this frozen tundra of Wisconsin.

If I wished to drive my cast boolits to jaxcketed velocities, I'd get into paper patching. Much easier and entirely doable in a reloading room, no mess, no fuss.

I seeNO need for powder coating any handgun boolits. I have 2 450 lyman sizers, and about 15 dies for them, along with about that many lee push-through sizer dies.

Slugging the barrels of all the guns I cast for, then sizing .001-.002 bigger, then using a good lube results in accurate loads, pennies-on-the-dollar compared to jacxcted bullets. Slugging also tells you if you have tight spots in the barrel caused by over-tightening the barrel into the frame of a revolver or the clamp on gas port of a Ruger mini.

Powder coated HAS to be more expensive than normal sized and lubed boolits. To say nothing of the extra time and logistics.
 
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Beagle333

New member
If I wished to drive my cast boolits to jaxcketed velocities, I'd get into paper patching. Much easier and entirely doable in a reloading room, no mess, no fuss.
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I haven't tried, so I don't know about easier, but I know people that keep trying to talk me into it, and they agree about the faster velocities of whatever you're trying to push. I'm sure it's a much friendlier indoor operation though! ;)
PP surely does seem like something I'd really like to get into and learn about... especially for my .45-70 :D
 
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res45

New member
.311 seems pretty big. Do they fit in your cases?
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No problems,I size all my 30 cal. bullets for the 30-30 and 300 Sav. to .311" no chambering issues at all with the throats on those rifles.
 
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totalloser

New member
I don't think this is a fad, though I can see why someone would think so. When I first heard of it I dismissed it. Then after doing some reading and seeing how well it works, I am sold. I did the moly (fad) thing and it was a HUGE waste of time IMO.

The *MASSIVE* advantage of PC over lube is handling and time wasted. I load on a progressive and lube hassles multiply time involved by 5. Almost as bad as trimming rifle brass. The whole process gets bottlenecked at the lube process. Also, PC means hardness is mostly a non-issue and gas check should usually not be needed with a good coat since a decent PC *eliminates* Gas cutting.

The only real drawback is that molds are not currently designed to capitalize on the process. I currently have an aluminum foundry with the refractory curing with the intention of solving that problem. :cool:

PS I don't think it will work out to be more expensive- especially compared with a lubrisizer process, and using the Harbor Freight electrostatic gun has virtually no overspray and no odors/fumes. Until you bake them that is. To bake most folks use a dedicated toaster oven NEVER used for food.

Keep in mind a lot of folks are successfully shooting .300 blackout using PC with no gas check. Try that with lube! ;)
 
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mikld

New member
Are they sprayed? Are the "tumbled"? Are they dipped? How did you get the colored stuff on the bullets? Did you bake them?

Enquiring minds wanna know...
 
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totalloser

New member
I believe the OP used a tumble lube method which often is powder coating powder mixed with acetone and tumbled until the acetone goes away then baked in a toaster oven.

The other method is using an electrostatic device to energize the bullets and then spraying them with a low pressure gun. Almost all the coating sticks to the static electrical charge on the boolits and then they get baked. There are a wide array of methods of placing the boolits on a conductive surface to impart the electrostatic charge.

IMO one of the best is balancing boolits on nails (heads smaller than boolits) run through a piece of aluminum flashing sandwiched between a strip of plywood and a 2x4. You energize the flashing and it energizes all the nail heads. The big drawback is that you have to get the block to the oven without touching or tipping the boolits.

The other even better way requires hollow point molds though. Same setup except the nail points up and the HP's go over the nail heads. Since they are on spikes hung on the hollow point, it's a LOT easier to get the block to the oven.

Both of these processes leave the anode effectively clean for the next batch

ES PC method generally puts about .001" layer down, making the diameter .002" larger, and molds generally drop large to begin with, so sizing is *required* in most all situations. Tumble lube success varies GREATLY.

http://www.harborfreight.com/10-30-psi-powder-coating-system-94244.html

This ^ is what I'm using, but am waiting to actually load any until I manufacture my molds which will drop .001" undersize HP's
 
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res45

New member
I believe the OP used a tumble lube method which often is powder coating powder mixed with acetone and tumbled until the acetone goes away then baked in a toaster oven.
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Actually I've only powder coated bullets once using the TL method and I tumble them dry no acetone and they came out fairly nice but I lost a bit of coating on the nose where I picked them up with tweezers but they shot as well as the standard lubed bullets.

Dry TL PC bullets.
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The bullets in the post were sprayed with the ES gun from harbor freight I picked up last month,they turned out great on the first try.
 
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totalloser

New member
:) I read your original post wrong. I thought they looked remarkable for tumble, but figured the process must have improved. A lot of experimentation going on. :D
 
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skizzums

New member
after playing with PCd bullets, the attraction for me is having lead load be smokeless again, i get tired of all the comments at the range(are you shooting black powder over there??)(geez, those are the dirtiest bullets ive ever seen) and so on

i also think it saves a great deal of time if you dont own a lubrasizer

it does a good bit to prevent leading on pure lead, which helps save tin and alloys, its not perfect, but neither is lube

it looks nice

even if you dont see an advantage, i dont see a downside to PC, do you?

i dont think its more expensive
 
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Beagle333

New member
It is pretty cheap. You can get into dry tumble coating for about 20 bucks (which works great too), and for around 50 more you can be using the electrostatic gun and making perfect coats on your bullets.

Try to find a used lubesizer, 3 to 5 of your favorite caliber dies and punches, and a few tubes of whatever lube you choose, and see what the total is. :)

I don't know how many bullets you can get from a pound of powder. I'm still on the first pound and I've done two or three thousand. I'd guess, mebbe 6000? (if anybody has been doing it that long?) Harbor Freight still has powder on sale for $3.99 a pound. I ordered 4 pounds last night, just 'cause it was still sale priced. That oughta hold me for the next 5-6 years. :D

The only downside I see is weather (for somebody like me who does it outdoors). I can sit and watch a ballgame and run em through my Star while it's raining, so that's one advantage that regular lube has over PC. But if you have a garage or access to one, you're golden! :cool:
 
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Vance

New member
res45

Actually I've only powder coated bullets once using the TL method and I tumble them dry no acetone and they came out fairly nice but I lost a bit of coating on the nose where I picked them up with tweezers but they shot as well as the standard lubed bullets.

Dry TL PC bullets.
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Dip the tips of the tweezers in the powder. The powder coats the tips and there is little to no marks left on the bullets. That works for me.
 
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