Powder coating, here I come! SUCCESS!!!!!!

calmex said:
I bought my Eastwood Powdercoat from KMS tools in Kelowna. I have Signal Red and Ford Light Blue (which when mixed together make Ford Signal Purple) and a friend uses Medium Green also made by Eastwood with good results as well. I intend to pick up a 1/2 pound of Mirror Black on my next trip through Kelowna as it apparently works very well for coating cast bullets as well.

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Thats interesting on the mixed colors. Any time I tried that I got a flecked bullet of both colors, very good coverage but not mixed well.
 
All's quiet on the front line now. Put my order in direct with KMS to ship it to me. I'll save my nephew for something else! :p
 
kjohn said:
Well, PA is off the list. Powder coat powder is discontinued. There is one shop listed in Regina, which is closest to me. I'll call them and see if they can help me out. Got a $35 toaster oven at WobbleMart. Just need to find a tray with mesh to fit, some powder, and awaaaayyy I go.

Thanks to all the guys for tips and offers to send some powder. I'll try the guys in Regina.
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I assume the toaster oven came with a tray so you can just use parchment paper or a silicone baking sheet to line the tray. Stand the bullets on end and the powder will flow nicely to give you good coverage. Some guys just dump a bunch of coated bullets in a mesh basket which will work but most of the bullets stick together so you have to break them apart and you get a lot of imperfections in the finish from the contact. Not as big a deal with handgun bullets but may impede accuracy for rifle bullets. Whether you go that route or not probably depends on how OCD you are. If you want to construct a mesh basket get get some 1/4" steel mesh from Home Hardware. Pretty easy to cut it to size to form a basket or put inside a tray.
 
t d: Thanks for the tips. I will do a few to start with, just to become familiar with the workings. Most of my powder coating will likely be rifle, with some 44 bullets to use in my otherwis useless Chiappa 44 mag carbine. Between drilling out Berdan brass and powder coating, it looks like a promising winter. :cool:
 
I am probably the least OCD dude on the site but on this issue I'm solidly on the "stand them up " side, PCing is easy & quick to do so why marginalize your success ( particularly now with primers at 2-300 a brick) by shortcutting the last task. If you use flat smooth parchment paper even .309 slugs can be stood up & inserted into a stove ( even short 120 grainers with GC bases). anything bigger dia is a breeze to stand up.

I will however temper the above by saying there is one problem with stand-up if you have a thick coating being cooked on...the melted plastic will migrate downward & form a "flashing" of excess on the bullet base...for this reason I run every slug through a sizer die as well.
 
fingers284 said:
I am probably the least OCD dude on the site but on this issue I'm solidly on the "stand them up " side, PCing is easy & quick to do so why marginalize your success ( particularly now with primers at 2-300 a brick) by shortcutting the last task. If you use flat smooth parchment paper even .309 slugs can be stood up & inserted into a stove ( even short 120 grainers with GC bases). anything bigger dia is a breeze to stand up.

I will however temper the above by saying there is one problem with stand-up if you have a thick coating being cooked on...the melted plastic will migrate downward & form a "flashing" of excess on the bullet base...for this reason I run every slug through a sizer die as well.
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I just give the bases a quick buzz with a chamfer bit , works great. I have sized them as well in the past.
Cat
 
fingers284 said:
I will however temper the above by saying there is one problem with stand-up if you have a thick coating being cooked on...the melted plastic will migrate downward & form a "flashing" of excess on the bullet base...for this reason I run every slug through a sizer die as well.
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Yes, standing them on end can cause a flashing if the PC is too thick. i have managed to mostly negate that problem by making sure I don't put too much powder in the container when I shake & bake. Some people dump in way too much and get a thicker coating than necessary which can lead to the 'flashing' problem. I try to put in just enough powder so that when the bullets are coated there is almost no powder residue left in the container. PC is very tough stuff. Even a minimal coating will pretty much eliminate bore leading.
 
If you get to Saskatoon once in a while, Cloverdale sells the Eastman product. you might have to order your colours, but no shipping. When I got mine, the guy asked me if I was powder coating bullets.:cool:
 
Dogleg said:
If you get to Saskatoon once in a while, Cloverdale sells the Eastman product. you might have to order your colours, but no shipping. When I got mine, the guy asked me if I was powder coating bullets.:cool:
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Yeah. I just checked, there are two Cloverdale stores in Regina. They actually have a separate website touting their powder. I’m set. ��
 
kjohn said:
Powder arrived on Friday! Ordered Tuesday! Ooo dogies!
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This is actually a pretty good time of year to powder coat. It's cool outside but not bitter cold like in the winter and humidity is lower so more static adhesion. Summer is the worst, high humidity, low static.
 
Well, post some photos of your results. I just had a really OCD friend bring in some 9mm Lee TL bullets he coated with Eastwood Gray. I mean, he used rubber gloves dipped in the dry paint to individually pull the bullets out of his plastic tumble container one-by-one to set on a silicon oven tray and baked 'em. They look perfect! I mean, damn, I am not that dedicated but he turned out some nice bullets. I can't post them because I have them at the store, which is where he delivered them to me. I keep a bag of powder coated bullets there to show customers interested in getting into bullet casting "where they can go with this".

I look forward to seeing how it works out for you.
 
Pardon the dumb question, but has anyone powder coated copper jacketed bullets. I have the feeling I'm going to get a barrage of "why would you do that????". Just curious, that's all.
 
kjohn said:
Pardon the dumb question, but has anyone powder coated copper jacketed bullets. I have the feeling I'm going to get a barrage of "why would you do that????". Just curious, that's all.
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I see no real reason to. But it would oversize them, and i kinda expect to have to rough up the finish for the PC to stick.
 
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