Silicone sealant experiment

[BrutalAB]

Sharing results of experiment I conducted today.
Problem: tired of nonstick aluminum foil sticking to boolits after baking, resulting in flecks of aluminum I have to peel off. Also on the last batch I noticed pooling of coat giving the boolits a convex base rather than flat.

Solution: find another surface to stack boolits on to bake.

Attempt: coat a piece of metal with silicone.

Method: I had a tube of this
laying around so I spread a thin layer of it on a piece of steel and let it sit/cure for around 45 minutes.
This stuff has a pretty tacky feel to it but I decide to stack a few boolits anyways and proceed.
I believe the tackiness helps a little keeping the boolits stable during their ride into the oven.

After baking the boolits peel off the plate very easily, however it is clear the Silicone affected the coating

(Yes I stacked these on their noses, secondary experiment) the part that touched the steel is pretty smooth and I have no doubt these will shoot great, even if I had baked them base down.

Concerns: longevity of silicone. I have doubts that this treatment will last more than a few cycles as there is definite smooth and tacky spots now.

Also I got this idea from the silicone backing Sheets or whatever, just can't ever remember to look for them at the store.
I'm also hoping I can coat the interior ring of a stack of washers so I can keep my sanity while doing rifle boolits. It looks like if I nose stack them It might work. Will follow up if there is interest.

[tzzler44]

Why not just use a silicone baking mat? The one I've been using has been through several dozen cycles and is holding up fine.

https://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-...one+baking+mat

[nodakdad]

Why not just use a silicone baking mat? The one I've been using has been through several dozen cycles and is holding up fine.

https://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-...one+baking+mat

I picked up a cheap silicon baking mat at Fleetfarm, worked great. Tried my first PC job, really I just dipped a couple in the powder and set on the mat. I only wanted to see how it would work out. It worked great, came off with out a problem. Well worht the 8 or 9 dollars I paid for it.

[Eddie17]

Parchment paper, is fairly cheap and works great. Find it in you local grocery store cooking, baking section.

[NyFirefighter357]

If you want to use silicone they do sell a high temp red silicone caulk that is used in the heating industry. It is labeled by many but this is one: http://www.supplyhouse.com/Hercules-...FUhWDQodHuQJEQ

[swheeler]

Parchment paper, is fairly cheap and works great. Find it in you local grocery store cooking, baking section.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ what he said. I too started with non-stick aluminum foil, they should've named it super stick.

[dikman]

I've melted lead flashing for casting that has had silicone caulking still stuck to it. The silicone just floats on top of the molten lead, so I doubt that cooking it in your oven is going to affect it too much. When you first bake it in the oven it can give off gasses so this may have affected your boolits, plus if you use acid cure silicone it may also have some effect on the coating.

[Walter Laich]

I've gone to silicone mats and find them the best of all the things I've tried.
I ordered them from WallyWorld and they get delivered directly to store for free
I can get three per each mat but that would depend on size of your trays as to how many you would get

NSAF didn't exhibit non-stick properties until the bullets had cooled off completely. Was adding to total time of operation so I went with the silicone mats

[HABCAN]

In my experience, the onliest way boolits will stick to NSAF is if they are placed on the WRONG SIDE of the foil. I use it pressed down OVER 1/2" hardware cloth to make a grid and it's lasted for dozens of 'bakes' and still going strong. YMMV.