Installing Soda Can Gas Checks On Powder Coated Plain Base Bullets
After powder coating the bullets on aluminum foil covered plate, the base of the bullet is always a little uneven due to the powder coat not being even around the base.
After a lot of trial and error attempts it has been discovered the aluminum foil with the LLA and MEK coating will result in a bullet with a much cleaner base but there is still some difficulty installing the soda can gas check.
Simple rubbing the base of the bullet on some 250 grit shop paper easily removed the powder coat from the base and the gas check were easy to install.
To make the process faster a small piece of plastic was drilled through the center and split with a hack saw.
This piece of plastic was put in a cordless drill and the bullets inserted in the hole so the bullet could be rotated by the drill.
This methods allow the base of the bullets to be cleaned up in seconds with the 250 grit paper.
The pictures below show the plastic and the drill.
The process works good and the gas checks fit the bullet well and the gas checks go on easy with the pushing thru an inverted Lee push thru sizer.
The bullets can easily be pushed in and out of the plastic once the grip is adjusted by the grip of the drill chuck on the plastic.
The bullets in this picture are 95 grain 9mm used to load a 380 auto case.
This process does add a little time in preparing the bullets but once the soda can gas check is installed on the powder coated bullet the bullet can be driven in the jacketed bullet range of pressure and velocity.