Couple powder coating questions

icehunter121

icehunter121

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Been reading in here and seen a couple of references to placing the slugs on a wire cooking mesh. Where would a person find that and is it necessary or can the slugs just be put on the tray that came with my 5 year old, never used, collects dust on top of the fridge,just about got thrown out.. oven!!

Also read about parchment paper but not sure how or where to use it.

I ordered a couple of colors from Emerald Coatings today and am gathering up any more needed goodies!

Ice..
 
Parchment paper is the easiest to use. Buy it at most dollar stores. Just line the bottom of your heating pan with it. While you can just drop the powder coated bullets on the paper I stand them on end so that any excess runs to the base of the bullet where sizing cuts it off. The wire cooking mesh will work but it is harder to get the bullets to stand up on it and you will get irregular spots where the mesh touches the bullet. Not really a big deal, especially with handgun bullets but I'm too OCD to do it like that even though it takes less time than standing each bullet on end.

Don't just put the bullets on the metal tray as they will stick to it whereas they drop off the parchment paper with virtually no adhesion.
 
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Found some wire mesh drawer organizers at CT , lots of different sizes. Work great and can fit 2 in the oven so can do different bullets at the same time.
 
ted_dent said:
Parchment paper is the easiest to use. By it at most dollar stores. Just line the bottom of your heating pan with it. While you can just drop the powder coated bullets on the paper I stand them on end so that any excess runs to the base of the bullet where sizing cuts it off. The wire cooking mesh will work but it is harder to get the bullets to stand up on it and you will get irregular spots where the mesh touches the bullet. Not really a big deal, especially with handgun bullets but I'm too OCD to do it like that even though it takes less time than standing each bullet on end.

Don't just put the bullets on the metal tray as they will stick to it whereas they drop off the parchment paper with virtually no adhesion.
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But in my way of thinking wouldn't you size first so that you have a even round slug then coat? Also I suppose a guy will have to get a separate gas check seater for rifle rounds? I will start with handgun first but have a 458 that with 500gr cast loves shooting gophers! To me sizing after coating will defeat the purpose of coating in the first place.
 
Use tweezers or needle nose pliers to remove bullets from powder to place on tray. I just use parchment paper directly on tray.

Do not use your fingers (even with nitrite gloves) or you will get a patchy covering. Don't let them touch each other.

I size after coating. If the coating was done properly it will stay on thru the sizing process.

People use different techniques so I don't think there is any "right" way. Experiment a bit.
 
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Parchment paper is by far the easiest way to go. As noted above, use a small pair of needle nose pliers. I found a pair that are spring loaded to the open position, easier on the hand. Standing the bullets on end makes for consistent coating.
 
Sizing before powder coating means you must lube the bullet so it won’t get stuck in the die. Then you have to wipe the lube off. Too much work.
Powder coat first then size. No lube required. If you want to employ a gas check on your powder coated bullet, it goes on, then into the sizer.
Voila, done.
 
Concerning the sizing "before or after" question I have done both and will continue to do so regularly when it is required for the finished product I want.

I usually size every cast slug I use before coating just to "finalize the roundness) & consistently have the same "starting dia.". I do not lube a naked slug before sizing, never had to or noticed a need ever. Then I will usually size after the coating ,again to regulate consistency as much as possible. Again no lube needed. I have purposely tried to "scuff" the coating off slugs after coating a # of times with one, two, or three coatings on them and I have to be trying to run them through a very tight undersized sizing die before I see even a slight scuff or abrasion to the coating.

All of the above might seem like a lot of extra steps to have a stable product ....but really cheap rifle slugs are a beautiful thing to behold.
 
My first batches of bullets were big enough that if I had bothered standing them up I would probably still be working on them months later haha. I commend the patience of you guys taking the time. I piled mine with little concern and the bullets look great.

I do think I need a thicker coat next time but I'm glad I don't find standing them necessary. If you are using parchment it is though. YouTube has shown pooling of PC to be a bit of an issue. Not a big deal base down but on the side they turn out pretty poor. With hardware cloth you only get an occasional very small bare spot, it's purely an aesthetic issue.

