Powder Coat Paint

[AJ]

While it is cool here (mid 60's), I am casting some bullets. I noticed that I am running out of Harbor Freight Red Powder Coat. Since they have stopped selling this, what are you all using?

 

[IAM Rand]

Plenty of stuff on Amazon. Not to particular. I used Hotcoat vermillion, leland caddy blue, and tractor green.

 

[AJ]

A long time ago I had heard that Eastwood Powder Coat was good. Has anyone else used it?

 

[Forrest r]

There's a lot of good powders out there. I'm using smoke's powder that I bought off of him (#2). When it's gone (+/- 10,000 coated bullets per #), I'll buy a coupe #'s from these guys.
https://www.bing.com/ck/a?!&&p=0016...cmUtZ3JlZW4tcG93ZGVyLWNvYXRpbmctcGFpbnQ&ntb=1

I like the looks of the john deere green along with it gives an excellent coverage. It only takes 1 coat (+/- 2/1000th's) to get a quality even coat. Doesn't matter if it a hollow point, hollow base or a standard cast bullet.

 

[twodog max]

I have been using Eastwood dark green. Works acceptably well.

 

[Rule3]

A long time ago I had heard that Eastwood Powder Coat was good. Has anyone else used it?

Lots of claims that Eastwood is the go to paint. I only have done a few batches with the HF Red and it worked just fine, All they have now is black and white.


Don't think you can go wrong with Eastwood, It's all in the application,

 

[Skeet 028]

I used some Eastwood that was given to me...It was good. I have a new jar of HF white. Works ok. I don't care what color they are. I do have a sample set from Smoke 4 colors. I thought of just mixing them up...Green yellow red and blue I think...prob be ugly or purple

 

[Skeet 028]

I do have a question on powder coat though. I happen to have thousands of cast sized/lubed bullets. I know I have read it...but can you powder coat sized lubed bullets?? I do have to admit PC bullets are cleaner to load and shoot! these are bullets I no longer cast. I only cast 4 or 5 different bullets...

 

[Nevada Ed]

I used some Eastwood that was given to me...It was good. I have a new jar of HF white. Works ok. I don't care what color they are. I do have a sample set from Smoke 4 colors. I thought of just mixing them up...Green yellow red and blue I think...prob be ugly or purple

If you know how to mix colors;
you could have a lot of Green with a little Red, on hand.

 

[Rule3]

I do have a question on powder coat though. I happen to have thousands of cast sized/lubed bullets. I know I have read it...but can you powder coat sized lubed bullets?? I do have to admit PC bullets are cleaner to load and shoot! these are bullets I no longer cast. I only cast 4 or 5 different bullets...

You can but it is a lot of work. I did 500 45 acp 230 grain
First you need to remove all traces of the regular lube. Severl ways to do this
One is to boil them in water in a old pot. (this was a PITA)


What I then did was just put some heavy paper towels in a try for the toaster oven (mine in the garage!) an put the bullets in there turned it up to 250=300 and it melts off the lube (smoky). Then after they cool down washed them in solvent like acetone or break clean (actually Colemans fuel works great)


Now they are clean and do you shake and bake with the powder. Then you should resize them.
Baked them on parchment paper



I found it was easier to just shoot them and clean up the guns!!

 

[Skeet 028]

If you know how to mix colors;
you could have a lot of Green with a little Red, on hand.

NE...I don't want my wife to know I paint ANYTHING. at this point she won't allow me near paint...which to me is more than great. I told her I was gonna paint bullets...with spray paint...Told me she wanted to see it...you know...it works...kinda. I couldn't talk her into painting those bullets either

Rule 3....about what I thought...more work than if's work...but I am going to try getting the lube of an easier way(maybe). I have sone black cookie pans...black cloth ...line the pans with black cloth bullets on top and put in the back of the black truck come summer. Bet it hits at least one fifty back there most days

 

[Rule3]

NE...I don't want my wife to know I paint ANYTHING. at this point she won't allow me near paint...which to me is more than great. I told her I was gonna paint bullets...with spray paint...Told me she wanted to see it...you know...it works...kinda. I couldn't talk her into painting those bullets either

Rule 3....about what I thought...more work than if's work...but I am going to try getting the lube of an easier way(maybe). I have sone black cookie pans...black cloth ...line the pans with black cloth bullets on top and put in the back of the black truck come summer. Bet it hits at least one fifty back there most days

Might not be hot enough. It is easy to melt it off in a toaster oven which you need to apply the paint My lubed bullet s never melted sitting in the truck is Florida
It does melt cosmoline on surplus guns!!


https://media.midwayusa.com/productdocuments/applicationchart/689/bullet_lube_melting_points.pdf



The rest is a PITA

 

[Skeet 028]

Heck I put a SMLE on my tailgate one afternoon. Fellow told me had cleaned it all out. Yeah, right! Even the wood leaked grease

 

[venomballistics]

Almost anything is better than horrible fright powder coat.
None the less, the stuff obviously worked.
All that said, it's hard to screw this up.
All powder paints or powder buy the pound
Either will have you squared away

 

[BC38]

FWIW, I've removed a heavy coating of traditional waxy lube by soaking the bullets in gasoline.
I followed that with a soak in Acetone to remove the oily residue from the gasoline.
Worked great - the cleaned bullets took the powder coat just fine.
Just one point of clarification for anyone reading this thread who doesn't already know - powdercoat isn't paint. It is a finely ground powdered plastic that you melt (not paint) onto the sized lead bullets.

 

[DeplorabusUnum]

I've had very good luck with Eastwood powder. I've used bright signal red, dark green, and Ford light blue. Consistently turns out good quality bullets. It's orders of magnitude better than the white Harbor Freight powder I tried.

 

[max503]

Smoke's Traffic Purple has never let me down. Only other powder I've used was some no-name stuff a packrat friend gave me. It worked good too.

 

[mtgianni]

I use Smokes. Purple, green and white.

 

[BeachBumShooter]

I started out using Harbor Freight Powder. Those bullets shot, but did not look good. Clumpy uneven coverage and color.

But, when I tried Eastwoods Powder I found it to be far superior to HF in every way!

I really like using the Eastwoods clear gloss powder, ZERO leading at .357 magnum velocities and the cast bullets have a nice light grey lead color to them. I have all so tried their red powder with great success.

 

[AJ]

FWIW, I've removed a heavy coating of traditional waxy lube by soaking the bullets in gasoline.
I followed that with a soak in Acetone to remove the oily residue from the gasoline.
Worked great - the cleaned bullets took the powder coat just fine.
Just one point of clarification for anyone reading this thread who doesn't already know - powdercoat isn't paint. It is a finely ground powdered plastic that you melt (not paint) onto the sized lead bullets.

I size my bullets after I powder coat. Are there any advantages to sizing before? I cast then , powder coat and then size.