simple Hi-Tek coating

[Ausglock]

I'm suspecting I wasn't getting a proper cure on my earlier batches.

Sounds about right to me.

[2wheelDuke]

2wheelduke,
If you have any pics of the bullets in question text them to me at 225 324 4501 it is sometimes easier to help diagnose an issue with a picture.
Donnie

I don't know if I have any pics of the bullets, as I may have fired them all by now. They looked great though. Since then, I've done other batches with a longer time, and they came out with more of a darker bronze color instead of the bright gold of my first batches.

[wlkjr]

I did my very first coating today and it turned out well. I mixed 2 tbs. of powder and 3.5 oz. of acetone and squirted a little on about 50 boolits. Let it sit on screen for about and hour and cooked at 400 for about 12 minutes. Did two coats and cooked and let cool and put on another coat to sit overnight to cook for the third coat tomorrow.

[Rich22]

I bake mine at a higher temperature 390-400F 12 minutes. This temp. is measured by two oven thermometers and maintained with a PID. Three coats Gun Metal.
What color are yours coming out of the oven on the last bake? How many coats? Photos if you have them.

Here are two photos of mine after baking final coat.

Attachment 165493

Attachment 165494

Attachment 165495

Those look very good, GM has been a pain in my butt so far. Had multiple failures and still working on it. Bronze has been a total walk in the park, no failures. GM is a REALLY dark grey if what I am getting is correct.

[Avenger442]

Best definition of gun metal grey that I can find is this colorAttachment 165719.

My bullets are darker by about two shades. Probably could lighten them a bit by shorter cook time. But I'm OK with their color and feel even better when I look at the barrel of my gun.

We had a discussion a while back in this thread about cook times and temps. Each of which if you increase over the recommended will darken the color on the colors I have tried. I have not had a leading issue with anything that was cooked longer (up to 30 min.) or hotter ( 420 F). But the color will change. Since I'm more interested in no leading than the color and I believe that we decided there was some advantage to cooking the coating, above the recommended, to a point that it was harder I will cook my bullets at the time and temps I stated. Again, these are measured by two oven thermometers and maintained with a PID. I don't think you have to make this complicated to get no leading.

Joe
Correct me on my remembrance of the discussion on temps times and hardness of coating if necessary.

I've got about 40 pounds of bullets to coat that I just can't get started on. Hoping to try the bronze and the black with these. They are all pistol bullets 38, 357, 44 and 45.

Hey Joe and Ausglock where are we on the orange and blue? Here are the colors I'm looking for Attachment 165721Attachment 165722
Will keep on using HiTek even if it was all black because it works.

[gunoil]

Gunslick... Mate... Long time no see.

What you been up to?

Tryin to suppliment my ss check: Either this will help a lil' or l can drive the 18 wheeler couple days a week.

http://www.bentrideronline.com/messa...d.php?t=108168

___my lil' web site below______________________________
velosRus.com

[Ausglock]

Blue is not far from birth. A few test samples were stilborn, but Daddy Joe is working on it.

The orange went brown.... back to the drawing board

[HI-TEK]

Blue is not far from birth. A few test samples were stilborn, but Daddy Joe is working on it.

The orange went brown.... back to the drawing board

Ausglock,
I already smashed the drawing board. Unlike Sheldon, drawing board only confuses me, and over years of trying, no Blue.
Latest trials appeared to provide some success, but all ended up far too dark. They were Blue, but almost a Black Blue. The blue colour was not easily visible, unless viewed in sunlight.
Making up batched using 20gms to 150 mls solvent, did work, but the intensive Dark Blue persisted.
Out of the last 10 trials or so, only about two showed promise. I am working on these to see if I can tweak them.
I am having another go with the Yellow, but am not confident.
I have had some success with a Powdered Dark Green. Picture attached.

[dikman]

Avenger, that's pretty close to one of the colours I get with Gunmetal. While I have a couple of different colours, they are really more for a talking point as, like you, I'm not overly concerned with the colour as long as the coating works.

[HI-TEK]

Joe
Correct me on my remembrance of the discussion on temps times and hardness of coating if necessary.

I've got about 40 pounds of bullets to coat that I just can't get started on. Hoping to try the bronze and the black with these. They are all pistol bullets 38, 357, 44 and 45.

Hey Joe and Ausglock where are we on the orange and blue? Here are the colors I'm looking for Attachment 165721Attachment 165722
Will keep on using HiTek even if it was all black because it works.[/QUOTE]

How are you doing Avenger.
Interesting, that orange as your picture, is very close to the colour we got with our experimental Yellow.
The new experimental Blue is getting very close to your other sample colour. Attached is the Blue 818V-2
It is a little darker than your Blue sample colour, but close.

