Well I had a taste of the PC coolaid,,,,

M

Mike / Tx

New member
To be totally honest, at this point I am not overly impressed....Sorry but while it does cover a lot of bullets at once, there is still a bunch of things that can and do make a fairly decent mess.

While I haven't shot any I did coat up 60 for the first time today. I tumbled them in my CW bowl, with black BB's and everything like has been posted, and still took two coats to cover. I shook them till my arms were sore. (Well some of that could have been from emptying the lead pot to get my thermocouple out of the bottom too. Of course I didn't waste all that hot alloy I also poured up bullets too.)

So I now have 59 sitting on the sheet ready for sizing and loading. I already have some lubed up and ready to load of the same bullet so I can do a side by side and see how things work out. I also want to have my chrono set up so I can check velocities between the two as I move up in load increments.

So only time will tell on it, but to be honest I am not overly excited like most about PC'ing. Maybe after I get something through several different barrels I might gain a bit of warmth, but for now, I just don't see going to all the trouble.
 
I can understand your qualms so far. I actually had the same reaction after the first couple batches using the tumble method. I do have a few questions though:
What powder are you using? What type of coverage did you get on the first coat?
I ask these questions because if you are using the Harbor Freight PC (especially yellow or white) They will look downright awful on the first coat almost every time BUT they still shoot very well. There is just a difference in the colors that makes the coverage look insufficient. There are much better powders like Smoke’s that are specifically for the tumble method. However, I eventually spent the money to get the ES gun because it’s just really easy and makes purdy boolits.
Either way though, shoot em up and you’ll get hooked
 
Dry tumble can be a fickle thing. I can get it to work some days and other days I can't get enough of a coat to tell what color I'm using. I don't know if I just absorb static myself or what's up. There are a lot of folks who appear to just shake it a little and voila! they have a nice coat.
I have to use the HF gun to get a solid coat reliably.

Try it on a few more different days and you'll probably find that it coats great some days and maybe you can pinpoint why, for the rest of us! :)
I know I'd sure like to know the secret.
 
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OP========sorry are having problems. BBDT is a black magic voodoo process that works for most.......not for some. Humidity has a LOT (!) to do with your succes. Here is AZ, I can get 95% coating with just ONE swirl/shake every time.....except during our recent monsoon season where the DP was in the 60's.

The ESPC process (as the powder was engineered to be applied in industry) is the real way to apply powder. I use both the HF gun and the Amazon self-contained gun with excellent success even in higher humidities.

PC does bring amazing results such as no grease smoke, NO LEADING!, and no sticky/melted lube in hot weather (AZ). Also elminates exposure to lead after coated. I and many others have found you can minimize/eliminate the worry of hard lead, saving your alloys. PC lets you shoot softer lead.

And I have found undersized bullets are no problem as with bare greased lead.

Hope you do not give up. PC is the most amazing thing I have seen. And I use it to coat all kinds of things around the shop and home, as long as they fit in my convection toaster oven!

bangerjim
 
Well like I said the jury is still out until I get some through the bore to see how they compare to what I am using.

As for smoke, well that has really never been much of an issue with any of my loads except maybe some of the 45 Colt loads slathered down with Alox. Even then though since I shoot outside, it wasn't much of an issue with the lube as it was with the powder I was using.

With the powder, it was the HF red which everybody says is THE one to start with. Figured why not stick a toe in rather than just jump. If the wife hadn't found an old toaster oven in the attic stuck back somewhere I doubt I would have even gone this far. Just happened to to be a quick easy convert to allow the use of the PID to control the temp.

Shaking was done in a cool whip bowl. I initially dumped in about 1/2" of the BB's, then added in 60 bullets. Shook round and round up and down. Opened it up and looked not much coverage. Repeated and even flipped the bowl over to make SURE the powder was getting up over everything. Removed the lid after some more shaking and powder everywhere. Lesson learned. I did add in maybe another 1/4" of BB's to see if that helped and at this point is undetermined.

Finally got somewhat of a decent looking coat and baked. They came out and looked more like those freckled Easter egg candy than an actual coating. While they were still a touch warm, I dumped them back in the bowl and shook again. This time the coating looked like what I have seen in the pictures. So next time around I might just warm them up a touch initially to see if that helps.

Humidity, nothing I can do about that. It ain't gonna likely go away. Being some 30 miles inland of the gulf it is simply a part of life. I'm not needing a gun as I have no compressor in which to run one and not looking to add one. If it doesn't get it done with the shaking and rolling it just ain't gonna happen.
 
the less BB's in the cool whip container, the better coverage I get. I have about 1/6th of the container full of bb's and a heaping scoop of PC. it took a lot of trial to figure that out. maybe different powders require more, but less is more in my experience. I also don't do a ton of bullets at a time, maybe bout 3# at a time

I do swirl the container, but only at first a few times. the coverage comes best from the up and down shaking as hard as I can
 
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Well I started off with one bottle of BB's and 4 bowls. I managed to spread them out in equal amounts over 3 of them and have right at 2 layers of BB's in the bottom of each bowl.