There are plenty of methods as mentioned. Silicone baking sheets are another option but again you will need to position the bullets to avoid pooling.
 
stampede said:
Do not use your fingers (even with nitrite gloves) or you will get a patching covering.
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I pick the bullets up wearing latex gloves and have no problem. The trick is to dip the glove fingertips in a little dish of powder coat every couple of bullets so that it is not bare rubber touching the bullet. I used to do the tweezer thing but it was far slower than just picking them up by hand. I have two ovens on the go at once and find that alternating trays of bullets in each oven I can easily do about 650-750 bullets per hour. If I use good adhering powder (Tool Blue of Gloss Black) coverage is consistently 98-100%.
 
icehunter121 said:
But in my way of thinking wouldn't you size first so that you have a even round slug then coat? Also I suppose a guy will have to get a separate gas check seater for rifle rounds? I will start with handgun first but have a 458 that with 500gr cast loves shooting gophers! To me sizing after coating will defeat the purpose of coating in the first place.
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I have done it both ways (sizing before PC'ing and sizing again after PC'ing and just PC'ing and sizing and have noticed no real difference). You don't need a thick coat of PC (2-3 thou will work fine). If using the swirl method just put enough powder in the container to coat the bullet with virtually none left in the dish. As stampede said, if the PC is correctly applied sizing will have no effect on it.
 
Thanks guys. The PC should be here by Friday and I may have a chance this weekend to try it out. I am sure once I get into it I will have more questions!
 
I do a batch of 50, 45acp or 9mm bullets at a time in a old cool whip container. I add 1 tablespoon of powder to the mix and shake for 1 minute. I then pour the lot onto ice cream pail with a dollar store frying screen placed over it and the excess powder drops thru into the pail and the bullets are literally just dumped onto a tray with parchment paper on it. I give the tray a slight shake to make sure that they are all apart and then I do another batch etc. until the tray is full and then into the oven. Once the dinger goes off I just take the tray out and into a 5 gallon bucket with cold water in it they go. You might get the odd two bullets that stick together but you can easily just pull them apart.

Then i run them thru a push thru sizer and that is it. You are shooting a handgun for 25 yards or a lever for 50 yards, you are not shooting 1000 yards for a competition people.

For rifle bullets I stand them up like the OCD people do for handgun bullets with tweezers that I dip in the powder about every 5 so they don't mark the bullets.
 
A little tip I got from hatman1793 was to PREHEAT the bullets so that you can just hold them without burning your hand, then drop them in the plastic container and swirl them. By doing this I only have to do the shake & bake for about 20-30 seconds to get excellent coverage (as I said Tool Blue and Gloss Black consistently coat at nearly 100%). Then I pick them out of the container with powder dipped latex gloves and put them base down on the parchment paper.

To preheat them I just put about 100-150 in a metal pan ON TOP of the toaster oven while a batch is curing in the oven. It only takes 2-3 minutes for them to heat up to the proper temperature. Since typical powder coating cure times run in the 13-15 minute range per batch it gives me lots of time to preheat and coat another one or two batches of bullets so they are ready for the oven by the time the previous batch is 'cooked'. Since I have two ovens on the go at once it's a continuous process with virtually no down time which is probably why I can easily crank out 600-800 coated bullets per hour. If you don't mind the small imperfections you get by cooking them on mesh rather than standing each one up I'm certain 1000+ an hour could easily be achieved.
 
^ the preheat method is described pretty well by a guy on YouTube named elvis ammo. It works like a hot damn but my crappy oven has screwed it up for me so I didn't keep experimenting with it.

If you don't bother standing the bullets up you can do a lot more than 1000 an hour. It depends on the size of what you have in there. In my small oven batches of 500 9mm fit fine. Supposed to be 15min@400 so 2000 is reasonable. I figure I will be doing 5000 9mm an hour in the new oven. Even my big .454 bullets shouldn't take long.
 
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I never 'swirl" for more than 30 seconds with cold slugs and get adequate coverage. You can increase powder adhesion and thickness with longer swirls with some powders but I only do this when I'm trying to increase a slugs finished dia with multiple coatings.
 
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