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1st time powder coating cast bullets

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I just finished powder coating about 2500 9mm bullets. The 1st coat didn't seem to cover them very good, so I did 2 coats. I think that I should have used Eastwood powder instead of Harbor Freight powder. After 2 coats, I can still see some lead on every bullet, but they definitely have a layer of polymer on them. I will be shooting them thru a 16" PCC, and a Glock 17. They average about .360 dia.
Is this sufficient, or do i need another coat?
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Melt them all down and start over. One correct coat should do it everytime.

Powder coat is ..............................finicky?

So after you cast them, you'll want to do an alcohol or similar chemical wash to get rid of any garbage on the surface. Anything like skin oil can really hinder adhesion. Get some of those nitrile gloves.

If your shaking them- You'll want airsoft pellets. I think the black ones are recommended. You'll need a good static charge to get the stuff to stick. You also want to do it in an area that has little humidity, because that can cause it to clump, which looks like what happened there. It really takes a good 10 mins of shaking to get them to cover right.

If your using the gun- Same humidity rule applies. I had soldered some .035 mig wire to the end of the tip, maybe 8 lengths, and fanned it out a little so made a more even charge across the powder. Do it on a baking sheet with tinfoil and get a decent ground. Its not like painting with an h.v.l.p. gun. You'll want to run it in 4 directions. North/ South/ East / West to get a good coat.

When you bake them- Get a decent small oven. Nothing huge or fancy, but you want it to hold that temp fairly well. I think I was at 425 on the dial. Pre-heat it, get everything laid out, then pop them in rikki-tik. Takes about 15 mins or so to bake. You'll see the powder start to gloss over. Once they're glossed, its maybe another 5-10 mins depending on batch size. The coating should be smooth.

Certain powder colors also gloss over better than others. I had decent results with h.f. red, but the go-to stuff is (or was) was Eastwood Blue. It looked the old ford mustang blue.
Powder by the Pound (haven't done it in years, not sure if they're around or not) was another recommended brand.

If you haven't, check out this forum-
Coatings and Alternatives

Ton of info, and can give you the exact process.

I'm not shitting on your results.
When I first tried it, I had to re-melt at least half a dozen times. It is a process and steep learning curve.
This is why a lot of people switched over to Hi-tek.
Powder coat goes on dry and you have to liquefy it through heat to get it to fill and bond. And the stuff can get everywhere. Small batches are the key, like 50 or so at a time.
Hi-tek goes on as a liquid and fills better and you use heat to harden and cure.
 
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I would call those part of your learning curve and start over. I will guess you are shaking them to apply the powder. I was never happy with shaking them. My advice is to look into spraying. A setup from Harbor Freight is /was about $70 and works great. There is a lot of good info on castboolits.com. There is a vendor on there who sells good powder too. Username Smoke. Good luck.
 
I coated a couple hundred 300 blk 240grn last night for the fist time, Used Hi-Tek bullet coating, came out pretty darn good, and was easier than I expected. May want to look into it. I have heard the harbor freight powder coat in crap for coating bullets
 
Thank you for the awesome replies guys.
I used a Lyman turbo tumbler to cover them. I did check my toaster oven temp with an IR thermometer and had to run it up between 425 and 450. The other method that I have seen around is mixing acetone and powder to cover the bullets. Is that method effective?
 
Thank you for the awesome replies guys.
I used a Lyman turbo tumbler to cover them. I did check my toaster oven temp with an IR thermometer and had to run it up between 425 and 450. The other method that I have seen around is mixing acetone and powder to cover the bullets. Is that method effective?
Not sure about powder coating, but acetone is used with the Hi-Tek coatings, first batch required 3 coats, the second batch looked the same as the first after only 2 coats, I used a new bucket to shake the bullets in and I think getting the bucket coated may have made the first coat a bit light.
 
I have to admit the coated bullets you gave me last year to try look and shoot pretty good.
Thank you. I have done the PC and it’s an OK result. It does work.

I just don’t like the idea of so many weird chemicals that can be used in the PC. (Not that hi-tek is good to breathe while baking) but I read a chart on PC paint bases one time and there was some nasty stuff in a lot of the paints.

The PC issue is that is will melt again with heat. Now you fire a cartridge and those chemicals are possibly aerosolizing.

The Hi-Tek once cured is hard as woodpecker lips and won’t melt and aerosolize for sure.

That along with a smoother more consistent coat I’m guessing helps accuracy and of course gives a much more appealing finished product.
 
The bullets have a much thicker coating than it looks in that picture in post #1. They passed the hammer smash test as well. I just loaded up 200 rounds. I am going to fire 100 from my Glock 17, and 100 thru my PCC. I'm actually really curious to see what happens. I will inspect both bores carefully when I get home. Both barrels are very clean right now.
 
The bullets have a much thicker coating than it looks in that picture in post #1. They passed the hammer smash test as well. I just loaded up 200 rounds. I am going to fire 100 from my Glock 17, and 100 thru my PCC. I'm actually really curious to see what happens. I will inspect both bores carefully when I get home. Both barrels are very clean right now.

They will probably work fine. I’ve seen some ugly PC and Hi-Tek that worked fine.

Grab some hi-tek and give it a try. If you’re local I can toss you 20 grams of powder to mix up a batch. Makes 100-120 ML of liquid so good to do 2 coats on 50-60 pounds of bullets
 
The barrels of both guns had 100rds shot thru them and I don't see any evidence of any leading in either gun. I was hoping that I could get away without sizing them, not so. I had a few that didn't chamber completely in the Glock. I was expecting this. They didn't freely drop into the case guage.
I read somewhere that the Harbor Freight flat black pc didn't work good for coating bullets. I'm going to cover 100 or so with the glossy white I have and see what happens.
 
If you haven't sized any coated bullets yet you will like how easy they go through the sizer.
Ha ha, I did notice that! I started off wondering why I was even sizing them. Then I would run in to one that took significantly more effort. Those are the ones that would cause a problem. The white ones came out much better!
 
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