Powder Coating

swarf
swôrf/
noun: swarf
fine chips or filings of stone, metal, or other material produced by a machining operation.
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It is the lead dust or fines that is apparently being abraded off the bullets and darkening the remaining powder in the container.

I have noticed that too. It will turn a maroon, as he said, after a few uses with the same powder. I didn't see any apparent problem with it, but it does get quite a shade or two darker.
 
They real pretty and all but you still have to size the bullets for the correct fit. If I'm going to run them through my sizer , why not lube them and seat the check all in one cycle and be done with it.
Looks like a more time consuming way to lubricate a bullet .
My Lyman 450 was paid for in 1973 , cutting edge technology for that time , I think I'll just Keep On Keeping On with it.
Daddy said "if it ain't broke , no sense in fixing it."
Gary
 
Powder coating is the best thing that I have ever added to my casting/reloading processes. Have not conventionally lubed another bullet since I powder coated my first batch. I have coated a PILE of bullets...I have landed on the process that works very well for me...put bullets and powder in the tumbler...turn it on and let it run about 5 minutes. Dump them, shake off the excess, bake'em and size'em. Presto...great bullets ready to shoot. BTW, I have only used HF powder...works pretty well for me.

Costs less than $75 to start.
 
They real pretty and all but you still have to size the bullets for the correct fit. If I'm going to run them through my sizer , why not lube them and seat the check all in one cycle and be done with it.
Looks like a more time consuming way to lubricate a bullet .
My Lyman 450 was paid for in 1973 , cutting edge technology for that time , I think I'll just Keep On Keeping On with it.
Daddy said "if it ain't broke , no sense in fixing it."
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When using a lube/sizer to size the powder coated bullets, then yes it does take longer than lubing and sizing in a traditional grease lube/size machine. Nevertheless, there are distinct advantages to powder coating over the machine-applied grease lubes. For instance, with powder coated bullets no grease lube can melt and contaminate the powder in our Southern most hot climate. There is also a noticeable reduction in smoke when firing and also a huge reduction in that greasy sludge that builds up in revolvers. Further, grease lubes have a tendency to clog-up seating dies which can result in pushing the bullets deeper in the cases until it is detected and cleaned from the die. Many cast lead bullet shooters claim that powder coated bullets produce better accuracy than greased bullets. They also claim that powder coating eliminates leading with the same level of loads as greased bullets and even allows high velocities than greased bullets. Some also mention that powder coated bullets are not sticky like greased bullets, but those of us old-timers have been using motor mica on our greased bullets anyway. Note: by "greased bullets" I mean bullets lubed with NRA Formula 50/50 Alox. Oh yes, some of our Southern brethren mention that powder coated bullets do not have their lube melt in the hot climate when the bullets are in storage before handloading.
 
Have you looked into Hi-Tek? It does a lot fast and is really perfect for 9mm, 40 cal or .45acp. It is just a "swirl, dump and bake, repeat once" technique. It does take two coats and two bakes, but you can do a tray full at once without touching them, and using two or three trays you can really rock and roll with that coating.

I like PC, but I shoot sixguns and don't need nearly as many bullets as the bottomfeeders.
 
I tried lubing bullets a couple times, its a sticky, stinky mess that results in lead on the hands, smokey shooting and dirty grungy guns. Oh and buying a lubrisizer is spendy. PC is simpler in my mind to apply and the results are far and above lubed bullet performance. Just my two pennies.
 
I tried lubing bullets a couple times, its a sticky, stinky mess that results in lead on the hands, smokey shooting and dirty grungy guns. Oh and buying a lubrisizer is spendy. PC is simpler in my mind to apply and the results are far and above lubed bullet performance. Just my two pennies.
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Some of us have been casting bullets since the sixties. Back then, lube/sizers were pretty much the most popular way of dealing with the issue. So when Powder Coating recently became popular and have messed around with it, we still use the lube/sizer for just sizing the bullets inasmuch as we still have the lube/sizer and all the dies. If a person needed to start out with cast bullets from scratch, PC'ing and sizing with a Lee push-through sizing die would likely be a tad faster. However, I powder coat my bullets and stand them up on the toaster oven tray covered with parchment paper...that is what takes longest for me.
However, when it comes to using the grease lubes in a Lube/sizer, stickiness was not a problem when using motor mica to dust them. But, if you are referring to Lee Tumble-Lube...I could not get too enthused about that stuff and abandoned that method early on.
 
I started casting in my late 20's I had a Lee 158 gr. SWC mold and a Lyman 158 gr. RN mold an old cast iron pot, cook stove an ladle and lots of free wheel weight for the local tire shop, this might have even been pre-Alox days as remember I pan lubed all my bullets using a Lee Pan Lubing kit,I ended up a few year later getting an RCBS Lube A Matic with a .359 sizer.

