What exactly is Hi-Tek?

[AbitNutz]

I'm in love with Hi-Tek. But what exactly is it? Is it polymer?

[Beagle333]

There's a sticky on it. It must be in there somewhere. :coffeecom

[AbitNutz]

There are 387 pages...I've rarely seen a bigger sticky...more of a wad than a sticky.

[Ausglock]

Ha.. good luck finding out what's in it. Even I have not been allowed in HITEK Joe's Lab. And I do all his testing.....
He is like the Colonel Sanders of bullets. secret herbs and spices.
I can tell you that it is unique in the world. nobody else on the planet knows what it is or what is in it.
Many in OZ have tried to copy it with electric motor amature lacquer, car paint etc etc. Nothing works as well as HITEK.

[AbitNutz]

I'm not trying to copy it. I can barely forge my wife's signature. I'm just curious to know the general "whatzit". I mean is it in the world of plastics? Or a combo of plastic and metal? Or unobtanium?

[ioon44]

My best guess is that there is a lot of unobtanium in the coating.

[AbitNutz]

Oh sure...get us hooked on it and find out it can only be mined from some god forsaken hole in China.

[Ausglock]

Oh sure...get us hooked on it and find out it can only be mined from some god forsaken hole in China.
I recall Joe saying it comes from woop woop. the other side if the black stump out past the never never, just north of east bum****.

[fredj338]

As a side note, how long does a mixed batch of HT last? I have some that has been mixed for about a month, seems kind of grainy. Passes the smash test, but looks terrible.

[Ausglock]

I have used mixed HT coating that is over 12 months old.
Still coats fine. Add a few mls of acetone to it and see if the rough texture smooths out.

[bilco]

It was a bunch of frustration for me. Maybe I'll give it another shot when the weather cools down here and I have more time because people do seem to really love it in that thread... But when reading it every now and again I always seeing someone having some sort of an issue.

As of right now for me its easier to line up 35-60 boolits on a tray, spray them with my PC gun and do a single one-and-done run through my toaster oven for 20 minutes. I've never had a failed smash test, never had adherence problems with the PC gun.

With Hi-Tek I had tons of flaking issues after sizing down .002 or performing the smash test. From what I understand this was because I did the first coat too heavily. When I tried to go lighter I got very blotchy coats and the acetone would dry up too quickly before an even coating was achieved.... it wouldn't be close to being evenly coated if I recall... I guess the answer to that is more acetone?

All I know is after I had tested the only 24 cartridges I loaded I had a really bad leading... So I melted down the other 150 9mm boolits because they would have cause epic levels of leading in my 9mm barrel too.

[AbitNutz]

I'm a total newb to this and shockingly enough, things have gone well. I think I have the mixture thing pretty much down with the mantra "thinner is better". What I don't have down is how long to cook them. The directions say 8 to 12 minutes. I cleverly chose 10 minutes. I wish I could dial in on that better. 10 minutes works but everything else requires such accuracy that having such a variance of cook time is a little bothersome.

Maybe I was lucky with my first batch but I'm so happy with this stuff I could just chitt.

[ioon44]

Cooking time has a lot of variables, type and size of the oven convection / non convection, pounds of bullets being cooked, actual oven temp and more.

My oven is a full size built in convection and I use a digital thermometer to check the actual temperature. I can do 5 lbs of bullets in 12 minutes or 10 lbs in 14 min and pass the test. My oven cycles about 15 deg C so I run 195 deg C to 210 deg C, I may be over baking but I find that a lot better than under baking.

The more I use this coating the better I like it.

[AbitNutz]

I use a small, new convection oven. I use a analog "sit on the rack" thermometer and aim for between 385 and 400. I cook 4.5lbs at a time because that's what's in the directions. I cook them for 10 minutes because that's halfway between 8 and 12 minutes and that seems fine.

What happens if I cook them too long? What do they look like? How can I tell? Do they just fail the test?

I do believe I'll thin down the mix with a few ml of denatured alcohol. I have been coating and cooking them 3 times. Maybe I can cut it down to twice? I dump the last cook into a bucket of water. It may or may not be enough of a temperature differential to harden them up a bit. Either way, it does no harm.

Please take a look at these two pics...can you tell anything good or bad by looking at them?

http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn94/AbitNutz/bullet1.jpg (http://s302.photobucket.com/user/AbitNutz/media/bullet1.jpg.html)



http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn94/AbitNutz/bullet2_1.jpg (http://s302.photobucket.com/user/AbitNutz/media/bullet2_1.jpg.html)

[Hi-Performance Bullet Coatings]

Abitnutz,
They look pretty good to me. Try 2 coats on your next batch and see how they perform for you.
Glad your happy with the Hi-Tek.

[Ausglock]

Nothing wrong with those.
Good job.

[AbitNutz]

I have been casting and sizing bullets for over 30 years...this is where the old curmudgeon would normally emerge and give any new idea what for.

Maybe this curmudgeon is more open minded than most boolit hermits but this Hi-Tek stuff is the way to go. I can't see me using my lubrisizers again for anything but sizing. So far, the performance exceeds anything I have tried previously.

[dikman]

I only use two coats normally (a third coat will just make it look better). If you extend the cooking time as long as the coatings have been applied correctly all that will happen is the colours may darken a bit.

Your coatings look pretty good, I reckon.

[Warhead]

I use a small, new convection oven. I use a analog "sit on the rack" thermometer and aim for between 385 and 400. I cook 4.5lbs at a time because that's what's in the directions. I cook them for 10 minutes because that's halfway between 8 and 12 minutes and that seems fine.

What happens if I cook them too long? What do they look like? How can I tell? Do they just fail the test?

I do believe I'll thin down the mix with a few ml of denatured alcohol. I have been coating and cooking them 3 times. Maybe I can cut it down to twice? I dump the last cook into a bucket of water. It may or may not be enough of a temperature differential to harden them up a bit. Either way, it does no harm.

Please take a look at these two pics...can you tell anything good or bad by looking at them?

http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn94/AbitNutz/bullet1.jpg (http://s302.photobucket.com/user/AbitNutz/media/bullet1.jpg.html)



http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn94/AbitNutz/bullet2_1.jpg (http://s302.photobucket.com/user/AbitNutz/media/bullet2_1.jpg.html)

I know this is a little off topic, but what mold was that cast with? Looks great also!

[AbitNutz]

Mold was a bit of a big deal. It's a Magma by way of Hollow Point Mold Service. I wanted to try the Hi-Tek coating and for whatever reason, I thought it really should be a grooveless, smooth sided bullet. I have a Master Caster and they make a H&G #68 200gr, SWC, BB, grooveless bullet. They make most of their designs in grooveless, they just don't tell you that unless you call and ask.

I also wanted it to be a hollow point, just to see how it worked in my Master Caster. I sent it to Eric at HPMS. He converts them to hollow points and makes it so it works in a Master Caster. It's shocking how well it works. This mold drops good bullets right from the start...even when cold and it's an iron mold. This thing was by no means cheap but I am so happy with it I could just chitt. It's a joy to use. I can make bullets with my Master Caster almost forever and not get tired.

A 6 cavity mold is likely faster than an M/C but you can't keep it up as long. Using an M/C is a brain dead operation and it makes you do everything the same way every time. You end up being extremely consistent and over an hour you wind up with far more good bullets than you do with a 6 cavity mold over the same length of time, at least that's what happens with me.

Well, that's probably more information than you wanted to know...

[ioon44]

I get a lot of my bullets to coat from a friend who has a Magma Bullet Master which is extremely consistent compared to my hand cast out my older NEI 4 cavity molds.