simple Hi-Tek coating

[Tazza]

Well my first try with HT was a bust..I totally missed the dry after coat step. 2nd try went much better and passed all tests but I have a question or two

I’m using the Red Copper. 100ml of acetone and 200 gr of powder. I’m coating 200 gr swc bullets and the coating does not want to seem to get into those tight corners on the bullet as well as completely in the lube grooves which I know is not that important. Any tips to get the bullet completely covered? I ended up doing 3 light coats and they came out nice but those nooks and lube grooves not so much. Also, is one color able to cover better than any others? That red copper has the metallic in it I believe. I’m pretty excited with my second try

Thank you

I hope that is a typo and you mean 100ml to 20 grams not 200

I also do 3 coats (first is 120ml to 20 grams, the others are 100:20), it never seems to fill all the lube grooves for me either, if you fill all the lube grooves, you are using too much at a time. I know it's an appearance thing, i like filled lube grooves too. When i get time to build a mixer for tumbling my cast, i'm going to experiment with a thinner mix but use more of it so it is more liquid to get in all the grooves but leave the correct amount of coating behind when the acetone evaporates.

[Ausglock]

Well my first try with HT was a bust..I totally missed the dry after coat step. 2nd try went much better and passed all tests but I have a question or two

I’m using the Red Copper. 100ml of acetone and 200 gr of powder. I’m coating 200 gr swc bullets and the coating does not want to seem to get into those tight corners on the bullet as well as completely in the lube grooves which I know is not that important. Any tips to get the bullet completely covered? I ended up doing 3 light coats and they came out nice but those nooks and lube grooves not so much. Also, is one color able to cover better than any others? That red copper has the metallic in it I believe. I’m pretty excited with my second try

Thank you

So... you are mixing 100mls of acetone to 200 grains of powder???
it is supposed to be 20 grams (20gms) of powder to 100mls of acetone.

For 200 grain bullets, I would use 6mls to coat 160 at a time. this roughly equals the 250 9mm bullets benchmark I use that give around 2.3Kg of alloy to be coated.
petander coats large bullets. PM him to see what his coverage mix is.

[lablover]

So... you are mixing 100mls of acetone to 200 grains of powder???
it is supposed to be 20 grams (20gms) of powder to 100mls of acetone.

For 200 grain bullets, I would use 6mls to coat 160 at a time. this roughly equals the 250 9mm bullets benchmark I use that give around 2.3Kg of alloy to be coated.
petander coats large bullets. PM him to see what his coverage mix is.

Correction. 20 grams powder. Too many zeros in my post...haha

[Petander]

So I did 12minutes at 200 and 205. Both started to go dark.

Do you know what temperature your bullets are?

IR thermoneter has helped me quite a bit. I thought my oven was 200°C because two different oven thermometers said so. And the oven dial was @ 200 ,too.

I got dark bullets,otherwise good coatings though. So I shot the bullets with an IR thermometer at the end of bake and it read 215°C...

I'm still slightly on the dark side with a couple of colours.

[lablover]

Great tip. I’ll use my ir thermometer on the next run. I have a oven thermometer inside but will double check. I think it’s more than hot enough. Should bullets in oven after 10 ish minutes be 200c

[Ausglock]

depends on your oven. My small benchtop convection ovens likes 200degC for 12 mins.
but the large wall convection oven likes 195Deg C for 7min:30sec. for the same coating to get the same back colour.

[lablover]

depends on your oven. My small benchtop convection ovens likes 200degC for 12 mins.
but the large wall convection oven likes 195Deg C for 7min:30sec. for the same coating to get the same back colour.

Doing another batch now and I’m getting better coverage with a little more acetone. If they are over cooked. Will that damage the coating? I thought I read that it will make them darker but does not affect the lube quality. I have to get my counter top oven dialed in better I think. As long as I pass the wipe and smash test I should be good to go I assume?

I can see ordering some black....haha

[Tazza]

No issues over cooking, just goes darker.

If you pass smash and wipe tests, you should be good to go. I found extra acetone did cover better, it was more liquid to get into all the hard to get to places. My old coating had projectiles submerged in it, so it got into all lube grooves, but it was more wasteful than hi-tek, more steps.

