Tray Ideals

[Maximumbob54]

JB Weld them.

[RP]

If you use a rack instead of a tray you can glue your tacks washers or nuts down by using the PC arrange how you want them and just bake they are then stuck in place.

[kbstenberg]

Is there a way to soften the mixed JB Weld so its easier to apply? Kevin

[RP]

Thought this would be a good spot to put this to help keep the board neater.
These is a alum plate with sheetrock nails held in place with PC no PC is between the heads and the alum keeping a good contact for the electricity.
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The more you use it the more PC builds up holding the nails stronger each time.
The other ideal that was shared with me is the nail gun trick. I use a cheap pin nail gun from HF
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now the trick is to put a nail in the bullet and not your finger right ? Ok I use a arrow shaft since I had one handy but any tube will work. Place the bullet in the tube then fire a nail in the base of the bullet. But before doing so understand the bullet is going to go flying out the other end at a good rate of speed. You will need to have it pointed towards something to catch the bullet some sort of padding or tape a sock on the end of the tube what ever works for you.
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There you see some 247 grs with nail bent to hang on my rack now you can coat the entire bullet with a PC gun and bake with out touching them to much.

[DrtRacr09]

Pin nailer looks very interesting, mite be making the 200 mile drive to HF today. They are on sale for $19.99

[GunFun]

So every single bullet will have an almost certainly off-center void or clipped off piece of steel in order to have a more uniform surface finish? And it greatly increases the labor? And apparently you are actually holding the bullet so there is a risk of a glance hitting your finger???!?(unless that was a joke)

What's the upside?

[LubeckTech]

Here is what works best for me - ES coating HP boolits on a $1 plated steel tray I get at a local dollar store which has some self drilling screws I got at Lowes installed;



I can flip the tray over and use it for non HP pistol bullets.



These trays will hold 98 boolits and really work well for all pistol calibers 9mm thru .45 but you have to coat carefully when doing non HP .45s to avoid "shadowing". When I don't completely fill the tray I use a wire brush on a drill after coating to remove the coating from the posts or platforms. Using this method I can bake 295 boolits at a time.

[Beagle333]

Good looking work!
I do need to make a HP holder, using one of those ideas.
It'd be much easier than standing them on the nuts, since 95% of the boolits I cast are HPs.

[RP]

Yes Gunfire every single bullet has a hole or wire clipped off in it but if have ever tried to stand a 247gr bullet up then move it to the oven without it falling over you have some real steady hands. If you have ever seen the pin nails they are not much bigger then a hair so the void would not be a big deal. And its a yes and no on holding he boolits I put them in a old arrow shaft and fire a nail into them my hand is not holding the bullet. I understand looking at the pic things seem to be a lot bigger then they are in life. The nails are so small they print a arrow on the nails so you know which end is the head.
Its all in what you want to do and how you want to do it just sharing another way to PC the longer small base bollits.

[Beagle333]

I just got a .278 push-thru sizer from Buckshot, a couple of 270 molds and some GC's,... and PC'ing them is going to be an issue very shortly.

[lockinload]

I am right there with you. About to sell my regular non-hollow pointed moulds.

I haven't done any powder coating yet. My Harbor Freight electro-static gun is still in the box.

But this is my tray, the first tray I made:






For that tray ^^^, I was planning on using the non-stick Reynolds foil.

I have another piece of that same sheet metal. I figure once I get the hollow point moulds, I will lay out a staggered pattern like before. However, there is a drywall screw with a self-cutting or self-tapping point used for hanging drywall on metal studs. I would use those, driven through the sheet. With the tray pointey side up, I'd just set my hollow pointed boolits down onto the points.

Ok gentleman, I have the setup. I have a tray similar to the one here. It was cut on a plasma machine and has 110 holes and fits in my toaster oven. I actually have two of them. I also had my guy cut me a plate that is the same size. I load the boolits nose down. Place other plate on top of bases. With both hands I flip the tray. I now have all of the boolits sitting straight up, bases down. Powder coat, put original tray back over the noses, flip and powder coat again. 100% coverage. This is all made out of 18 gauge sheet metal. I will post some pictures on my next run. I have tried a lot of different techniques and this is by far the best. I am powder coating 220 at a pop. I have two trays for 40 and 2 for 9 so I can coat 440 at a time. If you can't do this in some kind of volume IMO it isn't worth the time and effort. This is the ticket.
I'm reading that some of you guys are using glue, I posted earlier about the aluminum tape for heating and it works real well but I didn't like the burning of the glue and the adhesive transfer to the boolit so I looked for something else, which I have found. Pics coming

[lockinload]

Boolits in tray


Plate goes over bases, firmly grip both sides and flip



Remove original tray, I shake the tray a little to get the boolits settled and gently lift straight up



Boolits are now standing straight up and ready for coating. When complete carefully drop original tray back down and flip again.
All of this is done at the bench where the coating will take place. These pics are from an new 9 mil that I haven't used yet.
I have been coating 40s in the same fashion and it works well. Pics from cell phone, sorry if they aren't great but you should get the idea.

[lockinload]

One last thing, the guy charged me 20 bucks per tray and 7 dollars for the plate. I have two plates and will use them
with all four trays.

[JASON4X4]

I like the trays are you using ns foil on the bottom tray so the plates wont get coated

[lockinload]

I like the trays are you using ns foil on the bottom tray so the plates wont get coated

No, I am not concerned about coating the trays. If they build up too much I will take a belt sander to them. The plates
never hit the oven so I just wipe them off.

[RP]

locknload you may try the belt sander out before you get to much PC on them it may not remove as easy as you think. Also the thickness of your tray and the belt sander building heat my warp them. Also not sure what sandpaper sells for and your time a new tray my be easier.

[lockinload]

locknload you may try the belt sander out before you get to much PC on them it may not remove as easy as you think. Also the thickness of your tray and the belt sander building heat my warp them. Also not sure what sandpaper sells for and your time a new tray my be easier.

I also have access to a sand blasting system. At this point I'm not too concerned about the build up. As always, time will tell but thanks for the feedback.

A follow up on my technique, The 40s come out almost flawless because the boolit sits on the cutting edge of the boolit. The nines sit on the front side of the boolit and when removing from tray will leave a little ring. I don't see any downside other than cosmetics and I'm not doing this to win a beauty contest. As long as the surface to barrel area is clean and coated...they're getting loaded. No doubt this process is just that...a process of trial and error. All and all I am happy with the progression I have made and am satisfied with my current technique.
My next session, I am going to quench the whole batch in order to save time waiting for the trays and boolits to cool down and maybe offset the softening of
lead during the baking process, if in fact that is occurring. I would think, at some level, the molecular structure of the lead is changing during the baking process.

[BIGRED]

for my 308 & 35 rifle boolits i drilled holes in an aluminum plate slightly bigger than the GC shank so once it punched thru NS foil it would be just lightly snug (Press Fit). they stood up very very well with no tipping. there is flashing at the base of bullet on last driving band but after i seat the GS and resize it shaves it off. adds more paint particles to sizing die but i just blow it out with air.

[Beagle333]

I like that. Pretty nifty! 'Beats fooling with washers!!

[RP]

Yes that looks great l do like the holes in the tray ideal. What I don't understand is why it seems like some can spray with the bullet not raised or punched into a hole and get the coating to cover at the base or the seam. I guess its in how you hold your mouth never seems to work for me. But it seems like nothing every goes off without a hitch for me lol . Thanks for sharing.