Powder Coating Oven

MuthaFunk

MuthaFunk

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GTA Ontario.
I already have an old toaster oven I could use to give PC'ing a shot but it's not a convection oven. Will a conventional oven work or is it not worth it until I get a convection oven?
 
Convection not needed unless you are planning on doing large batches that will fill your oven out to the edges. As stated any oven that reaches a good solid 400 deg will cook quite adequately in the central part of area. Mine was a $15 thrift store purchase that has never given me a "bad cook" except for one batch that was the powders fault not the oven.
 
I started with a toaster oven. Then I bought a bigger oven to accommodate more bullets at once. Then I bought a kick a$$ one even bigger for more bullets, with convection, two trays etc.
They all have something in common: they don't show the right temperature. One makes less the other two makes higher temperature. The nicest one at 400F dial set I have inside 470F. My personal suggestion get an oven thermometer and have it inside while cooking bullets. A PID would be the best. That will save time and frustration especially for people who are at the beginning.
Small toaster ovens are time wasters. I want my 6$ back.
If you know that you will cast for the rest of your days I totally recommend buying a bigger oven with convection from the beginning and not experimenting with cheap crap.
Cheap is sometimes very expensive.
 
Wal-Mart had a $19.00 roll back about a week ago on a toster oven .. turned out a tray of .41 heeled last Thursday .. had to push out a .401 40S&W Lee sizing die to .403 .. but after a wild ride today making a jig to cut the brass to .900 .. I should be good to go with some nice Ford Lite Blue .41 heeled offerings by next week. Bought the saw from Amazon.com .. Harbour Freight wanted an arm and a leg .. sad to be living in an area only serviced by Canada Post et all.

I am using the brass rings, created by case size reduction ( split ) to cover the base of the heeled bullet in a effort to prevent powder coat adhering .. there will be a small line created by the split, but should be easily removed .. these are for a special project .. and do require thinking outside the box and some extra work .. I think my tray produced are wasted .. thank goodness was a very small test amount ...
 
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My daughter and boyfriend just bought a new kitchen range...not because they needed it, just because they wanted it...the old one works just fine and I just happen to have an "open" 220 V outlet in my shop so guess where the old stove is going to go...be cooking big batches of boolits this winter !!!
 
fingers284 said:
My daughter and boyfriend just bought a new kitchen range...not because they needed it, just because they wanted it...the old one works just fine and I just happen to have an "open" 220 V outlet in my shop so guess where the old stove is going to go...be cooking big batches of boolits this winter !!!
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Ah hem...your daughter and your boyfriend or your daughter and her boyfriend??????
 
Worth it to buy a $ store internal thermometer to keep an eye on the toaster oven temps.
350 F dial setting on mine is actually 425 F inside the oven.
$10 Value Village purchase w convection
I have done approx 3500 booollittts so far.
 
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I use a $3 toaster oven from the Sally Ann Thrift store. I built a PID unit to control temperature >. Small Bullets take 7 minutes at 375, large Bullets take 10 minutes .
I use Emerald coating black as well as red. Both are shake (in a home made vibrating plastic bowl)
If they don't coat even the first time, give them a second shake to coat, then bake a second time.
 
I use a $6 toaster oven, seems to work fine. I cut and bent a bunch of 1/8" aluminum sign stock into trays, the reflective coating smelled bad the first time but my repurposed organ blower exhaust fan took care of that. With a sheet of cut to size parchment paper it works slick, I'm thinking of upgrading to silicon sheets. I have a back up toaster oven in case this one dies, it was free from my mother-in-law.
 
Been doing the PC thing for quite a while and finally coming to the conclusion that lubed and gas checked is a much better performer. I'd like to be wrong.
 
Philthy1 said:
Been doing the PC thing for quite a while and finally coming to the conclusion that lubed and gas checked is a much better performer. I'd like to be wrong.
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Apparently mileage differs. I have found that powder coated, then gas check and sized gives smaller groups.
Plain base bullets powder coated give smaller groups than the same bullet lubed

Much depends on velocity and powder burn rate.
I have found that powder coating is not a substitute for a gas check on a gas check bullet.
 
Bah, pc’s the way to go, no mess and just as easy, maybe more, and you get to make pretty colours, ahem you get to make badass looking black bullets or zombie green or blood red! or dangerous looking.... tool blue?
 
maltextract said:
Bah, pc’s the way to go, no mess and just as easy, maybe more, and you get to make pretty colours, ahem you get to make badass looking black bullets or zombie green or blood red! or dangerous looking.... tool blue?
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What i like is no mess in the bullet seating die, no greasy bullets, no greasy fingers, no smoke, less risk of leading, and usually equal or better groups.
 
We're new to powder coating, and for initial attempts probably did everything possible wrong and took every short-cut we could think of. Some of it on purpose, some out of convenience. OK, maybe laziness; tomato tomaughto.

If it isn't fast and easy there is no point for me, I can lube-size on the Lyman if I wanted to work. Didn't feel like waiting for Emerald so got black at Princess Auto. Didn't pre-heat. Don't have any containers with the magic 5 in a triangle marking so used a couple of pails from dishwasher soap. Didn't look like they were getting black enough, fast enough so dumped from one pail to the other. Real black, real fast. Too lazy to stack bullets so they weren't touching so piled them maybe 10 ten deep on a pie plate. Easy 5-700 worth in one pile. Got a toaster oven at value village. Figured if 10 minutes was good, 20 should be awesome. Dumped them into a 5 gallon paint pail of water with a bunch of dry paint still in it.

As near as I can tell the results are perfect. There might not be a wrong way to do this. :)
 
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