Wouldn't you know kids came along casting, reloading and shooting stopped and I sold off all my casting stuff but kept everything else and just stashed it away. Fast forward about 20 years from then and I'm back casting, reloading and shooting in earnest for the past fifteen years. Tumble lubing or ranch dipping bullets was the way I went up till around three years ago when I bought a used RCBS Lube A Matic like my old one and 10 different sizing dies on the cheap all of the sizer of which I could use but two.

I still shoot one bullet that is tumble lubed only because I did enough not to have to worry about them for a while. I still like to run some of my pistol and rifle bullets through the RCBS but when I took up PC'ing my bullets around two years ago an got the process and the results I wanted down pat I pretty much have been doing powder coated bullets ever since. I won't ever get rid of my RCBS and will still use it on occasion, it ain't eating anything.

I like PC'ed bullet mainly because of the long-term storage and handling properties. I can do around 100 rifle or 200 pistol bullets about every 30 minutes, I'm only limited by the size of my toaster oven an once I get the rotation going I can crank out lots of bullets in a couple hours that are ready to size an load or gas check an load at my convenience. It's just another tool in the toolbox.
 
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Agree.... i just went and got the harbor freight and bought ES gun and some black and red HF powder.

Now i got to find some of those little damn pans for the toaster oven so i can just get a rotation of pans going in an out of the oven
 
I like the spray method. After all, it IS how powder coat was intended to be applied. You will really like the smoother coat, and although it will "look" like there is a lot of waste on the non-stick foil after spraying and baking, you'll find that the powder coats SO many bullets per bottle that you don't even think about how much you use per pan of bullets.
 
Holy snapping turtles batman..... there beautiful.... finally something went right !!

This is like spray on jackets !!

No more lubing for me...
Now just need to size and load them up
 
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res45 said:
You will need a plastic bowl with a snap or screw on lid of some sort I use a old cool whip bowl and use the shake an bake method,other will just put there powder an bullets in a vibratory tumbler and let it run till there coated.

Some people use plastic air soft beads mixed in with the powder,I've done it with an without and can't tell much of a difference. An environment with low humidity that helps create static electricity is your friend when it comes to coating bullets when I can't do it out in the shop on hot humid or humid days I coat them in the house an toast them out on the back porch.

You will need a toaster over. You can buy a new one fairly cheap or see if you can pick a used one up at a local thrift store for a few dollars. People bake the bullets in different way but I line my toaster tray with non stick aluminum foil and stand my bullets up on the base using a pair of large tweezers,it's slower but I like the results I get.

As to powder many use the Harbor Freight powders Red works best for shake and bake followed by the Yellow. The HF Blacks seem to work much better if it's sprayed on with an ES gun as will the Red an Yellow the HF white is pretty much useless for PCing bullets.

There are many companies online that see powder coat by the pound or you can get it form Smoke over at Cast Boolits http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?241259-Hi-quality-Powder-for-DT-or-Spraying-bullets He has good powder,prices and shipping it's where I get my powders.

All my coated bullets are baked at 400 degrees for 20 min. if you buy online from a mfg. they will state what temp and time to bake there powders at for it to cure properly. It's a good idea to preheat your over before putting the bullets in an use a oven thermometer to verify your oven temperature.

Also of note if you water quench your bullets straight from the mold before coating the PC curing process with negate the first water quenching so you will need to re quench them after removing them from the toaster oven even them they still want reach a final BHN as close to the original quenched BHN but it will be fairly close.

Here are a couple samples I done.
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Can you use parchment paper instead of non stick aluminum foil?
 
Can you use parchment paper instead of non-stick aluminum foil?
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I personally never have but I know it's been used by some. The parchment paper has a heat limit of 420 degrees so verify you toaster oven temperature if you use it as some toaster ovens can be way off from what the dial specifies. I also am not sure if a single sheet can be used more than once, maybe somebody that has used it can pass along some knowledge.

I just prefer the non-stick foil as I can reuse a single sheet multiple time I also don't have to worry about the heat issue and in most cases but not all the foil is cheaper in the long run.
 
Walmart has stuff called copper chef or something like that. Copper non stick sheets that you can trim to fit your pan and are washable/reusable.
They come 2 to a box
 
Seems like the non stick foil or the copper chef is the way to go. In the long run it ends up being more economical especially if the items can be reused more than once. Thanks guys for the replies.
 
I use non stick aluminum foil, I get a BUNCH of batches out of one sheet. Once a get a tear, usually from a bullet sticking to and old bit of powder, I toss it and replace. This roll has two years on it with many more to go.
 
Some people use silicone baking mats as well, they look like powder builds upon them quite a bit. Never used one so I could be all wrong about that but it's another option.

Just ordered a pound of Eastwood Maroon and Med. Green should be here next Saturday. FortuneCookie45LC coated some bullets with those two powders and they gave excellent solid coverage.
 
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