PC Test

[rototerrier]

I've moved up to 400 / 25 minutes. I've found there's ZERO detriment in cooking for longer but things go bad when under cooked or over temp.

Under time you get soft coating and over temp you get brittle coating. Keep that temp at 400 and you can cook for hours without any negative impact. The key is getting the temp perfect and keeping it perfect and cooking it long enough to fully cure, whatever time that be based on the number of bullets in your bake and the size of bullets.

I've recently switched to loading up my oven. I used to do just 1 tray at a time. I now stack the trays 3 high. I am baking over 1k 9mm's at a time which is a lot of lead in the oven. By moving to 25 minutes, and sometimes even 30, I know for certain I'm getting everything fully up to temp and for long enough. All my smash tests come out perfect and I get zero leading in my barrels.

I've also recovered a few bullets down range that missed their targets and you could literally resize them and load them back up. They look perfect.

[DHDeal]

Not to take anything away from the good advice posted, but if you try the poly beads Dragonheart mentioned, don't plan on PCing any hollowpoints. I got a container of poly beads from Amazon after reading about how good it works for PC, and dumped it in a tub with some MP 432 GCHP bullets. I'd guess that I had about 85-90% of the bullets with a poly bead snugly inside the HP. I immediately got the poly beads out and stayed with the BB's (you still get some stuck in the larger caliber HP's but only a few that come out easily). If I were to only use one color for HP's I'd keep trying the poly beads for solids, but I like different colors too much.

[Dapaki]

I just went through the thread quickly but didn't notice if anyone mentioned that:
Using too much powder will cause problems... I was having problems with small batches and someone said "only use enough powder in the container to coat the bullets that you put in."
That is hard to do with only one bullet. But for some reason if you put too much powder in the container, it just doesn't stick. I cut down to a very small amount of powder and it made a big difference.

Good reminder! I added a tiny bit at a time but was never happy with the coverage.

[Dapaki]

Not to take anything away from the good advice posted, but if you try the poly beads Dragonheart mentioned, don't plan on PCing any hollowpoints. I got a container of poly beads from Amazon after reading about how good it works for PC, and dumped it in a tub with some MP 432 GCHP bullets. I'd guess that I had about 85-90% of the bullets with a poly bead snugly inside the HP. I immediately got the poly beads out and stayed with the BB's (you still get some stuck in the larger caliber HP's but only a few that come out easily). If I were to only use one color for HP's I'd keep trying the poly beads for solids, but I like different colors too much.

Stoooopid question from me.... Is it OK to just leave the poly bead in the HP?

[Conditor22]

Try some and see, I don't play much with HP but don't see a problem

AND --- post your results (with pictures )

[Dapaki]

Try some and see, I don't play much with HP but don't see a problem

AND --- post your results (with pictures )

I have a confession to make... I don't have a HP mold. Never seen the need for one, I just buy commercial J-words if I need a HP in my EDC.

[slide]

I have coated quite a few hollowpoints. I don't use anything but powder and bullets. I always use two coats. The key is to shake all the excess powder off. The hollow point will coat but not fill up with powder. I realize a lot of guys think this too much work but it sures makes pretty bullets. I can do around 250 to 300 bullets per bake. Takes me about an hour for two coats. Quite a bit of that time is baking time so I can be doing other things. I also use a thermocouple in a bullet connected to a digital thermometer. Takes all the guess work out of it. This is my way,not saying it is the best but, it works for me. I really enjoy it. Two coats is just a little more time.

[Dragonheart]

One thing I did not mention is any contaminants on your bullets can cause the powder not to stick or have bare areas. Using a water drop when casting can cause this unless the water/container is absolutely clean. I don't use a water drop just for that reason.

[Big Boomer]

First thing I did when I thought about transitioning from lubing my boolits through a Star sizer was to read every post under the alternative section. Felt like I was familiar with the process when Smoke's clear arrived. One of the first things I learned is that old boolits have oxidized enough that attempting to PC them can only bring trouble (I had some old boolits and tried later to PC them unsuccessfully so now I just re-melt all old stuff - I'm talking about decades-old stuff my son acquired and brought to me. Just would not work). After all the reading I decided that PCing was the way for me to go instead of HT. Unlike the OPer, I jumped in in a big way. Tried about 100 or more (maybe 200) 9mm boolits at once and used an empty 2 lb pistol powder cannister with Smoke's black bbs. I leave any leftover powder in the cannister. Here in Ky. humidity can be a problem and was when I began. So I decided to do my PCing in my air-conditioned, de-humidified basement (always wear a mask). The convection oven is taken outside and pre-heated for the baking. Got perfect results even though my original thermometer was a dud. Wife had a good one that I used and saw how far off the original was. BTW, convection oven settings are all over the place. Wide open my good convection oven will not go over 400-plus a few degrees so be aware of that. Have PCed for .223/5.56, .243, .30-06, .38/.357, .41, .45 ACP & .45 Colt. Handgun calibers work fine but have not gotten around to the rifle calibers yet, though I have the test loads ready (wife has had spinal surgery and both hip joints replaced, so I've been busy otherwise). Have a friend who uses my boolits cast of 50/50 WW/stick-on with tin added for good fill-out in his .45 ACP and he thinks very highly of them. Says cleaning his Glock is a thing of the past. Still use the Star for sizing because it is so fast with the pressure backed off the lube. Big Boomer

[Dragonheart]

When it comes to hollow points I do not tumble coat, I spray coat and cook on the same tray. I first place a sheet of parchment on my "Bed of Nails" as parchment protects the tray and the powder doesn't build up on the parchment. Next I preheat the tray to 300+ degrees, remove the tray from the oven and quickly spray the bullets. The powder flows on contact and you can see your coverage. I return the tray to the oven and full cure. It's simple, fast and excellent results with clean HP cavities.
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[DHDeal]

Stoooopid question from me.... Is it OK to just leave the poly bead in the HP?

