simple Hi-Tek coating

[HI-TEK]

I was gifted some bullets by a club member. He wasn't sure what the alloy was. I decided to use Petander's cleaning process with HCL. What I used was 20%. There was around two pounds of bullets. I put them in a plastic container and poured the HCL over them. The HCL started bubbling and I let the bullets set overnight in the solution. Next day I poured off the HCL and rinsed the bullets well. They were black and grey and after drying they had a very fine dust on them that was blackish colored. Did I mess up by using the HCL straight from the bottle? Maybe I should have diluted it. I sent a pm to Petander but forgot to ask this question. Anybody got any ideas? A word of caution, the fumes off of this stuff are terrible and it will burn the crap out of you. I used chemical proof gloves, splash goggles ,face shield, and a respirator. If you try this BE CAREFUL!

Slide,
The Acid as normally purchased for cleaning Concrete is about 30% strength (Hydrochloric Acid , also known as Spirits of Salt, and also called Muriatic Acid).
For acid washing cast, the acid needs to be diluted into water first, at 2 parts water and 1 part acid. Use only plastic containers to make dilutions and soaking
When doing this, have some Bicarb Soda nearby, dissolved in water, ( about 1 pound to a gallon of water), and this can be used to immediately neutralise any acid splashes that may get onto your skin or clothes. Make sure you have a hose that is on, so you can wash down any spills.
Is surface of acid washed cast look like porous surface?

With your soaked Cast, it is obvious that the alloy was fairly contaminated with other metals for it to react the way it did. You can re-use that acid, but suggest you dilute it first with water.
With acid soaked cast, make sure you wash with running water to remove traces of acid. Dry well, even if warming is needed. Then coat them as normal.

[Ausglock]

Happy b/day Tazz. Hi Trev and Jim.

Just thought I drop by to see whats happenin..

G'day Grem. You poor old Pommy Banana bender. How's things?

[slide]

Thanks Joe. You can't see the surface of bullets because of the layer of fine dust. It reminds me of chalk dust but darker in color. I will wipe one down and look under magnifacation. Is the lead good for anything?

[HI-TEK]

Thanks Joe. You can't see the surface of bullets because of the layer of fine dust. It reminds me of chalk dust but darker in color. I will wipe one down and look under magnifacation. Is the lead good for anything?

If hardness is OK and allows sizing after coating, it should be OK. It is a suck and see situation.

If you want to remove powdery residue, simply tumble in saw dust or similar, and that should show surface of the metal.

[Petander]

Slide,that sounds about right. I use 30% right from the bottle.

Can you spray them boolits with water? It will wash away,I have used a garden hose. Sawdust will resin contaminate it,don't do that.

You can also coat them like that,the dust will color your coating a bit darker but it won't harm anything. They will really suck the first coat in. That dark dust will color your bowl a little.

I use a dishwashing brush when I wash them in water.

[slide]

After I drained them of acid I rinsed them with a hose with a spray nozzle. The dust won't keep the coating from adhering to the bullet?

[slide]

It is 1:30 AM here. I am going to bed. I will try everybody's suggestions tomorrow. Goodnight!

[Petander]

After I drained them of acid I rinsed them with a hose with a spray nozzle. The dust won't keep the coating from adhering to the bullet?

Some dust has only darkened my gold a little. Might depend on how much there is.

[Petander]

Your way sounds better: a standard amount of powder applied per coat with complete coverage as facilitated by even more volume than I was using, and by "pre wetting". Bravo!

.

This is very easy.

With TMG Gold you get complete coverage with two coats this way. The first coat looks almost fully covered already,yes it looks "too much" but it works perfectly good. I still did the third coat in case I push them in a rifle.... goes nice and easy with three trays when you find the routine/rhythm.

Here are some of those TMG Gold bullets heat treated. One hour in 220°C, then one hour in ice water. They hit 18 BHN in a couple of hours,that's when I smashed them for the pic,already brittle. Now overnight they are BHN 36.

[Ausglock]

Sawdust will resin contaminate it

Not Hardwood... I mean Real Hardwood... Aussie Hardwood... Not that soft hardwood you lot up north swoon over...
Our softest hardwood is harder than your hardest.

OZ Rocks.

[HI-TEK]

Sawdust will resin contaminate it,don't do that.

You can also coat them like that,the dust will color your coating a bit darker but it won't harm anything. They will really suck the first coat in. That dark dust will color your bowl a little.

I use a dishwashing brush when I wash them in water.

Petander, I was only thinking, that from description, the acid washing left a lot of powder that I thought would cause coating problems. The loose powder needs to be removed for optimum bonding.
I though Saw dust will work, as wood is a good abrasive, and would clean surface. The wood dust I imagined would be easy to separate from lead by simply blowing away with a blower. (In hindsight, it may not have been a great suggestion)

[dikman]

BHN 36?? That's pretty hard!

[Petander]

Petander, I was only thinking, that from description, the acid washing left a lot of powder that I thought would cause coating problems. The loose powder needs to be removed for optimum bonding.
I though Saw dust will work, as wood is a good abrasive, and would clean surface. The wood dust I imagined would be easy to separate from lead by simply blowing away with a blower. (In hindsight, it may not have been a great suggestion)

Yep it's difficult to guess how much "powder" there is by writing about it over the net.

I used to wash it all carefully but later noticed that some of that black dust doesn't matter at all. How much is "some"?

[Petander]

BHN 36?? That's pretty hard!

Tell me about it. The gold ones are 10 BHN. Same batch.







My antimony content is pretty high,these are useless unless I soften them again.

[HI-TEK]

.

This is very easy.

With TMG Gold you get complete coverage with two coats this way. The first coat looks almost fully covered already,yes it looks "too much" but it works perfectly good. I still did the third coat in case I push them in a rifle.... goes nice and easy with three trays when you find the routine/rhythm.

Here are some of those TMG Gold bullets heat treated. One hour in 220°C, then one hour in ice water. They hit 18 BHN in a couple of hours,that's when I smashed them for the pic,already brittle. Now overnight they are BHN 36.

Petander,
with your process you now seem to have invented a Chocolate colour from TMG Gold.

[Petander]

Petander,
with your process you now seem to have invented a Chocolate colour from TMG Gold.

Here is the secret ingredient. Our warmest water is colder than your coldest down there.

[Tazza]

Here is the secret ingredient. Our warmest water is colder than your coldest down there.

I may have to give this a go, see if my lead can be hardened like this, will be interesting to give it a go for rifle projectiles. A few mad mates have 300 black out that they want to try running lead through at mid range speed.

[Petander]

I may have to give this a go, see if my lead can be hardened like this, will be interesting to give it a go for rifle projectiles. A few mad mates have 300 black out that they want to try running lead through at mid range speed.

It will harden if there's antimony. Here is an excellent page:

http://www.lasc.us/HeatTreat.htm


I did hardening as a separate step,not combined with coating bake. Crazy hard. So I just baked a few boolits 10 min bake time & temp to see how they anneal back. Will report.

EDIT: Report here,they dropped back to what they really are,10 BHN again.

My other interest was to see how TMG Gold holds up with hardening/overbake. Flying chocolate colors!

[Petander]

Not Hardwood... I mean Real Hardwood... Aussie Hardwood... Not that soft hardwood you lot up north swoon over...
Our softest hardwood is harder than your hardest.

OZ Rocks.

Acetone fumes taking their toll.

[Tazza]

I'll have to give it a go when i get a chance, this looks interesting.