simple Hi-Tek coating

[wlkjr]

Does the age of the boolits have an effect on the coating?I have resorted to casting and attempted to coat as soon as the bullets were cool enough to handle,is this too soon?
MARK

Not in my experience. I do sometimes put them in a plastic coffee can and pour a little acetone in and shake and drain to do a light wash. That will wash off any contaminates they might have picked up. Doesn't really matter when you coat them as long as they are cool.

[Avenger442]

That's right in my experience, too. Anytime after they are cool. Coat them and wait till dry ( sometimes I wait a day on the first coat). Then cook them. Cool coat.....

[wlkjr]

Mine are ready to cook in about 10 minutes.

[marky123]

Ok thanks.Can you scratch off the coating with your fingernails?Even after 3 coats?

[Hi-Performance Bullet Coatings]

I have new Black K15 in stock and ready to deliver. It is very, very black.
I also have some Bronze 502, a slightly darker version of the Bronze 500.
It's available on the website www.hi-performancebulletcoatings.com if you hover over the colored squares that depict the colors it will identify the color by name.

[wlkjr]

Ok thanks.Can you scratch off the coating with your fingernails?Even after 3 coats?

Shouldn't be able to if it's done correctly. I cut back from 3 to 2 coats and notice no difference in performance. I really like this stuff.

[HI-TEK]

Shouldn't be able to if it's done correctly. I cut back from 3 to 2 coats and notice no difference in performance. I really like this stuff.

I am glad you are happy with the coating.
With performance, originally some tests were done with one coat and two coats. Aside from first coat being not pretty, results seem to have been OK.
This conclusion was reached with well prepared and baked coat with known alloy mix and hardness.
Once coating has bonded well and baked adequately, the film should separate barrel from alloy.
When you get into alloys with unknown hardness and composition, we have not had a chance to do any single versus two coat performances using that same alloy.
In theory, and based on feed back results obtained by users, in some applications, a single well applied coat may work. Appearance would be not pretty, and for some, appearances are of paramount importance as well as coating working in their applications.
It is great that users do their own playing and pushing the boundary limits of the coatings. Best thing is, that results are also published for all to see and apply to their own applications.
Thanks much

[wlkjr]

The barrel of my Glocks .45acp seem to be really clean but the barrels of my .380acp and 9mm Glock barrels seem to have some kind of grainy residue that is difficult to remove. I don't know if this is some kind of lead or what. I have a Lewis lead remover from Brownells on the way. I have used a Bore Snake but still see this grainy appearance. It does not seem to build up but the barrel is not clean and shiny like one pass of a brush through the barrel of the .45acp. It's a mystery I have not solved yet.

[wlkjr]

This a picture of a cleaned G42 barrel. Not sure you can tell much by the picture.

[HI-TEK]

The barrel of my Glocks .45acp seem to be really clean but the barrels of my .380acp and 9mm Glock barrels seem to have some kind of grainy residue that is difficult to remove. I don't know if this is some kind of lead or what. I have a Lewis lead remover from Brownells on the way. I have used a Bore Snake but still see this grainy appearance. It does not seem to build up but the barrel is not clean and shiny like one pass of a brush through the barrel of the .45acp. It's a mystery I have not solved yet.

My guess is, (only a guess at this stage), it may be possible, that you may have put through baked coated alloy, that may not have been fully cured. This can produce some residue inside barrel with coating depositing onto surfaces. The heat from powder burn, will set the coating, then it is very difficult to remove from surfaces where coating has bonded. Most cleaners will not touch nor remove baked on deposits. I have covered this aspect previously. The only thing that will remove baked on coating is a product called NMP,
(N-Methyl Pyrrolidone).
It is used neat, on dry surfaces, and slight warming. It is slow to remove baked on coating, but it works. Then simply wash off with Water thoroughly, dry and all is well.
The NMP will damage all synthetic surfaces/materials, so don't spill it. If you spill it, simply wash with water ASAP, and rinse off well to remove it.

[Grmps]

The barrel of my Glocks .45acp seem to be really clean but the barrels of my .380acp and 9mm Glock barrels seem to have some kind of grainy residue that is difficult to remove. I don't know if this is some kind of lead or what. I have a Lewis lead remover from Brownells on the way. I have used a Bore Snake but still see this grainy appearance. It does not seem to build up but the barrel is not clean and shiny like one pass of a brush through the barrel of the .45acp. It's a mystery I have not solved yet.

swirl vigorously for about 30 seconds then remove the lid and continue swirling for another 30 seconds.[/B] This gives me the best coverage and the last 30 seconds with the lid off really gives good color.
After some experimentation, I've found this process to work really well for me.

