Hi tek scraping off in sizing die

[AbitNutz]

AbitNutz,
Please let us know the outcome....

I'm going to drill my oven if only for the reason to see my wife turn purple. Now, to figure out where to drill the hole. I have to figure out where the wired may be running. It's a convection oven so it has wires for the fans...

The PiD probe will pick up air temperature, right? The only spare PID I have is one that I use on one of my lead pots.

[Dragonheart]

Hopefully, nobody is using their PC ovens for food preparation as the oven is not safe for food preparation.

If you are not using a reasonably accurate thermometer in you oven then you don't have a clue as to what your oven is doing. Is it high, low and how consistent is the temperature? You can't tell this from a dial. PDF is great, but not needed as the temperature range for coating does not require that kind of accuracy in an oven that works reasonably well. For $9.36 from Amazon Prime you can solve this problem with an accurate thermometer delivered to your door in two days. Place the Taylor Precision Products Pro Oven Guide Thermometer where you can read it through the glass door of the oven. At least that is one problem solved.
Attachment 179284

[40sand9s]

You may have better success if you called then "baked goods"

[AbitNutz]

Screw it. I drilled a hole on the back of my Wally World Hamilton Beach Convection Oven and put a probe in it. Now the oven holds temp to a degree or two...Took two minutes You can see the probe on the lower right on the inside of the oven.

Last picture is how I size the Hi-Tek coated bullets. It's a 3-ram Pacific Super Mag and I mounted upside down. The linkage can be reversed so even though the press is upside down, you still push down on the handle. It has 3-Lee .451 sizers in it. I can size 3 bullets at a time. There is a bunge on the handle that automatically brings the handle up...both work crazy well.

[Kitika]

I used to have trouble with coating coming off when sizing. Tried polishing the sizing dies but didn't help much. What I found make a difference was letting the bullets dry for at least a day after coating and letting the bullets preheat in the fanforced oven when I switch it on and when at 210C let them cook for 10mins. I bake 1500 at a time and it works for me. I also do still coat once and then size before the final coat to cover any imperfections.

[Kraschenbirn]

No experience with Hi-Tek but, using 'shake 'n bake' with Smoke's powders, I also encountered some 'hard sizing' issues. Didn't quite peel the coating off the boolit like your pics but very, very difficult to size...sometimes deforming the boolit noses to the point of rejection. (Yeah, I'm using a Lyman 450 NOT converted for nose-down feed.) Came up with three 'fixes' that, combined, solved all my problems.

1. Polish sizing die...don't need to enlarge any but you want as close to 'mirror finish' as you can get.

2. Allow PC'd boolits to cool/cure overnight before sizing.

3. If still having problems after #1 and #2, try lubing your PC'd boolits with electrician's wire-pulling lube...the stuff they wipe onto insulated wire before pulling through conduit. I just pour some onto a folded shop towel, let it soak in, and roll my boolits across the pad before placing them in the sizer. No problem at all sizing PC down .003.

Bill

[40sand9s]

I'm thinking the easiest solution may be bake size then bake again as well as polish the die a bit. Does anyone have issues with the coating sticking the second time with this process. I also have some hf red and tried the shake and bake but like to do several thousand at a time so hitek is faster. If I can't get it to work I may buy some from smoke as the coating of hc wasn't great

[Dragonheart]

If you are going with PC I would definately go with powder from Smoke; something you know works. Preheating the bullets under 200 degrees before tumbling will cause them to take on more powder. If you want to do multiple coats do a partial cure before full cure. A partial cure is heating the bullets until the powder flows, about 300 degrees F., stop the process, let cool and then recoat and full cure. Most powders full cure with 10 minutes at 400 degrees.

[Ausglock]

Bake, size bake is no problem with second coat sticking.

[AbitNutz]

I'm not sure why yours scrape off and mine don't. We're using the same stuff, same dies and same chemicals.

