Most people ARE NOT baking PC long enough

JWFilips

Well-Known Member
I tried to blend HF red with Eastwoods Ford blue to make purple to surprise my wife with her favorite color ammo.
Seems like the blue took really well and the red just made splotches
By no means a nice coating
 

BHuij

Active Member
For those of you who ordered from Smoke what kind of time frame did it take to get the order?

Can't remember exactly, but it wasn't slow by any means. He's a straight shooter and his powder IMO is a massive improvement over HF. I started with HF red and never could get as nice and even of a coating as I can with Smoke's clear. And the novelty of shooting lipstick bullets wore off quickly for me anyway ;)
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
he is quick and reliable, a week or less after payment is real common.


there might be something to the blend, I have taken to blending the silver I got from Randy with HF-red and not starting the timer until I see a complete wet flow.
the bullets are in the oven at least 15 minutes before that point since I start each batch at room temp and come up to the 400-F cook temp.
 

BHuij

Active Member
What exactly is different about the HF Red vs other powders? That's two people now stating good success by mixing HF Red with something else.
 

waco

Springfield, Oregon
I think HF is an epoxy based paint. Smoke's powders and stuff from Eastwood are Poly based.
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
your right.
there are a couple of different base types ones is a cyanic.
we done a pretty good discussion on the different types and some of their attributes not too long back I think Bama started the thread.
 

Rick H

Well-Known Member
I don't remember how long it too for the order from Smoke....not unreasonable or I would remember. I was not getting results that I liked from the HF Red, acceptable but not good. I bought Smokes Copper brown and it worked great. I started mixing it with the HF red just to use up the old stuff.
 

BHuij

Active Member
And mixing the epoxy based HF stuff with poly based Smoke's gives a result better than either one alone?
 

Rick H

Well-Known Member
I see no appreciable difference other than a slightly redder shade of color. I got great results with Smokes powder but wanted to try the blend in an attempt not to waste the HF. After reading the posts about powder reacting with the powder coating I tested mine and found no reaction. I have no idea why I didn't get the reaction that others did, only that I cook them for 20 minutes after flow out and I had blended the powder.

I purchased the HF because it was cheap and I wanted to try powder coating...also purchased HF Flat Black and that didn't work at all for me. I would not buy HF again.....not after trying Smoke's. I have enough HF Red to last me a lifetime. I only mix it to about 20-30%. If it turns out that it is key to stopping powder reactions I might reconsider.
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
that's about where I am too, maybe 3 to 1 by MK-1 eyeball.
I have coated the same bullets with straight red and straight silver/grey and they both worked just fine.
I like the mix a bit better, I just seems a little 'better?' maybe not as clumpy-ish?
 

Kevin Stenberg

Well-Known Member
i have to admit. When i started PC i timed the bake period from time of bullets inserted into oven. So i have been remelting a lot of bullets. Today i melted down 2 full 6 quart pans of bullets. Tomorrow i have 3 more pots to remelt.
All of these bullets passed the smash / wipe test. But they probably were not properly fully cured.
 

waco

Springfield, Oregon
Hmmm....I have always put the bullets in the oven when it hits 400 and left them in for 20 min. Never had an issue with cleaning anything out of the bores. I suppose leaving them in a bit longer won't hurt anything....
 

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
Got my powder and BB today. Need to get a container now, seems recycling eliminated the possibility of having one on hand.