How I spray tall rifle boolits.....

[Beagle333]

This isn't fast and it isn't for anybody who has a cold and might be sneezing... ('easy to turn this into a game of dominoes ).

First I stand them all on my tray of nuts. Nuts are not needed for this, since I'll be transferring them, but I already have it for my pistol boolits and it provides a ready-made grid.


Then I spray them, using my custom made professional spray booth and equipment:


The first tray of sprayed boolits:


Then I transfer them to the very nearby waiting oven, which is not yet hot, since this takes a while and isn't easy when it is hot. I use the smooth-jawed needlenose pliers. They don't make any marks on the boolits.


Here is the first batch of 80, moved into the oven and stood on the tray.


And here is the tray of nuts, ready for the second batch to be stood and sprayed on it:

[Beagle333]

The second tray.... sprayed and ready to transfer to oven:


A fully loaded oven. That's 160 rifle boolits at a time for me. It will easily hold another tray, but I don't have the nerves to try it.


Note the position of the thermocouple. It will precisely control the temp, right at boolit level:


And.... once it gets to exactly 400°, I start the countdown and give em 10 minutes of baking time.
And here are the results!


Perfect... every time.
Now... to load it up again and do another batch.

[Beagle333]

Oh... and if you are a powder-saver... I did brush the powder up into a pile on the middle of the tray with a 2" paint brush after spraying the second batch and then swept it back into the sprayer jug. I probably recovered 85% of overspray. (some went onto the table and parts beyond). I usually don't recover it, but did today just to see how it worked. Smoke's powder is pretty cheap and there isn't a LOT of lost powder.

[Smoke4320]

You ought to market that custom HF Spray gun riser in Pic #2

You could break it down and sell it in kit form with a bottle of Gorilla Glue
Between that and the custom PID cabinet in Pic 8 and you could be sitting in high cotton

PS That looks like some of my custom engineering .. Used to go to machine shops .. sit down with a few pieces of paper and a pencil Start grabbing items from around the shop to draw the angles and lines of what I wanted ..
should have seen some of the looks I got .. Till I got the parts made and sold thousands of them .. soon when I walked in they would clean off a table for me and say have at it

Fine looking bullets you have there

[Beagle333]

It was a good day. I coated a lot of rifle boolits. It's not fast, but if you have a whole beautiful afternoon to sit in the yard.... it's fun too.


This more of Smoke's orange/brown and SD Copper mixed. I like this mixed color.

[jmort]

That is a great set-up you got going. End product is real nice. Thanks for the thread.

[labradigger1]

Beagle, I have a question. Why not bake them on the sheets with the nuts after you spray? You would'nt have to handle them that way.
Lab

[Beagle333]

Because I'm too shaky to pick up a tray of tall rifle boolits that are standing upright and carry/slide them into the oven without them all falling over. But I can pick them up, one at a time with a pair of needlenose pliers and set them on another tray that is already in the oven, without knocking them over. Well.... I did knock two over, but I just wiped em on my pants and put them on the next tray to go in and sprayed em again.

I do bake my shorter boolits (.357s) and also my wider ones (.45's) on the nut tray. I can move it with the shorter, fatter boolits on it. But I can nearly knock over the tall skinny .270 boolits with just the stream of powder if I get too close!

[RP]

I have to point out the misuse of the Postal service shipping container not sure what the charge for such misuse is, But I am sure it is plainly mark on the shipping item that it is for shipping only. I was called out at the PO for using a label for the same type of shipping container on another parcel. I was waiting for the federal boys to bust out of the side door and take me down. Instead I got a warning and a bad look.

[Beagle333]

Actually this one is already used up as a postal box! It even still has the name and address on top of another member who sent it to me!

[RP]

I hear you something about people that reload we will recycle about anything or repurpose it.

[LAGS]

I prefer to PC my Gas check boolits Before I install the GC's.
I have several steel plates that I drilled a series of holes in them to fit he GC base in each perticular caliber.
I set the base in the hole and spray away, with no boolits falling over.
I can either bake the boolits while still in the steel plate, or as I mostly do transfer them to another tray for baking that has the same size holes in it and fits into a baking tray with a 1/2 lip on it.
The Bases in the holes keeps the powder from coating the GC base area so I can seat them on later and have nice shiney copper based colored boolits.
For the bore riding boolits with GC's that I do not want the Bore riding section coated, I just drop a empty shell casing over the tip of the boolit for a sheild.
38 cases work well for my .35 Whelen boolits, and 30 carbine cases work for the 30 caliber like the 311299.
To keep the PC from gluing the boolits to the tray I transfer them to, That plate is sprayed with PAM cooking spray.
They stick a little, but pop off with thumb pressure sideways.
Any Finning comes right off whe I install the GC's and size the boolits.

[bluelund79]

Those turned out fantastic! There are so many tips and helpful reads here. Thanks for the photos of your equipment too, gets the gears turning

[cga]

I must say, the turkeys at this post office wouldn't notice anything different, unless you pointed it out.
And I agree, very nice looking bullets.

[Beagle333]

I prefer to PC my Gas check boolits Before I install the GC's.
The Bases in the holes keeps the powder from coating the GC base area so I can seat them on later and have nice shiney copper based colored boolits.

I was doing something similar, but after some research and several threads had been brought up on it..... I can't recall anybody coming up with any difference in the way that they shoot, so it's just easier for me to coat the whole thing. Here are some that I coated and left the base bare and they are ready for GC's, but I saw no difference in the coated checks versus the bare ones.


They do make a better picture with a copper base though.

[LAGS]

One reason I like to install the GC's after PC is the seating and sizing.
I use the same boolit in several rifles and different calibers.
So they are not always sized the same.
If I install the GC's first, I have to seat and size them to the largest bore diameter that I may use.
Then resize them to fit smaller bores.
I prefer to size the boolits after PC'ing, and only size them once.
I never took into account that there was any accuracy differances, if there even were any.
IE;
I cast a NOE 316299 that casts to almost .318.
I use it in bores down to .308 so they are sized to .310 ,and others are sized at .312, 315, and .316
But one MN and a LE long Branch are shot with minimal sizing only to seat the GC at almost .318
Same thing in the 8mm's they run from .323 bores to .327 and sizing them all to .325 just wasnt cutting the mustard in all rifles.

[Beagle333]

I see. That is a very good reason.

[StromBusa]

Thank's for the tip, look great....I tip them 30 cal 230's over too often. Heck, I might try .22's with that approach.

[Beagle333]

This transfer method is my new "way" for all my boolits now, both pistol and rifle. I can set up a tray next to the oven and spray/transfer a tray every 14 minutes (at peak speed! ). The oven holds three trays of 80 on just one rack. I can turn out a full rack (240 boolits) and bake them in an hour or a little more. I don't shoot 240 boolits a month..... so this works great and makes perfect boolits every time. It isn't for you volume shooters, but just one nice Saturday afternoon nets me a 4± months supply of nice coated boolits, so until I evolve more with this PC thing.... this is the way.


Here's a batch I sprayed today.


And the results:

[robertbank]

Beagle333 man you have nerves of steel. I have a rack of fender washers set up but will try your transfer method in the next few days as well.

I have my oven close at hand now. It is easier to transfer bullet trays when it is near.

Very nice results by the way.

Take Care

Bob