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Air Fryer For PC Bullets???


Cholla

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I am gearing up to powder coat my bullets. The cast boolits forum say a small convection oven works best because the fan prevents  temperature variations. I have access to a cheap air-fryer and it seems to me that that should work the same. Have any of you used one for this?

UPDATE: The air-fryer works great except it's too small. My first attempt went well and survived the smash test. I used Eastwood powder, no airsoft BBs, in a cottage cheese container. 400 degrees for 20 minutes.

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43 minutes ago, Sedalia Dave said:

Let us know how it works. 

This is the same response I got on castboolits!

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A fan does improve temperature evenness through the oven.

 

Too much air movement might blow some of the powder off of them.

 

Preheating the bullets might improve powder adhesion.

 

All of the above from studying for and planning powder coating for automotive and other purposes, but a tray of bullets should behave the same.

 

I'm think an air fryer might have too much air movement, and preheating parts prior to applying powder might improve results. My gut tells me the fan will win in the end.

 

So after all that, let us know how it works. And if they are crispy without the fat.

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My Air Fryer makes absolutely WONDERFUL Chicken.  Wonder if it would make the Bullets Tender and Juicy??  Please keep us up to date!!

 

Enquiring minds and all that happy hou.......

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The wife might not like using her Airfryer for that, my wife REALLY didn't like me using the dishwasher to clean motorcycle parts and using the oven to make windscreens when we were still racing motorcycles. The parts did come out nice and warm.

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You can also heat up your leftover pizza while doing the bullets.:P

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They are a little small but a friend of mine used one of those toaster ovens to heat his cast bullets.

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I picked up the air-fryer today and ordered powder coat from Amazon so I'll see what happens when it all gets here.

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We have a Powder Coating co here that I get my powdercoat from.

Better selection.

                                                                                                           Largo

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Harbor Freight has powder coat paint too.

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1 hour ago, DeaconKC said:

Harbor Freight has powder coat paint too.

I checked online and our local HF only has black and white listed. The black gets bad reviews for bullets. I was looking for the red. I decided to go with Eastwood and since I got it on Amazon, the shipping was almost nothing compared to buying direct from Eastwood's website.

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They dropped the red

58 minutes ago, Cholla said:

I checked online and our local HF only has black and white listed. The black gets bad reviews for bullets. I was looking for the red. I decided to go with Eastwood and since I got it on Amazon, the shipping was almost nothing compared to buying direct from Eastwood's website.

 

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I've used a lot of HF red PC powder.It works pretty well,but on a previous thread Scarlett Darlin' warned that using it might damage barrels because of the silica used in the powder. I have no way to analyze the content,but it does seem to be slightly more coarse .Like Largo Casey ,I buy most of my powder from a local powder coat company.Good selection of colors,and sometimes I get a really good deal on colors that that they want to get rid of.The price is usually just a little more than mail order,but I pick it up locally and don't have to pay shipping which can actually work out to be cheaper.

Of course YMMV

Choctaw

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11 hours ago, Michigan Slim said:

I'm assuming that a pound will go a lonnngg way? 

It doesn't take much. I have been watching videos and reading on castboolits.com. it seems less is better than more when using the powder. It's like tablespoons or even teaspoons depending on how many are to be done at a time.

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10 hours ago, Cholla said:

It doesn't take much. I have been watching videos and reading on castboolits.com. it seems less is better than more when using the powder. It's like tablespoons or even teaspoons depending on how many are to be done at a time.

I'll have to research some. I usually cast thousands at a time. 

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23 minutes ago, Michigan Slim said:

I'll have to research some. I usually cast thousands at a time. 

The biggest slow down from what I have read is oven space. Some neatly place all the boolits on their base for the heating process, others just dump them in a basket. One user has two ovens so he can keep the process going. Castboolits.com and Fortunecookie45LC on youtube can give you information overload.

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I've been PC for a number of years now.  over on Cast Boolits they have a guy that sells PC powder.  I've always had great success with his.  Smoke is his avatar (has some numbers after that but you can find him in vendor's section)

 

I'v'e done both standing them up and dumping them.  Dumping them in a single layer works well enough for me.  

