Powder coating - standing up or laying on their side in the toaster oven

[Kenk]

Anyone seeing a marked difference in overall coverage and finish quality when standing the bullets up in the oven, vs just scattered around in the mesh basket?

[Alabusa]

Standing up on the base works best for me. That gives the most uniform results on the sides, in my opinion, and that is where it matters most, right?

Sent from my SM-G986U using Tapatalk

[John A.]

It's near impossible to stand the bullets upright without rubbing coating off.

In a perfect world, I would stand them up on their base.  But reality is, that's near impossible to do.

[Kenk]

Thanks John, if I run into any funky chunky stuff, my final resizing operation should fixem  up up just fine

[blaster]

when I first started powder coating, I was really anal about trying to keep the bullets upright and well coated. a lot of work for nothing. now I just dump them on the mesh basket I made and try to keep them apart as much as possible, but some still stick together. after baking them I dump them into a bucket of water. then I run them through the sizing die.

[Kenk]

Other than wanting them to look really nice, I?m sure they will shoot just fine regardless of how pretty they are.

[sqlbullet]

I use tweezers when I care.

For the most part I have gone back to traditional lube unless the bullets are going to a gun with a gas system with no gas check.

[Kenk]

I think I still have some hemostats left over from my late teens and early twenties😀, for sure worth a try, Thanks!

[The_Shadow]

I have read that if you rub some of the powdered coating on your fingers it helps to not remove the powder from the coated bullets while handling!
It's sort of like putting flower on the table while working dough!

[Kenk]

I?ve read that as well, Thanks Shadow!

[sqlbullet]

I think I still have some hemostats left over from my late teens and early twenties😀, for sure worth a try, Thanks!

My tweezers are left over medical supplies as well.  The below picture, top pair is what I use.

[sqlbullet]

Thinking about those...They are cauterizing tweezers and have connectors.  I could use a DC power supply and with the right charge they would not only pick up the bullets, but energize them so the powder was attracted to the bullets during the move....

Might have to give that a try.

[Rvrrat14]

I use a grilling mat inside my wire rack.   It?s the copper coated ones.   I stand them up using a large pair of forceps.  I also wear nitrile gloves and never touch boolits when PCing.   I get full coverage with very minimal stick.   Very minimal.

[sqlbullet]

I have always thought of making some dedicated trays for each bullet I coat.  Reason being I actually like the look of a cast bullet nose, and only need the coating on the base and bearing surfaces of the bullet.  So a metal tray that I could put the bullets in base/sides up, nose down and then ES coat and bake would be ideal.  Never have tried it though.