simple Hi-Tek coating

[Doublej]

Came over from powder coating and have to say I MUCH prefer Hitek!!! so much easier, nice even coat. I can coat 15lbs of bullets at a time (all that fits in my oven) and not worry about them sticking together and having to pull them apart. took me 30 minutes to coat 1500 bullets (30lbs) in 30 minutes with minimal effort!!!

[Ausglock]

I am using Bronze 500 to coat .458 bullets for shooing in my .458 SOCOM AR15 and in my 45-70 rifle. Works great as any other HT coated bullet, give it a try! In the pic below you see the Lee 500 gr in the .458 SOCOM and then the NOE 198 collar button and the NOE 350 in the 45-70. The picture turned out weird, think it was the lighting?

Neal in AZ

Nice. The Bronze 500 is a bloody good High Velocity coating.
BTW...Neal.
Are you the Neal in AZ on the Glocklist?

[Avenger442]

If it wasn't for that one inch flyer these would have been good at 100 yards. Hi Tek Gold 1035 three coats on a Lee 309-160-2R, Remington brass, CCI primer and H4895.

Needless to say, no leading in 60 rounds of 308 with two different bullets and three different powders.

When I get the Lee C312-155 spitzer bullet (sized 309) working this good I think I'm going to go back to pistols again.

I have yet to find a bullet coated with Hi Tek that will lead the barrel of my guns if the lead is the correct BHN and gas checked when necessary. I went back and checked the BHN on both of the bullets used with the Lee tester and both come out right at 13 BHN.

Intel6
Saving for the 45-70.

[Rompin Ruger]

I'd better keep my head down, Avenger, with that quality of shooting a .308, you could pluck me off my back deck here in TN!

[Ausglock]

Nice.... How would those bullets go with hardball alloy at 15-17 BHN??

[ThaDoubleJ]

Ok, still struggling with this. Here's a picture.

On the left is a super overcoated .458 boolit measuring .465. .007" of coating, but at least it's gold. On the right is a very thinly coated boolit measuring .4585 to .460 depending on where I measure them, and it's brown and still looks like ****. I did all my remaining boolits (about a hundred 340gr), and just stained them with the coating, with some extra acetone in there just in case. Cooked em, then repeated, with a bit more juice thrown in as they were splotchy the first time. Crappy Dappy Doo. So now I've followed the directions to a T, and now I just have a thinner, but equally crappy looking coating.

Anyone interested in trading me some Old Gold for any other non-metallic color? You can try Old Gold and report back if you got it to work, I'll try ??? and see if I can get it to work.

Big problem I've got here is that I can't go back to lubing these only. I tried some lubed as cast, and at 50 yds I couldn't hit paper. These coated ones shoot about 6MOA, same groups I get with Berry's plated, but at least they hit stuff.

[dikman]

Are you saying that they're shooting ok, regardless of how they look?

[ThaDoubleJ]

I haven't shot the thinly coated ones, only the super overcoated ones. They don't shoot like FTXs, but they hit paper plates. Also tried Aloxing and TACing them after coating, getting paranoid about leading recently, just made more smoke as far as I can tell, little faster as well.

[Avenger442]

Nice.... How would those bullets go with hardball alloy at 15-17 BHN??

Don't know Trevor. Only thing I shoot that hard a lead in is the .223 bolt gun. I did try some of this 13 BHN with no gas check and 1-2 grain of max loads. They were all over the berm and left a small amount of lead very end of barrel. I could probably go to 17 -20 and leave off the gas check. Maybe??

Ruger
I wouldn't shoot at a guy from TN.

[Rompin Ruger]

Ruger
I wouldn't shoot at a guy from TN.

Ain't FROM TN, just live here...that might make a difference, eh?

[Rompin Ruger]

JJ,

My Red Copper look like your triple coat Gold..they match my brass almost!

I figured out it was that I left them in just a wee bit longer, to be sure... and they migrated color toward a goldish... reading here over the years, it seems color is unimportant as long as adhesion is to spec. Of course, I'm going on memory now and that isn't my strength as I age...

[Avenger442]

Ain't FROM TN, just live here...that might make a difference, eh?

We accept Yankees as citizens here in the South. We don't the undocumented here in Alabama.

Joe;
Looking at ThaDoubleJ's bullets, why do you think they are that rough?

ThaDoubleJ;
Is the Old Gold powder? I only have the metallic colors but might swap you small amount of some of the Gun Metal (really dark grey) some Dark Blue (for me it's been dark green) or Bronze 500 for Old Gold if you want to try another color. All are powders. Where you located? PM me. But I don't think metallic is your problem.

To me, the bullet on the right looks like to hot or too long or both in the oven. It is what my Gold 1035 does when I bake them extra. Since you followed the instructions probably not too long. Look at photo of bullets in my previous post. The one on the far right has been baked longer and hotter than the one on the far left. How are you measuring the temp in your oven?

Rough texture is usually due to tumbling too long with too much mix in the bowl. But, again, if you followed instructions that doesn't make sense. Or not letting dry long enough before baking. If you live in an area of high humidity you might have to let them dry for 24 hours. Especially first coat. Extra acetone means longer to dry. Trevor says MEK can be used and drys quicker, I think. But I've never tried it.

