My powder coating method

[CWLONGSHOT]

Those look very good. Looking forward to the new powders. I Think that I have had the powder on thick by not screen and shake the excess off.

Not knowing your process John. But I would also agree and suggest that you "sift off" a bit more. The Powder is quite durable shaking around in the basket and knocking down excess goes a long way to a better OC job. Not to mention fattening up "bore rider" style bullets.

I to have been so plagued and more and longer sifting has made a huge difference.

I have four new Eastwood powders I want to try myself this weekend!

Good luck!

CW

I posted this before, But maybe ya missed it. This is my PC process using Bed Bath and Beyond powder coated wire mesh baskets.

 

[fiver]

I also use a quart size container and BB's.
but I use maybe 1/2-3/4 a tsp of powder for like 50 bullets.
I don't like having extra powder in the cup and I dump off any excess into the trash after every couple of shakes.
I think it's just unused or broke down pigment anyway by two or three shakings, and it isn't gonna stick no matter what.

 

[Rick H]

I use the quart size zip-lock screw top containers and back plastic BB's. When I started I used about two tsp. of powder (smokes,) then added some HF red (trying to use it up) less than a tsp. per batch of 75-100 bullets. I have not added any powder at all for the last 4 or 5 batches and I have no problems with coverage or heavy coating. I get about .001" increase in diameter. I just pick out the bullets from the BB's with nitril gloves and place them upright on the rack.

I have experimented with the Bed/Bath/Beyond basket and like it....will probably be my go to procedure for pistol bullets. Yes I used the same container with BB's without adding more powder.

I don't know about anyone else, but I had way too much powder in my container. Once I got started just a little dab is all I need.

 

[Glaciers]

Sure seems like humidity and ambient temperature has a lot to do with whether or not you have a good result. Those conditions are going to be different from my method to your method in your neck of the woods.
Going to make some small changes in how I powder coat.

CW I have those exact baskets from bed bath and whatever. They do work great. I have one with 1/2" hardware cloth held up 1/2" off the bottom for taller bullets.

Ok CW, your doing a lot more shaking in the basket then I have. Which I believe is what I need to do to get excess powder off.

 

[Rick H]

Sure seems like humidity and ambient temperature has a lot to do with whether or not you have a good result. Those conditions are going to be different from my method to your method in your neck of the woods.
Going to make some small changes in how I powder coat.

I live in Michigan, we are humid all spring summer and fall, and pretty dry in the deep winter. I have notice no difference. It was humid and raining, my basement had re-rod seepage, so was damp.....and the powder coated as usual. I don't doubt there are differences but I just have not seen it.
I didn't like the way HF red coated, but mix a bit of it with my Smokes powder trying to use it. HF black didn't work at all for me.

The ones on the Left were done with the Bed/Bath/Beyond basket in a damp humid basement, the Lee 125RF were stood up and baked. Both seem to work just fine. Those 95gr Ranch Dog's don't look as good, but good enough for my purposes.
Powder is Smokes Orange/Brown, with a bit of HF red that I threw in.

 

[Ian]

I haven't had too much trouble with humidity and it does get humid here in my shop.

Every 15-20 batches (with bbs, 40-80 bullets per batch) the accumulation of "dead" powder gets to be about one heaping teaspoon full so I dump it out and put the bbs back in. The next few batches are dramatically better.

It takes about half a teaspoon of powder per batch to get a good coating without excess "fuzz", but I pick and tap off excess by whacking the needlenose on the rim of the container a time or two before placing on the baking sheet. This gives me a consistent .002" diameter increase.

I made nose-first form sizers for my rifle bullets. The form bumps the nose back and the body down to size while smoothing mould seams or coating warts on the noses. This ensures consistent fit and easy chambering, particularly with my semi-autos.

One thing I much prefer for powder coating is a bullet with a tapered nose, particularly for rifles. The taper eliminates the need for the exact fit of nose to lands and makes the bullet more versatile across a broad range of throat shapes and sizes. Loaded for a little jump to the lands, tapered PC'd bullets work extremely well for me.

 

[Glaciers]

Just working out the kinks in how I do pc. Narrowing it down. The nose diameter on 30 cal has been a problematic with fit.
Ian the tapered nose is great but most of my moulds don't taper fast enough. Not going to buy more even though I know what to look for now. I'm Working it out with seating depth and some bullets are going to be traditional lube.
I Have nose sizers from NOE but they are sharp and push up a ridge even for a .002 reduction. I'm Beveling the entry (last night) but need to see if that will help.
Rick H, humidity was just one more piece of the puzzle. I'm Actually pretty happy with PC on bullets so far just the nose bugs more than anything else. Ideally I'd love to get under .002 if I could. I think it was Fiver that said he's down to just over .001, if I remember. Not sure.
Learning curve for sure. Now got to head to the lumber yard with the trailer. Will hit the reloading room when it gets hot. IT stays about a nice 50* in there. Nice.

 

[Rockydoc]

I made nose-first form sizers for my rifle bullets. The form bumps the nose back and the body down to size while smoothing mould seams or coating warts on the noses. This ensures consistent fit and easy chambering, particularly with my semi-autos.

One thing I much prefer for powder coating is a bullet with a tapered nose, particularly for rifles. The taper eliminates the need for the exact fit of nose to lands and makes the bullet more versatile across a broad range of throat shapes and sizes. Loaded for a little jump to the lands, tapered PC'd bullets work extremely well for me.

So, if the bullets original form was not tapered nose you make a form sizer and taper the nose?

