Copper Plating Cast Boolits

[pistolman44]

Has anybody seen the You Tube videos 1 & 2 on copper plating cast boolits useing a electric coffee pot. This system seems like a real pain in the a--. You have to have a lot of time on your hands. I think I'll just stick to using a gas check.

[mdi]

Yep, there's a lot involved in home plating. Unless someone comes up with a quicker way to plate 100 bullets at a time I'll just shoot my cast...

[williamwaco]

Yes,

I have tried two methods from UTube and one from memory of chemistry class.

Can you spell "Totally Useless".

These methods are of interest only as scientific demonstrations.




.

[btroj]

My take on home plate is this- if it was reasonable easy and effective we would almost all be doing it. No lube issues, no leading, no need for gas checks. It would be so awesome.
Yep, if it was plausible it would be all over the place. The fact it isn't done tells me all I need to know.

[BAGTIC]

I agree with the impracticality of home plating.

Commercial bullet companies produce copper plated swaged bullets why couldn't cast bullet companies offer copper plated hard cast bullets. In addition to the advantages already mentioned there would be the advantage that by eliminating lube grooves bullet length would be reduced and effective case capacity and bullet stabilty would be increased.

[rak1]

Looks like a lot of work. I, being new, will stick with casting and lubing.
Dick

[Mk42gunner]

I seldom watch utube videos, it takes forever to download them with dial-up.

I have read a section in one of Dean Grennell's "ABC's of Reloading" about home plating projectiles; it seemed like a lot of work for the final product.

Robert

[Hang Fire]

My take on home plate is this- if it was reasonable easy and effective we would almost all be doing it. No lube issues, no leading, no need for gas checks. It would be so awesome.
Yep, if it was plausible it would be all over the place. The fact it isn't done tells me all I need to know.

The answer often lies with people outside the bubble, i.e. non boolit folks with the know how to do such easily, but they have never given boolit plating a single thought.

[GabbyM]

electro plated bullets do not work. I'll say that again,,,, they do not work. They do look pretty if done right. Shiny pretty copper colored bullets. Coat of kinder garden water color paint would be just as effective as the shine of copper.

[firefly1957]

I have a thread on this too I had no luck getting good copper adhesion My idea was to plate cores and then swage to make cheap bullets that did not need to be lubed.

[btroj]

The answer often lies with people outside the bubble, i.e. non boolit folks with the know how to do such easily, but they have never given boolit plating a single thought.

That is true. But we have many here who think way outside the box. Many have tried various methods of plating and none were satisfactory on a home scale. Seems the chemicals and methods involved can be pretty hazardous.
Plating an be done, it is more a matter of getting a thick eough plating to make it an effective method of preventing leading. A light wash just doesn't cut it and that is about all most people are getting.

This has been discussed many, many time over the years. Many have tried it. None have succeeded. Getting this beyond the stage of being a curiosity just doesn't seem practical for home use.

[Hang Fire]

That is true. But we have many here who think way outside the box. Many have tried various methods of plating and none were satisfactory on a home scale. Seems the chemicals and methods involved can be pretty hazardous.
Plating an be done, it is more a matter of getting a thick eough plating to make it an effective method of preventing leading. A light wash just doesn't cut it and that is about all most people are getting.

This has been discussed many, many time over the years. Many have tried it. None have succeeded. Getting this beyond the stage of being a curiosity just doesn't seem practical for home use.

After retirement I got back into scroll sawing and one thing that irritated me was the absolute atrocious scroll saw patterns put out by so called scroll saw artists. I was discussing this with an acquaintance who was a illustrator and graphic artist who was quite good.

He said the problem was those in scroll sawing attempting to do art work of which they knew naught. He showed me how to draw or trace a photograph, paying close attention to lights and shadows, then transfer them into patterns. It took a while to get the gist of it, but once I did, was able to take my scroll sawing to an entirely different level far beyond what others were doing.

[deltaenterprizes]

I have a thread on this too I had no luck getting good copper adhesion My idea was to plate cores and then swage to make cheap bullets that did not need to be lubed.

That is how Gold Dot Bullets are made.

In order to get good adhesion you need to start with copper cyanide to get a flash coat nad then build up from there.

[Chicken Thief]

For umpteen boolits at a time i see something like a rotating tumbler made of copper/brass netting in the soluusion. That way all boolits gets an even coating. But electroplating takes time.

And this method seems better/way faster:

http://www.caswelleurope.co.uk/copplati.htm

[DLCTEX]

I read that some bullet manufacturers are using plating now rather than jackets. They have it down to a science and are able to turn out uniform dia. bullets that are naturally bonded core.

[mdr8088]

I've been trying to plate bullets for months now. I've tried everything I can come up with. All types of prep, solutions, power supplies, lights, how I hang bullets in the solutions, solution temp, and time in solution. I've applied thin and thick layers on the bullets. Everyone I've shot and recovered, has had all or most of the plateing off the sides. I'm not sure if it comes off in the barrel or on the way to target. Because of the time it takes to do a batch properly, I usually only shoot 20 or 30 at a time, along with my regular cast. I haven't noticed any leading, but If the plateing doesn't stay on the bullet to target, is it worth it? It's a lot easier to lube.

[Chicken Thief]

Annealing my friend, annealing!
Copperplating is brittle and will scale given the chance.
So heat treatment/annealing is essential.

[Bullwolf]

I tried to copper plate a cast boolit.

First let me say I am not much of a scientist. I used the whole dissolving copper electroplating in a solution method. I did it using a current generator, and I did not use a dangerous chemical solution, I just used a plain old salt water solution.

I can sum up all that I know about the process in practically one sentence.

It worked to make a very thin plating sort of, (many hours later) but it was more of an experiment than anything else. I seriously doubt that it would function like a copper gilding metal jacket, or like commercial plated ammunition.

What I got was an extremely thin copper layer on the boolit.
It looks pretty, but it will polish right off using a little bit of Flitz, and a paper towel.

Here is how it turned out, for the curious folks out there



It was a huge hassle, and I seriously doubt it would be a substitute for boolit lube as the plating was incredibly thin, especially around the driving bands.

Perhaps there is a much better way to achieve a good copper plating than the one I used.

I saw this on another forum. This gentleman really went pretty far with the whole boolit plating idea, and he had some pretty decent results, although on a small scale, and with a large investment of time.

http://mcdarksiders.forumotion.com/t...g-lead-bullets

I find it easy enough to load and shoot cast boolits, but I would still like to know an simple way to plate a cast boolit if possible, so I am throwing this all out there for you folks to look at, think about , and play around with.


- Bullwolf

[valathar]

I am not giving up on the electro-plating method. I haven't tried it myself, mind you, but I've read a little bit about it and believe there has to be a way it can be made to work.

I have a million "projects" to do before I worry much about it, but I'm an electronics tech, and perfectly capable of making some specialized, dedicated power supplies for this purpose. I've got an idea or two that might lead to better adhesion and thicker plating. I'd like to try making a supply that will bump up the voltage or current a bit in a controlled manner as the process goes on. Hopefully that will give me thicker coats.

It might work, it might not, but it's one of a zillion little ideas I have that I'm going to try out one of these days. A circuit like that would be easily designed with a timing circuit, or a really slow ramp circuit controlling a constant current source.

Here's another thought: Who says we have to plate them with copper? Brass is one of the few alloys that will plate. I don't know how to DO that with brass yet (as opposed to using copper metal with copper sulphate) but I would like to explore that as well, and it would give us something to do with old boogered up brass.

[johnho]

now why would I want all that copper stuck in my barrel????? What a pain getting that out.