Hi all I have been following the progress and would like to try this but here in oz 6mm airsoft bb's are illegal so does anyone know what sort of plastic they are made of so i can source some in a different size or locally
Thanks
Stuart
Hi all I have been following the progress and would like to try this but here in oz 6mm airsoft bb's are illegal so does anyone know what sort of plastic they are made of so i can source some in a different size or locally
Thanks
Stuart
Didn't I read somewhere in the tumbling thread about folks using a bag of cheap plastic beads from the craft department when they couldn't find any ASBB's at their local store? They reported good luck.
I'll look for that....
Edit.... found it.... post #122 of this thread, on page 7.
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...-coating/page7
KE4GWE - - - - - - Colt 1860, it just feels right.
Thanks Guys I'll give those ideas a go
REPORT ON MY USAGE :
Last weekend I shot the 358156's, girl loads and full power loads gas checked from a SW, 6" 586 with absolutely no issues. I also fired some of the lee 230gr RN from the 45acp, again no issues. I got 2 of the 3 I wanted to try out of the way, now on to the rifle boolits
az-jim
"You believe these people exist to provide you with position, I believe your position exists to provide these people with FREEDOM"
FREEEEEEEEDOMM-William Wallace
Possibly I have missed it, but can the plastic BB's be reused or is one shot all they are good for???
Thank you.. Eric
Eric They are reuseable. Put as many in your shaker an forgetabout it (think in an Italian accent)
They are permanent! Use them over and over again. I use about 1/2" in the bottom of the bowl. Too many and you will never dig your boolits out and they will actually start removing the powder!
You can even change colors, but I have a separate container for each and leave the BB's in each.
Just don't drop a powdered up BB or you will have a connect the dots pattern in the making.
Disclaimer: Reloading and casting I only look at cents/round and ignore any other costs
Late to the party on this one, but I'd like to share my experience with this method.
I started out with the epoxy paint which worked great for awhile, then for no reason it started flaking off the bullet. I also found it much slower than just using LLA, which unfortunately smokes like a freight train in my G17.
After finding this thread I thought I'd give it try. After all, I still had the toaster oven and mesh racks, so I picked up some Eastwood High Gloss Black and some black airsoft BB's. I stole some #5 containers from the kitchen.
The first batch went really well! The finish is a lot more durable than the commercially cast Hi-Tek coated bullets I have or the epoxy paint I was using before. The process of picking the bullets out of the tub was extremely tedious, although I did find a that an old pair of scissors worked better than needle nose pliers. The sharp edges grip the bullet well and leave an extremely thin line in the PC. After baking the PC flow over the lines and they can longer be seen.
The second batch was tumbled as normal, but this time I sifted out the BB's and PC, then dumped the bullets straight onto wire mesh and baked them where they lay. To my surprise the hot bullets came off the mesh easily and didn't stick together. The sifting process makes for a thinner coat yet it was even and didn't have any bald spots. This is definitely my preferred method. Even if I end up doing two coats it's still faster than than anything else I've seen, especially since I don't need to size down my 9mm's.
I need two more wire racks for my little oven and I'll be baking about 600 bullets at a time in single layers. Next I'll try piling them high and see how that works.
I'll get some pics up if anyone is interested, just to show the even coating without bare patches.
If you REALLY want a good tool to pick up powdered boolits, get a pair of henostats, the curved ones. They have excellent teeth that leave virtually no mark and allow you to pick boolits up at many different lay angles.
They are not expensive. I bought several pair at a swap meet from a guy selling precision tools.
Well worth the money. I tried needle nose, fish hook pliers, and many other tools with little to no success. These things work GREAT!
Spend a little money.....get a lot of happy!
bangerjim
I bought one of those off Amazon and while it worked well for picking up it also pulled a lot of the powder off. I did the dip the end in the powder to build it up some and that helped but then it got a little harder to pick them up. Now if I do this I have a set of very fine pointed end tweezers that work really well. The original plan was to gently bend the ends of one so it only uses the very tips but they work so well I haven't needed to bend them. I should still try it though as it may work that much better.
This is the set of tweezers I'm currently using:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Disclaimer: Reloading and casting I only look at cents/round and ignore any other costs
I was brought up using hemostats to unhook fish. Dad always had some pairs that he bought off the guy at the flea market in the boat, tackle box, etc.
Being able to lock them down and grip the hook really helps, especially on a fish that really inhaled the bait.
I'll have to pick up a pair that have never been in fish slime and try them for powdered boolits.
ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ
My hemos must be magic! I cannot even see where the very TIPS of the serrated jaws grasp the boolit. Now, I do NOT clamp down to the point they lock. Just enough to pick up and pivot the boolits onto the NSAF.
I have tried all kinds of tweezers and pliers and ended up playing 52 pick-up from all the dropped boolits due to the poor grip the tiny ends on those kind of tools.
Glad you got them to work. I probably have dropped 3 or 4 boolits out of several thousand since switching to hemos.
So what's the trick for getting an even coat? I coated 67 Lee 358-125RF with Eastwood "Candy Orange," hoping for a jacketed look. I added the boolits to a tub with about 500 black .25g ASBBs which covered the tub to about 1/2" without the boolits. I only added about 1/2tsp of powder and tried multiple coats. Still came out "splotchy.'
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I am looking at the prismatic powder coats page I see white http://www.prismaticpowders.com/colo...8/CLOUD-WHITE/ is looking to be the least expensive at 8.42 a pound , has anyone tried white does it coat well , I suppose the real question is what coats the best in one coat in a #5 container with 1/2 inch of ASBBs
I am cheap I will take any color so long as it coats in one application well
I only can attest to HF powders, but yellow and white do NOT coat well at all. Takes 2-3 coats to cover and that makes the boolit too big! Waste of my time!
Smoke's powder (blue) I have covers like magic, but it is a DARK color over a DARK surface (lead).
HF red convers 100% in one BBDT coat for me. I use white and yellow ONLY for making other colors and shades of red, blue, black *ESPC only*.
Light color liquid paints many times do NOT cover dark surfaces without multi-coats. Same with powders I have used.
banger
Does color really matter? The gloss clear covers just fine in one shake session. It looks like whitish dust going on but bakes clear.
Disclaimer: Reloading and casting I only look at cents/round and ignore any other costs
I also go for one coat as I don't like handling the bullets multiple times. I use Prismatic and these solid colors tumble one coat for me, Bubba Blue, Sweet Plumb (purple), Ink black, Really Red, Racer Green. Hot Yellow is two coats, but a nice yellow if you are inclined, I am not. I don't like the Racer Green Color, next I will try Tractor Green. If you want cheap, check out the discontinued powders, some as low as $3 a pound, but you might get some strange colors. Please let me know if you find more good one coat colors.
BP | Bronze Point | IMR | Improved Military Rifle | PTD | Pointed |
BR | Bench Rest | M | Magnum | RN | Round Nose |
BT | Boat Tail | PL | Power-Lokt | SP | Soft Point |
C | Compressed Charge | PR | Primer | SPCL | Soft Point "Core-Lokt" |
HP | Hollow Point | PSPCL | Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" | C.O.L. | Cartridge Overall Length |
PSP | Pointed Soft Point | Spz | Spitzer Point | SBT | Spitzer Boat Tail |
LRN | Lead Round Nose | LWC | Lead Wad Cutter | LSWC | Lead Semi Wad Cutter |
GC | Gas Check |