simple Hi-Tek coating

[leadman]

I have found temperature control in the oven is very important. I have the parts coming from China to make 2 more PID boxes to add to the one that I am shuttling between my casting pot and one oven. I use a DVOM to keep track of the temperature in one of my ovens but it requires me to watch it close. My other oven is a digital model that maintains temperature very well, cost me $4 at the Thrift store.
In my experiments with high velocity rifle loads I would reduce the temperature once it hit 375 degrees and the oven would take a couple minutes to lower to the 350 degrees I set the oven to. The coating had time to cure and passed the wipe, smash, and the shooting test.

My elk hunt was a bust so now I am going to continue my experiments with different alloys concerning the water quenching, heat treating, and ways to maintain the BHN after coating.
I did have a batch of alloy that I water quenched and it maintained most of the "free" BHN after coating but when I repeated the test I could not duplicate it.
I may buy some tin and antimony to mix with some pure lead that came from an acid tank used in a plating plant.

[kweidner]

Today's experiments with my new 41 mag 6" bbl gave pleasing results . Douglas premium my smith made for my dan wesson. This was shot with HT gold and yes I did redundant lube on my mag stuff. I use felix. Here are some three shot groups. 18 to 19gr of 2400 20 yds rested was the accuracy node. Seem to fly just a tinsy bit better with lube in the grooves too. I use no redundant lubes on my non magnum rounds. Heck call it insurance if you must. anyway here are the groups.

[Gremlin460]

I definately pushed the limit on temp on these. I sized a hundred or so, 90% of them sized fine. the last percent I have a little flaking where the sprue plate left a fine ridge on the base of the boolit.

Not sure if these would leave lead in the bore, it is a ultra fine exposure on the corner of the base. The camera wont pick it up but I can see it with the naked eye. I will probably redo these.

Today was a realy busy day, I got the new sizing Die and Challenger Press but did not have time for the thermo-sensors. Hopefully tommorow I can get them and find out what the dial on the oven equates to in real temp inside the oven.

Am thinking I may go the route of coat, bake, size, coat, bake. That way I will not have the exposed base line after sizing.

Another thing I learnt , stop fondling the boolits. I am guilty of that, especially as I have only just started casting. Boxes of nice shiney boolits were too tempting not to touch. I think sweat,grease,oil from my hands may have contributed to a few flakey boolits.
So I will insert a swirl wash in acetone before coating aswell.
Sorry, they just looked so pretty!!!!

[Liberty'sSon]

Ahh, fondling Boolits. I think most of us here have that problem. Perhaps we should start the BFA support group.

[Ausglock]

Grem.
You should have learnt long ago.....do not touch lead with bare hands!
I wear latex gloves whenever casting or coating.

Acetone pre-wash is not needed.
The small edge lead on the base of the 125gr rn does not cause any leading in my guns. I get the same thing. If it worries you, sure, coat bake size and re-coat.
This is why most of the commercial caster/coaters use bevel base bullets.
One way to stop the exposed lead at the base is to use HI-TEK super 5000 mold release or smoke the top of the mold and the underside of the sprue plate. Ensure the sprueplate bolt is tight and there is not a gap between the sprueplate and the mold top.

[Gremlin460]

Right-o... I fitted the thermocouple into the oven and turned the knob to 200c and walked away.

15 mins later the light on the oven went out saying it had reached temp, firing up the meter I bought with the thermo probe is showed 248/249c.

I opened the door and turned the temp control down and let the oven cool. Once cool closed door and slowly incremented the thermostat knob up till I got a steady 199/201C reading.

I turned the oven off at the plug, opened the door and let it go cold. Once cold I closed the door left all the controls as is and turned it on at the wall, it returned to 199/201C and the light went out.
It is now cycling between 190 and 201c which should be close enough.

The outside control says it has been set at 150C, so this oven's internal temp control is 45-50C out of whack.

Those boolits I coated were therefore cooked at near 250C for 10/11 mins. No wonder they went darker than expected. They got that hot the coating is actually flaking on a few boolits, although it could be due to oil on those that are flaking, see Prior post regarding my Fondle Fetish that I had.

These coated ones will now be recycled and the process redone at the correct temperature.

[HI-TEK]

Thanks for your update.
Goes to show, just how poor quality temperature controls are on these small ovens.
They are made to a price, and despite better & cheap controls being available, they are seldom used.
It seems that every one is different with ability to supply reliable temperatures as compared to knob settings.
Once it is known, where your setting should be, the rest is like falling off a log.
After you have done this a few hundred times, you will be able to easily pick out any variations as they occur by simply looking at finished colour, and then confirm with solvent and smash tests.
As I have said, as a first time user, without you being aware of your oven temperature problems you did very well.
Now, that your settings are established, you should be able to go into full production, and the only barrier now will be how fast you can cast, and coating is much faster than what you can cast.
You will be dreaming cast & coat, smash and wipe dreams.....lol...lol

Right-o... I fitted the thermocouple into the oven and turned the knob to 200c and walked away.

