Powder Coating

I have been struggling with the shake and bake method and phantom satin black. I don't know if it's the color or another variable.... Tried airsoft bb's ect, no luck. I noticed how if I tried to re coat wile hot the PC stuck to the bullets like glue... But way to thick and uneven. I recently pre heated some un coated .40cal tl bullets until they were nearly too hot to handle and dumped them into the container with just powder coat. Mixed it up for 10 seconds or so opened the lid and wow it's actually working!!! I dumped them onto some coarse screen baskets I made and shook them around to get rid of excess powder(I re use the powder) and threw it in the oven. Came out allot better than expected! This is as fast as lee tumble lube, looks better and no sticky/gummy bullets. I have been firing these out of a jr carbine at over 1350fps(172gr). Bore looks mint after 50 rds... Have a few hundred loaded up for further trials.
 
Big JD-From the hills said:
I have been struggling with the shake and bake method and phantom satin black. I don't know if it's the color or another variable.... Tried airsoft bb's ect, no luck. I noticed how if I tried to re coat wile hot the PC stuck to the bullets like glue... But way to thick and uneven. I recently pre heated some un coated .40cal tl bullets until they were nearly too hot to handle and dumped them into the container with just powder coat. Mixed it up for 10 seconds or so opened the lid and wow it's actually working!!! I dumped them onto some coarse screen baskets I made and shook them around to get rid of excess powder(I re use the powder) and threw it in the oven. Came out allot better than expected! This is as fast as lee tumble lube, looks better and no sticky/gummy bullets. I have been firing these out of a jr carbine at over 1350fps(172gr). Bore looks mint after 50 rds... Have a few hundred loaded up for further trials.
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I use tool blue, no bbs just a small tub, around 100 bullets and 1 tea spoon of powder. Shake for 30 seconds and dump on to a tray.

I find if humidity is up that the bullets dont get good coat
 
As mentioned, my Sharps .30/30 seems to have a very snug chamber, and nose sizing or tapering just didn't work for it.
Just on a whim, I tried some lime green powder, which I had written off in the past because it only puts on a very thin, anemic layer on the bullet.
Lo and behold, bullets coated in this one almost fell through my .309 sizer and chambered without effort.

I've fired forty rounds with no fouling and my best group was 10 shots in 2 & 1/8 inch at 100 yards. Average m/v was 2050 f/s from my Labradar chronograph.

On the other hand, my tool blue bullets wouldn't chamber in my three pre-64 Winchester .30/30's but all would chamber easily in my three pre-52 Marlins with standard rifling.

 
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Has anyone used the blue powder from princess auto? I can't seem to get my 9mm to group very well at all. Even after resizing to .356
I tumble for 15-20 minutes
Bake at 400 for 10 to 20 minutes (time doesn't seem to be a factor)
Lee sizing die .356
5.4-6.5 grains of HS-6
Shot out of a Viking 446C (which is normally accurate with Campro or factory ammo)
Any help would be appreciated
 
After buying the yellow/green and tool blue from Emerald Coatings I will not bother buying from anywhere else. It is leaps and bounds ahead of the red that I was using from Harbor Freight
 
Mean Steak said:
Has anyone used the blue powder from princess auto? I can't seem to get my 9mm to group very well at all. Even after resizing to .356
I tumble for 15-20 minutes
Bake at 400 for 10 to 20 minutes (time doesn't seem to be a factor)
Lee sizing die .356
5.4-6.5 grains of HS-6
Shot out of a Viking 446C (which is normally accurate with Campro or factory ammo)
Any help would be appreciated
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What does the bore slug to? What lead mix are you using? I can't remember but I think for all my 9mm I use a Lee 0.357 sizing die, I'll check when I get home. Are you saying with other colours you get better accuracy vs the princess auto stuff?
 
