Home Forums Reloading Bullet Casting lube question

It doesn't need to take any longer than tumble lubing. What is your coating process? Mine is the same as tumble lubing, except baking instead of waiting for it to dry.

I size after coating, but do the same with tumble lube (push through lee sizer). You can skip sizing with coating too, if you prefer, same as some guys do with tumble lube.

It's the sizing process that takes the time, really no time saving when you compare to using a lube sizer.

I shake and bake, but there is a fair amount of time picking bullets from bb's.

I do like the way they look.

Interesting info..

Skip the bbs. You don't need them, and as you point out, it takes a lot more time. If you don't size with tumble lubing, you should be ok without sizing for powder coating too. You don't need a thick coating.

I documented my shake and bake method several years ago with just bullets and a small amount of powder in a tub; since then other people have added to the process attempting to "improve" it, but only make it slower. BBs, vibrating tumblers, sifter screens, etc are all unnecessary additions to the process, IME; simple is best and fastest.

I throw mine in a vibratory tumbler with enough black BBs to almost cover the bullets. Takes less than a minute to get a good coat then I pick them out with forceps from Harbour Freight. After baking I just push them through a Lee size die. I like them way more than I did the Lee tumble lubed bullets as they are no mess to handle nor do they attract dirt like Lee Alox.

They are supposed to be a little faster but that is not why I powder coat. I just like the no mess and I like the ease of set up over a standard lube sizing setup.

You can skip all that time of picking the bullets out with forceps if you get rid of the bbs. I go from bare bullets to the oven in less than a minute total. Just shake for 15-20 seconds and dump them on the baking tray.

Nothing wrong with being picky and trying to make them perfect, but for guys wanting to speed up production, there is no need to make this process slow.

The slowest part of the process for me is separating the bullets after baking (have a few tricks there too) and sizing. Otherwise it's very quick. Push through sizing of course is a lot faster than using a lubersizer as well. Maybe 3:1 the way I do it anyway.

I may be giving the no BBs a try.

Since my bullets sit well on their bases I like to set them that way on the baking tray. But I am retired and have a lot of time to putter around.

If you're standing them on the bases anyway, using BBs probably doesn't take any longer, but personally I don't bother with that. I just dump them on a tray, which has a piece of wire screen laying on the bottom. They can pile up 2-3 deep with no issues.

Also, a note about shaking by hand instead of using a tumbler - it only takes 10-20 seconds of shaking, but you should be shaking hard enough to feel like it's a little bit of a workout, or at least a warmup exercise. Not just gently rolling them around in the tub. You want to generate some static, and get that powder flying around in the tub to coat everything.