Ways to speed up tumble coating?

[brewer12345]

I have started to shake and bake with Smoke's powder and the boolits come out great, but this is proving to be a slow process. I am wondering if there are some simple ways to speed things up. I was shaking and then fishing the boolits out of the powder/BB mix to stand them up on the tray. Very tedious. I tried dumping the whole thing onto a screen so I could pour the boolits on the tray, but I had the wrong size screen. I tried a single tray of boolits dumped in (not stood up), but some of the boolits baked together and when I pulled them apart after cooling there were holes in the coating on a few. So I resorted to individually standing them up. Am I missing any obvious shortcuts?

[Willbird]

I have started to shake and bake with Smoke's powder and the boolits come out great, but this is proving to be a slow process. I am wondering if there are some simple ways to speed things up. I was shaking and then fishing the boolits out of the powder/BB mix to stand them up on the tray. Very tedious. I tried dumping the whole thing onto a screen so I could pour the boolits on the tray, but I had the wrong size screen. I tried a single tray of boolits dumped in (not stood up), but some of the boolits baked together and when I pulled them apart after cooling there were holes in the coating on a few. So I resorted to individually standing them up. Am I missing any obvious shortcuts?

Another thread right here the poster used at least two screens, one to shake off all excess powder, one to bake on....he duplicated the "bake on" one several times....so one to shake off powder, 3-4 or more to bake on to keep things moving.

Here is what he was using, I picked up some but have not tried them yet, just one layer of bullets was what he was doing.


https://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/1/1...ilver.html#ttl

[Dragonheart]

I have started to shake and bake with Smoke's powder and the boolits come out great, but this is proving to be a slow process. I am wondering if there are some simple ways to speed things up. I was shaking and then fishing the boolits out of the powder/BB mix to stand them up on the tray. Very tedious. I tried dumping the whole thing onto a screen so I could pour the boolits on the tray, but I had the wrong size screen. I tried a single tray of boolits dumped in (not stood up), but some of the boolits baked together and when I pulled them apart after cooling there were holes in the coating on a few. So I resorted to individually standing them up. Am I missing any obvious shortcuts?

I had the same problem back in 2012. The PC process was exactly what I needed to make quality bullets when I couldn't buy them (Sandy Hook), but shaking three to five hundred bullets a week in a Cool Whip container just didn't work for me. So I converted an unused small tumbler just to powder coat bullets. The tumbler as it came was too aggressive for PC. So I built this one. The all-thread supports allow me to adjust the vibration by simply putting more or less tension on the nuts. I typically do 6-1/2 pounds of bullets at a time with no effort. I stand my bullets because I want the best quality bullet I can make. I have tried the dump but in my trials the end result was not up to my standard, but to each his own.

[Dragonheart]

Once the bullets are coated I cook several thousand at a time in neat, anal rows, set on silicone baking mats. I am still using the same mats I started with back in 2012. I use a stainless wire baker's cooling rack to separate and hold the bulets in place until they go into the oven. I maximize each of my 5 oven racks. Why? just because I can, and I enjoy seeing almost 3K bullets come out of my Hamilton Beach Countertop Convection Oven. BTW: This is an example of why the cook 20 minutes after the powder starts to flow is a bad policy to adopt. The powder will flow at 150 degrees, but in no way will this or any other toaster oven bring the surface temperature of that quanity of bullets up another 250 degrees in 10 minutes. The additional 10 minutes is needed for a full cure.

[Dragonheart]

After the bullets are cooked the sizing process is typically the same as if you lube and this is a slow tedious process.

It is here that increasing your speed makes a big difference. I built "Ram Sizer" just for sizing and I can size about 35 bullets a minute or at least until my arm gets tired. A younger person with better dexterity I am sure could do more. Ram Sizer pushes a bullet through a Lee sizing die with a push of a button using a pneumatic cylinder I acquired and converted in 2015 for this purpose. This is pretty much is my whole PC process and about as fast as I can make it and still produce quality bullets.

[Willbird]

After the bullets are cooked the sizing process is typically the same as if you lube and this is a slow tedious process.

It is here that increasing your speed makes a big difference. I built "Ram Sizer" just for sizing and I can size about 35 bullets a minute or at least until my arm gets tired. A younger person with better dexterity I am sure could do more. Ram Sizer pushes a bullet through a Lee sizing die with a push of a button using a pneumatic cylinder I acquired and converted in 2015 for this purpose. This is pretty much is my whole PC process and about as fast as I can make it and still produce quality bullets.

If that is a 3" cyl there and you had 150 PSI air it is creating around 1000 lbs of force . Pretty neat setup .

[fredj338]

Like dragon, I use a jig, but mine is made from used plastic ammo box trays. It takes about 15m to load 150 bullets into the tray w/ big tweezers to bake.

[Dragonheart]

If that is a 3" cyl there and you had 150 PSI air it is creating around 1000 lbs of force . Pretty neat setup .

It is a INGERSOLL RAND MDS80-AAADN-075 AIR CYLINDER - 80mm double action pneumatic cylinder with a three inch stroke. I usually run it at 40 psi and it has plenty of power.

[Conditor22]

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...r-and-how-I-PC

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

I cast .35 caliber. I took an ice cream pale and drilled 5/16" holes all over the bottom. I dump the bullets together with the ASBBs into the perforated pale with an intact pale underneath. I just gently shake the pales and the excess powder and BBs fall through in a few seconds. Then I dump the bullets onto a tray lined with non-stick aluminum foil and bake. Yes I do get small blemishes where the bullets contacted each other and I pulled them apart, but not enough to affect performance, and it doesn't bother my aesthetic appeal either.

[Lloyd Smale]

I put mine in a lyman tumbler (vibrator) with plenty of paint and let them rattle around for at least 20 minutes while I do some other loading job. then I put them in a tumbler media separator and give it a spin or two them dump them on a cookie sheet with parchment paper covering it and bake. Biggest time savings is having a full sized over in the garage to do it in. I can cook three trays of bullets (well over 500) at one time. While there cooking the next batch is in the tumbler. I found parchment paper works much better then non stick foil. Bullets still seem to stick to the foil a bit. Down side to parchement is its only good for about 2 uses then you have to toss it. Another thing that saves time is dumping the bullets in a pail off the cookie sheets and shaking them up a bit. It takes care of the ones that are stuck together. Im headed out right now to start the process. Ive got about 3k 30 cal bullets to do today.

[jmort]

Agree
Parchment Paper is the way to go
I still cannot get an acceptable dump
Smoke should 3D Print stand-up modules

[Ed_Shot]

+2: Parchment paper beats non-stick foil. Wish I had a full sized oven.

[Dragonheart]

I use parchment when I spray hollow points, but standing bullets slide more on parchment and non-stick foil. So far nothing beats a good silicone baking mat.