Will a Toaster Oven work for PC coating (Baking)?
Will a Toaster Oven work for PC coating (Baking)?
You bet. I think that's what 99% of us use.....
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Proverbs 1:7
You can get one at Walmart for less than $20. That's what I use.
Toaster ovens will work for small batches, you tend to get different coloring due to irregular heating. For a little more $ you can get a convection oven that has an air circulating fan that heats the entire oven evenly and allow you to do larger even batches.
Regardless of which oven you get, you will need to check the heat setting (ALMOST ALL COUNTERTOP OVENS ARE OFF from the factory due to the design of the thermostat).
I put 2 simple ($3.00) oven thermometers in the middle of the shelf I'm baking on and adjust the oven setting until the thermometers read 400 degrees then I mark the oven dial and note the proper setting to reach 400.
Many like to cover the floor of the oven with a heat retaining media to speed heat recovery time after opening the door. I use ceramic BBQ briquettes, others use first brick, chunks of metal or ....
Indeed! I too recommend convection. I run mine with a PID.
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Hit the second hand stores around you - you can find 'em cheap
I retired my toaster oven and use counter top convection
I use a metal camping table and just set the bullets on parchment paper
then drop the oven over the top of the whole works
and start setting up on another paper and them move the oven again.
Almost bought one of these style
but I don't trust myself to move the
trays without knocking over all the boolits.
je suis charlie
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Yep, I'm part of the 99% also. My B&D toaster was $19.99 from Wallyworld. Yes, it is small but works for me as I mainly do rifle CB's in it. Typical loads are 80 x 500gn CB's for my 458WM or 120 x 265gn for my 444 Marlin. I do stand these up on their bases. Higher density is possible but this is sufficient for my use.
The 2 things that I did to help getting good results were to verify the temperature setting and to pre-heat before adding the tray. The temperature knob was off by almost 50* low - I used my casting PID probe to measure.
My initial tests included watching when the powder gelled to see if all the CB's changed at the same time. This was to determine if there were cold or hot spots. None were observed so all is good. The powder I use came from Smoke and I set the timer to 20 minutes once gelling is observed.
Liberalism is the triumph of emotion over intellect, but masquerading as the reverse.
I don't know how we ever shot maximum loads before P/C come along and saved us all. R5R
"No mosque in the United States flies an American flag."
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I started out with a toaster oven but soon moved to a convection oven. It does make a big difference.
Slim
JUST GOTTA LOVE THIS JOINT.
ASrtful,
Just this weekend, I saw a convection oven at GOODWILL here in SA for 6.99.
yours, tex
I also found a very nice Oster convection oven @ goodwill for $20. I will bake 18# of boolits at a time (9# on ea shelf)
I bought a conv pizza oven from Wally, $50 shipped to me. It has two racks, 12" deep, so I can do quite a few bullets.
EVERY GOOD SHOOTER NEEDS TO BE A HANDLOADER.
NRA Cert. Inst. Met. Reloading & Basic Pistol
Pretty proud of this toaster I snagged at Goodwill after work Friday. Double rack, convection, gets up to 400 fast and holds it perfectly. Cost me FIVE dollars!
I have a cheap toaster oven from walmart and I tried it with some Hi-Tek. Terrible results. I have a pretty good collection of old appliances so I went and drug out an old oven I happened to have. It's been outside for years. I took the panel off the back and everything looked decent. Got a new cord, plugged it in and it works great. Every time I open the door the oven thermometer is right in the same place. The inside light still works and so does the timer on the stove. It's way better. I can fit like 7 lbs of bullets on one tray I made. Im going to make a couple more so I can get a cycle of bullets cooking, cooling, and drying. Once I get the hang of it I should be able to knock out thousands in a day. Which is good because coating isnt a particularly fun step in bullet making process.
I finally decided that, if I am going to do this coating thing, I might as well do it right.
Two HYTEK molds were ordered from N.O.E. Bullet Molds and arrived a couple of days ago.
Images by Cast Bullet Design sofware
Today, I made the trip to Wallmart and purchased their Oster Convection Oven for $39.92 + tax. (less than a lube-sizing die for my Star Sizer)
Brought the oven home, unpacked and plugged it in. Placed an oven thermometer on the rack, closed the door and then inserted my N.O.E. casting thermometer through the corner into the oven space, set the temperature dial precisely on the 400 mark, selected "Turbo", for the convection, then set back to watch the gauges.
(both thermometers have been checked with my N.O.E. digital probe and are within 2 degrees of each other)
In no less than 10 minutes, both thermometers had climbed to 402 degrees then slowly dropped back to 400 degrees and then held that temperature for the next 30 minutes.
Needless to say, I am well pleased. If the oven continues to perform like this, the investment is well worth while.
I have some powders from Smoke that I was playing around with before getting serious and, as soon as I can season my new molds in the new oven, I will report the results.
Last edited by Tom Myers; 09-20-2017 at 06:06 PM.
I bought the same oven last spring and found the same temperature accuracy. My only complaint is that only one rack came with it.
Never thought about seasoning molds in it.
More on my new oven and powder coating experience.
Today I had some time so the new oven was used to first season the new molds from N.O.E. Bullet Molds.
The molds were first scrubbed with a tooth brush and dish soap, thoroughly rinsed then placed in boiling water for 20 minuets then scrubbed and rinsed again.
After the last rinse, the molds were dried with paper towels to eliminate the chance of any water spots in the cavities and then placed on the oven rack.
The temperature was set to 400 degrees, the convection fan activated and the timer set for 30 minutes.
The oven cycled up to 400 degrees in about 20 minutes, held the temperature for 10 minutes and shut down.
This cycle was repeated at 1~2 hour intervals 4 times throughout the day.
After the final cooling the molds and cavities had become a light blue-grey in color, indicating to me that a seasoning process had taken place.
When I find time for some casting, I'll post the results.
Click on the images to expand and you can see the faint blue tint in the cavities.
Last edited by Tom Myers; 09-25-2017 at 02:05 PM.
Actually those using the toaster oven are 53.8%, 40.6% use the convection and 9.5% use a full size kitchen oven.
The Devil's in the Details>>>>>PC Coatings<<<<<
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...lt-lt-lt-lt-lt
The bottom line is use whatever you want...just make sure you get the temperature and time right...don't forget to give them the hammer test too!
a m e r i c a n p r a v d a
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I use an Oster convection oven that I replaced the temp controller with a PID and a thermocouple sensor. Maintains the temp to within 5 degrees and can do 8# of bullets at a time coated with Hi-Tek. epoxy.
BP | Bronze Point | IMR | Improved Military Rifle | PTD | Pointed |
BR | Bench Rest | M | Magnum | RN | Round Nose |
BT | Boat Tail | PL | Power-Lokt | SP | Soft Point |
C | Compressed Charge | PR | Primer | SPCL | Soft Point "Core-Lokt" |
HP | Hollow Point | PSPCL | Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" | C.O.L. | Cartridge Overall Length |
PSP | Pointed Soft Point | Spz | Spitzer Point | SBT | Spitzer Boat Tail |
LRN | Lead Round Nose | LWC | Lead Wad Cutter | LSWC | Lead Semi Wad Cutter |
GC | Gas Check |