Powder coating ain't worth it.

[fryboy]

My mould drops quite a bit oversize at .455" so after PC they were .457"

coupla more coats and you can run'em thru a 45-70

[dverna]

There is a lot of emotion that comes into play. Most of it is due to some people needing to justify "they are right". Some comes from frustration that new people are not reading the pages of mostly junk they have contributed to from day one. We cannot expect people to wade through over 250 pages of HT, PCES, PCDT, PCWT on how to coat bullets.

I currently have a request in to see if I will be allowed to edit a thread I started on accuracy with coatings as it is getting full of stuff that should be deleted to be a worth while thread.

Maybe the moderators could ask the loudest (hopefully most talented) cheer leader of each method to author a sticky on how to do each type of coating. These "educational" threads would be locked except to the original author who would add to the thread as more experience is gained. We do not need pages of pictures of "look what I did last night" in a sticky. Stickies should have pertinent information that applies to the topic and that is not easily found.

The current coating stickies are next to useless and have become mostly social interactions between "believers". Nothing wrong with that in a forum - but not useful in a sticky for new people. BTW, I feel the same way about the Extreme Lube thread so it is has nothing to do with coatings.

And yes, I have been guilty of coming down hard on people in other threads (number of grains in a pound). It is usually due to frustration or apparent stupidity/laziness. We all screw up. Over-reacting happens.

Don Verna

[Love Life]

Nobody reads stickies anyway!!!

[xacex]

Whats a sticky? I still use my 7.99$ goodwill oven. Works great! This one you set the temperature, and it had the old clicker buttons that used to be on the remote controls for tv's to turn it on. Ahh, it makes me feel nostalgic just using it.

[Beagle333]

If I recall correctly, the stickies here didn't even start out as stickies..... we were just using those threads to "clutter up" the traditional lube threads and when this subforum got created, they got tossed in here as the first half dozen stickies and we were left to our own. Usually a sticky gets converted from a post that exhibits some merit prior to it being chosen.

We just need to make some new threads that are informative and educational and then see if we can't get the original stickies replaced with some worthy of being at the top of the page forever.

[Love Life]

And nobody will read them.

[Beagle333]

Well... there's always that.

[jmort]

Before I joined, I spent the better part of a week reading most all of the stickies and any thing else that caught my eye. They may be ignored, but that is a big mistake in my book.

[Love Life]

Here are my thoughts on stickies:

I find them to be a complete waste of time. Now, do not misconstrue that to mean that the information is worthless. That is not what was said, and the information is worth a ton. However; stickies are worthless unless they are to be made mandatory to read before you can post in a sub-forum. Plain and simple.

All stickies do at this time is take up half a page, and give people who like to read and research the opportunity to say "Read the stickies!!" to people who ask questions that are covered in the stickies.

The older members of Cast Boolits need to understand that you have members from 3 generations on this forum. Each one has a different way of learning, and unfortunately the younger generation's form of learning is to ask blatantly obvious questions that are covered in reloading manuals, on the powder can itself, in the stickies, etc.

In conclusion, I find the use of stickies to be worthless since nobody reads them, or they read the first 2 posts and decide to look no further and then proceed to start a new thread on the colors of lead as it melts...or why their bullets are wrinkled...etc.

Just my opinion and not the gospel.

[Beagle333]

In conclusion, I find the use of stickies to be worthless since nobody reads them, or they read the first 2 posts and decide to look no further and then proceed to start a new thread on the colors of lead as it melts...or why their bullets are wrinkled...etc.

This is why I propose that the new stickies only be composed of 2 really long posts!

[Love Life]

You know, you put up the pulling my chain symbol but that is really a good idea.

[DLCTEX]

Personally I read stickies on subjects that interest me, but do get tired of all the "rabbit trails" that clutter them up.

[btroj]

You can lead a caster to stickies but you can't make him read.........

The info in stickies is only worthwhile if it is used. I agree with LL that the people who should be reading stickies are the least likely to read them!

