Using Princess Auto Powder - Success (photo heavy)

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Princess Auto paint powder doesn't appear to do as good a job (me thinks) as tool blue from Emerald Coatings but after a few experiments, I've found a method that works for me.


Place 35, 44 cal. bullets into each of three Ziploc containers (#5 recycle), add a small amount of powder to each container, place them into an empty Thumbler's Tumbler and rotate them for 10 min. to evenly coat the bullets with powder.




Remove the containers and dump bullets and powder into a screen to sift out excess powder.



Using a pair of narrow-nose tweezers, individually place the bullets on their bases on a sheet of parchment paper, separated by a slight gap. Bake in a pre-heated, dedicated toaster oven (used from thrift shop) at 400*F for 20 min. After baking, remove the tray of bullets, let them cool and size and load as normal.


 
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Wow, that last picture is pretty impressive. I would have thought that the powder coat would just flake off when crushed that badly with a hammer.
 
hey, that is simply outstanding. picked up toaster oven a couple of weeks ago and now all i need is some powdercoat paint and i'm good to go.

thanks for posting
 
Yeah, powder coating (done properly) is quite resistant to abuse. One of the reasons I've tried powder coating is to shoot lead bullets in an old 1889 Marlin (32-20) that has a poor bore. I was quite impressed with the improvement in accuracy - probably because the powder coating keeps the bullet from getting abraded as it travels down the barrel.
 
What kind of diameter increase do you get with powder coating? Do you decrease your bullet diameter to compensate, or do you size them after? And if you size them, I assume the powder coat holds up to this as well?
 
Diam. increase is only .002" - .003". I size them as normal for consistency. The powder coating remains intact over the sized bands.

I haven't tried Emerald Coatings "tool blue" but from the posted pictures it appears to be a thicker coating - might be the way to go if you want to size-up a cast bullet.
 
Cool!

The bullets on the tray before baking seem to have some tiny spots of lead shining through, are those getting filled in when baked?

How are the bullet bases? Since they are touching the tray what happens to the powder coating there?
 
And I thought this would be a moly-coating on the cheap thread. Hmm? Powder coated bullets makes sense to reduce fouling too.
 
bertn said:
Cool!

The bullets on the tray before baking seem to have some tiny spots of lead shining through, are those getting filled in when baked?

How are the bullet bases? Since they are touching the tray what happens to the powder coating there?
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If it's a thick enough coating the little bare spots tend to cover once the powder liquefies in the oven. As for the base of the bullets you can use parchment paper or non stick aluminum foil. But I've started to just bake the bullets in the mesh tray, so much faster accept you may loose the odd pair of bullets because they powder coated together.
 
Nice to see that princess auto powder works. I have done over 700 with blue violet from emerald Just put bullets in a #5 ziplock and shake, take bullets out with latex glove and bake on metal mesh. They come out looking great.
 
Tool Blue from Emerald worked great for my Lee tumble mold in 357, 44 and 45ACP. Had to size the 357 and 45 before and after coating. 44 only had to size after.

Do the shake and bake method. Drop directly into 1/4 in mesh basket, bake, while still hot drop into parchment paper, separate quickly while still hot.
Use the 25 buck toaster oven from Walmart. Has two level so can do ~100 bullets at a time.

Shot as well as plated bullet OR could mean my shooting is so bad it didn't matter.

barrel just as clean and no smoke or mess just like plated.
 
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Neato. I will look for the princess auto PC, i know emerald tool blue is near flawless and easy. The results are amazing.
Are any of you guys using other colours from emerald? i am looking for a flat black, red or chrome that works as good as the tool blue.
Be safe.
 
Interesting comments on PC. I used to cast years ago. Still have all my equipment. I recently acquired an H&R in 44 mag. I have read over on cast bullets that they are slightly larger than 429 or 430. So I have been looking for a mold that would work. I was thinking perhaps a Lee Tumble lube and now using powder coating instead. Maybe this would increase the bullet diameter when I need to be.

Thoughts? Please excuse me if I am hijacking!
 
leebuilder said:
Neato. I will look for the princess auto PC, i know emerald tool blue is near flawless and easy. The results are amazing.
Are any of you guys using other colours from emerald? i am looking for a flat black, red or chrome that works as good as the tool blue.
Be safe.
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I am using blue violet. I have purple red (it's just red), and sky blue. They are all ral powders. I think the purple red and blue got damp in my house as they won't stick
 
Spawn-Inc said:
If it's a thick enough coating the little bare spots tend to cover once the powder liquefies in the oven. As for the base of the bullets you can use parchment paper or non stick aluminum foil. But I've started to just bake the bullets in the mesh tray, so much faster accept you may loose the odd pair of bullets because they powder coated together.
Click to expand...

Not having to handle each bullet to set it base down must save a lot of labour, if there are no holidays in the coating as a result. When I have added liquid Alox to commercial lead bullets for supplemental lube, I have basically done the same thing by just pouring the bullets onto wax paper to dry without setting them on the base. I found that there was no real gap in coverage where the bullet rested on the wax paper.
 
I've been using Princess black with great results for a while now.
Also to lessen handling of the projectiles I use a 2" x 1/4" wall square tube of aluminum, drilled three rows of holes in them smaller than barrel diameter and spaced evenly. Everything but tip is left aboveground, powdercoat them on the aluminum with a powdercoat gun (also princess) then just break them free after they've cooled from toaster oven. Only concerned with coating the parts that actually touch rifling; and gives a soft point look of exposed lead on tips.

When the aluminum tube starts getting too much powdercoat on it, just hit it with a flap wheel or wire wheel on grinder and 30sec later its back to new.


Run them through sizing/lube die after this if necessary for application.
 
The current wisdom is that Tool Blue and Tractor Red from Emerald are best, and they give the most uniform coat. The powders from Princess Auto and Harbour Freight aren't quite so good. A friend gave me some lime green to try and it gave an anemic and blotchy coat that didn't look very inspiring. However, I have a Sharps .30/30 that has a very snug chamber and leade and I couldn't size the nose enough to chamber in the rifle. I tried both an NOE nose sizing die and an Eagan nose tapering die and they would deform the bullet too much, before they could chamber. As a last resort, I tried coating them with the lime green powder, and the thinner coat allowed them to chamber easily. As the 100 yard group of just over two inches shows, they can be accurate and the m/v was averaged at 2050 f/s with my Labradar. So, I know that I'll have to rethink the value of the cheaper Princess Auto powders. At $7 for a half pound, it's a no-brainer and I drive by the local one at least once a week.

 
I'm just marvelling at what truly is a technological advancement in bullet casting. I gotta get my weights melted and get some pew pew casted. I even get free wheelweights from work now!
 
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