Tips for smoothing out PC...or dose it matter?

[Tripplebeards]

They look pretty smooth! I had to scrape off a little excess lip of lead that overlapped the gas check on every boolit from my defective mold. Hopefully the replacement mold will seal tighter.

How long do you guys wait before shooting AC boolits to wait for proper hardness?

[psweigle]

Who waits?!?!?! I load them up as soon as I can! I have some 357 magnums in the bottom of the ammo can that were from my very first batch. I dug down to the bottom and loaded a magazine(coonan classic) with them, and a magazine with a batch right out of the oven. No difference at 25 yards. The ruger 77/357 showed no difference at 100 yards either. I say shoot them right away, so you have to make more!!!

[jcren]

I gently blow excess powder off the bullets and baking sheet before baking. Originally just to eliminate the flash due to powder dropping onto the foil, but noticed that a little more vigorous puffs would remove clumps and leave a pretty consistent coat. I am sure the more precise among us could use a regulated air supply for near sprayed results.

[gpidaho]

It used to be that I would only coat using an electrostatic gun and still do for most rifle bullets but after discovering how slick clear PC goes on doing the shake and bake some rifle bullets and most pistol bullets are coated that way. There's a big difference in the finish product with quality powders. On handgun rounds I don't think the small imperfections shown by the OP make much difference. Gp

[Hickok]

It used to be that I would only coat using an electrostatic gun and still do for most rifle bullets but after discovering how slick clear PC goes on doing the shake and bake some rifle bullets and most pistol bullets are coated that way. There's a big difference in the finish product with quality powders. On handgun rounds I don't think the small imperfections shown by the OP make much difference. Gp

I agree with the clear PC. I used some of Smoke's clear PC given to me by a friend here and it is amazing.

[Spector]

I agree. Pour water on a counter top and it will puddle smooth on the surface. Add oatmeal to the water and it will be lumpy when poured out on the counter. The water becomes the carrier for the oatmeal. Clear powder coat is the carrier. Add pigment and it becomes a lesser version of oatmeal.

Easy to visualize. Clear powder coat powder is white and easy to judge coverage on lead boolits. When the boolits reach temperature in the oven the clear begins to melt and distribute itself evenly without having to drag pigments with it hindering smooth curing.

That being said I suspect it is not that important for pistol boolits to be perfectly smooth at typical handgun ranges. I suspect it is even less important in larger calibers.

Mike

[waco]

I agree. Pour water on a counter top and it will puddle smooth on the surface. Add oatmeal to the water and it will be lumpy when poured out on the counter. The water becomes the carrier for the oatmeal. Clear powder coat is the carrier. Add pigment and it becomes a lesser version of oatmeal.

Easy to visualize. Clear powder coat powder is white and easy to judge coverage on lead boolits. When the boolits reach temperature in the oven the clear begins to melt and distribute itself evenly without having to drag pigments with it hindering smooth curing.

That being said I suspect it is not that important for pistol boolits to be perfectly smooth at typical handgun ranges. I suspect it is even less important in larger calibers.

Mike

Very interesting...

[Smk SHoe]

All good info, I believe that the 490 degrees that your oven is telling you is probably around 400-425 degrees. Just like the lead thermometers, they can be off quit a bit before you calibrate them. Glad it worked out.

[Bama]

Waco, I started researching for another reason but found the polyester and its crosslinker melt below 200'C and the components of color above 1500'C with most colors above 1800'C. The higher the quality powder, usually the smoother (finer ground).

[dbosman]

By the by, some clear coats have a cure temp of 325 degrees F. In the coating catalogs, they're refereed to as low temp.

[Tripplebeards]

If you want smooth use clear gloss.

I think the Coroner will be more impressed by seeing a round that opened up like a dinner plate than he will the color!

Any way you look at it they're 'purple people eaters'...

Got some clear today...that stuff is smooth!!! The only thing that sucks is all the dings i put in the boolits while banging them around while hand tumbling them but the clear still fills in all in all the scratches and and is perfectly even.

I'm gonna have to get a sprayer so they look awesome!

[OS OK]

Got some clear today...that stuff is smooth!!! The only thing that sucks is all the dings i put in the boolits while banging them around while hand tumbling them but the clear still fills in all in all the scratches and and is perfectly even.

I'm gonna have to get a sprayer so they look awesome!

Try swirling a few less with the BB's...with clear you swirl only 15 seconds or so. That stuff gets on there quick!

[tiger762]

With respect to bullet temperature, unless it is a convection oven, the temperature of the bullets could be much higher than the air temperature. It all comes down to:

1. The radiant flux from the heating elements (Watts per unit area)
2. The "view factor" between heating element and bullet (what fraction of radiant heat reaches bullet)
3. The emissivity of lead. How effective it is in radiating away its own heat. This will be a unitless value between 0 and 1. White objects left in Sunlight don't get quite as hot as black objects, because they are more capable of radiating the same amount of heat at lower temperatures.

I have had bullets melt and collapse under their own weight with the toaster oven set to 350F. When in doubt, use a non-contact thermometer. You might be surprised