More money than sense: Lube Sizer or Turret Press?

I have powdered a fair amount of boolits and have never had results that you describe. I sounds to me that your powder is "beading" during cooking (similar to water droplets on a waxed car hood) and suggests to me that there is a contaminant on the boolits...have your slugs ever been lubed with another "conventional" lube that wasn't all removed or maybe the lead alloy being used has an element in it that is prone to "oxidization" and needs to be swished in a jar of gas line alcohol (at least that's what I use).

My second idea is that your oven might just not be reaching advertised temp, try it a bit higher and give your boolits another 5 min. longer as well ( neither change will adversely affect a "cook"). If the powder I am using has a 15 min recommendation I will set the timer for 20 and I have my oven set to the 425 mark no mater what powder I'm using (most are recommended at 400 or 375).

The only other thing I can come up with is "are you using a powder that someone else has verified (on here or Castboolits) as a workable brand, some powders just do not work with "shake& bake" but will work very satisfactorily with the Electro-gun application.

keep on trying, once you find the "sweet spot" with PC'd boolits, cast bullet savings will be very justifying.
 
MDF said:
I've looked into powder coating and have tried tumble coating. I've been disappointed with the results so far.

I first tried cast bullets tumbled by hand in a container with just the powder. The powder would not adhere to the bullets at all. I did not try to bake the coating on these.

I then tried cast bullets tumbled by hand in a container with powder and plastic air soft pellets. The powder adhered to the bullets in a very fine coat. I baked these at the temp and for the duration listed in the powder coat's instructions.

The coating seemed to pull into lumps on the bullets and did not bake in a smooth coat. The effect is similar to water beading on a waxed surface.

I tried multiple coats on the same bullets and that smoothed out the coating but it's not a particularly smooth coating overall. The bullets were baked standing up on their bases on a sheet; they were not just tossed in a basket or on a sheet.

Is this beading effect common? Is it due to the nature of the powder? Or might the bullet surfaces be contaminated? They were freshly cast -- should I have washed or degreased them first?

Can you get a smooth and even coating with tumbling or is an electrostatic gun really necessary?
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What powder were you using? Some powders and colours work better, some are very poor

Beading might suggest contamination or moisture.

You'll need to figure this out for yourself, but the things you should check are:
1. check container for tumbling is the proper type to create static - look for "5" in a diamond on the bottom of the container.
2. container must be squeaky clean (no trace residue of margarine etc)
3. powder, container, bullets are all 100% dry, no moisture
4. bullets are clean

Fresh cast bullets should be clean unless you've got a really dirty mold..?
 
For a simple solution to get rid of the sticky gunk on bullets after tumble lubing them. Throw the loaded rounds in a tumbler with corncob and mineral spirits. The bullets come out squeaky clean. People still try to argu that this degrades the powder in the case or something like that but it has been proven time and time again that that is BS.
 
Thanks to fingers284 and jethunter for the notes on powdercoating.

The powder I am using is RAL 7004 from Emerald Coatings: https://emeraldcoatings.com/product/ral-7004-signal-grey/ Yes, I am that boring.

I just checked the plastic bucket I am using and the type of plastic is not identified. It's a plastic bowl with a screw-top lid from Dollarama. Neither the lid nor the bowl have recycling and plastic type mark on them.

I'll definitely try degreasing the bullets next time. Although freshly cast they were handled a fair bit before I tried to powder them. I don't think they were contaminated with anything from the bowls (no margarine or CoolWhip or anything like that) but they were definitely handled and inspected before powdering.

For how long do you need to tumble the bullets? I read in the Making Bullets forum anything from a few seconds to 20 minutes. My tumbling was for maybe two minutes by hand.
 
The longest I have ever "shook" a batch was when I started down this road and give them about 45 seconds, now I am down to about 15 seconds or so and get the same results. Jet is very right about the 'correct" plastic to use...absolutely has to have the 5 in the recycle emblem...others "may work" but I haven't read about or found any that do.
 
a powdercoating gun works much better.
I found powdercoating to be time-consuming. a lube sizer would be faster. the only option worth considering is a star sizer.

as for the press, get a dillon xl650, buy once cry once. (but you asked for that)

or get the lee turret im sure it works, just like 5 times slower.


I dip lube bullets, much less trouble than pan lubing, but still a hassle.
 
I didn't like having stops on the linkage for the ram on the Lee Turret, so I ground them off so it will overcentre like the Rockchucker. Now, there is no question of whether the ram is at the top or not - it overcentres and hits it again on the way back.

There are lots of little things a Lee guy does - like a dab of oil on the turret - and if the ram can't be adjusted to line up with the dies in the turret, drill out the bolt holes in the ring that the turrets sit in - so there is more room for adjustment.

Buy a few extra of those little square plastic things that slide up and down the rotator shaft - they wear out.
 
Unless you're casting for the rifle rounds and crimping gas checks for maximum velocity, I'd definately get a turret press. I purchased a Lyman lubesizer and found that for plain base bullets it was easier just to get a good quality mould, and pan lube.
 
Not sure what to tell you as I have a lube sizer, a Lyman turret press and a Dillon. Then again I also have a Rockchucker and a Ponsness Warren shotgun press.

For me, the only advantage to a turret press is that I can have my multiple 45-70 dies set up for BPCR loading. I reload too many other things to have the turret set up for all of them...I'd be turret-heats up to my damn eyeballs!
 
A very, very useful tool for reloading is a body die. A body die is like a full length resizing die, only bored out to take a loaded round, that is, a finished cartridge. The throat will just clear the neck, around the bullet. The base of the die is opened up so nothing can hit the primer.
There are a lot of reasons why a completed cartridge often won't go fully into the chamber, but a body die will cure all those ailments. It's so nice to go on a hunting trip or to the range, and know that every cartridge you made will properly feed into the chamber.
 
H4831 said:
A very, very useful tool for reloading is a body die. A body die is like a full length resizing die, only bored out to take a loaded round, that is, a finished cartridge. The throat will just clear the neck, around the bullet. The base of the die is opened up so nothing can hit the primer.
There are a lot of reasons why a completed cartridge often won't go fully into the chamber, but a body die will cure all those ailments. It's so nice to go on a hunting trip or to the range, and know that every cartridge you made will properly feed into the chamber.
Click to expand...

I think you may have posted this in the wrong thread :)

But yours is a good point. I've used a sizing die, with the neck sizer and decapping pin removed, to iron out rounds that would not chamber.

The first time I loaded 38/200 (38 Smith & Wesson) for my Enfield revolver, none of the rounds would fit in the cylinder. Turns out I had a little too much flare on the cases an the bullet seating die was not flattening that out (that, or the Lee bullet seating die does not remove flare at all). I ironed things out with the case sizing die and they fit perfectly after that.
 
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