Question for the bulk bullet powdercoaters out there

[tzzler44]

I see guys on here and other forums who ESPC and bake thousands of bullets at a time in commercial ovens. My question is this - What's your process for standing thousands of bullets on their bases for spraying on the PC in a way that's time efficient.

Am I missing some crucial and probably easy step or am I just being impatient?

I do about 1k pistol bullets at a time and standing each one up seems to take way more time than it should. I'm not even going to talk about long skinny rifle bullets that make me want to rage quit reloading all together when one invariably tips over and causes a domino effect in the 60 surrounding bullets. :evil:

My process is to lay down a few sheets of AL foil, slightly overlapping and clipped together, then place the bullets, tip up, on the foil in staggered rows. Clip on the lead and spray.

I hate the skirt the hangs on when I bake on the same foil I sprayed on, so I transfer the coated bullets to a silicone baking mat with a pair of forceps for baking.

[Ausglock]

That is why most commercial bullet makers use HITEK coating.

[HABCAN]

for your rifle boolit frustrations, see my post on here about 'Standing Tall Boolits'.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?309398-Standing-Tall-Boolits

[garym1a2]

I use shake and bake to do 9mm and 40 S&w. I just dump them on a mesh screen, bake them and do not stand them up. Use a good powder and you get very good coverage. Most I coated in one weekend was 8800 120gr 9mm Lee TC. Also I coat them twice.

[RP]

I use a full size house oven I spray and load a tray set the timer while I am spraying another tray and set it to the side and repeat. This works best on HP bullets since I am using a nail to set the HP on after I get a few trays ready to swap out I load up more then just one. While all this is going on I am spraying other bullets and placing them on a clean sheet of foil to avoid the flashing. Yes it takes time but I enjoy it also I also load up some loading blocks nose first and transfer them to my spraying table by flipping it that spaces my bullets for easy spraying.

I am lucky to have a lot of brass and lead on hand so I run large batches of everything at different times of the year and store them as ready to go items. So when I PC I do it on a large scale also for the guys that are casting coating and loading to shoot in the next week or so it would be more work or feel like more work.

[Dragonheart]

I think it gets down to do you want your bullets quick or as perfect as the PC process can make them? I personally go for perfect and cook about 1200 at a time in a toaster oven. I have a 30" oven for PC larger items that would cook thousands, but so far have never seen the need.

[tzzler44]

I really like the idea of using a loading block or something similar to plop down 50-100 bullets at a time on the spray table.

I could just be a cheap bastard, but i don't like the idea of curing the overspray, just seems like a waste to me so I'd rather move the bullets over to another surface for baking and recover the overspray. Guess that comes with a time cost

[Dragonheart]

I really like the idea of using a loading block or something similar to plop down 50-100 bullets at a time on the spray table.

I could just be a cheap bastard, but i don't like the idea of curing the overspray, just seems like a waste to me so I'd rather move the bullets over to another surface for baking and recover the overspray. Guess that comes with a time cost

I move my bullet too, after all it is a hobby, so what's a little time. Don't know about you, but I have a lot of overspray and at least I don't have to worry about flashing around the base. I have considered using a plastic grid to make the standing up process faster and more uniform.

[HABCAN]

Dragonheart, just put a piece of that 1/2" hardware cloth UNDER your non-stick foil. Voila! Grid. Works very well for me: YMMV.

[RP]

Someone posted they were using the light disfuser you find on the 2/4 drop in light fixtures and you can cut it to size Lowes may carry it and its fairly cheap. I have not check or used one but I was thinking the squares are 1/2 inch

[KingRat]

I use jigs with holes in through which I drop the bullets onto NSAF. Bases and jigs made out of board. Then just lift the jig and EPC. then to the oven.

I am planning to rig a bullet feeder with a long flex tube that would let me fill the trays in seconds.