Powder coating bullets

[Mike 56]

Bob, Thank you for the update i will be trying my hand at it soon. I will be looking for a toaster oven at the flea market this week end.

[Maximumbob54]

I have a dozen each for test loads in 8mm and .303 and hope to get some trigger time in this weekend. So far I've not had great results with rifle loads but I'm trying some new ideas with these loads. I will post any success.

[daboone]

Thanks for posting all this information about PC coatings. I guess I'll take a trip to HF and Goodwill and give it a go. It's not that leading is an issue but this looks and sounds like it would be fun to do. I'll start with the shake and bake method and see how it go. He!! we are all handloaders and almost by definition we forced to try new methods.

[Maximumbob54]

This post will read a little jumbled as it is condensed from a couple days efforts. But bottom line I'm now in love with ES spraying powder coating but I still need to get better at it.

I can't stand it anymore. I keep looking at pics guys are posting of powder coated bullets where they used a spray gun and they look SSSSSOSOOOOOOOOOO much better.

The first steps have been taken. Compressor, spray gun, and some other hardware has been purchased. I need to rig up a spray and bake tray now. The best results I've seen is where guys JB weld some small hex nuts to the tray and then cover them with the non stick foil. This avoids the flash around the base from just setting them on the foil. I also bought a box of roofing nails to glue down to the tray so I can stick HP bullets on the nail tips and have the base totally covered. I am open to suggestion on how to completely cover a non HP bullet in one run . The only answer I've come up with so far is to set them nose down (with flat nose of course) and have the base covered and the nose be uncoated. I don't have a RN pistol bullet mold but I've thought I could drill holes in a tray, cover it in foil, and poke the bullet noses through the foil so they would have the bases coated but I worry I would have to much flash on the nose where it touched the foil and be uneven. I've seen where guys rigged up spray holders to use screws to hold the point of the screws at the top and bottom of the bullet so that would be pretty close to full coverage but I would have to pray the rig didn't get ruined with baked on gummed up powder coat at some point after several uses. Maybe these guys have blasting cabinets. I bought four pounds of the gloss red powder from HF as it was on sale for $4 right now. I still have some small sample bags from Powder By The Pound and while that stuff is three or four times as expensive they do have some amazing colors. But for now for training the red works, isn't a rough finish like the matte black, and I know it works.

Bullet spray tray has been constructed. Small hex nuts JB welded to the tray an inch apart. Once cured it's supposed to be good up to five hundred and fifty degrees. I only need a max of five hundred and I usually cook them a little less than that and they still turn out fine.

Spray tray:



This will be coated in non stick foil smoothed over the nuts. Then set all the bullets on it and (fingers crossed) they will get at least the sides of the bases coated without any edge sprue flash.

The nail tray is next.

First stumble in the learning process... The sheet metal is plenty strong and hardly bows when picked up with the weight of the bullets on it. But it does slightly bow and bullets balancing on hex nuts glide right across non stick foil. Go figure. I need to do something to brace the sheet metal so it is solid enough to not bend at all. And the rack of freshly sprayed bullets needs to be right next to the oven or as close as possible to not risk bullets falling over or sliding. I need to find a way of mounting small handles on each side to pick it up careful enough to not tilt it at all. And then it needs to be easy enough to slide into the oven. Enough about the stupid rack...

Second stumble in the learning process... The spray gun is rated at 10 - 30 PSI and with the regulator set at 25# I had some intermittent flow issues. One second it was coating too thick and then not at all. This first batch isn't going to be perfect but once again this is the learning phase. It may just be the pressure being lost from the tank to the gun and the gun isn't really getting 25# to work with. I will dial up the pressure to 30# next time. But enough talking, we want pictures of results, right???

This is them freshly sprayed:


I wore a dust mask and that isn't going to cut it. I need to open the garage door and buy a real mask before I do this again. This stuff really hangs in the air. Once I get the powder flow just right there will be less waste but this time there was a red cloud. Yuck.

This is them fresh from the oven:


It's already a night and day difference in the quality of coating. They lose the dull sheen and it's finally a glossy coating. They feel so much more slick to the touch. With this method the bases aren't coated or at least not with this tray but I'm not worried about that. I'm just in this to avoid bullet lube and bullet lube smoke. The cleaner bore is just an added bonus. The low cost of the HF powder is what drew me back to this and the much better results with the ES spray gun is what made me break down and try this method. I know with this first trial run I used way more powder than I should have but I know I will get better at it and use less. That's the only way I will really be able to tell about cost effectiveness of this method for sure. I also need to try this method with rifle bullets since the finish is so much more even than any other method including the epoxy paint tumble. But for this being the very first trial run I still think these look awesome enough that I will continue to work at this.

This would be the reason for the hex nuts. This one fell off the nut and sat on the tray with the excess powder:


This is a dry tumble vs. ES comparison with the ES in front:


I cannot express enough how good these look and feel compared to anything else I've tried so far. The finish comes out so perfect!!!

[daboone]

Thanks for the continuing updates. This is very interesting and informative.

Now to prove just how much I lack in understand anything about this what is ES? Besides pretty is there an improvement in performance and function by spraying? I really hope you continue to update this with your results, improvements and these step by step pictorial instructions.

Thank YOU.

[Maximumbob54]

ES is electro static. The spray gun is attached to a unit that has a lead you clip to the foil to give the bullets a static charge that attracts the powder. This is how you get such a uniform coating with the spray gun. It's very fast and easy once you get everything dialed in right.

[62chevy]

Great results but have you performed the hammer test on them yet.

[Maximumbob54]

Great results but have you performed the hammer test on them yet.

I quit doing that a while back now. I don't do the acetone wipe anymore either. I'm down to two tests. Did it survive sizing and did it work when I shoot it. I've had very few ever fail sizing and those I kind of knew ahead of time wouldn't work out. And I've only had one batch fail shooting. Both were when I was thinning epoxy paint with lacquer thinner following someone's instruction. I don't thin epoxy anymore, I just put less in with them to tumble. If you apply either powder coat or epoxy right and you figure out what you're doing it's pretty rare this coating fails. The challenge so far is getting accuracy. I've found a good .357 magnum load but the same bullet in .38 special has yet to find accuracy.

[moonie]

I've just started ES PC on mine as of yesterday. I did a tray of 45's and I'm learning. FYI, I'm thinking using PC might make me try my bullet feeders again as with tumble lubed it was iffy at best.

[Fyodor]

Do you use dry lubricant in your coating? Which one? I bought a can of mica, and wonder if that would work out. Here in Germany they're all about HBN (hexagonal boron nitride), which might be the best high temp dry lube, but it's also quite expensive. Graphite makes the color coating dull.