simple Hi-Tek coating

[perminator]

I got my stuff in and my 1st batch finished took 3 coats using the recommendations of 300 125gn boolits and a coating of 4ml followed by two coats of 6ml should I have used maybe a little more on the 2nd coat to avoid the 3rd? Also I did this in my non convection full size stove seemed to turn out quite well

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[perminator]

I'm baking them right at 400 for 8 mins and all wipe and smash tests have gone well

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[Grmps]

Kinda hits you square in the head when you do it according to the directions and everything falls into place.
Congratulations, now your hooked

[perminator]

Kinda hits you square in the head when you do it according to the directions and everything falls into place.
Congratulations, now your hooked

No more spraying powder coating on boolits for me!

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[razorfish]

Nicely done. What color is this green?

[perminator]

Nicely done. What color is this green?

Kryptonite green

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[HI-TEK]

Air guns are here. No permits,bureaucracy etc needed. Not yet.

I shoot 300 meters regularly, sometimes Air Guys leave pellets there,just for others to see. They shoot 45 cal air guns at 300 meters with good success.

Can you post a picture of the pellets used with these air guns? What sort of alloy is used?
I cant imagine just how much pressure is needed to shoot 300 metres with air.
I wonder how these pellets would go with the coating?
I was advised, that this high pressure air guns are now becoming very popular in an ever increasing US groups.

Here, our government has outlawed air guns if you have no licence. Getting a licence is very problematic due to the anti gun lobby .

[HI-TEK]

Perminator,looking good.

My first boolits were indeed undercooked. And I went to the other end too,flaking when smashed.

I decided to see how overcooked shoot.

I fired a box of overcooked, slightly flaking water dropped boolits at 50 meters,very good accuracy but also some leading as expected. Easy to wipe though.



Attachment 218792


So I'm still working on time/temp. A thin line between wiping and flaking it seems.

I suspect, that your first coat was not dried adequately.
Once coating and alloy gets to about 180C it starts to cross link and bond. However, traces of moisture will affect bonding, and that is why normally it flakes when doing smash test.
Over baking will not harm coating and bonding. Only the colour suffers.
Attached is over cooked coating. They work just fine.
Over Cooked coating.pdf

[HI-TEK]

.

Could be. It also took me a while to really get the wipe test,I let some questionable boolits pass without eyeglasses.

Is there such a thing as Too Hot Drying Temp?
In cold damp areas, I suggest that first coat is dried at about 40-50C for about 1/2 hour. To check if the first coat is totally dry, simply bake a few first. Cool and do tests. If all is OK, bake the rest.

My boolits get to 60°C on top of the oven in half an hour if I let them to.

Another variable is my boolit temp when coating. Coating mix will chill alloy and temperatures can drop 5 degrees C.
I always suggest, that alloy is at least 5-10 degrees warmer than room temperatures, so any chilling by drying solvent leaves alloy at higher temperatures that ambient temperatures. That way, this residual warmth helps dry coating much quicker and moisture is not attracted to the alloy because alloy is warmer then room temperatures

But I'm getting good first coats now. Still figuring out all the routines.

If your alloy on top of oven gets to 60C for short time, should not be a problem.
Main thing to keep in mind, first coat must be bonded well. If not, once exposed to heat, it is a re-melt job. Trying to again re-coat will not fix first coat adhesion problems.

[lazs]

I also agree that 'overcooking' does not cause flaking. I made the mistake of not drying enough sometimes and it does indeed cause flaking.. worse on first coat than on second? I think that is the case. seems if I get a good first coat the rest is just for looks... three coats won't help a bad first coat in my opinion...

I am baking a tad longer than directed cause my oven is small and I open it a lot for batches... I have been going 12 minutes? something past ten on the timer but not 15... seems to work fine. My bullets will rarely be the exact same color if I do 4 or five batches... that does not bother me in the least. Mixing krptonite and copper and black makes for a nice root beer brown that is more consistent in color... maybe cause it is darker?

lazs

[Ausglock]

A lot of 9mm users here like their bullets sized to .3575" dia.
They say that .356 leads, but .3575 does not.
I use .3565" dia in the STI Tac 5 and the barrel is super shiny after 1 patch of hoppes.
Others have stated that the powder used in the load also has caused leading.
I mainly use ADI powder (Aussie made) it is re-labled as Hodgdon powder in the US.
Never had problems with Win 231, WSF, WST or Win540.
Alliant Power pistol also works fine for me.

[Grmps]

With the 9MM you do not want to over crimp due to the tapered case. I seat and crimp in one die, and I crimp just hard enough so the boolit doesn't move in the case when pushed against my relloading bench. Since my factory crimp die was already in my progressive , I raised the ram and screw the FCD in to where it just touched the catridge then I gave it 1/64th turn more. I no longer get leading.

