Lee Loader

Fyodor wrote: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.

No lube is used in PC, nor is it needed from my research.

How do you coat your bullets? You use powder coating, right? Isn't that difficult to use?

Anyone uses Epoxy paint, and can tell me if you need dry lube at all?

Fyodor wrote:How do you coat your bullets? You use powder coating, right? Isn't that difficult to use?

Anyone uses Epoxy paint, and can tell me if you need dry lube at all?

There are two huge threads on both Powder Coating and Epoxy Paint over on Cast Boolits.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/forumdi ... ternatives

You can spend months on that site and not read everything.

Greetings
Saw some where a feller was "painting" interesting little faces on big flat nose bullets.
I do enjoy the inventive nature of the American hobbist.
Mike in Peru

I am on this powder coating bandwagon now. I do the dry method using airsoft bb's and no thinner. so far works well.

Fyodor wrote:How do you coat your bullets? You use powder coating, right? Isn't that difficult to use?

Anyone uses Epoxy paint, and can tell me if you need dry lube at all?

I think the guy that started the epoxy painted bullets craze was a German. I'm not sure though. He said he was using HBN powder mixed in his epoxy. Once people started trying it the big question became if the stuff is mixed in the paint then what good is it doing??? So a few people tried it without adding any and poof there was zero change. And HBN isn't so cheap so that just made it better. I did think I would try dusting the bullets with HBN and also tried some with powdered moly and another batch was done with graphite. I didn't shoot the graphite powdered bullets because it took massive force to get them through the sizing die. I was scared I was going to crack the press or my back. Scrapped those I moved to the other two batches. They sized well enough but the HBN didn't really stick that well. It sure got into EVERYTHING though. The moly made the usual black bullet. Both loaded and shot fine but the "control" group of just straight epoxy also shot just fine. So I figure no need for the extra work.

The key to the epoxy coating is to let the stuff cure. You may bake them to jump start the cure but they aren't done until they have at least set for a few days of air drying. I found if I just loaded them up the next day then the coating was still just a bit rubbery and could be scraped off sometimes with a finger nail. But once they cure for a few days you will rip off a nail trying to scratch at one.

I have to admit there is still a part of me that wants to buy a small cement mixer or rig a five gallon bucket up somehow to tumble bullets. I still think if you could rig up a heat gun pointing into the bucket as it's rolling that you could avoid having to bake them. The worst part of the process is trying to make sure you don't glue bullets together during the baking. So if you could find a way to tumble them and get them to cure enough... That would be neat. And you could make a whole bunch up in minimal time.

Has anyone tried PC without an air compressor? The "Electric Portable Powder Coating Gun System, No Air Compressor Needed" is for sale on Amazon for $50.00

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MW5 ... UTF8&psc=1

And there is a video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cuneFm-AG4

I've got to learn something about this. I have several tractor implements that I want to refinish and I would like to powder coat them. The plan is to haul them in to be sandblasted and then do the finishing myself. Anybody work with larger stuff?

The size of the part dictates how big the oven is. If the part isn't to big some have made ovens out of hot plates 8" vent pipe and insulation.


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I have found that without running current through your part to be painted that it's very hit or miss on coverage. Some powders won't stick at all and some really build up bad and run into puddles around the part. The HF matte black and gloss red are perfect examples of this. The matte black won't stick hardly at all without the current while the gloss red will build up very heavy. I used to use the matte black mixing it with lacquer thinner and then tumbling the bullets and that would make the powder when it was broken down stick to the bullets. The red mixed with lacquer thinner just made a huge mess. When you dry tumble the black won’t stick at all and yet the red will. Adding the Airsoft BB’s in with the bullets to help spread the powder works very well for the gloss red. It seems to prevent excess build up. And yet the black still won’t work. And go easy on the heat. I let the oven get a little hot and the gloss red burned some. They still worked but I’m not sure how burned they will get before the coating can fail.