Tried hitek today

[popper]

WD from the oven on last coat unless you use a hardball type alloy. Overtemp is not good. Inspect after sizing to verify none is scraped off. Just takes a few bad ones to get the leading started, it gets worse from there. Any that get shaved when seating will also be bad. You can TL with BLL or alox so you don't need to remelt them, except for those already loaded.

[Drew P]

WD from the oven on last coat unless you use a hardball type alloy. Overtemp is not good. Inspect after sizing to verify none is scraped off. Just takes a few bad ones to get the leading started, it gets worse from there. Any that get shaved when seating will also be bad. You can TL with BLL or alox so you don't need to remelt them, except for those already loaded.

okay well that's interesting as I've been getting some sliver shaves which I believe is resulting from the seating die (Dillon) being a little too snug and it's un-belling my cases before the seating has been finished. So, my choice at this point is to open the seater up a little, chamfer all my cases or both. I may try a chamfer on cases first.

Thanks for the replies. I just ice dropped a small batch that I also applied a very thin third coat to. This was probably bad idea because logic states that you should only try one thing at a time, but logic never did make much sense to me.

[Drew P]

Does an ice dropped bullet continue to age harden or does the ice drop circumvent that process?

[slide]

The coating does need adequate drying time. I dry mine for thirty minutes with a fan on them and then they go to the top of the oven to preheat and dry some more. Depending on weather I have dried for twenty minutes. Take your time. Ausglock posted instructions for the hi-tek. It is on page seven of the coating thread ( I think). Called hi-tek do's and dont's. Check it out if you haven't already. I would just do one tray at a time. I don't have one but I have heard the 9mm can be buggers sometimes.On your temp the max is 400 f. Try to keep it between 385 and 400 f.

[Drew P]

I may need to PID the oven then if it's really this fussy. It seems alloy content doesn't even matter much when powder coating, is it critical with hitek?

[slide]

The rules apply, alloy matched to pressure, fit is still king. A lot of the guys use PID. A twenty dollar multimeter from wal-mart will work. That is what I use.

[dikman]

Alloy content shouldn't matter, as the coating itself doesn't care if it's soft (pure lead) or harder. Earlier you said you were getting deformation from the cooking process? You shouldn't be heating the boolits hot enough in your oven to soften the lead that much.

[slide]

Did you read Ausglock's do's and dont's ?

[Drew P]

Yes I read them and then again. There needs to be and updated list because I found a few other things and also there was confusion about the mix ratios and stuff because of the liquid product. One thing he mentioned was the need to mix the powder and then let the mix sit for an hour to activate. I didn't see mention of that again. I didn't do that though. I also saw mention of not over cooking on time, but then later read about experiments where bullets were cooked for hours and still worked great. So, I believe my problem might be under cured product now, because I see lot of smoke and barrel ends up with electrical smell. So, first thing is another coat and bake 15 min at 400°.
The deornation was due to me trying double trays and the lower trays exposed to hot element radiation too long. I'm wondering if a metal IR shield over the oven element would help reduce that. I think it's true I may have under cured though, and possibly rushed the drying. So I'll focus on that and report back.

[DerekP Houston]

I may need to PID the oven then if it's really this fussy. It seems alloy content doesn't even matter much when powder coating, is it critical with hitek?

You are going through the exact same frustrating process I followed. Yes I PID my oven. Yes I bought a new expander for my 9mm set. 9mm is the only one I have issue with, guns used beretta px4 and walther ppq. *any* other pistol caliber I've tried I have had success with, even on ones with marginal flaky coverage. Hopefully you can solve the mystery!

[Drew P]

Well I'm hoping the bullets I've already coated aren't ruined now. I probably should've waited and not coated almost everything I have before an exhaustive testing lol. So typical me.

[DerekP Houston]

Well I'm hoping the bullets I've already coated aren't ruined now. I probably should've waited and not coated almost everything I have before an exhaustive testing lol. So typical me.

If you have some BLL or alox, just give them a light tumble coating. Salvaged mine just fine. I try to avoid melting or recasting perfectly good bullets when possible.

[Drew P]

Cool thanks I was wondering if that might work. I've had bottles of alex for years never used it.

[dikman]

The deornation was due to me trying double trays and the lower trays exposed to hot element radiation too long.

I have problems if I try to use anything but the middle tray. I think in these small ovens, with top and bottom elements, using trays in the top and bottom positions places them too close to the elements and doesn't allow uniform heat dispersion.
At least that's my theory...

[fredj338]

Convection oven seems to be more uniform. Mine has two racks & works fine filling both. Proper flare of the case mouth is important. If you shave the base during seating, it's gonna lead. I had to switch to a Hornday in line seating die for my shorter 45acp bullets. Even with a huge bell they would tip & scrape the coating.

[ioon44]

I also switched to the Hornday in line seating die for 9 mm and .45 ACP, this stopped the tilting and scraping of the coating.
I also found that my old .45 ACP seating die body was so tight that it was closing the bell before the bullet seated resulting in scraping the coating.