Basket of bullets being baked

[Dolomite_supafly]

These are cast bullets that are being coated with powder coating. These are coated using the dry tumble method. Basically you put the bullets in a cup or tumbler then add powder coating powder. Shake or tumble the mixture until the bullets are evenly coated. Then dump the coated bullets into a sieve and give it a shake to remove excess powder. After that I dump them into a wire basket for baking.

I know a lot of people place their bullets on a flat sheet of non stick aluminum foil. And I have said there is no need and that I bake all my bullets after pouring them all in a basket. I normally have several layers of bullets in the same basket when I bake them. The larger the batch the longer I bake to ensure the bullets in the middle get to proper curing temperature but other than that I do not change anything else regardless of the batch size. I have had several people ask me how much is in a basket and here is a picture that represents over 10 pounds of bullets being baked all at once. These will be baked for about 20 minutes at temperature.



Yes there will be some bare spots here but that does not affect performance at all from all my testing. I believe it is better to have a few bare spots than flat spots. I think that with flat spots you get a bullet that will be out of balance once sized. The extra thickness will move the lead and so the side with the thick coat of powder coat will be the light side of the bullet once sized.

And here is a post baking photo:

The basket contains several hundred 198 grain bullets cast using the NOE 311365 mold and several hundred 9mm bullets a friend sent me to try.

And here is a test batch of 45 caliber bullets. They were sent to me by a friend.


This was using the powder from the Ebay seller dmc2powder.
http://www.ebay.com/usr/dmc2powder?_trksid=p2047675.l2559
I think it actually works better than PBTP, at least the blue does.

The first batch, 45, is a little too thick. I think this stuff sticks too well. The second batch I added some powder and tumbled for a couple of minutes until they looked evenly, but thinly, coated then I added a little more powder. I repeated this until the bullets looked like they had a very thin coat. When I dumped the coated bullets out into the sieve there was no a lot of excess powder so I know I had it about right. With the 45 bullets I had a bunch of excess powder in the bottom of the tumbler so the 45s had a thicker coat.

Enjoy

[Mike.357]

you do the coolest stuff Gordon.

[Troutburger]

Do you run these through a sizing die after baking?

[Dolomite_supafly]

Do you run these through a sizing die after baking?

Depends on their size after baking but I generally do in order to uniform the diameter.

[Guest theconstitutionrocks]

ok...I gotta ask because I'm totally clueless on this...why do you powder and bake cast bullets? I have no idea

[z0mbies fear me]

ok...I gotta ask because I'm totally clueless on this...why do you powder and bake cast bullets? I have no idea

Basically it allows you to push them to higher velocities (near jacketed bullets) without leading your barrel

[Ugly]

Basically it allows you to push them to higher velocities (near jacketed bullets) without leading your barrel

I didn't know that either, it's brilliant! And colorful :)

[z0mbies fear me]

I believe that this is the original thread for those of you who would like a little more info:

http://www.tngunowners.com/forums/topic/66713-powder-coating-the-easy-way/?fromsearch=1

[Dolomite_supafly]

I believe that this is the original thread for those of you who would like a little more info:

http://www.tngunowners.com/forums/topic/66713-powder-coating-the-easy-way/?fromsearch=1

Actually that is an older thread and the method s not the best.

 

I am going to hide it to prevent confusion.

[Dolomite_supafly]

Here is the best method.

http://www.tngunowners.com/forums/topic/73808-powder-coating-the-super-duper-easy-way/?hl=duper

[z0mbies fear me]

Didn't mean to confuse anyone with the link. I just used it because it seemed to explain "why you would want powder coat" better than the other links I found.

[Dolomite_supafly]

Know what, I am going to unhide it and edit my post.

[Ugly]

I can't wait to make the colors for football season!

Can't do the baby blue, gonna go green and silver for the Eagles :) Edited June 24, 2014 by Ugly

[TNMTBik3r]

That blue looks great Dolomite.
For anyone new to powder coating, several colors are a bit more difficult to make look good - my best results are with dark red and blue. Orange, yellow, other light or very dark colors have not looked good (for me at least and some other peoples examples I have seen) but the coating is still effective even if the overall color is spotty.

[jaysouth]

Do the rifle bullets have the shank for a gas check?  Would plain based bullets be better for PC?

[Dolomite_supafly]

Do the rifle bullets have the shank for a gas check?  Would plain based bullets be better for PC?

Yes they have shanks for a gas check but I have found that you can use a gas check shank bullet without a gas check as long as it is powder coated.

 

Depends on the gun but in most cases a plain base is better. There is some discussion whether there is some gas cutting as the bullet passes a gas port on a barrel but I am not so sure as I have yet to see any powder coating being deposited in my gas system.

Edited June 28, 2014 by Dolomite_supafly