I have to give this a try with some powder from Harbor Freight and a $20 Walmart toaster oven. I saw in one YouTube that the guy adds a squirt of acetone just before shaking/vibrating to get much more even powder coverage and adhesion. May try this as I got rid of my old vibratory tumblers some years back.

Have shot thousands of coated bullets from Missouri Bullets through my pistols... little if no leading.. In fact Missouri Bullets have eliminated grease grooves from their molds

It works.

But I found for lower end handgun loads liquid Alox is easier and faster.

Bought a pound of matte black powder from Harbor Freight yesterday. Now I need to add the cheapo toaster oven and fabricate a little screen.
P dog, I use Liquid Alox as well with good results. Wanted to try the powder coating for some hotter loads in 10mm.

Bill:

Take it back and get another color. Black is the hardest to get full even coverage with.

IF you go ahead and use it, coat them twice.
George

George, that is just what I did, tried to coat them once, baked, then coated them again, baked and got great coverage.
All the local Harbor Freight had in stock was matte black and clear.
I am pretty pleased with how easy this was. The Walmart oven was $19.99, the dedicated strainer was $4.97 and the powder was $8.99 all plus tax. If anyone out there has been hanging fire on trying powder coating, it really couldn't be simpler.

Careful with the temperature.

Had genius here set it too high.

Bullets were looking like Salvador Daly paintings!

Good point, Saeed. No evidence of slump in this batch, but something to watch for!

PC is not the answer for all bullets particularly those designs with a tight nose bearing surface,but most are OK. I have near 20,000 all ready for loading.

Well you have certainly been busy, Bad Ass.
My bullets, er boolits, are from the Lee 175-grain TL mold for the 10mm. I'll shoot the coated vs. the Alox tumble-lubed here shortly and report.

been coating for a long while now
wasn't getting the coverage I desired with the simple shake and bake method so I bought a pc gun can use any color I want and get excellent coverage
I also keep the lube groove to act like a pressure relief similar to the grooves cut into Barnes X bullets

whats the method using alox? i have a buncha 45 colt ready to lube but the old magma luber sizer is hell on my hands. tried the shake and bake method several years ago but 20-50 at a time is too time consuming. i'm used to dropping one nose down, pull handle, repeat. but can't even make a fist right now. have a pain clinic drs. appt in a coupla hours. and waaay too many unlubed cast to say to hell with it. do you need a tumbler with the alox method?

no.
a butter or cool whip container works for tumble lubing just fine.

heat the alox. [bottle in hot water]
add some mineral spirits to the bottle.
shake.
something like pancake syrup is what your looking for.

heat the bullets.[hair dryer/heat gun]

squirt about 1/3 the amount you think you'll need and then use a little less.
swirl them all around in the container and flip them over a time or two.
swirl and flip.
dump it all out on a cookie sheet with a fan blowing across it.

you should only have a light golden sheen on the bullets when dry.
more is not better.

I like to coat/size/coat again.
probably not necessary, but I put so little lube on, the second half coat makes me feel better.

cool. thanks

question....cookie sheet drying. are they all hand placed on their bases or not necessary?

John, I just dump mine on a sheet of waxed paper and try to make sure they aren't too clumped together. Hope you can get your issue with your hand figured out. I am dealing with numbness related to disc issues in my cervical vertebrae.

what i'm doing is just dumping em out on a piece of aluminum foil in the shop on a bench top. bout 50 at a time, 200 gr 45acp swc target bullets. guess thats about right, dunno.
went to the pain clinic for my semi annual "what did you do to yourself now" visit. says its plain old arthritis, not rheumatoid. thumb, 3 fingers, all knuckles. nothing new for a lot of us i bet! probably pretty common here.
so...doing whatever makes it easier to reload b4 i have to quit. probably gonna crank out few thou more 45acp and 45 colt and take up girl watching.
say....remember that ruger SA 45colt you sold me? there was an old bull out here got too crippled to walk so i got up to about 10 feet of him and put one of my medium hot 255 gr cast from the ruger right between his eyes. shook his head and looked at me. did it again. same thing. put in a HOT 270 (?) gr JSP. did it again. he went down, and i put one behind his ear. went back to get his skull/horns 2 days later to mount on my kawasaki mule but the damn coyotes had drug it off. smoked some jerky from him sunday.
hope ur back gets better! its a daily thing here too.

John, are you taking Glucosamine/ Chondroitin W/ MSM? It has really helped the arthritis in my hand.

no. i am taking Gabapentin and rubbing on Diclofenac Sodium Topical Gel.
the gabapentin is for back and hand. my pain guy gets all bent when i try something new w/out asking him first. is the stuff ur taking OTC?

Did some more reading over at Castboolits.com and concluded that I was largely wasting my time with black powder coat from Harbor Freight. So I ordered some in from a guy in their vendor forum named Smokes whose stuff is highly recommended. I like green. So today I gave it a try on a small batch of the Lee tumble lube bullet for the .41 Magnum, which weighs about 214 grains with my range scrap alloy. Just dropped them in a disposable Rubbermaid polypro bowl with a pinch of the powder and gave them a good shake -- no acetone or any of that stuff. Popped them into my cheap Walmart toaster oven for 20 minutes at 400 and they came out great.
Put up 10 rounds to test with 9.5 grains of Longshot.

Just looked at this again after months.

Nice looking greens Bill. Get on Eastwood.com and look at their selection of powders. I bought some blue and green, red and pink I think. Tried a couple batches and disgusted. Gave the stuff away to a friend that has been doing a lot of it he says. I asked for a thousand pc'd almost two years ago. Nothing more heard from him since then.

John C:

Yes, that stuff is OTC at Sam's for about $30/340, take two a day. Get a bottle and tell your dr you are going to take them.

