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Thread: Ruined an entire session with coating mistake.

  1. #1
    Boolit Buddy
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    Ruined an entire session with coating mistake.

    I spent 2 hours today casting size F buckshot. Well, casting, then trimming. It is a Sharpshooter buckshot mold, so it has 5 cavities on each side. The casting part goes a bit faster, but then you have to cut off all of the shot from the sprues, and toss those back in the pot. And F goes much slower because the pellets are so freaking small. I get them all finished, powder coat them, then toss the in the oven to cure. Except somehow, when I moved the toaster oven last time, I managed to switch it from bake to broil. I come back to find the entire batch of several hundred .22" pellets has melted into a puddle of molten lead. #&<€! All of that time casting, sorting and cutting wasted. I gave up and called it a day.

  2. #2
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    Winger Ed.'s Avatar
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    There should be a country and western song about things happening like this.
    In school: We learn lessons, and are given tests.
    In life: We are given tests, and learn lessons.


    OK People. Enough of this idle chit-chat.
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  3. #3
    Boolit Master

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    Chalk it up to Murphy. You did the work and got nothing but experience out of it. Some of the ["best", hardest, longest lasting, steepest learning curve, "most rewarding", fill in the blank ________] experience is the result of a bad experience. I bet you double check that now. We've all done something like that. Mine was three weeks ago. I tinned a 4cav, 357 Mag HP, Mihec, brass mold with dozens of little hardened "alloy" spots. Getting the tin off of the tiniest of recesses and out of blind holes without ruining the mold was difficult and HARD work. I don't want to do that again - but unfortunately, Murphy is Alive and well, so I probably will (or something equally as annoying and self-induced).
    If it was easy, anybody could do it.

  4. #4
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    MrWolf's Avatar
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    Tape the switch to bake. Found i have to do stuff like that more often. Oh well

  5. #5
    Boolit Master redhawk0's Avatar
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    Oh man...that sux...time to hot glue that switch to the bake position.

    redhawk

    The only stupid question...is the unasked one.
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  6. #6
    Boolit Grand Master
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    "Good judgement comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgement." Will Rogers. Can't tell you how much my learning curve has gone up with my bad judgement.

  7. #7
    Boolit Bub
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    Sorry to hear. That just sucks!

  8. #8
    Boolit Master

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    I happen to agree with O'Toole's commentary on Murphy. His commentary is that Murphy is an optimist!

  9. #9
    Boolit Master slim1836's Avatar
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    What a waste of powder coat.

    Slim
    JUST GOTTA LOVE THIS JOINT.

  10. #10
    Boolit Buddy BC17A's Avatar
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    Pardon my ignorance, but why PC buckshot?

  11. #11
    Boolit Master Gtrubicon's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by BC17A View Post
    Pardon my ignorance, but why PC buckshot?
    I’m also wondering?

  12. #12
    Boolit Buddy
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    Mostly because it helps me tell which one it which at a glance. I cast F, #4, #1 1/2, #1, 0, 0 1/2, and 00. In real life that translates to .22, .24, .29, .30, .31, .32 and .33 inch pellets. I have no idea why the .29" pellets are called 1 1/2, or the .31" pellets are called 0 1/2, but that is what the company that made the molds told me they were. Anyway, they can be hard to tell apart at a glance, and it actually does make a difference when you are stacking them in the shot cup. So for my own sanity, I am trying to color code them to tell them apart. So I can just grab the jar of blue pellets or green pellets or pink pellets. I don't think it will make any difference in terms of how they perform. Besides, I figure anything I can do to reduce my lead exposure at the range is a good thing, and this might help with that a bit.

  13. #13
    Boolit Master


    Walter Laich's Avatar
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    since they will be inside a shot cup what about laying them out and hitting with a quick spray of paint? While this wouldn't cover 100% of the pellets there would be enough color showing to distinguish sizes
    NRA Life
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  14. #14
    Boolit Buddy
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    Because I can powder coat them easily enough, without the mess and paint fumes? And because I am new to powder coating and it is fun? And because it looks cool? It takes me maybe 2 minutes to do several hundred of them all at once, plus the cure time, so why not?

  15. #15
    Boolit Grand Master
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    As the song goes: "Some days are diamonds..........some days are stones".

    Some days you wish you were just stoned!


    banger

  16. #16
    Boolit Buddy Ateam's Avatar
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    I PC my #4 buck because it has eliminated the pellet scrubbing off in the bore.

  17. #17
    Boolit Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by Winger Ed. View Post
    There should be a country and western song about things happening like this.
    Maybe we should tell Willy Nelson

  18. #18
    Boolit Buddy maglvr's Avatar
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    This is the very reason whisky was created!
    The .357 Magnum......
    1935
    Major Douglas Wesson, using factory loads, which were a 158 gr. soft lead bullet, traveling 1515 fps, from an 8 3/4" barreled S&W, producing 812 ft. lbs of muzzle energy.
    Antelope - 200 yards (2 shots)
    Elk - 130 yards (1 shot)
    Moose - 100 yards (1 shot)
    Grizzly Bear - 135 yards (1 shot).

    It kind of makes one wonder, why today, it will bounce off anything bigger than a rabbit

  19. #19
    Boolit Bub
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    Sorry to hear that. But you did make me chuckle a little.

  20. #20
    Boolit Buddy MrHarmless's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by BC17A View Post
    Pardon my ignorance, but why PC buckshot?
    Because grey buckshot is old hat. Who doesn't want buckshot in technicolor(tm)?
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