Powder coat or hi-tek??

[Ausglock]

MAD... which range you shoot at??

[M.A.D]

MAD... which range you shoot at??

I'm the RO on Weekends at SIPC On the Gold coast. Half is private range, half is public shooting gallery...

[Ausglock]

I'm the RO on Weekends at SIPC On the Gold coast. Half is private range, half is public shooting gallery...

Does Ben S still work there? I haven't been there for a few years. I got a few ingots from a bloke that used to clean the range. Lockie or Laurie I think...

[M.A.D]

Ben only works random Sundays since hes driving Trams ,Lockie still does lead, has about 450kg of clean lead in ingot for sale. How far south are you?

[Ausglock]

Ben only works random Sundays since hes driving Trams ,Lockie still does lead, has about 450kg of clean lead in ingot for sale. How far south are you?

Grafton

[Tazza]

The mining of my range is a lot harder the price is right at least. There are all sorts in there, a lot of FMJ from the coppers that shoot there, cast and .22s, it works for me just melting and casting, i have started bumping my hardness up a bit with lino, i have had no complaints about leading, but lifting i think i brought the hardness up 2 BHN to 14, it can't be a bad thing.

Another project i want to do is a waste oil burner for smelting. Free oil fuel, easier to control the heat than just adding wood to a fire that i currently use to clean the scrap.

[fredj338]

I like & use both. PC will withstand higher pressures & give good accuracy. HT is bit easier to use, but you have to bake twice. I go back & forth, whatever I grab at the time for my practice ammo.

[Onebad06vtx]

I spray mine and bake in my powder coat oven,one coat and I bake 600 bullets at a time.
It is pretty simple and fast.
Then run thru the sizer and load.

[razorfish]

I spray mine and bake in my powder coat oven,one coat and I bake 300 bullets at a time.
It is pretty simple and fast.
Then run thru the sizer and load.

For me this is the primary difference between the Hi-Tek and Powder Coating process. After doing the Hi-Tek process for a number of years I don’t even consider coating a “batch” of bullets until I have between 2500 and 5000 bullets ready to coat. No big deal to Hi-Tek thousands of bullets in a couple of hours.

With that said, I prefer powder coated bullets but the relatively small batches are too time consuming for me.


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[Onebad06vtx]

There is no way Hi-Tek is faster!
I stand my cast pistol bullets up,spray,bake and the size. DONE!!!
Hi-Tek has to be coated and baked twice.
I bake 400 to 600 bullets at a time with only one coat needed.

[razorfish]

There is no way Hi-Tek is faster!
I stand my cast pistol bullets up,spray,bake and the size. DONE!!!
Hi-Tek has to be coated and baked twice.
I bake 400 to 600 bullets at a time with only one coat needed.

Did you just say, “I stand up my cast pistol bullets”?

I “dump” my cast bullets into a five gallon buckets, “splash” in some Hi-Tek and swirl for 20 seconds before “dumping” them onto a tray.

How long does it take to “stand up” 5000 pistol bullets?


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[Onebad06vtx]

Not very long standing them up.
Alot quicker then swirling for 20 seconds,letting them dry for a half a hour then baking for 10 minute then repeating these steps for a second and third coat!
So by your method it is taking you 1 hour 20 minutes and 40 seconds per bullet with only two coats,three coats is 2 hours and a minute per bullet.
I can spray coat ALOT quicker!

[razorfish]

So by your method it is taking you 1 hour 20 minutes and 40 seconds per bullet with only two coats,three coats is 2 hours and a minute per bullet.
I can spray coat ALOT quicker!

I’m not positive I follow your math but to be clear, I mentioned that I only coat in bulk. I would never consider coating a batch of bullets less than 45 lbs. Again, that’s just me. I’ve never really timed it but I can coat 90 pounds of bullets in an afternoon. (A few hours). So, by my math that’s about three seconds per 124 grain 9mm bullet.

Truthfully the actual coating of a 90 lbs batch of bullets takes less than ten minutes and I let them dry overnight or many days before I get around to baking them. It then takes an hour to bake them in 15 lb batches. And then I repeat the process. So, technically it often takes me a couple of weeks to coat my bullets but significantly less than three hours of actual time. If I had a small batch of six hundred bullets I might just powder coat them.

How do you coat the bases of a sprayed on powder coated bullet?


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[Onebad06vtx]

I dont coat the bases,there is no advantage in it.
Im getting great accuracy so there is no need to coat the bases.

[Ausglock]

Coating the base as well (full encapsulation) is to minimize the airbourne lead when fired. Particularly at indoor ranges or outdoor ranges with restrictive overhead baffles. There are so many people out there that have no idea of their bodies lead levels. I was surprised at my last test. my lead levels were higher than usual. I haven't changed handling practices etc.
Then the penny dropped..... I had started to wet tumble my fired cases. When they had finished tumbling, I would swirl the dirty water with my hand and them dump them into a pail and swirl by hand again while rinsing them. I was actually absorbing the lead out of the water from the primer residue. I stopped hand swirling and the last test, my lead levels are back to where they should be..

[ioon44]

That is some good info on the lead in dirty water when wet tumbling.
I have wet tumbled for years but never put my hands in the dirty water just rinsed with a hose till the water ran clean then dumped on a screen and rinsed some more.


I am with razorfish as I have done both PC and Hi-Tek, now I do all my bullets with Hi-Tek.