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All colors will give great results, but my favorite colors are Blush Red Copper and Old Gold. If you mix Black with Old Gold you get a Brownish glittery finish. Some put on a very thin black base coat, then overcoat with another very thin coat of another color. It produces some great looking finishes.
Hello IOON44
Yes that is exactly what the Texas Tea is supposed to look like. That color was inspired from the TV programmed the Clampetts on Beverly Hillbillies when Jed shot into the ground and out came a bubbling pool of Oil.
The K-15 Black is an extremely black coating and is very popular. It is used also a base coat, topped with other Metallic colors. The base background of the K-15 highlights other colors.
I don't know what color you would get if you mixed the K-15 with Gold 1035. I am suspecting that in a 1 to 1 mix/blend, the K-15 may overtake other colors unless the K-15 is used at lower concentration ratio. If you wanted to play, first try using 1 part of K-15 with 2 parts of a color like Gold 1035, then go from there with mix ratio afterwards if the color is not what you want. Just increase ratio of 1 part K-15 to 3 parts Gold 1035 to see the effects. You can use the K-15 in small additions to darken other colors.
Joe
Do you have a listing of the metallic coatings? And can you give us an idea of how much more heat they reflect?
I probably have more HiTek powders to last a lifetime (for my production rate that is). I had some zombie green, candy apple red, and brown copper in the fridge for several months. The base turned dark brown in the bottles. I mixed them all together and achieved a sparkly dark brown. I actually like this color as it’s more subdued.
SGD
Hello Avenger
Independent tests were done, to show the heat transfer rates to be significantly reduced by the coatings and are strong insulators.
Two tests that are applicable;
1. A Red Copper coated alloy and a non coated alloy side by side was being heated on a spoon with a gas torch. The uncoated alloy melted, and the coated alloy stood in molten alloy.
2. A single coated alloy, and a plain uncoated alloy had thermocouples inserted in them to measure temperatures of each. These two were placed into an oven that was pre-heated and set at 180C, and temperatures of the projectiles was measure against time in oven. After putting the two into the oven, the coated alloy lagged some 20C behind the uncoated alloy. This demonstrated the coating ability to reflect heat transfer into the alloy. The coated alloy took about 2 minutes longer to get up to 180C.
These are a list of what metallic coating are available, Texas Tea (black/gold), Candy Apple, Bronze 500, Bronze 502, Bronze 530, Red Copper, Blush Red Copper, Old Gold, Gold 1035, Gunmetal,
Dark Green Metallic, Zombie Green, Kryptonite green, Aztec Gold.
So you have a few choices. They all are very similar to heat reflectance and act like heat insulator.
I hope that I have answered your questions..
Quick question for the masters. I got some mold release a while back and it works wonders on my molds. I have a Dillon 550b and my powder funnel sometimes starts sticking to the inside of my pistol brass. I was wondering if I painted some of the black mold release on the tip of the powder die and heated it a bit then smoothed it off, if it would give the funnel/expander some nonstick properties against the super clean brass. What are the chances it will work?
Great question....
Using very thinly applied powder, may work well and without needing heat. However, I am leaning towards using a very thin previously diluted coating of Aqualube, and drying.
They both should work well. I suspect, that Aqualube may work a little better, but in this application, it is a guess. If you are using Aqualube first, you may not get good adhesion of the Mold release as the dry Aqualube will not mix with, or allow wetting out and will provide a dry slick anti stick surface which will prevent coating of those surfaces with any other material,.
Great Question and possible end use potential, and would be interested in the results of your experimentations. Please keep us posted....
I find that wet tumbling of brass causes the expander plug to stick in the cases. Dry media tumbling doesn't cause this. If I use wet tumbled brass, I just rub my thumb and finger on my nose or forehead (to get a bit of body oil) and wipe the expander plug with them. works on the 550 and the squaredeal presses. the Aqua lube would be a good thing to try.
Just a quick question,,, did you use the concentrated Aqualube or the diluted version? It may make a difference with how long it stays where you use it. My rationale is, if you used the concentrate, you would leave a much thicker film which may be easier to get scraped off surfaces with mechanical abrasion,.... just thinking about the application, Aqualube has release particles that are o.o2 micron size, and that thickness should give lubricity and release property and possible less of an area to have scraped off with mechanical contact abrasion. If it means using less, so be it, as long as it works....
