I boo booed on my PC oven temps...can I re bake them to cure?

[Tripplebeards]

I realized when I did all my PCing in the last week that I baked for 20 minutes my oven at 355° instead of 455 degrees like I normally do. Four hundred degrees never gave me a smooth enough finish years back so I bumped my oven till I received a smooth coat at 455 degrees. Can I re bake them at 400 plus degrees to make sure they are cured properly? I haven’t done a smash test yet to see if my PC stays on. The pc looks fine. I used smokes clear and then I mixed some colors together on a few other ones. Thoughts ... suggestions? I already Sized and GC’d them and no pc came off during the process.

[Conditor22]

Never seen a manufacturer calling for 455° Have you tested your oven's settings, most are off up some as much as 75°.

I'd go ahead and bake them for 25 min at 400° (after you've tested your oven. PC can pass the smash test and still not be fully cured.

[Tripplebeards]

I can see one or two really small spots that flaked off after several hammer hits.





I would assume it’s good?

[slim1836]

I see no issues with it personally, however, your hands are way too clean.

I would shoot them.

Slim

[redhawk0]

Yes...you can rebake them. I accidentally had mine set to 300 and not 400 a few weeks ago. I just rebaked the full 20 min at 400 and all was well.

redhawk

[Walter Laich]

I see no issues with it personally, however, your hands are way too clean.

I would shoot them.

Slim

I would probably NOT shoot the one on the left in the picture

[MrWolf]

Think he found the one on the left. No bruising or blood blister from hitting his thumb.

[Tripplebeards]

I tried a group of 36 in the oven. Four hundred degrees for 20 minutes. The purple PC looks a hair darker now and the hornady Copper GCs look almost rosy in color like they oxidized a little. I wanted to see if the PC would melt again and smooth out. Nope, exact same texture. The finish feels more hard,smooth,and slippery now after reheating...and maybe it’s all in my head? Imo I don’t know if there’s going to be any noticeable difference for durability, accuracy, or performance. The only thing I have read read researching past posts is if I didn’t have a GC on and instead a PC’d base the powder could/would break down the exposed PC over time? So I would assume A non perfectly cured PC finish would be protected by a GC...which is basically the main issue users have with uncured PC? If you guys think my rebaking is really going to help the PC stick better to my boolots I’ll toss them all back in the oven and oxidize my GCs. Better to be safe then sorry and have tarnished looking GC’s.

Just out of the oven for the second time ...








It was a mix of smokes traffic purple, black, blue, and maybe a little clear?

[charlie b]

I'd put them all back in at the higher temp, but, I am not a chemist so I don't know what it would really do for you.

Some paints/adhesives cannot be 'fixed' once a curing process stops and others can be. Don't know where PC is on that scale.

You might also try a scrape test to see if the PC is on there good.

[Dapaki]

I have no idea what the chemistry or curing, interlinking, cross linking etc is but when I PC'd my last batch of boolits, I purposefully baked them at 250° until the PC turned shiny and water quenched them, added another layer (orange, it does not coat nicely with one coat), wash and repeat with 3 layers then baked them at 400° for 20 minutes after they reached temp as per instructions and they shot well with no leading. YMMV

[ChristopherO]

Many guys anneal their new gas checks in the oven at 400 or more as they report the GC's stick on the base better. If they do that then I wouldn't see what you are doing is any different for the copper.
Those are pretty boolits. What do you use them in?

[Smoke4320]

Traffic Purple bullets are used to kill Purple People eaters

Rebaking at 400 degrees should be no issue

[Tripplebeards]

I will test the 355 degree batch along with the small test batch i reheated at 400 degrees for 20 minutes and see if if there is any noticeable leading or accuacy difference with either. All my boolits are GC'd so i wont have powder touching a PC'd base which seems to be the main issue. with uncured PC. I dont plan on heating my PC again under 400 degrees in the future but am going to see how this batch reacts.

[Tripplebeards]

Im re baking all the boolits for 20 minutes accept for the ones l loaded the other day for my ladder tests. Nothing else to do while im on corona lock down. It would bug me if i didnt do it. Im sure my 22 minute, 355 degree, baked PC was fine but id rather be safe than sorry. Im sure my 355 degree boolit ladder tests will shoot clean. My “re bakers” will just have rose colored GCs now.

[bmortell]

for what its worth I don't think the smash test does anything to tell you if it was cooked enough. I mixed colors before and baked it literally just until it flowed smooth cause I wanted to see what the color will actually look like. then I smash tested em cause I didn't know what else to do with 5 random test color boolits and they all smashed just as good as anything else.

[Tripplebeards]

So what happens if PC isn't properly cured...and still passes the smash test???

[Mica_Hiebert]

I cook mine at just hot enough to melt the powder coat. Passes the smash test and recovered bullets are fine. I find they dont stick together as bad at lower temp.

[Tripplebeards]

I re heated for 20 minutes at 400. It passed the smash test once again.




I did notice today I had PC that scraped off on the inside of my case when trying to measure my chamber length. I’m guessing I was scraping lead off and not PC? I’m sure I’ll be fine. It’s just not as thick of a PC coating as I get when I tumble in the dry winter months.