Hi-Tek Coating

[Gohon]

Okay, tonight I tried my hand at Hi-Tek coating. Have been powder coating for sometime now but wanted to try Hi-Tek. The adventure didn't go well at all as I broke two cardinal rules. First was I applied a to thick of a coat. Second was I apparently didn't allow the coats to properly dry. Now I have about 200 rough and terrible looking casts. They pass the rub test and the smash test but I just don't want to shoot them in my gun.

Question...if I throw these back into the smelting pot will the coating burn off and float to the top the same as powder coating does? I really would rather recast these and do the Hi-Tek right than just shoot them.

[Lakehouse2012]

Yes, it burns off with less residue then PC

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[Gohon]

Thanks...much appreciated. Tomorrow they go into the pot.

[Hi-Performance Bullet Coatings]

Okay, tonight I tried my hand at Hi-Tek coating. Now I have about 200 rough and terrible looking casts. They pass the rub test and the smash test but I just want to shoot them in my gun.

Over tumbling will lead to rough looking bullets. 15-20 seconds is all you need, especially in hot weather.

[NC_JEFF]

This has got to be the only Hi-tek thread without 80 pages ful of posts, lol. Gohon I hope you'll post your new results here as well along with the technique you use.
Jeff

[T-Bird]

I got rough coats with 20 sec swirling. That's why I swirl with the lid on.

[Gohon]

I got rough coats with 20 sec swirling. That's why I swirl with the lid on.

I tried that at first but a lot of pressure built up and popped the lid off to relieve pressure. how do you believe the reason the lid on helps? Oddly enough the color I used was called gun metal but the coats were more of a gray green in color when baked. Wet after swirling they were a bright blue. Awful high humidity here where I am...that could be a problem with drying time. Might try letting them dry over night.

[slide]

I also swirl with a lid on. Drill a small hole in the lid to release the pressure. Mine dry for 30 minutes. If it is summer I set them outside in the sun. You can try putting a fan on them. One thing you might try,measure some of your bullets and mark them someway. Coat and then remeasure the same bullets and see how much your diameter has increased. It will give you a better idea how thick your coating is. The pros say one coat should add about 1/1000.

[Grmps]

You can substitute 20% M.E.K or Denatured alcohol to slow evaporation.
1 mil to 1 # of boolits -- a little less on the first coat keeps it thin and gives great adhesion.
the first coat is supposed to look like #@#@ Hi-Tek is a stain and absorbs into the pores
the coated boolits are supposed to be damp when dumped ( I normally don't go over 15 seconds) the Last batch I did it was almost 100* out.
If you coated them too thick I'm surprised they passed the smash test unless you baked them a long time (which makes them darker)

[dikman]

Gohon, the Gunmetal is funny stuff. If I follow the instructions I get dark green boolits. At Trevor's suggestion I upped the temp to 240*C (464*F), 10 mins. bake, and got a charcoal/gray/black colour, which I'm guessing is the Gunmetal colour. They all worked fine, whether green or blackish. I gave up worrying about the colour, as long as they work is all that matters.

[ioon44]

I also have gave up on getting the Gunmetal coating to come out right, so I just use it how ever the color come's out and it works great.
I have used one coat of Gunmetal on 200 gr .45 bullets with out any leading.

[T-Bird]

Ditto what slide said about the small hole, as in a pin hole. The lid slows evap. I tried swirling with the lid on, using slightly less (around 1ml per lb) in lieu of the denatured alcohol or mek. Mine dump wet with 20 sec swirl. I don't think I let them dry long enough at 1st. They seem to dry in less then a min, but I've read it takes longer than you would think.

[T-Bird]

I'm also using gunmetal color. I bake around 400 for 15 min and they come out dark brn/blackish. I figured if you can't overbake and under baking is a problem...

[DerekP Houston]

try thinning out your solution with a bit more mineral spirits, helped me quite a bit. And yeah just dump them back in the melting pot and try again. If you overbake from what I read on the large thread it just burns the pigment, no harm to the protection. My 'zombie green' routinely turn out more olive/brown than green.

[ioon44]

Another thing I have trying in the hot weather is to cool my bullets under a fan before coating, this has helped to keep the Acetone from flashing as fast and given a smoother coating.

Getting the coating to dry is a must, I like to put them out in full sunshine for a minim of 30 min and they reach around 140 deg F , I have not had any failures doing this.

[Gohon]

Appreciate all the suggestions and help. Made another stab at Hi-Tek coating today and this time success. Took ioon44's suggestion and let them dry in the sun 30-40 minutes and that did the trick. Guess my first attempts failed because I assumed they were dry in 10 minutes as some said they would be and they felt dry. Not as slick and shiny as powder coating but they pass all the tests. Think I'll take a chance and do a third coat just to see the results.

[Grmps]

If they are not "as slick and shiny as powder coating " you are still tumbling them too long.
I normally go 1 mil coating per pound of boolits. I go 20% less on the first bake.
I find a fan helps speed up the dry and cool time.
after the boolits are dry, I put them on a spacer (another oven rack) on top of the oven for 1 bake cycle (12 min) to ensure they are completely dry and are warm them.

The boolits are supposed to be "ugly" after the first coat, the first coat is mainly to assure good adhesion.

A simple way to test bake time on your oven is put 5 pounds of cold plain un-coated bollits on the baking tray and spread 5 coated boolits around the tray.
start baking @ 400 for 8 min. If the tests fail, Repeat the process adding 1 more min. When the boolits pass both tests add 1 more minute for insurance and you have your bake time for that oven.

Doing this should get you the proper color for gun metal. gun metal is very a tempermental color.

All the coating need to be well mixed just before measuring and applying especially the metallic colors, they have metallic flakes in them for both appearance and heat resistance.

The following colors are metallic / High heat / Rifle
1. Gold 10235- METALLIC/RIFLE
2. Old Gold- METALLIC/RIFLE
3. Red Copper- METALLIC/RIFLE
4. Candy Apple Red- METALLIC/RIFLE
5. Black 1035- METALLIC/RIFLE
6. Kryptonite Green- METALLIC/RIFLE
7. Bronze 500 and Bronze 502- METALLIC/RIFLE
8. Gunmetal- METALLIC/RIFLE

[Gohon]

I'm using a timer and tumbling exactly 18-20 seconds. I'm happy with the results I'm getting now. Seems to me the difference in Hi-Tek and powder coating is Hi-Tek coats the bullets and Powder Coating puts a shell around the bullet. Looking at tons of pictures on the net of the two indicated though both will result in the same function, HiTek will not be as slick and shiny as Powder coating. It's really a moot point as long as they work but I suspect in the future my pistol bullets will be Hi-Tek and rifle bullets will be Powder Coated.

[Grmps]

Hi-Tek is actually a stain that's why you shouldn't size the lead before your first coat because that seals the pores and the coating won't adhere properly

[Ausglock]

Ensure that your oven is convection...ie: has a fan in it.
Also remember to remove the tray at the 1/2way time and shake the tray of bullets and re-insert it in the oven. This helps remove "touch marks".
Coated and baked 40,000 today. mostly 9mm and a few 44.