Just as an afterthought....if you are applying Aqualube to surface that previously had oily or greasy residues, the Aqualube will not wet out and adhere adequately to previously contaminated surfaces. You get best wetting out with Aqualube, if surfaces are totally clean from other lubes or release agents. As I have said, Aqualube is a strange material and the dry film wont mix with, and repels other things and wont allow other materials to stick to a film of it where it has been successfully applied. Whilst in liquid form, Aqualube will mix with Alcohol, Acetone , MEK and other water miscible solvents. Always add Aqualube to diluting solvent material, then shake mix well.
I am constantly being surprised by the unique things people come up with using various products. I learn a lot from this site. Thanks all for sharing your great ideas....
After wet tumbling, I have started to throw the bras in the dry media with car polish for a few minutes. It puts a bit of a coating on that helps with sizing and also keeps it from oxidizing so quickly. I still seem to have some problem with the insides of the cases sticking now and then. I will try some aqua lube tomorrow and see if that works. After it gets the first smear of brass on the funnel it game over until you clean the funnel completely or it
just gets worse and worse.
I have a squeaking door hinge in on my pickup that I am going to clean and use aqualube on it to see if it will work. I will due this Saturday when it warms back up. I have tried about 8 or 10 different lubes and none last longer than a day or two.
I spray Aqualube on the tracks of my roller door on the garage. easy up & down now...
Local transport company also used the Aqualube to apply to the woven fabric on the edge of their large roller door, as it was chattering being opened and being closed. It now slides as smooth as silk. No grease or oil to build up on sliding parts. It has been on there for years, no re-application needed.
Years ago, a casting company in US applied the Aqualube to a leather conveyor belt that transported coated cast towards an oven. The Aqualube stopped the coating sticking to the belting.
An Aluminium fabricating shop, uses the Aqualube to lubricate Aluminium Cutting saw to stop cut metal binding/sticking to saw blade teeth and does not contaminate the metal..
Another application is with manufacture of Rifling, where the bores are being machined. Aqualube stops cutter from binding, and the diluted Aqualube is slowly fed into the bore whilst the boring is being done.
I domestic use applications, a small amount is used on sticking Aluminium windows, and the Aqualube stops the binding. In wooden Drawers, Aqualube can be used as a dry film lubricant to allow drawers to slide easily without binding.
A company making fiberglass Oars in a Mould uses Aqualube to release the set polymer from the Mould with mirror finish.
On Zip starters on weed whackers, and on gas mowers, Aqualube lubricates the rope so it slides in and out easily and rope is dry lubricated.
On Braided fishing lines, the Aqualube helps with lubrication of the fabric, to reduce fraying, and increase density of the yarn. After application, the water does not wet the line, and significantly reduces salt crystallizing in the braid after using and drying.
Unfortunately or fortunately, there are endless applications where a non-contaminating dry film lubricant is needed.
Enough of my ranting...
Aqualube is great stuff, has many uses. Non contaminating is a big plus. It can be applied to a surface and adhesive tape will stick but the surface is slick, very interesting material. One of my sizers was used by a commercial caster and we later swapped it with a revised design machine. When we brought the sizer back I noticed it was very slippery and greasy feeling, coated with what appeared to be a silicone based product. I spent a lot of time cleaning to remove that product for the fear of silicone contamination with other products and paints we use. The machine still feels greasy and adhesive tape has trouble sticking to the painted surfaces. Still concerned about shop contamination. Don't have that problem with Aqualube.
As you are aware, all Silicone lubricants are a plague on society. They contaminate and are spread everywhere by simple transfer by touching surfaces that has Silicone on them.
It is almost impossible got get rid of it from a contaminated area.
In Automotive industry, if you try to enter any premises after you had visited any other site where Silicones were used, they may put you against a wall and shoot you. Not really, but that is how drastically seriously this is being taken as Silicone really messes up any painting and surfaces and cant be removed, and it is spread like crazy.
Well I guess I’m headed back to the drawing board again. Just got a new toy and loaded up some bullets I’ve had sitting a while. I had thought they had passed all the test back when I made them but maybe not. It looks like they are failing the smash test now.