I believe the reason your bullets are leaving "grainy residue" is your swirling them to long. 15 - 20 seconds is all you should swirl that is when the liquid starts drying up and the swirling sound changes. When baked the bullets should be perfectly smooth. My guess is that you have grainy bullets. When I saw the post where you said you swirl for 30 + 30 --- 60 seconds I would imagine the bullets would clump. I was waiting for Trevor or Joe to say something cause I'm relatively new at this . Trevor is the coating tester for Hi-Tek and Joe is the chemist that creates the coatings.
Here are the coating instructions for Hi-Tek from Donnie's site http://hi-performancebulletcoatings....-instructions/ . Let us know if this helps

Cheers
Jim

[HI-TEK]

I believe the reason your bullets are leaving "grainy residue" is your swirling them to long. 15 - 20 seconds is all you should swirl that is when the liquid starts drying up and the swirling sound changes. When baked the bullets should be perfectly smooth. My guess is that you have grainy bullets. When I saw the post where you said you swirl for 30 + 30 --- 60 seconds I would imagine the bullets would clump. I was waiting for Trevor or Joe to say something cause I'm relatively new at this . Trevor is the coating tester for Hi-Tek and Joe is the chemist that creates the coatings.
Here are the coating instructions for Hi-Tek from Donnie's site http://hi-performancebulletcoatings....-instructions/ . Let us know if this helps

Cheers
Jim

Yes Jim, that is another consideration.
Over doing the coating for too long will produce rough looking finishes. If these are baked after drying, the roughness will stay. Over use of coating with combination of long coating times during tumbling will also introduce more problems.
1. With thick coating, drying may be difficult and incomplete, causing cooking and coating adhesion problems and rough finishes, not to mention possibility of projectiles welding together.
2. When sizing, the roughness is removed, but final finish looks like Orange Peel.
3. If coating application (especially first coat) is too thick, baking can cause bubbling/blistering type finishes.
4. Sizing these blistered coatings will produce dust as sizing simply shaves off rough raised blister surfaces.
5. If incomplete baking is also done, the coating off the cast will bond to barrel with heat produced from powder burn.
6. In theory, if you shoot well baked projectiles through barrels, that may have small amount of stain film of bonded coating on barrel, the new shot projectiles will or should remove deposits.
I would be pleased to receive more feed back.

[wlkjr]

Actually, all of my bullets are nice and slick after cooking. Even after swirling they look really good, no rough or grainy appearance. I use the same method for all three calibers, but only the barrel of the .45 is shiny after a couple of passes with a brush. I use Titegroup on 9mm, W231 for .380acp and Bullseye for the .45acp. And I don't load to maximum, rather at the lower end of the scale. I'll keep trying to remove it but it doesn't seem to be causing a problem at this stage. I've probably shot at least 5000 rounds through the G42 and at least 10k in my G26. I used Extreme plated before I changed over to Bayou Bullets and have been using my own castings since the first of the year. Never noticed any grainy appearance with the plated bullets.

[wlkjr]

These are some pictures of my boolits after two coats.

[flyingrhino]

I know I'm preaching to the choir in this thread but I REALLY like the Hi-Tek powdered coating. I've been PC'ing, and with great results, but it is messier and more time consuming for me. PC'ing my boolits is the least favorite part of my reloading process. I've shot some of these Hi-Tek coated through my suppressor in 300 BO and have NO leading so I'm now a convert. I've not run them through my pistols yet but I've got a bunch loaded up to try. Great stuff!

[marky123]

These are some pictures of my boolits after two coats.
Kryptonite green?

are the first ones kryptonite green?

[wlkjr]

Those are Kryptonite Green, Black, and Bronze 500

[Grmps]

Trying to trouble shoot the problem; You said "turning the dial to Stay On and temp control to maximum does the trick for me" you didn't mention turning the convection on. I believe The hi-tek is designed to be cooked between 385 and 400 degrees. Temperature gauges on practically all counter-top ovens are off. I would suggest putting an oven thermometer in the middle of the center rack and determine what you oven is set at for the thermometer to read 400 degrees.[ I have a dial gauge so I just marked the dial where 400 is, mine way over 25* off] if you have a digital gauge then note the temp setting down. Try cooking at that temperature for the times you are using. Your steel disks to retain heat may be affecting the air flow for the convection. Are you cooking the bullets on a screen / wire mesh or a solid tray? Have you been doing the wipe and smash test after the bullets have cooled after your final coat to determine if the coating has set properly?
hopefully one of these suggestions will alleviate your barrel debris.

[wlkjr]

Grmps, I do have the convection on and a thermometer hanging between the two upper elements. I also read the temps with a quality infared thermometer. I'm cooking on a 1/4" mesh wire rack so I have plenty of air movement. All the boolits pass the wipe and smash tests after each coating. If I set the control to less than max I can't maintain optimum temperature. Each coat is thin and dried well. At the end of my cooking cycle the boolits read 400 degrees.

[Grmps]

If you look around, you may find a second hand domestic free standing stove/oven. Often they are simply thrown out when people upgrade to a new one.
With simple low cost modifications, like PID control of heating element, they are ideal, especially if they are fan forced types.

G'Day Joe
How much does a PID controller setup cost down under? You are talking: PID, SSR and K-type thermocouple? Mains voltage in Australia is 230V 50Hz, USA and Canada use 100/120V 50/60Hz.