[wlkjr]

My Zombie Green is kinda gold looking. Maybe I cooked it too long. I did two batches and one is lighter than the other. The powder does not stay suspended very long, not nearly as long as the Candy Apple Red.

[Shotgundrums]

My Zombie Green is kinda gold looking. Maybe I cooked it too long. I did two batches and one is lighter than the other. The powder does not stay suspended very long, not nearly as long as the Candy Apple Red.

Try again by mixing and stiring the dry powder. This stuff can settle and components can separate. Probably happens in transient, shipment, bullet company distribution and packaging.

I ordered texastea, zombie green, red copper. The texastea's catalyst was separated in pockets of white. Had to stir and shake a million times before all was blended (yes, cure was affected). Once well blended, curing the black @390C/12min was back to normal. Zombie green had pockets of what looked like concentrated green/yellow pockets and pockets of the gold flake. Red copper had separation of the brilliant red flakeage.

Get all the powder together before making solution.

[Ausglock]

Just like the liquid coating, The powder needs shaking/stirring before measuring the 20gms.

[wlkjr]

I did shake really well but didn't stir. I may need to just junk that small batch and redo it. As far as curing goes, it passed the wipe and smash tests, it's just not as green as I had expected. I'm wondering if smaller boolits require a shorter time or lower temp than say a 230g .45 ? It seems after about 8 minutes the .380 start turning darker. Since I'm really new to this I'm still in the learning stages.

[slide]

Have you checked your oven temp? Don't go by the dial or those little round oven thermometers. Multi-meter is the way to go. Put a couple of bullets in with your mix, it will help with the mixing. The oven temp, mixing the right ratios are very important in making this stuff work. It will set on the shelf for months after mixing. Don't be afraid to use the 20 grams to 100 mils acetone or mek.

[Ausglock]

I did shake really well but didn't stir. I may need to just junk that small batch and redo it. As far as curing goes, it passed the wipe and smash tests, it's just not as green as I had expected. I'm wondering if smaller boolits require a shorter time or lower temp than say a 230g .45 ? It seems after about 8 minutes the .380 start turning darker. Since I'm really new to this I'm still in the learning stages.

It doesn't matter if the bullets are large or small. provided you have the same weight of bullet on the tray.
I do 2Kg (250 9mm bullets) of alloy per tray.
2Kg (200 40cal bullets) per tray.
2Kg (175 45 cal bullets) per tray.
See what I'm getting at???????
Bake 200Deg C for 10 to 12 minutes.
Use a Quality thermometer (not a Layman Lead therm or silly little oven therms, they are not accurate).

Small batches always cause problems. Do 2Kg of bullets as the minimum.

[wlkjr]

I drilled a hole in the back of the toaster over and inserted the probe from my PID. I discovered the oven thermometer I was using was reading low. I set the control to where it reads a low of 386 to a high of 406 degrees over a period of about 10 minutes. I was cooking about 200 95g (which actually weigh 98g) .380 boolits before and they turned out green but a little darker than I had anticipated. I previously was cooking at about 375 degrees but the boolits didn't turn as dark and they passed the wipe and smash tests. And I couldn't scratch the coating off with a thumbnail. I'll try larger batches next time, about 314 boolits.

[slide]

One thing that helps is a convection oven. It has a fan that circulates air inside the oven and helps with the curing. Some of the guys use a toaster oven and make it work just fine. You probably don't want to spend the money on a convection oven until you have gotten your program down pat. If you will pm me and give me your mailing address I will send you some of my bullets coated with the zombie green. Not saying mine are that great but it will give you something to compare to. Photos don't show the colors real good sometimes.

[johnc486]

For months, I have been considering the Hi-Tek coating (been powder coating & Alox tumbling for years) and made an order. I have to say this system sure beats standing boolits to powder coat (time consuming), I'm not knocking powder coating but this is a simpler method (still time consuming). As of now, this will be my primary method of coating till something better comes along, thanks for YouTube videos.

[slide]

I am a convert myself. I used the tumble method of powdercoating. what really bugged me was the bullets sticking to the trays,or aluminum foil, or each other. With the hi-tek the bullets look great and they don't stick No bash towards powdercoating. If you like use it. Where hi-tek really shines is with a big batch of bullets,say a 1000 or so. You can get a rotation going and really go through them. Have you had a chance to shoot any of your bullets yet?