I had a little leading after about 100 rounds and so I cleaned the barrel completely and pushed a few bullets through to check the diameter. I saw that the coating was rubbing off on two of the riflings. So I tried the smash test and sure enough I had small flakes coming off.
My lead is kind of unknown as it is a mixture of coww and soft lead with tin and antimony added at a 2% 5% rate. So not sure which ingots were in the pot when these were cast but the lead is at least about 12 bh. I am getting about 950 fps average with the load developed.
Since I have unknown lead, I might try some Muratic acid on a few and coat and see if I can pass the smash test.
I seem to get excited about shooting for a while, run into a leading issue, try to fix it and before everything gets ironed out I have something else that comes up and I forget about the problem until next time. I may just get it figured out this time before giving up. The leading isn’t that bad and a good hour after shooting it’s all gone again but it would be nice to get it down to a quick wipe down the barrel cleaning like the .45.Attachment 324008Attachment 324009
flybyjohn
thanks for posting. Just a couple of questions on your findings.... how long ago did you do that coating? The reason I ask, is that with some alloys that are from unknown compositions, can cause such reactions of crumbling or flaking from alloy with time. As you may be suspecting, there seems to be a reaction taking place between coating and alloy. Generally, it could be a sort of Oxidation taking place on surface of alloy, causing coating to lift. If coating had previously passed all tests, it can be deduced that all was well. If you have some of the original uncoated casts from that alloy, it would be interesting to see what the surfaces look like, then, acid treat them and do a comparison... If there was some surface contaminant on uncoated alloy, the acid treatment should change surface appearance. Before and after acid treatment, photos of surfaces should provide some answers. After acid treatment, coat some, (not all) and have a look at stability afterwards with storage of both coated and uncoated casts. It would be interesting to learn if the acid treatment had stopped formation of surface oxidation process or not... I suspect that it will be OK.
I refer to making fishing sinkers from mixed alloy that was made from all sorts of scrap. After casting, product looked absolutely shiny and smooth. these were stored/stockpiled on a steel shelf in my shed. When I went to get some to go fishing, all of them, to various levels, had a white powdery growth/formation on the alloy surface. Some were worse than others in same pile as this powdery formation became more crystalline on some. I washed them with diluted Hydrochloric acid, which removed the scale, and these had no more reoccurrences of this powdery film formation. I am suspecting Zinc and possibly Magnesium, and or Cadmium as primary contaminants in alloy, but there could be other metals as well. Very interested in your results. please post it and photos if possible.
I'd say the mystery metal is letting you down.
I have some 230gn RN .452 that were cast and coated 8 years ago.
from 2.6.92 alloy.
Fired them a few weeks ago and no issues...
It’s been about 1.5-2 years since I cast and coated these. I cast some 10 mm during the same session and they don’t look oxidized yet. I will throw them in some muratic acid for a while and see what I get. I smashed a few more 9 mm from the same casting and coating session and they didn’t seem to lose as much coating as the first ones I smashed. They don’t seem to have lost any coating on the hammer or the concrete surface that they smashed on. They lost the coating where the bullet squished and folded. They were getting pretty hard. It took 3-4 hits with a 14 oz hammer to get them to this point. One hit barely squished the nose.
Attachment 324053Attachment 324054
Just a couple of things...
I have forgotten to ask,, what was the increase in thickness of casts after coating them? How many coats were used? From some of the photos, it seems to give the impression that coatings are quite thick. I am wondering if coating thickness may have been a contributing factor for the cracking and splintering. Two coats usually is about 1.5 thou. and that easily passes smash tests even after a long time. Just curious...
I think it was 3 thin coats. You could still see the lead after first coat and two more coats of the same thickness. Some of the sized bullets you can see some lead through the coating like it is slightly transparent.
I will cast some more up in the next few days and try just two thin coats.
9mm is the only caliber I ever have problems with leading. 40 ,10,and45 never have any leading problems with coating applied same process.
If you are using same alloy, after casting, please acid treat before coating and after you had dried it well after acid bath.
I am also thinking that if you only have problems with to 9mm and all other calibers are OK, I am continuing to suspect your alloy is not adequate for that use.
