Powder coating fail

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Tonerboy1
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Re: Powder coating fail

Post by Tonerboy1 »

Powder coating is fun, It actually got me back into casting my own projectiles. Use Non-Stick foil for baking on. Its cheap, most grocery stores carry it so you don't have to go to WallyWorld. A cheap Electrostatic Gun will run $100, you need an air compressor (most guys have one in their shop, so $0). If you use a gun you can use just about any powder/color/brand and it works in most weather conditions. Gives great coverage. The rest is the same for all methods. An oven, cookie sheets, leather gloves (or oven hot pads), bucket of water (optional), tweezers or needle nose pliers and any other cool toys you can find.
A lot of debate on the expense of the gun, but when you think about it, you can use $6 HF powder rather than $20+ dollar powder, and everyone buys 4,5,15 different colors before its all done and said. Because your going to get hooked and also get all kinds of color requests from friends and relatives. So if you can use some of the less expensive powders and get just as good or better coverage, it doesn't take long to recover the cost of the gun.
Now if your just "trying it" for the first time your doing it right, but I know for me all hobbies turn into obsessions. The next thing I know I'm getting this toy, then that toy. My wife goes nuts. :)
az2vet
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Re: Powder coating fail

Post by az2vet »

Tonerboy1 wrote:Powder coating is fun, It actually got me back into casting my own projectiles. Use Non-Stick foil for baking on. Its cheap, most grocery stores carry it so you don't have to go to WallyWorld. A cheap Electrostatic Gun will run $100, you need an air compressor (most guys have one in their shop, so $0). If you use a gun you can use just about any powder/color/brand and it works in most weather conditions. Gives great coverage. The rest is the same for all methods. An oven, cookie sheets, leather gloves (or oven hot pads), bucket of water (optional), tweezers or needle nose pliers and any other cool toys you can find.
A lot of debate on the expense of the gun, but when you think about it, you can use $6 HF powder rather than $20+ dollar powder, and everyone buys 4,5,15 different colors before its all done and said. Because your going to get hooked and also get all kinds of color requests from friends and relatives. So if you can use some of the less expensive powders and get just as good or better coverage, it doesn't take long to recover the cost of the gun.
Now if your just "trying it" for the first time your doing it right, but I know for me all hobbies turn into obsessions. The next thing I know I'm getting this toy, then that toy. My wife goes nuts. :)
I am just getting into the PC'ing of cast bullets but I am just going to keep it at the lowest cost level that I can. I have coated a total of about 500 bullets so far after getting 1/3 of a pound each of red, blue and silver from Smokes. I get really good coverage by mixing the 3 colors where as I got ok coverage when I did the red or blue, it is a sorta light purple with silver specks. I really don't care about the color as long as it covers well. I am just after a coated bullet that will shoot and not smoke like the alox does, not worried about doing the color coding by bullet loading thing. I think I am going to make a wire basket and give that a try as I have had the finished product sticking to the non-stick side of the foil and tearing it. So I end up having to take each bullet off of the foil while still in the oven keeping things hot for removal with long needle nose pliers which is time consuming.
Now I have to figure out what size sizer I need to get for the 9mm bullets. My 92fs shows pressure signs in the spent primers but my other 9mm guns the primers look good.
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Re: Powder coating fail

Post by Ranch Dog »

az2vet wrote:My 92fs shows pressure signs in the spent primers but my other 9mm guns the primers look good.
"92FS" must be a Taurus and the overpressure is a bit puzzling as they use a common barrel stock across 38 Spl, 357 Mag, 380 Auto, and 9mm Luger. Bore is typically .351" with a .358" groove. I also have a Rossi 92 rifle, had two at one time, and the dimensions were the same. Back to bullet size, I size all bullets for all four of those cartridges in the Rossi/Taurus products the same; .358".
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Re: Powder coating fail

Post by Ohio3Wheels »

Are we talking flattened primers or something else.

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Re: Powder coating fail

Post by farmerjim »

az2vet wrote " I think I am going to make a wire basket and give that a try as I have had the finished product sticking to the non-stick side of the foil and tearing it. So I end up having to take each bullet off of the foil while still in the oven keeping things hot for removal with long needle nose pliers which is time consuming. "

I was running short of non stick foil and I asked my wife to get me some when she went to the grocery store. She brought home some other brand than the Reynolds brand that I had been using. ( can't remember the brand) The bullets stuck to this non stick foil. I now only use Reynolds brand and have no problems with sticking for about 4 uses. After that they start to stick. I just run my hand over the top of the bullets after they cool, and they all fall over. If you are using a brand other than Reynolds, you might give it a try.
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Re: Powder coating fail

Post by Tonerboy1 »

my brand is Reynolds also. I guess I didn't think a brand would matter, but good call. I have heard others using parchment paper with luck too. The kind people use under cookies and such. I have stuck with the Non Stick foil because it has worked for me and can be reused. 1 roll should last me a long time.
From what I've seen, the basket method leaves lots of little imperfections on the surface where you have contact between the bullet and the wires or bullet to bullet contact. Probably just cosmetic, won't matter if you just want rounds that go bang. ;)
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Re: Powder coating fail

Post by az2vet »

Reynolds non-stick alum. foil is what I have after trying some lesser quality stuff.

Taurus 0 Beretta 5. Primers look good when shot with CX4, 5906 and Hi-Point C9. Guess I will also put a few through my Inox 92FS and backup CX4 to see how they do.
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Re: Powder coating fail

Post by Bowman81 »

I use parchment paper for a non stick surface...reuse it multiple times. I tried non stick aluminum foil with no success. Spent too much time peeling aluminum off of the bases.
I have used HF red but mostly use powder from "Smoke" on another board. I preheat to 400* and back for 20 min after I get flow out. Be careful with temps. I use a separate oven thermometer the thermostat on my convection oven is way off.
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