15 mins later the light on the oven went out saying it had reached temp, firing up the meter I bought with the thermo probe is showed 248/249c.

I opened the door and turned the temp control down and let the oven cool. Once cool closed door and slowly incremented the thermostat knob up till I got a steady 199/201C reading.

I turned the oven off at the plug, opened the door and let it go cold. Once cold I closed the door left all the controls as is and turned it on at the wall, it returned to 199/201C and the light went out.
It is now cycling between 190 and 201c which should be close enough.

The outside control says it has been set at 150C, so this oven's internal temp control is 45-50C out of whack.

Those boolits I coated were therefore cooked at near 250C for 10/11 mins. No wonder they went darker than expected. They got that hot the coating is actually flaking on a few boolits, although it could be due to oil on those that are flaking, see Prior post regarding my Fondle Fetish that I had.

These coated ones will now be recycled and the process redone at the correct temperature.

[gunoil]

Yea, get hi tek 5000 mold release. I did, love it on aluminum molds.

[Gremlin460]

Still get the occasional one with a "chip" or dot of coating missing, will this be a problem?

Also the violetx2 turns black when baked unless it needs /shorter/lower temp?? Does not hold its colour at all.

[Ausglock]

Still get the occasional one with a "chip" or dot of coating missing, will this be a problem?

Also the violetx2 turns black when baked unless it needs /shorter/lower temp?? Does not hold its colour at all.

The small chip dot will not matter.

What mix are you using? The voilet R-2X is a dark purple when 2 coats are baked. I used some a few days ago. Don't put it on too thick.
The red 1220/L is a lighter version of Violet R-2X

[jakec]

ive only been casting for 3 months and loading for 6. i read this whole thread twice and then decided to get some and try it. i called mr. donnie up and he said green or gold was easiest for a beginner so i got a liter of green. i love it! its easy to do and looks great. it was alot easier than i thought it would be. ill try to post some pics tonight. some of mine were cooked too long and ended up a little dark but still pass the wipe test and smash test so im gonna shoot them and see what happens. i had my buddy size them for me after two coats and he couldnt believe how much easier they were to size. he thought i had gave him some that were already sized they went so easy. no coating came off either. sizing from .359/.360 to .356.

[DirtyDusty]

I have been reading on this thread for a while off and on. I can't remember hearing if a process where bullets are heat treated before this process. Anyone done that?

[Ausglock]

I'd suggest that if you are trying to make a silk purse from a sow's ear by heat treating a lesser alloy, then this coating process may not be for you. Due to the fact that heat is needed to cure the coating.

@ Jakec. Good job, Mate. It really is easy.

[btroj]

It isn't creating a silk purse from a sows ear, heat treating a bullet is a very good thing in many rifle calibers. It makes the bullet hard enough to give good accuracy but not so brittle as a high antimony alloy would be.

Handgun shooters don't run into this type of issue, velocity isn't high enough in many cases.

I got my coating in yesterday. I intend to see what I can get it to do in rifles and will mess with heat treating too.

I have no doubts about what it will do in handguns, none at all.

[gunoil]

A friend says he shoots 122gr in 380 pistol. Green coated.

What would be a good powder drop using bullseye? Light plinking load. I use cci primers.

[btroj]

First coat, first go around. Red copper color. Is this a bit too light a coat? I am going on the understanding that 3 light coats are better than a couple heavy ones, at least at first.

Far easier to add more than to remove some.

This is before baking.

[btroj]

This is after two coats, both baked fully. No color with acetone patch after either coat.

Too much? Not enough? Just right?

[popper]

Too early for Ausglock to answer. Looks like my green, both coats. I added a 3rd coat which really gets the color. Might I suggest doing ~ 100 at a time, shoot and see if it works OK, no leading. I shot ~ 100 yesterday 130 gr 9mm & WST, cleaned the lead out this morning. That was the last of my first batch of 300 or so. Passed all tests too. Got to load up my second batch & try. Still did pretty good @ 10yds, 6-8" from a 3" XDs, one handed.

[btroj]

I hope to shoot some next Tuesday. If my new 9 mm mould gets in tomorrow I will cast some of them and see how they do too.

This stuff is pretty easy to use. Acetone smell is jot nice but it dissipates fast enough.

[Ausglock]

Looks good to me.
What mix? 5-1-7?

SWC can be hard to get colour into the tight areas.
I found that 5-1-10 worked best for SWC 45 pills. you use more mix and it covers great, but you are still only using the same amount of colour and catalyst. just more acetone.

I'd throw another coat on and see how it looks.