Depending on the coating selected, some cover better with a single coat than another color will. I am not surprised that using one coat you may see the alloy through a thin first coat.
The Black K-15 coats and covers alloy extremely well with first coat using a very thin coating. It is almost impossible to see alloy after first coat. The color you are using on failed casts are appearing to be the Gold 1035. It is metallic in appearance and will highlight the alloy with the one coating film.
HI-TEK I found a new use for your Aqualube today works fantastic on the sizer ring on a 12 gauge reloading press. You can really tell the difference in effort to size the steel headed cartridges
That is great. How did you think about that use? The best thing with Aqualube is that it is a dry non contaminating lubricant, and works well with smallest film. I would love to see what you did as I am not familiar with shotgun loading presses. Never had the opportunity to see one in action. I dont know if you saw the test results done quite a while ago, when the coatings and Aqualube were used and the pressure force needed to push through with sizing. Results were amazing as with coating and Aqualubed casts needed 50% less force to push through sizer. The guy doing the testing plotted the pressures to do comparisons. He did quite a few, and what became obvious is that the force pressure required became very even and consistent. This was rationalized as being very good for reproducible accuracy, as all finished sized casts had almost exactly same force required to push through.
Well I was thinking if it worked for sizing boolits maybe it would help with sizing 12g cases. Most cases these days use a brass or Nickel coated steel case head (the premium cases still use real brass and require very little effort to size). The sizing die is just a hardened steel ring the swages the case head back to size on my press the ring can be unscrewed. I removed it thinking I might be able to put a bit if a chamfer on it to help align the cartridge. I grabbed the aqualube and a cotton bud used it straight out if the bottle let it dry and well it fixed the issue I had
It's a bit hard to see in the picture but the case on the left was done before using the Aqualube the right hand side is after. The sizing ring I just put the Aqualube on the shiny part this has probably done around 200 cases
Attachment 325244Attachment 325245
That is pretty clever thinking.
In the past I used to get a lot of questions about the effects it has with Powder load, same with the cured coating. Once these products are used dried and or baked, they have no reactivity , especially with Aqualube, the dry film will not react to any other cleaner, or synthetics or chemicals or powder.
Joe
There is a mention of your coating in the Hodgdon 2024 Annual Manual Reloading page 32. Article contains range data. Which was, of course , of interest to me.
I tried the Aqualube on my squeaking door hinge on my pickup. Nothing I have tried has lasted over a day or two. Two weeks after using the Aqualube and still no squeaking. I wish there was some way to get information out to the world how good this stuff really is.
Thank you for posting your finding on Aqualube.
The problem we have is, that even if everyone knew that the stuff works, ( being able to dry lubricating virtually any two surfaces) it is a difficult marketing and distribution barrier. The other considerations is, that so little is required to get maximum results, so selling retail packs becomes a packaging and concentration selection problem.
The concentrate as supplied, a 50 ml of the concentrate makes about 2.5 to 3.0 liters of ready to use lubricant, possibly more in some other end use applications, and it is difficult for home users to be able to apply and use up such large amount of lubricant on surfaces. Using the concentrate as is , will work well, however the excess residue of product is wasted, as excess is simply wiped off... For years, this product was used in aerosols as a very diluted spray, sold as a dry film spray lubricant. The aerosol was expensive, so retail market was limited. Product has been used as a diluted mixture on Automotive rubber seals on doors to stop squeaking and sticking as well as repelling dirt, but downside is, that residue does leave a whitish film on the rubber surfaces. Many, many years ago, the product was used in car steering columns to stop squeak of metal to plastic as drivers were turning the steering wheel. The plastic bushes were eventually replaced with a self-lubricating plastic that solved the steering squeak. As you indicated, the product is very good but has limitations in retail market.
Joe
It is in, as I said Hodgdon 2024 Annual Manual Reloading. I'm sure it is copyright protected so you would have to get permission to use. I'm going to have to email it site will not take it.
Hello Avenger
thank you for sending me the Hodgson 2024 Annual Manual Reloading article.
Great reading and very informative article.
They have done some good work, and the report is good reading as it compares various projectiles with results obtained.
Thank you for your consideration with sending me this article. Joe