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Thread: Standing boolits up before heating?

  1. #1
    Boolit Master
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    Standing boolits up before heating?

    I've not tried powder coating.....yet! However, the few threads I have read, all mention picking them up with tweezers or nitrile gloves, and standing them up on a non stick aluminum foil before putting them in the oven. I would find this
    "tedious" and don't do this when heat treating "normal" boolits for high velocity shooting!! Is standing them up necessary?
    It's all chicken, even the beak!

  2. #2
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    it ain't necessary if all you want is the powder coat to harden.

    I figure I could get a basket and cook like 50 boolits with a mark or two on them,
    or I can take 20 minutes and stand up 400 boolits and have them nice and smooth.
    or I can pour them out on a tray and have a flat side and pry the stuck ones apart.

    I opted for nice and smooth.
    nobody will probably ever see them, but I'd know they were not as good as I could make them.

  3. #3
    Boolit Master rsrocket1's Avatar
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    I pick them up with a nitrile glove dusted with PC and it takes about 3 seconds to pick up a bullet, tap it once (base down) on a pie plate and place it on the parchment paper. The tap (or nearly a slam) evens out the powder coat and shakes off the excess. At that rate, 100 bullets takes a little over 5 minutes to stack up. I shake up about 100 boolits at a time so the added couple of minutes for the other batch minutes to shake up another 100 or so boolits, the 20 minute baking time is complete and I take one batch out to cool and the next batch is stacked and ready to bake. 3 cycles and I've got 600 coated boolits (good for 3 more shooting sessions at the range)

  4. #4
    Boolit Grand Master
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    Sittin them up assures almost even coating, as the powder flows when it melts. And it gives you nice smooth shiny boolits.

    Just letting them lay there will create dents, dings, divots, etc on the surfaces and sides and can lead to irregular path due to uneven weight distribution.....not a lot, but depends on how picky and accurate you are. And all the ones I just let lay there end up looking real ugly!

    Do what you have time to do. I prefer real nice perrrrrrdy shiny boolits.


    Best recommendation I have is: Just do it......don't think about it too much. You will learn a WHOLE lot by actually doing the process, rather than just reading and worrying about it.

  5. #5
    Boolit Grand Master OS OK's Avatar
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    We all suffer this condition to some extent​ in our hobby...some of us have perfected it. It is called 'OCBD'.
    Obsessive Compulsive Boolit Disorder
    a m e r i c a n p r a v d a

    Be a Patriot . . . expose their lies!

    “In a time of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” G. Orwell

  6. #6
    Boolit Bub
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    I'm a newby, but this has always been about volume for me. Reasonable volume is at least 100 at a time. I cannot imagine standing up hundreds of 9mm boolits at a time.

    Recently I have discovered stacking baskets allow me 200 per baking session. It makes for quick work, separating boolits from the baskets and each other when they come out of the oven.

    In my experience, separation ASAP out of oven is most efficient. When done quickly, there is less "boogering," often hardly any. I drop the baskets upside down and quickly smack away any leftovers. "Huggers" are broken with the light welding gloves, the hotter they are, the easier they separate.

    I have found that I prefer the "moddled" looking powder coats rather than the shiney smooth pretty one's I see. For my uses, it masks superficial imperfections that don't effect my higher volume shooting needs.

    Lately, I've been combining Smoke's PC colors to get unique looking colors that do double duty. Allowing simple quick identification for my middle aged eyes and rounds looking unique to my buddies at the range. A side benefit is identifying my own rounds on the ground after matches, on top of others doing so for me.
    Last edited by bwframe; 05-02-2017 at 10:35 PM.

  7. #7
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    This may open a can of worms, BUT; shinny smooth is not alway the most aerodynamic. Look at golf balls. Myth buster did a test on this and found the golf ball profile had less wind resistance

  8. #8
    Boolit Master

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    Trying to PC thousands and having limited time I was stand but just tried the glob method and found it acceptable for practice ammo. Now if I have to make some to perform I may stand those up. Time will tell.

