Powder coating bullets

juststarting · October 22, 2018, 1:21pm

I did a bit of casting today, oh my, bottom pour furnace… I love it. I actually ran out of ingots, just kept going. And I thought it’s time to try my hand at powder coating.

@TheDude this is your time to shine, based on your puuurty 300AAC artwork.

I am using Eastwood - red.

To get the powder to stick, I need to generate a static charge. Everyone seems recommend plastic BBs (used in air soft). Since I don’t have that I tried a few alternatives.

Tub (#5 plastic thing, had one, reloading OCD, never throw away good containers)

Lid popped off, good thing I was wearing gloves.

…and a tumbler that I no longer use. No good either.

Then I tried a ziplock bag, eh, no luck here either. Then, success, sort of, I tried one of the Sistema plastic boxes (smaller version to what the bag of powder, above, is in). That seemed to work.

Baking, on 200C or there about for 20 minutes. Then sized and checked…

I baked in DIY trays, I don’t mind some flaking, don’t think it makes any difference… Just a quick and easy at volume. And I CBF standing them up individually, etc.

I am pretty happy for the first attempt. Learnt a few things, but they are no where near the same coating quality as what you posted here: 300 blackout subs.

Any process improvement tips are appreciated. If you are using some other powder paint, but the same process, where did you buy it? Anything else?

juststarting · October 22, 2018, 2:11pm

After some more research, seems like I haven’t tumbled them enough in the vibratory tumbler (which is what I’d prefer to use). Next attempt will be at 30 minutes.

Update:
probably good idea to degrease too, after handling them.

So few mistakes so far. Learning process…

1Fatman · October 22, 2018, 2:27pm

I remember reading about one lot of coating where they mixed the colouring/coating with acetone (I think) and then they tumbled it and then baked it.
Could be confused with something else though but I will see if I can find it.

juststarting · October 22, 2018, 2:27pm

That sounds about right.

1Fatman · October 22, 2018, 2:40pm

Right I found the bit I was reading and it was using Hi-Tek coating. Not sure how good it is but it will be worth more research.

http://hi-performancebulletcoatings.com/coating-instructions/

TheDude · October 22, 2018, 7:55pm

I’m using the same Eastwood powder coat. I’ve got Ford light blue, gloss red, semi gloss black and a gloss white I’ve not tried yet. I got it from ebay from ppcoaustralia.

For getting the powder to stick, I use a trick a YouTuber - “Elvis ammo” posted about. Heating the bullets up first rather than tumbling

put your bullets on your tray and heat for 5min at 70c.
grab them out of the oven and put them in a container with a few spo0n fulls of powder coat. More is better here
Crank the oven up to 200c to preheat for next bit. Chuck on a lid and shake it for 15 seconds to ensure they get a good coating
tip them out into your basket spreading them out and sifting off the excess powder into another container for reuse.
put them in the oven for 20min.
once done let them cool and break apart any that stuck together.

One of Elvis ammos vids says he didn’t need to preheat with the Eastwood powder but I’ve found in the limited testing I’ve done it seems to help and only takes a few minutes.

I’m still playing to see if I can get them to stick less. My last batch I gave them a shake every 5min and that seemed to break them up but will do a few more batches to test it out more.

danmac · December 12, 2018, 6:57am

Hi-tek is the stuff that HRBC and others use. I’ve got a couple of mates that are using it with good success.

MaxJon · April 27, 2023, 11:00am

Im set up for Hitek. It works well, but it really is for MASS production. I like the idea of PC, as you dont have to mix up the coating that goes hard before you use it all.

juststarting · April 27, 2023, 11:40am

I disagree about mass production @MaxJon - I PC and I use Hi-Tek.

I started with PC. A very messy process and probably super unhealthy to be breathing that in, or wear a suitable PPE. I am not a fan of breathing in shit, wearing PPE or mess. Then you have the results - not super consistent until you find the colour that works. I don’t mean in the looks department, I mean that bakes well. Few other nuances. It’s a bit meh. The whole shake part too, super retarded.

I switched to Hi-Tek, consistent. clean. You mix as little or as much as you want.

