I bought a cheap $20 oven at Walmart. The convection one I wanted was out of stock so I thought I'd try the cheap one. I spent a few hours yesterday experimenting with powder coating techniques.

I bought Eastwood light Ford blue powder. It seems to coat well shaking them in a cool whip container. I made a little wire basket for the toaster oven. First batch I put some no stick tin foil on the basket. I poured the ballets on it in a pile and baked for 20 minutes at 400. I took them out and they looked good but I let them cool too long and it took a bit to break them apart.

The next batch I used the same sheet of tin foil and the bullets had fuzzy clumps of melted powder stuck to them. Next batch I just did directly on the basket with no foil. They looked pretty good but had spots missing where they stuck to the basket. I ended up having best results with non stick parchment paper on the basket. Still had some spots where the bullets stuck together.

I think my last 2 batches were the best. I baked them in a pile on parchment then took them right out let them cool for maybe a minute, then dumped them in a tub of water.

I cast several different bullets this week and after working through some glitches I'm getting some good bullets. The alloy I've found I like is 4 pounds of wheel weight alloy with 1 pound of monotype ratio. I typically do 10 pounds ww and 2.5 pounds monotype in my lee pot. I get I really hot and then Flux and stir about 3 times to get it nice and clean. I heat my mold by dipping the corner in the alloy as the alloy cools to 650 or so then I start casting.

It's taken quite a bit to get some of these new molds casting well. I've found I scrub them with hot water and dish soap. Then go over them with qtips and alcohol. I lube them on the pins, screws, and plate with synthetic 2 cycle oil. I hit them with a touch more lube as I cast.

I had really frosty bullets at first from too hot of mold. I thought at first it was too hot of alloy but it's the mold temp that frosts. I started keeping a damp rag near by and cooling the mold on it for about a 7 count if it is frosting. I almost have to cool it after each cast.

I also found to put the sprue back in the pot as I cut it. It doesn't cool the alloy too much if I do it right then and one at a time. It's better then getting a little pile of them and putting them all back in at once. That cools your mix down too quick.

I forgot there's a bit of an art to casting. Once your up and going and get a rhythm you can make a pile with a 6 cavity. It just takes me some time to get all 6 casting well. Once it's all running it's kind of fun making a nice pile of your own.

Today I shot my 340g .458 bullets from a Lee mold in my guide gun. At 50 yards I was getting about a 2" group with open sights. That's about all the better I can shoot it with any load with no scope on it. I was shooting plain based powder coated at 1600 fps. The load I worked up is the 340 over 50 grains of H4895. I knew I'd like h4895 for a lighter load. The first load I tried seems to shoot well.

I also tried some pc 310g 44 Lee bullets without gas checks in my 329 pd. I had to run these through my push through Lee sizer after powder coating to get them to fit well in all my different 44 mags. I tried 4 different powders and speeds ranged from about 1000 fps to 1130 fos from the 4" 329 pd. The fastest load was 20g of PP300mp at 1130 and it shot well but wasn't fun in the 329pd.

It's been a week of leaning for me but I'm a much better caster already and I've successfully entered the world of powder coating. If anyone has any more pointers keep them coming please.

Bb