Spawn-Inc said:
What does the bore slug to? What lead mix are you using? I can't remember but I think for all my 9mm I use a Lee 0.357 sizing die, I'll check when I get home. Are you saying with other colours you get better accuracy vs the princess auto stuff?
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Hi sorry, my barrel mic's out to .355
I'm using wheel weights for casting
No I've only been able to buy the princess auto blue.
If anyone knows where to buy better stuff in Red Deer, I'm all ears
 
Wish I had read this thread a week ago. I'm going to get into this and was just in Palmerton last week ( emerald coatings) doing a pick up for work, would have stopped in and made a pc purchase. Drove right by it!�� Just purchased a couple of pounds online and will give it a whirl. Don't know when I'll get back that way again, but I may check it out . Thanks for the info everyone.
 
Mean Steak said:
Hi sorry, my barrel mic's out to .355
I'm using wheel weights for casting
No I've only been able to buy the princess auto blue.
If anyone knows where to buy better stuff in Red Deer, I'm all ears
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.356 or .357 should work good for your barrel then, have you had that bullet work good in your gun with traditional lube? you may need another bullet style for your gun.
Emerald coatings/powder 365 they are one in the same but only one (i forget which, i think it's powder 365) offers tool blue. i've tried 8 different coloured powders from them and only tool blue and Kawasaki green work perfectly for tumble coating.

ice2152 said:
Wish I had read this thread a week ago. I'm going to get into this and was just in Palmerton last week ( emerald coatings) doing a pick up for work, would have stopped in and made a pc purchase. Drove right by it!�� Just purchased a couple of pounds online and will give it a whirl. Don't know when I'll get back that way again, but I may check it out . Thanks for the info everyone.
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the 2 order's i've made with them took 2-3 days to get here so they.
 
Undersized after Sizing?

Hi, I am new to powder coating as of last night.

Last nights test was for some .359" bullets. The coating went on well, and after baking, the bullets had a nice uniform coat that passed the hammer test without cracking or flaking. With powder coat, before sizing, they measured .361". I ran them through my .359" Lee sizer and they all came out at .357", which seems odd.

Today I did some 125 grain 9mm. After baking, I ran 1 though my .356" sizer and it now measures .354". The remainder, I ran through my .359" sizer that gave a workable .357" bunch of bullets.

Has anyone else had this happen to them?

I would hate to buy different sizing dies just for my powder coat bullets.
 
Boolitcaster said:
Hi, I am new to powder coating as of last night.

Last nights test was for some .359" bullets. The coating went on well, and after baking, the bullets had a nice uniform coat that passed the hammer test without cracking or flaking. With powder coat, before sizing, they measured .361". I ran them through my .359" Lee sizer and they all came out at .357", which seems odd.

Today I did some 125 grain 9mm. After baking, I ran 1 though my .356" sizer and it now measures .354". The remainder, I ran through my .359" sizer that gave a workable .357" bunch of bullets.

Has anyone else had this happen to them?

I would hate to buy different sizing dies just for my powder coat bullets.
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That is odd, all mine come out to the correct size. I just sized 5 powder coated .229 bullets through a lee .225 sizing die and that's what they came out to.

Just to go over the simple stuff in case of a brain fart (no offence is intended), did you zero the calipers? is the battery dying in the calipers (assuming digital)? Using the correct sizing die? Does the same sizing die and caliper measure fine when sizing plain lead? Do you let the lead cool off or size while they are still warm?
 
Spawn-Inc said:
That is odd, all mine come out to the correct size. I just sized 5 powder coated .229 bullets through a lee .225 sizing die and that's what they came out to.

Just to go over the simple stuff in case of a brain fart (no offence is intended), did you zero the calipers? is the battery dying in the calipers (assuming digital)? Using the correct sizing die? Does the same sizing die and caliper measure fine when sizing plain lead? Do you let the lead cool off or size while they are still warm?
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No offence taken. I know the obvious stuff can sometimes slip through.

Calipers. Zeroed and new batteries a couple of weeks ago.
Correct dies. I double checked when I got the odd results.
The sizing dies have always worked fine for cast bullets in the past with the bullets coming out at the size marked on the dies.
The bullets last night were sized about 30 minutes after coming out of the oven.
Today, the bullets sat for a few hours before I got around to sizing them.

