bearhawk
12-26-2020, 04:47 PM
Santa brought me (after I ordered it) an oven, some 6x12" organizer baskets, 1 lb of Super Durable Wet Black, and 2 lbs of Crystal Clear Super Durable High Gloss Clear, both from PBTP.
What didn't work well:
Baking boolits in a lump, esp with the PBTP Super Durable High Gloss Clear, as they really stick together anywhere they can and they are hard to get apart, hot, cold, or quenched. Water quenching didn't really help break things up. I did find a solution to this so keep reading.
I also tried the Elvis low temp method with a water quench and my powders did not like that. I could still scratch off the PC with my nail if I tried a little. The hammer smash test failed. I then stood up the boolits on silicone sheets and recooked them at the 400F for 20 minutes and they were fine. The good about trying this is standing them up after the low temp was so easy with no gloves as the powder was stuck enough to handle no problem. If you are a stander-upper this method is clean as you just lump and dump at 250F for 12 minutes, water quench, then do the stand up routine.
What worked well:
Both of the powders I got from PBTP coat well with about 30 seconds total of shaking round and round in a #5 container, no BBs, followed by shaking straight up and down the last 10 seconds. It seems the up and down at the end puts the good coating on them (I pulled the lid before shaking them up and down to confirm). I was so happy with coverage of 1 and done. This powder covered very well on freshly cast air cooled boolits, freshly cast water quenched boolits, and even 5 year old cast boolits with slight oxidation on them. I handled all of these with my bare hands several times to no ill effect of the powder sticking well. I'm thinking if you water quench and/or handle boolits with your hands and are having problems, you might want to try a different powder as none of these had any effect on either powder I have.
Preheating the oven to 400F and placing my trays of boolits in there for 20 minutes worked like a charm.
My HB 31101D oven using the Taylor mercury thermometer seems to hold good temps.
Final thoughts:
Standing up boolits is tedious but produces nicer results. However, using the PBTP Super Durable High Gloss Clear doesn't show the small imperfections of the "lump and dump" method so that will be my go-to powder and lump & dump is my method.
The Super Durable High Gloss Clear glues those suckers tight on each other making it hard to get them apart. I used plyers to hold one boolit to break off the other(s). The one on the plyers had to go back to the pot for remelt as it always got marred. I found a better way below.
The last batch of about 700, I did find placing the cooled boolits of the "lump & dump" into an empty 5 gallon bucket and shaking the bucket up and down broke up nearly all the stuck-togethers without denting them. Throwing them on the concrete floor dents them I found out :)
Time to get the Dillon ready so I can try these out. I love how you can handle these without getting alox all over your hands and sizing die.
Thanks to all of those R&D hobbyists who have gone before and pretty much perfected this process so that even a newbie can read up and produce good results.
Bearhawk
What didn't work well:
Baking boolits in a lump, esp with the PBTP Super Durable High Gloss Clear, as they really stick together anywhere they can and they are hard to get apart, hot, cold, or quenched. Water quenching didn't really help break things up. I did find a solution to this so keep reading.
I also tried the Elvis low temp method with a water quench and my powders did not like that. I could still scratch off the PC with my nail if I tried a little. The hammer smash test failed. I then stood up the boolits on silicone sheets and recooked them at the 400F for 20 minutes and they were fine. The good about trying this is standing them up after the low temp was so easy with no gloves as the powder was stuck enough to handle no problem. If you are a stander-upper this method is clean as you just lump and dump at 250F for 12 minutes, water quench, then do the stand up routine.
What worked well:
Both of the powders I got from PBTP coat well with about 30 seconds total of shaking round and round in a #5 container, no BBs, followed by shaking straight up and down the last 10 seconds. It seems the up and down at the end puts the good coating on them (I pulled the lid before shaking them up and down to confirm). I was so happy with coverage of 1 and done. This powder covered very well on freshly cast air cooled boolits, freshly cast water quenched boolits, and even 5 year old cast boolits with slight oxidation on them. I handled all of these with my bare hands several times to no ill effect of the powder sticking well. I'm thinking if you water quench and/or handle boolits with your hands and are having problems, you might want to try a different powder as none of these had any effect on either powder I have.
Preheating the oven to 400F and placing my trays of boolits in there for 20 minutes worked like a charm.
My HB 31101D oven using the Taylor mercury thermometer seems to hold good temps.
Final thoughts:
Standing up boolits is tedious but produces nicer results. However, using the PBTP Super Durable High Gloss Clear doesn't show the small imperfections of the "lump and dump" method so that will be my go-to powder and lump & dump is my method.
The Super Durable High Gloss Clear glues those suckers tight on each other making it hard to get them apart. I used plyers to hold one boolit to break off the other(s). The one on the plyers had to go back to the pot for remelt as it always got marred. I found a better way below.
The last batch of about 700, I did find placing the cooled boolits of the "lump & dump" into an empty 5 gallon bucket and shaking the bucket up and down broke up nearly all the stuck-togethers without denting them. Throwing them on the concrete floor dents them I found out :)
Time to get the Dillon ready so I can try these out. I love how you can handle these without getting alox all over your hands and sizing die.
Thanks to all of those R&D hobbyists who have gone before and pretty much perfected this process so that even a newbie can read up and produce good results.
Bearhawk