First try at powder coating

[tigrr]

Bought some powder and gave it a try.
1st bullets and princess auto powder.


Their time in the toaster oven. Turned shiney after 5 minutes.


Continuing to cook for 20 minutes.


Some aloxed while I wait.


175gr 40 S&W cast bullets. Made today.


Bullets that are cooked but they look a little thin on the coating. What now? Recoat and re-bake? Edit I didn't put enough powder in the jug in the first place. More is better and pour the excess back in the container.

 

[yomomma]

Not the best powder. Start with powders that are known to work like Tool Blue.

 

[gnmontey]

That's better than my first go! Just re-coat and do them a second time.

M

 

[tigrr]

Did the recoat and turned out quite nice. Didn't put in enough powder the first time. Will shoot when my dies show up.

 

[yomomma]

I tried recoating once. Once only. I bought powder that was proven to work after that. There is a post on here listing the ones that work.

 

[hunter64]

I wonder if humidity is a factor as far as which powders work all the time and which ones are hit and miss. If you live by the ocean or great lakes then the humidity will be way different than the prairies. I have coated 1000's of bullets so far with Princess Auto's black and blue powders and it works great and other people say it is crap.

 

[tigrr]

I wonder if humidity is a factor as far as which powders work all the time and which ones are hit and miss. If you live by the ocean or great lakes then the humidity will be way different than the prairies. I have coated 1000's of bullets so far with Princess Auto's black and blue powders and it works great and other people say it is crap.

You might have something there, I live beside a lake. The humidity was at 78% when I did this. It was down to 60% when I redid them.
That powder gets on everything. I have some blue for the next experiment. The directions said to add a teaspoon of powder, next time I'll add a couple of tablespoons of powder. 8oz for $6 = cheap experiment.

 

[gnmontey]

I had to re-coat one of my first batches and added more powder than suggested. Got some of these as a result. A sieve to shake off the excess would probably solve the issue.



M

 

[fingers284]

You might have something there, I live beside a lake. The humidity was at 78% when I did this. It was down to 60% when I redid them.
That powder gets on everything. I have some blue for the next experiment. The directions said to add a teaspoon of powder, next time I'll add a couple of tablespoons of powder. 8oz for $6 = cheap experiment.

I use a rounded tablespoon of powder to do 300 or so 400 gr rifle bullets all the time. Those .40 bullets in the photo look very much ok to me (as long as they pass the "hammer" test), especially if you are using them in a HG length barrel I wouldn't worry a bit about using those at all.

Gn, I think your photo exemplifies the need to stand bullets up while cooking. I don't think anything but a re-melt will make that lead usable again. Even on bullets that have a lot of powder on them, if cooked standing up, The excessive base flashing is evenly & easily removed thru a sizer.

 

[gnmontey]

"as long as they pass the "hammer" test"

What is the hammer test?

M

 

[tigrr]

This to see if the coating stays on with being smashed flat.


I would have been okay with the light first coat. It stayed on after the hammer test.

 

[Prairie Plinker]

To be fair, does anyone know if a PC'd boolit has ever failed the hammer test? All I see on the Interwebs is people smashing flat perfectly good projectiles. I smashed a few of mine as well out of curiosity, super adhesion.

 

[gnmontey]

This to see if the coating stays on with being smashed flat.

Mine passed. That's pretty amazing stuff!

M

 

[yomomma]

Yes. If you Do Not get the baking time/heat correct

 

[Prairie Plinker]

Yes. If you Do Not get the baking time/heat correct

Ahh, so the coating gets too brittle or something? I'm completely new to the PC thing myself with only a couple bakes under my belt.

 

[Bassmaster]

I had a flat black that did not pass the vice test....my red, silver and blue all work good from Emerald

 

[sean.cgv95]

look up country boy prepper on youtube he used Princess auto poweder coat

 

[tigrr]

Well first set reloaded with poor results. I set up my dies with alox lubed bullets and then proceeded to reload the powder coated bullets. I had to re-seat all the powder coated bullets deeper for some reason. They wouldn't chamber. All the alox lubed went bang. I'll seat them deeper and give it another twirl. Accuracy of the two is very similar. Next powder coating I will stick with one coating not two.

 

[fingers284]

Well first set reloaded with poor results. I set up my dies with alox lubed bullets and then proceeded to reload the powder coated bullets. I had to re-seat all the powder coated bullets deeper for some reason. They wouldn't chamber. All the alox lubed went bang. I'll seat them deeper and give it another twirl. Accuracy of the two is very similar. Next powder coating I will stick with one coating not two.

On shake& bake full coated PC bullets the nose dia is increased the same amount as the shank is and if your chamber throat is short or tight to begin with it wont have clearance for the increase in size. Its a pain but you can remedy this by gripping the coated bullets before cooking with a pair of tweezers in a grease groove and just rubbing the bullet nose with your fingers to remove powder...or you could buy the electrostatic gun (about $120 at KMS tools) and with the bullets nose-down in a block, just coat the shanks.

 

[Saafire]

Here are some rifle bullets coated with princess auto powder, hoping to get out and shoot them soon. Red and blue mixed together, 400'c for 15min. using the swirl method with some airsoft BB's.