Black works well for me, i can't over cook it

[lablover]

No issues over cooking, just goes darker.

If you pass smash and wipe tests, you should be good to go. I found extra acetone did cover better, it was more liquid to get into all the hard to get to places. My old coating had projectiles submerged in it, so it got into all lube grooves, but it was more wasteful than hi-tek, more steps.

Black works well for me, i can't over cook it

Outstanding news. Thank you. Now I have to find something to spray on them before running them thru the sizer! I have some one shot. May order the stuff when I order more coating

[Tazza]

Ideally you shouldn't need to spray them before sizing, most of mine just slip through easily enough, the only issues i had was when i had a lead blob between mould halves i missed that made them a few thou too large and it was a mission to size. If you cast them right, the hi-tek should be all the lube you needed. That said, i do have a 158SWC that casts large, and it takes a good amount of force to size to .357 but the coating never comes off.

Happy shooting, i hope they work as well as they should.

[jsizemore]

Outstanding news. Thank you. Now I have to find something to spray on them before running them thru the sizer! I have some one shot. May order the stuff when I order more coating

I made up the 10 to 1 99% isopropyl alcohol/liquid lanolin. That's the red bottle Heet and pure emollient oil. The lanolin stays in solution and no heat to mix initially. 11 ounces of mix cost me $3.
3-4 squirts on 12 pounds of HT coated bullets goes through the sizer without issue even after hardening for 2 weeks.

[lablover]

I made up the 10 to 1 99% isopropyl alcohol/liquid lanolin. That's the red bottle Heet and pure emollient oil. The lanolin stays in solution and no heat to mix initially. 11 ounces of mix cost me $3.
3-4 squirts on 12 pounds of HT coated bullets goes through the sizer without issue even after hardening for 2 weeks.

Perfect, I use the same lube for my case sizing..problem solved

[mattellis2]

This is a very long thread! I’m going to take my first swing at powder coating. Without trying to sift through 600+ pages, do all of hi-tek’s colors adhere equally well? I’d like to start off with the “stickiest” color, just to help minimize user error.

[Ausglock]

hitek is not powdercoat...

[Burnt Fingers]

hitek is not powdercoat...

I had a FUDD on another forum insist that it was powder coating since it's available as a powder.

[Avenger442]

This is a very long thread! I’m going to take my first swing at powder coating. Without trying to sift through 600+ pages, do all of hi-tek’s colors adhere equally well? I’d like to start off with the “stickiest” color, just to help minimize user error.

Your right it is a very long thread. When I started it was about 1200 post. I read them all before starting. But you don't have to read all 12,000 now to get started.

To answer your question, there is not a "stickiest" color that I have found. I've used eight of the colors.

Hi Tek actually used to be all liquid no powder. A color liquid and a catalysis liquid were combined with acetone to make the mix that the bullets were tumbled in before baking. Joe the scientist, who's company created the coating made specifically for use with bullets, did us all a favor with both the cost, storage and convenience by making the powder version which includes the color and catalysis combined in powder form to mix with the acetone. And it is actually not like using powder coating except for the baking.

[mattellis2]

Thanks for the reply. I’m going to order a bit to give it a try.

[Conditor22]

mattellis2 before you buy any HiTek coating, check out a couple of youtube videos on Hitek coating. I get the feeling that you are not 100% sure what HiTek coating is.

[Stephen Cohen]

I had a FUDD on another forum insist that it was powder coating since it's available as a powder.

Using that kind of logic would make urine a fine wine. Regards Stephen

[HI-TEK]

I had a FUDD on another forum insist that it was powder coating since it's available as a powder.

WOW...….. after all this time, people continue to insinuate that because Hi-Tek is a powder, it is normal Powder coating.
6 years ago or more, some on this blog site insisted in insinuating that Hi-Tek was a powder coat, and it was all a scam.
To prove their assertion, they purchased some actual powder coat and tried to dissolve it and use it to coat. Unfortunately it did not work, but no withdrawals were made afterwards.
On coating instructions, on very first page, advises that Hi-Tek must not be used as a powder coat.
Hi-Tek must be first dissolved in Acetone or MEK to use successfully.