The first go round was with the MP 413640's and they came out all splotchy even after shaking the hell out of them. So after the first cook they went back and got another coat. That worked out well.

Next up were some 358125's that a friend gave me to try out for him. Same thing, one coat 80% coverage no matter how I shook them. Repeated after cooking same results great coat.

I had the wife pick me up some different BB's yesterday, but haven't had time to try them out. They are the black ones but from a different brand name. Maybe they will work better, we'll see.

I also figured that since it was such a pain in the rear to try and stand some rifle bullets up after tumbling, that I would try the cheapest spray method I could. I picked up a airless sprayer off fleabay yesterday but it will probably be next week before it shows up. I tried gluing some 1/4-20 nuts to some foil in order to stand them up on their noses or bases. However since they are around 1.250" in length that was an exercise in futility. Not only did they still fall over but once the two I tried cooked they were stuck to the nuts but good. So I'll be picking up some bigger nuts that alloy the bases to sit down in them AFTER they have been covered in foil. Once I can do that, I will spray them with the cheapo gun and see how that works out. If it does as well as the reports, all will be good, and I will be off to the races. If not, well back to the shake and bake, and then probably back to the lubesizer.
 
Anytime I get coverage less than %80 after a minute or two of shaking I set it down for 4=5 minutes and Pick it up and give it another good 1 min shake and get 95-100 heavy coat. seems like the charge on the powder takes a minute sometimes. YMMV.

I am with beagle on the Tumble method and got a sprayer. Yet I wanted the base covered for a buddy. So I tumbled the ones I made him. I thought about drilling some holes in a cookie sheet and putting the bullets face down and spraying just the base and sides leaving the nose lead. I will give an update when on how that turns out.
 
Static static static.The dryer the weather the better the coating.
I have not gotten a decent tumble since late November.
Just too damp here.

Before I resort to the spray gun. I think I will try my Packing Peanut idea.
Might help get the static up.
 
To damp in the MN winter? with the heaters going it usually drys the place out. If you want to try a spry gun before you buy hit me up and come on down to Cambridge and try mine out.
 
Thats ok, I already have my own. I was just happy to have migrated to shake and bake.
It could also be I just left the lid on the powder open and it absorbed some moisture.
All i know is I have been a shaking fool of late.

Will see I need a good casting jag now any way. Might get after it this weekend.
 
OK, I've been lurking around this part of the forum for a while reading all the PC threads with great interest. No, I don't cast my own......yet. It isn't out of the question at least.
But with all the complaining about shaking with this and that, I got to ask, has anyone tried using a paint can shaker to do the hard work?
http://www.harborfreight.com/pneumatic-paint-shaker-94605.html
Why beat yourself up when modern technology gives us Harbor Freight air tools?

Just sayin'. I'm going back to my spot back here in the shadows.
 
"paint can shaker"

Maybe a bit much....
I spin, bounce, spin and bounce all less than a minuet total and get good coverage.
To get more dry powder to stick to the lead, dry/low humidity works or warm the lead a little.

Some love AirSoft pellets. I just find them to be in my way.
Some powder/colors don't give even pigment coverage. I don't care, I want the polyester to be fully coating. The color is just an added thing of little value. So much so that I am using 'Chrystal Clear' coating. Some times, I will toss in some of the AirSoft balls with colored pigment to add a little zip.

I'm currently working on accuracy, 30-06, 130 grain flat base. Looking good so far but with the wind and snow, all is on hold for now. Fat old men don't like sloshing about in snow.

Load with care,

OSOK
 
Well getting less humidity here along the Gulf Coast is like getting less mosquitoes in the salt flats. Sure it CAN happen, but not very likely a regular occurrence.

Like mentioned the warming of the bullets prior to the initial coating helped a lot. Still had some blotched areas on some, and still needed a second coat, but for the most was far better than them being cool.

I did purchase one of the airless rigs off fleabay and it should be here just in time for the rain to quit next week sometime. I'm figuring that it might helps since it generates it's own static.

I really don't care one rats rear about doing this for ALL of my bullets, but if it will help me out getting some of the upper velocities with my softer alloy so I can use my HP's then all the better. Thing is I got just as good of performance with the Carnuba Red last test with the exact same loads I used for the PC.

I will also probably use some to load up rounds for my BH in 30 Carbine. I have a couple of WICKED little pill molds for it now as well as using them in my .308 or my 30-30 AI Contender.

So there is room for expanded avenues but I'm not going hog wild on it either.
 
I'm not converting to it 100% just yet either. I didn't lust for this Star all my casting life, not to get some use out of it!!!! :D:D
 
Oh yes can not let the star set.
I just got a .310 sizer and punch for mine.
Since I have a AR15 in 300 Black out and now a AR10 in 308 win.
My HM2 312-155-2 mold is getting a work out.

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I shoot that bullet in just too much stuff. Working good as is why change?
Need to be able to lube and size these by the coffee can full.

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