 

[Mitty38]

Was going to PC today but 83 humidity. Humidifier is in storage and doing 12's right now so just no time to set up today.

 

[Ian]

So, if the bullets original form was not tapered nose you make a form sizer and taper the nose?

Sort of. For example my .30-caliber H&I set was made with a .299" hole clear through and then reamed with a D-reamer having a 3 degree included-angle taper leading up to a .309" parallel body section which is long enough to size even a 311041 including the gas check. I made a .298" ejector rod with a 60-degree tapered hole in the end to force the bullet point to the center. Depending on how deeply I push the bullet into the sizer, it will size a bore-rider to .3005" and bump the front band to a taper (or not if I don't go quite that deep) or just barely clean up the nose and anywhere the cone will touch, all while sizing the body to the nose in a perfectly concentric fashion.





The inside of a press-mounted sizer I made with the same reamer, showing the two parallel sizing diameters and the tapered transition between them:



A bullet with complex nose taper sized to just barely clean up part of the nose to ensure it is uniform where it guides itself into the ball seat. Doing this ensures the base is square to the critical contact points of the bullet and all other critical diameters are concentric with each ither and the same size.



100-yard results fired from an 18" LR-308 at 2460 fps:

 

[JWFilips]

For Humidity: Try to keep fresh charged Silica Gel packs in your Tumble container ( I trust your powders are double bagged for storage)
Heating your cast bullets with a hair drier until too warm to hold ....then dropping them in the containers also helps!
after they are coated Humidity is negligible for the trip to the oven

 

[Spindrift]

@Ian ; sometimes, I wish the «like»- button could be pressed multiple times. That sizer/taper setup looks awesome!

 

[Rockydoc]

Sort of. For example my .30-caliber H&I set was made with a .299" hole clear through and then reamed with a D-reamer having a 3 degree included-angle taper leading up to a .309" parallel body section which is long enough to size even a 311041 including the gas check. I made a .298" ejector rod with a 60-degree tapered hole in the end to force the bullet point to the center. Depending on how deeply I push the bullet into the sizer, it will size a bore-rider to .3005" and bump the front band to a taper (or not if I don't go quite that deep) or just barely clean up the nose and anywhere the cone will touch, all while sizing the body to the nose in a perfectly concentric fashion.

View attachment 14984

View attachment 14985

The inside of a press-mounted sizer I made with the same reamer, showing the two parallel sizing diameters and the tapered transition between them:

View attachment 14986

A bullet with complex nose taper sized to just barely clean up part of the nose to ensure it is uniform where it guides itself into the ball seat. Doing this ensures the base is square to the critical contact points of the bullet and all other critical diameters are concentric with each ither and the same size.

View attachment 14987

100-yard results fired from an 18" LR-308 at 2460 fps:View attachment 14988

Ingenious! Is this something you have made just for yourself, or is this commercially available but you made your own because you could? Is it a “one off”?

 

[CWLONGSHOT]

My casting & Powder coating day.

CW

BTW Its been raining here all day... 100% Humidity. Only Eastwood Lime Green gave any hint if problems coating. All tumbled in containers labled 2.

 

[Ian]

Ingenious! Is this something you have made just for yourself, or is this commercially available but you made your own because you could? Is it a “one off”?

One-off, basically. I made one for Ben and loaned one of the reamers to another member so he could make one for himself. I started with KeithB's 1144 H-die blanks (pre-drilled with 3/16" hole) and Lee-style push-through blanks (also drilled through with a pilot) but otherwise made the reamers, I-ejectors, and drilled/reamed/polished the dies. If Keith was still around I'd by a big lot of H-die blanks from him and offer these sizers for sale on a semi-custom basis, I think they're quite useful especially for uniforming PC-d bullets.

 

[Will]

I’m in for one if you ever decide to do it. I need one for the 30 silhouette and MP 308 hunter.

What happened to Keith anyways? Anyone know if he’s doing ok?

 

[blackthorn]

One-off, basically. I made one for Ben and loaned one of the reamers to another member so he could make one for himself. I started with KeithB's 1144 H-die blanks (pre-drilled with 3/16" hole) and Lee-style push-through blanks (also drilled through with a pilot) but otherwise made the reamers, I-ejectors, and drilled/reamed/polished the dies. If Keith was still around I'd by a big lot of H-die blanks from him and offer these sizers for sale on a semi-custom basis, I think they're quite useful especially for uniforming PC-d bullets.

Ian et all----Look at the top of the "Swap & Sell" forum----"Keith's corner". I'm pretty sure that is whom you seek.

 

[Ian]

Keith has taken a break from the forum. I sent an email to him this morning to find out if he is still selling the die blanks.

 

[Mitty38]

Well my first attempt at shake and bake. Pretty happy and learned a few things.
Noses on my bore riders are right where I want them.
I did have to throw half of my first ones away. When they say non stick aluminum foil, they lie. Out of 25 bullets I got only 12 that did not become one with the foil.
Going to try parchment paper next time.

Also learned to just heat the bullets up just enough so they feal hot. Do not just put them on the stove a while then dump them in the powder. No....not showing you a pic of what happened.

Now just have to get some time to load these pretty maroon bullets up to shoot.

 

[Rockydoc]

My casting & Powder coating day.

CW

BTW Its been raining here all day... 100% Humidity. Only Eastwood Lime Green gave any hint if problems coating. All tumbled in containers labled 2.

Did you cast, size and coat all those in one day? I wish I had that much energy!