Acetone Powder Coating?

Actually I kind of like the idea of putting the coating on with lighter layers instead of one mass layer right from the word go.

This could possibly solve a few problems with different styles of bullet dimensions from the regular dry powder coating process.

Interesting to say the least!


,,,, and before anyone wonders, myself, I've been reloading and bullet casting for over 48 years now.
 
Hmmmm

The influence of the presence of residual solvent, namelyacetone, on the characteristics of an epoxy resin was studied.It may be concluded that care must be exercised in order toensure that all solvent is removed before curing, otherwisethe cross-linking process is altered, leading to significantchanges in physical and mechanical properties, for instancethe Young´s modulus, even if only a small amount of solventis left on the matrix. The molecular strucuture of the curedresin has also been affected, as detected by FTIR analyses,and SEM micrographs showed a less brittle-like fracture forthe material to which acetone had been added. Thermal degradation has also been affected by the acetone.
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I'm not sure where that statement was gleaned from and I'm not trying to split hairs here.

The first video by Dan Dix was made in 2016 and as far as I know, from speaking with him, there has been no degradation or affected rounds from his process.

Following his video thoroughly, he completely dries the acetone liquid mixture before the heating process.

Contamination from lead degradation on its own could also cause problems, but know we are getting deep.

I just thought this was an interesting process that would need to be investigated further. :d
 
cigar_man said:
I'm not sure where that statement was gleaned from and I'm not trying to split hairs here.

The first video by Dan Dix was made in 2016 and as far as I know, from speaking with him, there has been no degradation or affected rounds from his process.

Following his video thoroughly, he completely dries the acetone liquid mixture before the heating process.

Contamination from lead degradation on its own could also cause problems, but know we are getting deep.

I just thought this was an interesting process that would need to be investigated further. :d
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There have been a few people who have complained about Hi-Teck causing extreme fouling in their firearms. This may have been due to having excess acetone still in the mix when baked. As per the exert, acetone could be the culprit that lead to improper cross-linking. One issue that is avoided by just powder coating.

Just adding to the conversation
 
Interesting thoughts on the this process, thanks for the input.

I wasn't necessarily looking at the Hi teck brand itself, I was just looking at taking the concept of the raw powder coat and adding the acetone and doing it with multiple layers.

The production of cast bullets, the whole reloading world in itself can be a whole bunch of ups and downs and variables at any given moment.

Powder coating itself for cast bullets was unheard of until recent years and the purists hate the concept.

Myself, I'm willing to give this method a try.

I was really just curious of what others thought of this concept of using acetone.
 
What's wrong with a single coat of appropriate thickness? I did some experimenting with multiple thin coats when I first got into PC and only found problems with it.
 
What's wrong with a single coat of appropriate thickness? I did some experimenting with multiple thin coats when I first got into PC and only found problems with it.
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Nothing wrong with a single coat of dry powder coating, but with the wet coating process using Acetone, they seem to need at least a 2nd coating.

To me, the beauty of the acetone process, you can build up Coatings as needed.

I posted this, because it seems that this an interesting style from what was originally done with dry powder coating.
 
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You don't have to justify your post, it is interesting at least to me. Just seems like something that may work but maybe not well enough, or even at all depending on who you listen to.
 
Hi-Tek isn't powder coat, think of it as a 2 part epoxy. It used to be sold as an actual 2 part epoxy and hardener in liquid form but the hazmat fees on shipping were expensive especially since it's made in Australia.

Now sold in powder form the acetone activates the coating when mixed, stuff works great and you can push it up around 1450 FPS without prolems.

Look up the numbers in USPSA nationals equipment survey and the ammount of people in the competition word switching over to coated bullets, they work and save you $$$ especialy for high volume shooters.
 
cigar_man said:
Nothing wrong with a single coat of dry powder coating, but with the wet coating process using Acetone, they seem to need at least a 2nd coating.

To me, the beauty of the acetone process, you can build up Coatings as needed.

I posted this, because it seems that this an interesting style from what was originally done with dry powder coating.
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I have been using multiple coats of shake & bake or gun sprayed powder coated slugs for years. i have used up to 4 coats of powder to up-size slugs to whatever dia I desire. .452 up to .460 is probably the most I have added and have not had a failure or fouled bore in hundreds of slugs.
 
Seems like a lot of work compared to shake and bake. Way too many steps and containers for me. I use one container with dry powder coat and Airsoft bb,s shake put on tray bake then size and load. Way simpler than this and not as messy. What’s the advantage to this process?
 
cigar_man said:
Actually I kind of like the idea of putting the coating on with lighter layers instead of one mass layer right from the word go.

This could possibly solve a few problems with different styles of bullet dimensions from the regular dry powder coating process.

Interesting to say the least!

,,,, and before anyone wonders, myself, I've been reloading and bullet casting for over 48 years now.
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I think part of the issue with powder coat thickness is that some people get carried away with how much powder they put in the shake & bake container. I try to put in just enough that when the bullets are coated there is virtually no residual powder left over. I believe this is especailly true if people are pre-heating the bullets. It's just my theory but I think this causes what might be described as 'micro-melting'. The bullets are hot enough that a thin skin of powder pre-melts onto the bullets even before the static of shake & bake adds additional powder. If there is a large reserve of powder in the container the heat plus the static attracts more of it, resulting in a thicker coat and the more powder available to add the greater variation in powder thickness.

I always try to keep my residual powder to a minimum and find that by doing that i get very little surplus powder coating which can show up as a little 'skirt' at the base of the bullets when the powder melts in the oven.

As I said, it's just my theory but using this technique the powder coat layer on my bullets has proven to be quite uniform in thickness judging by the consistency of resistance I get when final sizing them.

As an aside, early in my PC ventures I did try adding powder to acetone to liquid coat the bullets but it did not go well. One of the main problems is that acetone is so volatile that it partially evaporated before I could get the bullets fully coated so some coatings were thick & some were thin and before long everything started to clump up. Maybe if I had used more acetone it would not have happened but to be honest pre-heating the bullets plus shake and bake has proven so successful that I saw no real advantage in pursuing the liquid coating technique further.
 
mac100 said:
Seems like a lot of work compared to shake and bake. Way too many steps and containers for me. I use one container with dry powder coat and Airsoft bb,s shake put on tray bake then size and load. Way simpler than this and not as messy. What’s the advantage to this process?
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+1.:agree:
 
Thanks everyone for your thoughts.

The multiple coat thoughts for me was a way to get around different barrel tolerances and throat diameters.

I do realize it is more work, but in the end, I never look at things that way.

More or less just another way to improve bullet casting for me!
 
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