System for setting up boolits for PC'ing

[mongoose33]

I've been absent a while--new interest in brewing beer, lot of shooting, not much casting.

I've been trying to perfect a better system for PC'ing boolits--using a variation on Beagle333's nuts on a tray method. I've used that approach but for whatever reason, I can't seem to get the epoxy to "take." I've roughed up the surface of the tray, but eventually they start to break loose.

So I've been on a quest for a better approach for me. What I wanted was a method by which the nuts could not fall off the tray, and toward that end I bought a bunch of 3/8" small bolts, and double the number of 10/32 nuts. I used end caps, galvanized, for duct work--these are 10" x 8". Here they are: http://www.menards.com/main/heating-...82216658445442

I enlisted the help of a friend who has skills. I traced out a grid pattern that had 12 columns, 10 rows, where the intersections were 3/4" apart. This was transferred onto the end caps and holes drilled at those points. That allowed for a nut to be put on the bolt, the bolt run through the hole, and the second nut affixed from the top side. That was 120 holes and bolt/nut combinations.

Times four trays.

Then, using thin plywood, my friend drilled corresponding holes that matched the location of the nuts on the trays; two trays with 3/8" holes for 9mm boolits, and two trays with 1/2" holes for .45 ACP. Those are the calibers we're working with now. The wooden templates with holes are placed over the trays, aligning with the nuts over which nonstick aluminum foil was pressed down. Each nut resulted in a little pedestal on which a boolit would be set prior to powdercoating.

The pics show it better than I can describe. For what it's worth, it sounds like he did all the work, and on these he did. Not shown is the failed efforts I had. What I'd tried was to drill holes through the metal and the plywood at the same time; didn't work well as the drill bit (in a drill press) wanted to wander off track and turn. My friend first drilled the trays, then used the resulting holes to mark where to drill on the wood, and then that.

Anyway, this system allows for two improvements over my old "place them on the tray one at a time and hope they don't fall over, fall as dominoes, or otherwise take forever." We put the template over the tray, align the holes, and in go the boolits. It's fast, really fast, takes maybe 2 minutes to fill a 120-spot tray. None of them fall over, and it's easy to transfer the tray to the PC booth.

Our only mistake, if it is one, is that the 9mm holes are pretty tight. If there's any flash on the base of the boolit, it won't go into the hole easily. Were we to do it again, we might have used a slightly larger diameter drill bit, instead of 3/8" perhaps 13/32.

So--this system works, and it's fast. We bake for 19 minutes, and every time we were waiting 10 minutes or more for them to finish, AFTER we'd set up the next two trays. We're thinking of a second oven, but the throughput is so fast that we may not have enough boolits. Here are the pics: time consuming to make, not cheap (500 bolts, 1000 nuts!), but this system is, for us, the "nuts."

[RP]

Nice think you can talk your friend into making us all a set

[bangerjim]

I use my fingers! Works great for me.

[blikseme300]

Good plan and nice execution.

[Walter Laich]

had something like that right at the end of my spraying PC. Works well and spacing is always the same.
-
no I just use ASBB tumbling and for me like it more.

we do what is best for us.

[mongoose33]

Nice think you can talk your friend into making us all a set

Sure! $150.

We're factoring in development costs, of course. Over time, the sets will come down in price, as we amortize R&D.

[Phantom30]

No fuss no muss, give me HPs on spikes and ESPC QED

[KingRat]

I have been using the board with holes for a while to pack trays. I use 10 boards to pack and fit 140 odd bullets per tray. Started off using nust that was PC's onto another board using the spacer tray. This works well.

Moved to using flat trays without nuts and NSAF. Stack, spray, bake. I ESPC 1400 odd bullets in 30min and bake for 20min. the trick with stacking straight onto the NSAF is to spray a light coat.

I used to ESPC until I cannot see any reflection form the lead underneath in the lube grooves. This is way to much and leaves a lot of flashing. Just spray for an even light coat that covers the bearing surface.

A light bump from all sides of the tray creates a little island for the bullet and also reduces flash. I use this when coating bigger bullets like 44 mag and 500's as It's more difficult to get good coverage and thus leads to more over spray.

Stacking the trays by dropping the bullets in the holes are super quick and would take about 3 min per tray. Leaving the spacer boards over the bullets lets me load trays and stack them for when I ESPC.

[fcvan]

I use a plastic fluorescent light diffuser from the hardware store, trimmed to fit my oven tray. A piece of trimmed parchment baking paper gets folded around a small piece of galvanized roof flashing, also trimmed to fit the tray. When I tumble coat, I then place the boolits into the square holes which helps keep the boolits standing when I transit the tray to the toaster oven. Once the tray is in the rack, I carefully slide the rack into the oven.

When I ESPC, I do so on non stick foil, and transfer to the parchment and grid. The excess powder gets reclaimed and the foil doesn't get a layer of PC. I ASBBDT %99 of the time, and only ESPC when I'm doing a copper mix (seen in another post) that comes out great. For gas checked .30 caliber boolits, I have a tray with fender washers and use NSAF.

Picture of plastic grid is below. The nice thing about the grid is you can tilt the tray to align the boolits for near perfect even spacing.