I guess you could, but I see nothing good coming of it. The PC will seal that little poly bead in the HP and they aren't perfectly in the HP. If you were to leave an airsoft BB in the HP, it would be more or less centered but it would add length to the bullet and that would interfere with OAL of the loaded cartridge.

[DHDeal]

When it comes to hollow points I do not tumble coat, I spray coat and cook on the same tray. I first place a sheet of parchment on my "Bed of Nails" as parchment protects the tray and the powder doesn't build up on the parchment. Next I preheat the tray to 300+ degrees, remove the tray from the oven and quickly spray the bullets. The powder flows on contact and you can see your coverage. I return the tray to the oven and full cure. It's simple, fast and excellent results with clean HP cavities.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]257158 [/ATTACH]

Now that is one fine set up. Those HP's look about perfect.

[fcvan]

I have 2 ESPC guns having first purchased the Harbor Freight gun. Late, I picked up the Asian copy of the Craftsman blow dryer type gun. The HF gun worked great but required a lot of setup and adjustment of the compressor and such. The blow dryer type was just fill and go and so I purchased 3, 1 for me and 1 each for 2 friends. Good stuff.

I used non-stick aluminum foil on a small sheet metal piece of flashing that fit onto my toaster oven tray, used molly bolts to create a 2 tiered baking tray and went to town. My spray booth is a cardboard box with the top and one side cut away. I spray when it isn't too breezy and carefully transfer the trays to the oven and voila! I made spray trays for GC boolits, mostly 30 caliber. Learning from here, I used fender washers. I also drilled holes for the GC shank for the Lyman 225-415 which works well.

Then I started ASBBPC and haven't used a ESPC gun in quite a while. I still do, but only for a particular color coating that looks almost perfectly like FMJ. That was a mix of several colors that can only be sprayed as 'shake and bake' doesn't mix the colors evenly. For shake and bake I use solid colors from Prismatic Powders that cover very well. My #5 tubs are snap lid Gladware sandwich sized containers with 2 layers of AS BBs. I put in roughly 60 boolits and measure the powder with a Lee powder scoop for about 1 1/2 scoops, depending on the caliber and weight. This gives me a repeatable coating and thickness.

After shaking the boolits, I dump them onto a cookie sheet and then roll the boolits back and forth which seperates the AS BBs and evens out the powder coating from dropping on the sheet. Boolits are transferred to my baking tray which is covered with parchment paper. I bought some silicon baking sheets but haven't trimmed them to fit the tray. Next time I guess.

I made some alignment grids from a plastic light diffuser panel for fluorescent lights. The panel has 1/2" squares which are easy the trim to tray dimension. The grid keeps the boolits separated until placed on the tray so they don't touch. Placing the boolits in the grid squares goes quickly when using hemostats. Just remember to remove the plastic grid before you fire up the oven, don't ask me how I know this.

Long boolits such as the Lee 309-230 5R just won't stand up. I also have a NOE 225-62 RN plain base designed for PC, good lick standing those up. For now, I have been accordion folding parchment paper and laying the boolits on their sides. What little marking/deformation of the PC on the sides gets smoothed out when sizing. I don't push the 309-230 very fast but I am getting 2450 FPS from the 225-62 RN from a 1 - 12" 24" barrel, and 2250 from a 1 - 9" 16" AR 15. I need to chrono my 180 model Mini 14 with a 1 - 10" 14" barrel that has a muzzle brake welded and pinned to make it a legal 16 1/4" barrel. The last 2 1/4" of the brake does not contact the boolit but it doesn't disrupt the boolit accuracy either. The last time I chronographed I still got 2250 FPS but I still want to re-verify.

Another member here uses a silicon ice cube tray with 1/2" squares he got off of Amazon. I have looked, but as of yet have not found the ice cube trays. I think they will make baking even easier.

[Dragonheart]

Now that is one fine set up. Those HP's look about perfect.

Yes, they do come out as good as I have ever done.

Making a bed of nails is a little time consuming but easy to do. I used carpet tack strip nails for my spikes. These nails are 3/4" long and are actually hardened concrete nails. Since I have a 30" PID converted wall oven for PC, I can use large commercial 1/2 sheet aluminium baker's pans. It holds about 400 HP's.

I drilled a grid of holes in the pan so the nails has a tight slip in fit through the underside of the pan. I then fitted a piece of sheetmetal to the bottom of the pan to cover the nail heads and hold the nails in place. The sheetmetal was secured to the pan using a number of aluminum rivets. I did PC the sheetmetal to keep it from rusting before installing. One could use any size pan and make this work in a smaller oven.


My first Bed of Nails I made by just melting the nail head on the underside of a scrap sheetmetal sheet. Only problem is the heat warps the sheetmetal, it works but not as well as the pan method.

[Dragonheart]

The problem with a HP's is when it hits bone it stops the bullet expansion. So before all those jump in saying, "Not mine". Just go to a ballistic testing site that has done tests on hollow points that have hit bone as opposed to those that have not.

I would think purposely plugging up the cavity would be akin to a cavity plugged with bone.