The 38 bullets had a BHN of 9 while the 9mms were BHN 12.

Thanks,
jWB
 
The hardness of the alloy matters when the bullet goes through a sizing die. Also a die stamped .357 is usually sized slightly smaller than that, usually .3565 or slightly less. This is to allow the "springback" of harder alloys. Generally the harder the alloy the closer to the stamped size it will be after running it through the sizer.
So, a lead slug run through a .357 sizer would probably measure .3563 or so, a wheel weight run through the same sizer will be few ten thousands bigger, and one of linotype will probably measure slightly over .357.
 
I'm with Spawn on this as well, sized quite a bunch of PC boolits and have never noticed any odd readings on the calipers other than what the sizing die specified.

Moose may have the answer as you state your boolits are in the "9" hardness area and I have never sized a PC boolit that was made with anything but coww, probably in the "12" area.
 
fingers284 said:
I'm with Spawn on this as well, sized quite a bunch of PC boolits and have never noticed any odd readings on the calipers other than what the sizing die specified.

Moose may have the answer as you state your boolits are in the "9" hardness area and I have never sized a PC boolit that was made with anything but coww, probably in the "12" area.
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I am happy, even with the undersized bullets. The only thing I can see different is the paint.

I will continue to powder coat with this paint, but will just size 9mm and 45 acp with my .359" and .454" dies. I might also powder coat some .359" bullets to bring them up to .361" for the 38 S&W.

My other calibers can continue to be sized and lubed until I find the cause of the .002" undersized bullets.

As both attempts at sizing were .002" under size with two different alloys, I doubt it is the hardness. I guess my next batch of cast bullets can be tailored to prove me right or wrong. Too cold for casting right now.

Thanks for the discussion. Brain storming always helps.
 
I've had success with PCing 9mm with great results for my sig. Today I cast some .45 and PC'd. My question to all that have been PCing is do you gas check ever? What about the people who have cast rifle calibers and PC'd, did you gas check? If it is no longer needed would be great!
 
ice2152 said:
I've had success with PCing 9mm with great results for my sig. Today I cast some .45 and PC'd. My question to all that have been PCing is do you gas check ever? What about the people who have cast rifle calibers and PC'd, did you gas check? If it is no longer needed would be great!
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I never gas check when powder coating for any pistol calibre from 9mm up to 500mag. I have only just started powder coating for rifle (223) but for the first 50 rounds i didn't gas check them and didn't encounter any problems. I did buy gas checks for 223 but haven't been shooting for the last 6 weeks because i broke my hand. When i get back to the range i plan on testing checked vs not for the 223 in my ar15 and see what happens.
 
Spawn-Inc said:
I never gas check when powder coating for any pistol calibre from 9mm up to 500mag. I have only just started powder coating for rifle (223) but for the first 50 rounds i didn't gas check them and didn't encounter any problems. I did buy gas checks for 223 but haven't been shooting for the last 6 weeks because i broke my hand. When i get back to the range i plan on testing checked vs not for the 223 in my ar15 and see what happens.
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Going to try 130gr 7mm, no cas checks. The lee mold is not that good but made a some up with tool blue.

Will start at around 3000fps just to see if they hold up, accuracy will be later if the bullets dont lead up the barrel.

7mmpc.jpg
 
Very interested to hear the results of that test with those bullets, photo shows a lot of deformities (one even shows a "gas escape" channel from end to end) and will be a good indication weather PCing somewhat eliminates the "perfect boolit" syndrome associated with casting...if those shoot even somewhat consistent I would call it a success.

As for the OP's question on GC, I have "speriminted" a bit with PC'd rifle boolits in three different configurations...add GC before PC, add GC after PC and no GC added to a GC shanked boolit with PC coating. The results of my testing showed no noticeable benefit to GCing any boolit that has a PC coating. The bugaboo with my tests is that they all are with "moderate velocity" rounds 12-1400 fps, faster velocity might show different results.
 
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