Powder coat + lube?

[MRM]

Has anyone tried powder coating and lubing boolits? I have had good luck with powder coating, but this last batch lost a small percentage of coating (<10 %) during sizing.

I was thinking of tumble lubing them and loading them up. Is this overkill or a bad or good idea? They are 9mm boolits.

Sorry if this is an old subject, I searched and found nothing in a reasonable amount of time.

 

[AHiltz]

The powder coat eliminates the need for lubing. Bad idea.

 

[fingers284]

Not so sure it's a "bad" idea, don't think it will hurt anything, just adds another messy chore to the process.

10 % loss is a considerable amount tho from my experience, usually a small spot on a slug or two...even with a considerable 3-5 thou downsize. My first thought if it were me is that the cooking time/temp might not be high enough for the powder you are using (will any chip off with the "hammer test" or just at sizing). Are you using a very hard lead that the sizing die rubs very hard on?

 

[Bassmaster]

If the PC is coming off during sizing then the PC hasn't been applied properly....I'd just throw them back in the pot and suck up the loss to gained experience

 

[Moose_Master]

I did just that for as an experiment. Beside the usual smoke coming from the lube nothing was different compared with simple PC. If your coating is not sticking to the bullet is because you are not doing something right. Perfect your PC procedure and you will not even think of lubing a PC bullet.
What I would try in your situation is cleaning the bullets before applying the powder. Get the amount of bullets you usually coat at once and put them into a 2$ tupperware from Dollarama. Add a lil bit of acetone, put the lid on and shake them for 20 seconds or so, then let them fully dry(a fan will really speed up the drying time) . Then apply your powder. You will be amazed about the results. After cleaning them with acetone don't touch them again with bare hands or dirty gloves.
The dirtier the bullets the more you will need to shake them with acetone.

 

[MRM]

Thanks folks. I have had great luck with powder coating and may have overstated the issue. 10% is way high, just a pin sized spot or two on the majority of the boolits. They are water doped COWW that are about 6 months old, so they are pretty hard.

They pass the hammer test, just some shiny ridges.

 

[fingers284]

"just a pin sized spot or two" wouldn't bother me a bit especially when it adds another messy chore to the process...I'd just use as-is without a worry.