bcp477
10-25-2009, 12:49 PM
Well, I tried masking tape as an alternative..... just to see if it might prove at all promising. Nope - not good, in my experience.
First, I removed as much of the adhesive as possible, first by simply applying the tape to cloth, repeatedly. I wrapped some bullets, with the usual two- wrap technique, end angles at about 30 degrees, as I do my PAPER patches....folded bases. This created a final wrapped dia. of about 0.329". So, I lightly lubed the wrapped boolits with wax, then ran them through a 0.323" sizing die (this is for 8 x 57, by the way). My boolits are pre-sized to 0.314, if it matters. Anyway, the final result was a gooey, sticky mess. The sizing simply caused the adhesive to ooze out (and damaged the tape, as well) - creating a mess. No go - not even worth shooting, let alone loading them. Removing the patches was a pain....and I had to clean up the boolits with turp, to get rid of the sticky. So, that technique is OUT.
Moving on, I tried removing most of the adhesive on the tape with a light wipe of (first), denatured alcohol, then (a second batch) with turpentine. Removal of the sticky caused the final wrapped diameter to be about 0.325".....so again, I ran the wrapped boolits through the 0.323" die. The long and short of it is that, unless I really removed most or all of the adhesive from the tape, I got the same result - a gooey, sticky wrapped bullet. The tape was still damaged by the sizing. The result wasn't too bad when I scrubbed off basically all of the sticky from the tape before wrapping.... so those boolits might have been shootable. However, I didn't think it worth the trouble - so I ditched the "project" at that point.
IMO, it's kind of stupid to waste so much effort in preparing the tape beforehand - when I could have patched many bullets in the same time, the usual way (just paper) - without the drama. So, in my view, masking tape is a waste of time.
Someone else might work at it more and have better results....or might disagree, because they've discovered some "secret" to getting it done. I am also aware that some are having success, to some degree, with sticky computer labels. However, all I can say is..... whatever. I don't see any value in adopting a more labor-intensive process, when the "good old-fashioned way" works just fine.....and is simpler, to boot. If there was some sort of adhesive-backed paper tape that happened to be optimized for this sort of thing, so that no prep work was necessary....then I could see it. But, I know of no such thing - and I don't care to spend my time looking. So, though it was interesting to try it (it's always interesting to learn new things) - I'll just stick with the tried and true.
Just thought I'd pass this along, in case it might be helpful to someone else.
First, I removed as much of the adhesive as possible, first by simply applying the tape to cloth, repeatedly. I wrapped some bullets, with the usual two- wrap technique, end angles at about 30 degrees, as I do my PAPER patches....folded bases. This created a final wrapped dia. of about 0.329". So, I lightly lubed the wrapped boolits with wax, then ran them through a 0.323" sizing die (this is for 8 x 57, by the way). My boolits are pre-sized to 0.314, if it matters. Anyway, the final result was a gooey, sticky mess. The sizing simply caused the adhesive to ooze out (and damaged the tape, as well) - creating a mess. No go - not even worth shooting, let alone loading them. Removing the patches was a pain....and I had to clean up the boolits with turp, to get rid of the sticky. So, that technique is OUT.
Moving on, I tried removing most of the adhesive on the tape with a light wipe of (first), denatured alcohol, then (a second batch) with turpentine. Removal of the sticky caused the final wrapped diameter to be about 0.325".....so again, I ran the wrapped boolits through the 0.323" die. The long and short of it is that, unless I really removed most or all of the adhesive from the tape, I got the same result - a gooey, sticky wrapped bullet. The tape was still damaged by the sizing. The result wasn't too bad when I scrubbed off basically all of the sticky from the tape before wrapping.... so those boolits might have been shootable. However, I didn't think it worth the trouble - so I ditched the "project" at that point.
IMO, it's kind of stupid to waste so much effort in preparing the tape beforehand - when I could have patched many bullets in the same time, the usual way (just paper) - without the drama. So, in my view, masking tape is a waste of time.
Someone else might work at it more and have better results....or might disagree, because they've discovered some "secret" to getting it done. I am also aware that some are having success, to some degree, with sticky computer labels. However, all I can say is..... whatever. I don't see any value in adopting a more labor-intensive process, when the "good old-fashioned way" works just fine.....and is simpler, to boot. If there was some sort of adhesive-backed paper tape that happened to be optimized for this sort of thing, so that no prep work was necessary....then I could see it. But, I know of no such thing - and I don't care to spend my time looking. So, though it was interesting to try it (it's always interesting to learn new things) - I'll just stick with the tried and true.
Just thought I'd pass this along, in case it might be helpful to someone else.