It isn't just a difference in how the generations learn, it is the fact that those with decades of experience learned the hard way. We did the casting, loading, and shooting. New guys come along and want us to condense 30 years of accumulated knowledge into a few sentences and make sure not to use terms that might not be in vogue today.

It would also be very difficult to have a sticky on some of these processes. Look at all the different methods of getting powder coat onto the bullets. Which one do you "promote"?

[jmort]

"The older members of Cast Boolits need to understand that you have members from 3 generations on this forum."

I do have to remind myself that I am an dumpy middle-aged/older white male and you are right, not everyone is in the same boat with the same perceptive. I'm an info junkie. Someone like you will get out there and do it and not sweat the small unimportant minutia/details. I think that is a better approach as opposed to naval gazing, but at this point I doubt I'll change.

[Love Life]

I am an info junkie as well, Jmortimer. I read a lot of the stickies before I first joined, and I like to hope I have kept my stupid questions (yes, they do exist) to a minimum. However; after reading I like to apply my new found knowledge. I use the scientific method (learned in 5th grade?) for dealing with the plethora, cornucopia even, of information gleaned from this site.

Honestly, some people shouldn't be allowed to cut out dinosaur shapes with safety scissors, but thanks to today's medical advances those people are making it to adulthood and now want to reload, cast, coat, etc.

[jmort]

You are a man of action, that is sure enough. I did not mean to imply you are disinterested. Takes me an hour to pick out a cheap drill at Home Depot. Probably some neurotic/OCD issue.

[DLCTEX]

As to giving Daniel greif for using the wrong load, I spent an hour looking for derogatory remarks about H-110 and came up blank. I also don'tsee 22.5 gr. being excessive. The only reference I found to the powder in 454 Casull is in Hornady's manual with 300 gr. jacketed with a starting load of 28.2 yielding only 1400 fps, so 5.7 gr. less can't be pushing the very fast as far as cast boolits go. I would think that is reduced enough to be flirting with danger of a see and would not personally use it. But then I use 221 gr. under a 440 gr. boolit in my 480 Ruger, so maybe it is ok after all. I would run it past Hogdon first.

[Love Life]

You are a man of action, that is sure enough. I did not mean to imply you are disinterested. Takes me an hour to pick out a cheap drill at Home Depot. Probably some neurotic/OCD issue.

That is not how I took it at all!! Being methodical is a great attribute (picking out the RIGHT drill).

All I 'm saying is:
A) People have to read the stickies
B) People need to apply what they learned in the stickies
C) record results, report, and then ask your questions

For those who don't know what the scientific method is, I have pasted it below:
◦Ask a Question
◦Do Background Research
◦Construct a Hypothesis
◦Test Your Hypothesis by Doing an Experiment
◦Analyze Your Data and Draw a Conclusion
◦Communicate Your Results


Using the above will allow you to take what you learn here, experiment with it safely, and then form conclusions based off of experience/observations.


Enough thread drift and the air is a bit cool up here this high up on the soap box.

To all who make it this far. IMO Powder coat IS INDEED WORTH IT as long as you read the info posted and use the right stuff. I don't like the powder coat method (any of them) but that is personal choice. Not because they don't work.

[Mod42]

We just need to make some new threads that are informative and educational and then see if we can't get the original stickies replaced with some worthy of being at the top of the page forever.

I believe that this is exactly what needs to happen. I would like to try powder coating, but probably will not until there is a short (1-2 page at most) explanation of what works. I have tried to read through some of the stickies on powder coating, and honestly ended up with a headache! They just ramble on and on and on and on and on...........

I guess that I would have to agree with Love Life, for the most part, the stickies are not of much value. They become to long and too full of junk to be user friendly.

bruce

[Love Life]

You could take the HT thread and seriously cut it down to about 4 pages and that would cover everything from how to coat, ratios, ovens, heat treating, accuracy, trouble shooting, etc.