Was that two coats? Did they pass wipe and smash test?

[HI-TEK]

Joe;
Looking at ThaDoubleJ's bullets, why do you think they are that rough?

Avenger, I will try and list possible causes and fixes.

1. Application of too much coating, and coating/tumbling for much too long will cause rough finishes.
Baking such coated alloy will not produce an even smooth film.
It is better to return freshly coated alloy into coating bucket/container, adding a little Acetone to re dissolve rough coating, but this time, dump coated alloy before it gets tacky and starts to form rough finish.
Once you bake a rough finished coated alloy, it cannot be fixed.
You can re-dissolve coating with solvent as many times you like, but after bake it is no longer possible to re-dissolve and recycle badly coated alloy.
Coating with new coating onto baked bad previous coats will not fix problems, is is a re-melt.
If too much coating has been used, and it is rough looking, (prior to baking) it is simple to fix. Simply add more projectiles, and add a little more Acetone, then tumble coat, and that extends coating to the total amount of alloy being coated, without using more coating mixture.
If rough finish coating passes smash test and solvent test, simply size a few, and coating should become smooth on bearing surfaces. Then it should work OK.
If coating after sizing is removed, then usually indicates not enough drying, coupled with using too much coating on first coat.

2. If coating is applied too thickly, or too much, and combined with not adequate drying, the coating will also blister and produce a rough Orange peel effect finish upon trying to bake it.

3. If there is a combination of 1 and 2, then such results may be obtained.

4. Colour change matters.
If coating is baked, and bonded well, final colour is really dependent on oven temperature, cooking time. Coating can be cooked until it is black, but a well bonded coating will work even if over cooked and black.
Colour consistency, is dependent on users ability to place same quantity load into oven each time, cook at same time each time, and bake at same settings on oven each time.

I hope I have covered all questions.

[ThaDoubleJ]

Here's more info. That darker bullet is light coat, bake, light coat, bake. Baked the first coat about 9 minutes at 385, second coat about 10 minutes at 390. I have a little oven thermometer in my convection oven to keep track of the temp. No bubbling was seen, boolits were dried after coating for about 4 days in dry Colorado. I suppose I could be over shaking them and they're getting sticky, I'll have to try a shorter shake time. Haven't wiped or smashed this batch, but prior batches have passed with no issues. I don't have a sizing die, just shoot them as-is and hope for the best. They drop at .458 exactly, so I'm ok with a couple thousandths of coating bring them up a bit, seem to shoot better than lubed anyway

[AndFereira]

So I'm having a bit of an issue. trying to use candy apple red and I keep failing the wipe test. Smash test passes almost every time. I always end up with a faint amount of color on the rag after the wipe test. I don't think it's related to not letting it dry enough before baking as I let it dry in 95 degree weather/33% humidity for 5 hours. Baked it for 12 minutes @ 385-390 degrees and it failed wipe test. Stuck them back on the oven for another 13 minutes and they still failed wipe test after. Smash test was a pass.

[Rich22]

So I'm having a bit of an issue. trying to use candy apple red and I keep failing the wipe test. Smash test passes almost every time. I always end up with a faint amount of color on the rag after the wipe test. I don't think it's related to not letting it dry enough before baking as I let it dry in 95 degree weather/33% humidity for 5 hours. Baked it for 12 minutes @ 385-390 degrees and it failed wipe test. Stuck them back on the oven for another 13 minutes and they still failed wipe test after. Smash test was a pass.

How sure are you that the temp is right? Oven thermo/Thermocouple? Preheated yes? How much alloy at once? Convection oven? With 4lbs alloy at once preheated oven with bullets preheated on top of oven my time to pass wipe is 11 minutes.

[AndFereira]

It's a oster large digital convection oven. Using 2 different thermometers. One showed 390 and the other showed 380. Oven was preheated for a solid 20 minutes before putting bullets in. I do not preheat the bullets just heat the oven up and stick them right in. Only doing batches of 1.5lbs right now till I figure it out- that's exactly 45 230 grain .45 acp bullets. no thermocouple

[Ausglock]

If it were me, I'd load them up and fire them. A tiny amount of wipe off will not hurt.

[Rompin Ruger]

Since you've got the high temps (95*) I'm betting you have ac running. I sat my coated slugs on top of the AC unit and that big fan blowing really made sure mine were super dry...course only works in the summer temps to use the outside AC unit fans!

[zomby woof]

So I'm having a bit of an issue. trying to use candy apple red and I keep failing the wipe test. Smash test passes almost every time. I always end up with a faint amount of color on the rag after the wipe test. I don't think it's related to not letting it dry enough before baking as I let it dry in 95 degree weather/33% humidity for 5 hours. Baked it for 12 minutes @ 385-390 degrees and it failed wipe test. Stuck them back on the oven for another 13 minutes and they still failed wipe test after. Smash test was a pass.

I would bump the temp a little. Your on the edge