Back in Aug 1970, wrecked both my knee's on a long uphill hike deer hunting. That next Jan I joined the Army long before healed up. Hikes ruined me for life.

Spring of '03 I was in lots of serious pain and could barely walk in metal braces. Friend in Pa's wife was head nurse of PA. She learned of it. Sent me five bottles with orders "Take 5 a day and don't argue". I did, in two months I was out of the braces and pain was nearly gone, made a la around the big stores and little more pain.
I've been eating them since. At times I've run out of them for a week or three and started hurting again. Relieved after a week or so back on them. I am a believer in this stuff too.

They seem to help other joints too, though it has been claimed they are only good for knee's. Not so,

George

thanks. i will try that next time at sams! pain clinic dr. sent me to a surgeon for xrays. bad arthritis in the 3 knuckles and thumb. said need to operate, make index finger where it is can barely bend at all, then middle knuckle be replaced, and thumb needs lots of "fancy stiching" to be fixed. asked if he ever heard of dr. david green. he says yes, hes the god of hand surgery, wrote the bible on it we all use, i have it right there on the shelf. told him hes an old family friend. said then why don't you go to him. cause hes in san antonio, and i hate driving to SA. upshot is i called him, hes not taking any new patients at all, fixing to retire, be here next tues. so i went. he agrees w/dr i went to, he gives me 3 cortosone shots, says that may help me for months at a time and he will be glad to oversee his partner if i need operation cause shots don't work. shots work great except 2 days later i have a broken water line and i'm on my knees in the dirt with a hand pik digging up water line 18" down in hard soil for 3 plus hours. thumb has been wrecked since, much worse than before, rest of hand is pain free. want to get operation on thumb. wife falls off ladder taking down xmas decorations dec 31 has bad break in arm right below shoulder so she gets operated on they put in pins and plates, i am doing everything at home till she heals, another 3 months with PT looming. so.....i am gritting my teeth and will get back with dr. green then. wearing a thumb/wrist brace and taking pills and tequilla till then. and thats all i know.

John, good God man, what a run of rum luck for you and your bride! Pour that tequila out and get yourself a good bottle of Sotol reserve to help take some of the sting out. If I were closer I'd bring over some "hot dish" as they say in Wisconsin.

yea its been fun. my tequilla de jour is ESPOLON. Patron is too damn expensive. my son, the contractor that lives 10 minutes away and is our handyman quit building, sold all his heavy equipment cept his mini x and is away for 3 months in mississipi training to be an insurance adjuster for catastropic events. he begged me not to start any new projects till he gets back. but that broken water line isn't on me. i put in a new trigger spring in my mini 14 yesterday. took 10 times longer with my boogered hand. remember that old 94 you sold me that turned out to be a 35-30 AI? i put pics and the story on a FB site called Hoglegs,Hipshots,and Jalapaneos and got a lot of response. drew a lot of interest if your into that damn commie FB site. i am because of my daughter when she was sick. i have been in facebook jail 7 times now. imagine that!
wife is well enough now that i can leave for longer times. so gonna go to Sams to get some of that stuff tomorrow. i hope. that glocosomine stuff.

John, glad your bride is doing some better. Nearest Sams from here is in ABI; nearest Costco in dang DFW.
By the way, your son is pretty smart training to be an adjuster for catastrophic events. That's a very nice living.
Hey, they sure have some nice snow up in your old stomping grounds, Cloudcroft.

tell you what. going back there is on my bucket list before i kick the bucket.
hes gonna like it maybe but trainings a bitch. says they give him 2 days to drive to a place anywhere in the US and don't give a damn whether he makes it time or not. if not he goes home. with no prior notice. just be there in 48 hours.

quote:

Originally posted by Norman Conquest:
John, are you taking Glucosamine/ Chondroitin W/ MSM? It has really helped the arthritis in my hand.

just got it in. had to order it. and so it begins.

quote:

Originally posted by Bill/Oregon:
Did some more reading over at Castboolits.com and concluded that I was largely wasting my time with black powder coat from Harbor Freight. So I ordered some in from a guy in their vendor forum named Smokes whose stuff is highly recommended. I like green. So today I gave it a try on a small batch of the Lee tumble lube bullet for the .41 Magnum, which weighs about 214 grains with my range scrap alloy. Just dropped them in a disposable Rubbermaid polypro bowl with a pinch of the powder and gave them a good shake -- no acetone or any of that stuff. Popped them into my cheap Walmart toaster oven for 20 minutes at 400 and they came out great.
Put up 10 rounds to test with 9.5 grains of Longshot.

Nice coverage there. How do you handle the bullets once they are coated and then needing baking without the powder being wiped off? I tried coating some .404 cast bullets using black powder but really hard to get coverage and the powder comes off easily when handling before baking.

I want to ensure the bullet base is well covered to see if I can shoot plain based bullets which will just not shoot if lubed and without a gas check. I have to turn the bullet bases down to fit gas checks and then get great accuracy.

Powder coating maybe the savior. Your bullets look perfect with bases well covered.

I like that color of green. Can you tell me what the name of it is?

Pretty sure it's John Deere Green from Smokes4320

Dick

be my guess too.

if you look at a couple of powder places you'll find you can get any color you want.
metallic too.

if you don't see exactly what you want you can buy 2 colors and mix them.

heck you can do polka dotted if you mix the right 2 powders in the right proportions.

I might order some of that green, I would really like a copper metalic that works in one coat.
The stuff I used earlier this were coated well and when it cured it was totally clear, not what I expected but for uncolored cast it looks great.

Guys, the seller who goes by Smokes4320 at Castboolits.com, lists that color as RAL 6018 yellow/green"

https://castboolits.gunloads.c...wder-For-sale/page32

Thanks Bill.