PC or HiTek, you will probably need to do a few coats for good adhesion. So they are much of a muchness in that department.

They both go a very long way.

My suggestion, go modern and save yourself some pain, unless of course you are looking for validation rather than suggestion

There’s some people who also experiment with mixing PC with Acetone. That could be an alternative, but if you go down that path, you may as well go HiTek (by the way it’s an Australian company in NSW).

HiTek worked a lot better for me in terms of process and outcome.

juststarting · April 27, 2023, 11:49am

Pc + Acetone, this is what I was thinking about:

MaxJon · April 27, 2023, 7:39pm

How do you store you Hitek if you mixed too much for shelf life. Thats the only problem im having. Mix ratios for say 200 bullets?? Yes it works well…

MaxJon · April 27, 2023, 11:42pm

He still does 2 coats though…but interesting…might aswell stick with Hitek…

juststarting · April 28, 2023, 12:37am

re: mixing, I am not sure tbh I just mixed per instructions, like 50ml of solution from memory. A table spoon or so, so if you have waste (which you will), it’s not a lot and goes a very long way if you are doing 200 at a time. Shelf life I think is a couple of weeks (shake well) upwards, haven’t tested beyond a few weeks.

With wet PC method - that’s what I am thinking too, if he is going that route, then why not just with a product made to do exactly that anyway.

With traditional shake and bake I’ve always had issues with.

I found that the ‘shake’ part is super inconsistent (for me), gun would be better - but that would involve standing all bullets up and then you’d have the bases to worry about, and that’s kind of important to avoid gascutting.
Pre-heating voodoo magic
I found that some colours bake better than others in a sense of coverage.
Some are temperature sensitive too (some red I was using, don’t recall the brand, but can check).
Coverage needed a few coats, at which point I hit the pause button and re-evaluated my options (multiple steps + mess).

A lot more people use PC, I just felt like I struggled with it a lot more than with ‘wet’ method.

MaxJon · April 28, 2023, 12:41am

PC is very smokey, almost to the point of BP! Anzac day a guy was shooting full velocity PC cast, we thought it was BP at first. Great smokescreen for your competition! He was using a gun, standing them up etc…Too laborious for me…

juststarting · April 28, 2023, 2:01am

Interesting you say that. I found that using a batch of Demon projies. They use hitek also. Not super smokey, but I could definitely tell. Specifically 9mm in gold/copper colour. Maybe its oven temperature or number of coats related more than the actuall material?

MaxJon · April 28, 2023, 2:38am

Yeah might be number of coats/thickness…i usually get the full colour and coverage with 2 coats, as per instructions, i think…I was thinking of trying Hitek, and also lubing any lube grooves on the cast bullets, see what Batman smokescreen that gives off…

MaxJon · April 28, 2023, 2:48am

When it comes to higher velocities above 1500fps, i think its a good idea not to have any naked lead in contact with the bore of the rifle anyway. Pistol might be different velocity regardless

juststarting · April 28, 2023, 2:56am

I love that smell. Bacon in the air.

danmac · May 1, 2023, 1:28am

I’ve just finished a batch of bullets for an uncle to use in his .38-40 '92 Winchester.
I cast a couple of hundred bullets using an original Winchester bullet mold.
I figured I’d coat them to save him the trouble of lubeing.
I used Hi-tek in a bronze colour. 4 coats gave a nice even coating, made some pretty crappy, (by my usual standards) bullets look good.
I have a bunch of steel trays that I use and once I get started there’s a rotation that keeps it going. Initial batch is a bit slow but then while they’re baking, the next batch is coated and set on top of the oven to dry, next batch coated, set to dry, first batch now finished 10 minute bake so removed and left to cool, #2 into the oven, last batch coated, set to dry. #1 ready for second coat, repeat the process.
I found a bunch of .32-20 bullets that I hadn’t coated so they were chucked into the rotation as well.
Then as the .40 cals were finishing I found a bunch of .35 cal bullets to do. They went into the rotation as the .40’s came out.
All up I think I spent about 2 hours on it, mind you I was working on a knife at the same time so I was pretty busy.