[igolfat8]

Pull a few bullets and measure them to be sure the crimp isn’t swaging them undersized. FWIW, I shoot 9mm, sized to .357” mostly in KKM and stock Glock barrels. Bullets are 95, 115, 120, 124 and 125, two coats of Hi-Tek, with some pushed to 1600 FPS and no leading in barrel but I do get lead deposit build up in my comps though.

[Elkins45]

I finally broke down and bought some Hi-Tek and tried it on some 300 Blackout bullets. I haven’t shot them yet but I can tell you they look perfect. It only took one batch to get the hang of the process and I ended up coating several hundred bullets throughout the day.

I have high hopes that I might not ever lube a pistol bullet again.

[slide]

Let us know how it works out.

[lazs]

I have done both powder coat and Hi-Tek and have a quantity of both on hand. Mostly I just do HT these days since it is easier and more foolproof to me. On leading.. PC does seem to be more foolproof on leading by a slight bit for me. In all my revolvers and pistols tho I keep the velocity down to around 1200-1300 fps but out of my 44mag carbine it may be as much as 1600-1700 with no leading from either process.

On crimping.... I do a heavy roll crimp on all my revolver rounds. I do use a 'cowboy' expander tho which expands the case a bit more than normal. On 9mm and 45 acp I use the Lee FCD after seating. I actually just measure the loaded rounds case mouth dia to get the right crimp... function is most important to me. I am most likely overcrimping on the semi autos but so far no problems with accuracy or leading. If anything I would go to a larger expander and still crimp the case mouth to factory.

My thinking is this... and I could be way off... I have shot all these guns with a lot of conventional lube/size of my own. There was not ever a lot of leading. I used the same dies and FCD as I do now with PC or HT and the same crimps. Me thinks that HT should be superior to conventional lube (if done right) under any loading circumstance. I at least.. have not treated em differently... So far.. in every case.. the PC and HT bullets are always cleaner shooting and leave the barrels in better shape leading or fouling wise. In my experience and... your mileage may vary... the various coatings including HT somewhat aleviate the problems of sizing perfectly for the barrel or throat... in other words they are more forgiving if coated. maybe not perfect but more forgiving. this is important to me since I have several or more handguns in all the calibers I load and rarely is the barrel/throat of each the same. One gun may be so tight that a few thou bigger bullet will not chamber... this is not great.

At this point I am kinda sorta compromising. I pick a dia that will chamber in my tightest guns and call it good. I may even have to nudge the bullet in on some of the revolvers. HT is more forgiving on this. PC will add a lot of diameter to the bullet where it meets the throat and cause chambering problems more than HT which adds very little dia.

So far anyway.. .that is how it is working for me.

lazs

[slide]

Sounds like you have put a lot of time and effort into this. One more thing to think about. If powdercoated bullets set loaded for just a couple of days the gunpowder will start to break the powdercoat down. I didn't figure this out, igolfat8 discovered this. I have pulled some of my powdercoated rounds and the powdercoat was gummy and could be taken off easily with a fingernail. This seems to be with double base powders.No problem with the hi-tek. Good Job!

[lazs]

Wow.. this I have never even checked. never even really though about. I know the HT acetone rub test kinda proves the solvent resistance. I also suspect that the 'nylon' ammo for indoor ranges is really just PC or something very similar.

I have a lot of PC coated rounds.. I need to pull a few bullets and check.. I use WW231.. A#5 and several other powders all double based.. If I find 'gummy' rounds I will be interested in shooting the rest of the box and seeing what the results are.

Admittedly I don't shoot as many rounds as I used to but I do love to experiment. At this point HT is my coating of choice for handguns but I have nothing against PC. To be fair.. no matter how sloppy or old the rounds were the PC never leaded and was easy to clean.

IF.. and that is a big if. HT is not quite as friendly so far as leading as say PC.. that is no big deal.. Both systems are more forgiving than my decades of cast/lube bullets.

At... this.......point... me and all the guys who shoot my rounds are very happy with HT coating. while I am happy with the product I would welcome any 'improved' versions or methods also.

lazs

[slide]

You will get better at it as you gain more experience.

[slide]

Are you cleaning your swirl bucket? The coating keeps building up and the acetone cuts it and instead of your measured coating you may have too much. I had trouble with flaking until I started cleaning between batches. This is what worked for me. For somebody else it might not matter. You are measuring and weighing everything,right? Very important. According to Joe the coating starts setting a 357 F. and it needs to stay there for two to three minutes. You might try backing down on your temp a little.