I do preheat my oven to just under 400 degrees.
I do coat them 3 times. I use very thin coats. The exact mix ratio they recommend.
I do water drop them after their 3rd trip through the oven.
I leave them in for 10 minutes at just under 400 degrees.
I do let them sit a day until I size them...but since I water drop them I can't believe waiting does anything.

If you follow the directions exactly...no variation. Does the same thing happen? If so, the only variable would be your oven temp is not correct?? Nothing else, could put things out of whack, no? Unless your acetone is not pure acetone but some substitute.

I would try to get things working by following the directions exactly. Once you do that, I think changing things up would be easier. Maybe a thicker coat with fewer oven tripps. Me? I love my PID equipped oven. That little devil holds with 1/2 of 1 degree.

I dunno, maybe I'm just lucky with this stuff (that would be a first). I have zero issues that I can't put my finger on exactly what went wrong. This stuff works so good there is an excellent chance I'll never use another lubrisizer.

[220]

Is it scraping off the coating or taking a thin layer of lead and the coating along with it?
If they are passing the smash and wipe test may well be the latter, wouldn't hurt to give the die a polish and see if it helps.

[40sand9s]

I am following the directions exactly and use klean strip acetone from Home Depot which is new so I'm assuming it is good. I have tested temp with a thermometer and it says 400 and based on reviews of n the site thought I got a good oven. I really think next step is get a micrometer to see how big they are unsized and maybe polish the die based on that. I'm also thinking it may just be easiest to coat size coat and coat again if I have to

[AbitNutz]

I guess it's possible that the mold is dropping them fairly large and then the Hi-Tek is adding to that so you might be over sizing them but still...if the stuff is tough enough to handle getting smashed by a hammer. That hammer is sizing it a lot more than a somewhat rough Lee die.
I would be really curious to know what they drop from the mold at and what Hi-Tek is adding to it. I'm sizing mine down from .456 to .451....that's a lot and I'm not having that problem. I'm also using straight linotype which is hard as heck.

Also, when you shoot a one of these bullets through a barrel...what happens then? If it can't survive a sizer what about a trip down the bore?

[Dragonheart]

If in doubt just run them through the sizer first, then coat.

[40sand9s]

I thought that would make them not stick from what I read but this would be easiest. Is there anyone who is sizing first then coating and having success. I thought I saw someone says g it makes the bullets too smooth for the hitek to stick

[popper]

run them through the sizer first Not with HiTek. PC is OK. AC from the mould as WD may get water contaminates under the coating. IIRC when I started, I used a thin first coating but tumbled till they were 'wet' then dropped on mesh to dry, Lost some coating dumped but it worked fine. I do ~ 10# at a time.

[Ausglock]

DO NOT SIZE FIRST when using HITEK!!!!!!!!!!
1 coat then size is fine.
It is not rocket science....

[475AR]

One thing I have started doing is after the 2nd or 3rd bake I will size a bullet and see if the coating is too thin or if lead shows thru on the bearing surface if it does I will do additional coats until all is coated and the coating on the bearing surface is consistant and there are no thin areas after sizing. I also use very very thin coats and will do as many as needed to get good coverage after sizing.

[Dragonheart]

One thing I have started doing is after the 2nd or 3rd bake I will size a bullet and see if the coating is too thin or if lead shows thru on the bearing surface if it does I will do additional coats until all is coated and the coating on the bearing surface is consistant and there are no thin areas after sizing. I also use very very thin coats and will do as many as needed to get good coverage after sizing.

Sounds like PC would save time and effort.

[475AR]

Sounds like PC would save time and effort.

Maybe, but it is not about time, effort or doing them in quantity. If it was I would just order what I was looking for, but I like doing the casting doing the coating and doing the sizing. For me I like doing the work, same with when I swedge jacketed bullets. I like the HI-Tek coating because of the ease of use and being able to handle the bullets without needing be careful getting them into the oven. For me I coat the bullets, dump them in a box and let dry then spread them out on the baking tray so they are not laying on top of each other then bake. It works for me and keeps me off the streets when I do it, so I am happy.