  9. #9
    Boolit Buddy rototerrier's Avatar
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    I stand mine up but it doesn't seem to take me quite as long as others. I pick with my left hand, transfer while flipping appropriately to my right hand. My left hand is then picking the next while my right is placing on the tray. I suppose it does require a little bit of coordination, but I don't have any issues with both hands doing separate tasks at once. I can fill a tray very quickly.

    Also, don't use non-stick foil or parchment. Silicone baking mats is where it's at. Parchment doesn't last and foil eventually tears and/or sticks to boolit bases. Silicone lasts forever and boolits just fall right off.

    I have some mesh trays that I've used for mass production and didn't like the results. I prefer a flawless finish. I also found that boolits that stuck together base to base required a screwdriver to separate. I would get quite a few of those in addition to dents, dings and even some exposed lead where one bullet would completely remove a chunk of coating from the other. I'm OCD and prefer things to look nice and neat.

  10. #10
    Boolit Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by Grmps View Post
    This may open a can of worms, BUT; shinny smooth is not alway the most aerodynamic. Look at golf balls. Myth buster did a test on this and found the golf ball profile had less wind resistance
    This is true, but the dimples need to be uniform. If it has more on one side than another, then the boolit may not fly straight.
    Evangelical, deplorable redneck and proud of it.

  11. #11
    Boolit Buddy vrh's Avatar
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    Pistol bullets , I set on their base on top of a 1x board covered with a dull side up no-stick tin foil. Rifle bullets, I use a 1 inch thick board drilled w/ slightly larger holes in it to place my unchecked bullets in. This board is also covered in non stick tin foil w/ dull side up.
    Da Okie/ Now known as Vearl

  12. #12
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    It does not actually take that long to set up 9/40/44/45 boolits. I get around 120-170 per rack. Fill 2 racks and start them baking. By the time the oven is done, I have another rack ready. I can crank out more boolits than I can ever shoot that way.

  13. #13
    Boolit Master rsrocket1's Avatar
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    I timed myself. 10 minutes to stack this many boolits.



  14. #14
    Boolit Grand Master fredj338's Avatar
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    I use large tweezers. It's a bit like chop sticks, pretty fast. I can load a tray of 60 in about 5min. Gotta do something while the other trays are cooking. One reason I like HT for bulk pistol, just coat & toss them all in in the tray. I also get more in the tray as they can touch where PC, you want them to not touch or they stick together.
    EVERY GOOD SHOOTER NEEDS TO BE A HANDLOADER.
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  15. #15
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    I stand mine so that I can spray them, but the first tray is the only slow one. After that, I can stand them up and spray them while the first tray is cooking. I always have a fresh tray standing and sprayed, ready to replace the one that just baked, and get tray after tray of perfect boolits every time. But you just have to find your happy spot. If you like what you get when you don't stand them.... go for it! Tumble and dump and be happy! Have fun coating!
    KE4GWE - - - - - - Colt 1860, it just feels right.

  16. #16
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    I only powder coat for handguns here and have been standing these up until recently. I am now just coating them in a #5 container with no BBs and dumping them into a couple of baskets to shake off the excess powder then into the oven for 20 minutes at 400.

    As soon as the oven turns off I take the baskets and just drop them on the garage floor. The few stuck boolits come apart easily and I have minimum marks on them.

  17. #17
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    I use nitrile gloves and can stand up my boolets as fast as I can handle them. Don't have to worry about knocking others over with my fat fingers and can get a lot on a small toaster oven pan. I had some old egg crate diffuser panel and cut it to fit my pans. load the pan up and pick the grid up by the edges.



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    Last edited by JimA; 06-21-2017 at 01:36 PM.
    Jim

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  18. #18
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    Quote Originally Posted by Grmps View Post
    This may open a can of worms, BUT; shinny smooth is not alway the most aerodynamic. Look at golf balls. Myth buster did a test on this and found the golf ball profile had less wind resistance
    So why don't bowling balls have dimples like golf balls?

    It would break all of the beer bottles.

    Sorry, couldn't resist! Back to the topic on hand. . .
    Sometimes life taps you on the shoulder and reminds you it's a one way street. Jim Morris

  19. #19
    Boolit Master

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    Using an oven with two racks really cuts down on PC'ing time for me. I can tweezer two racks in about the time it takes to bake one batch, so it goes pretty quickly!

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