I'm using a cheap < $20 toaster oven with a PID for temp control.  

 

I normally do 30 lbs of bullets at a time and can get off of them baked in less than an hour.

 

fun to mix colors, too

 

 

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Eastwood powders work the best for me. I started with my wife’s toaster oven and found the temperature was not even so I purchased an Eastwood pc oven and that works best I made 6 wire baskets and bake them 2 at a time. You can coat a lot of bullets that way. I use the shake and bake technique using Cool whip containers. I find that the sizing is the bottle neck for me.

 

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2 hours ago, Sprue Cutter said:

 I started with my wife’s toaster oven and found the temperature was not even so I purchased an Eastwood pc oven 

 

 

▲one reason I built a PID to control temp to within 2-3°  You can make one easy with directions on Cast Bollits site.  Cost is not a biggie if you check ebay for PID  they have the PID and SSRs grouped together with a temp probe.  I went with a 6" one so I didn't have to drill the pot.

 

 

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I did 5000 38's the other day. in about 2 hours  I buy the PC from a guy on the boolits forum (tried HF red and the PC sold there is MUCH better) .  bought a two shelf toaster oven from walmart for 35 bucks cut down some dollar store cookie sheets and bent up the edges a bit so the bullets don't roll off.  I  line the cookie sheets with non stick aluminum foil, and dump them on seperating slightly but if a few touch I don't worry about it.   I started with cool whip bowls, but found Reesers potato salad 3lb have the 5 on the bottom and work great and are larger as well as tougher with the lid fitting tighter. I have used this process for the last 4 years now and done about 25-30000 rounds.  

Hope this helps 

Your Nemesis 

SASS 92020 

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Look forward to hearing how the air fryer works out!  Convection toaster ovens for this purpose are cheap and easy to find at Good Will; maybe they have air fryers too.  I used Eastwood Ford light blue with good results for cap & ball shooting (.36 cal ‘51 Navies) to reduce my lead exposure.

 

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On 12/27/2020 at 3:04 PM, Your Nemesis said:

I did 5000 38's the other day. in about 2 hours  I buy the PC from a guy on the boolits forum (tried HF red and the PC sold there is MUCH better) .  bought a two shelf toaster oven from walmart for 35 bucks cut down some dollar store cookie sheets and bent up the edges a bit so the bullets don't roll off.  I  line the cookie sheets with non stick aluminum foil, and dump them on seperating slightly but if a few touch I don't worry about it.   I started with cool whip bowls, but found Reesers potato salad 3lb have the 5 on the bottom and work great and are larger as well as tougher with the lid fitting tighter. I have used this process for the last 4 years now and done about 25-30000 rounds.  

Hope this helps 

Your Nemesis 

SASS 92020 

Do you use the black air soft bbs? I see videos doing it with and without. 

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I used whipped topping bowls for a long time as shake containers,but a pardon posted a chart showing which  material generated the most static electricity. PVC was 2nd on the list, so I made some containers out of 4 inch PVC pipe.I glued in a plugin one end and left the plug unglued on the other.l cut them at about 7 inches,and they will hold several hundred  .45 bullets at a time.Put the bullets in ,add powder, and shake vigorously  for 15-30 seconds  and they are good to go.

I've found it takes less shaking and it seems to cover better  than the topping bowls.

I bought enough PVC that I can afford a container for each color that I  use.

Of course, YMMV

Choctaw

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14 hours ago, Cholla said:

Do you use the black air soft bbs? I see videos doing it with and without. 

I tried the BB’s  and found them to be a real pain in the rear.
I found that if I heat the bullets up for just a minute or so with a hair dryer set on high the powder adheres to them just as well if not better.

What would the capacity be on the air fryer you have access to? I do 300 at a time standing on end in my small toaster oven that I paid $15 for at the Goodwill store.    I have settle on 20 minutes at 400°, after experimenting with other times and degrees.

 

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You should ask Scarlett Darlin  about using powder coated bullets there are not good for your guns. Her Number is 843-833-0770

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