simple Hi-Tek coating

[benellinut]

For a newbie at coating, is there colors of Hi-Tek that would be better? I rather stay more toward natural lead or copper color but would give in for success. The more I read this thread and see the pics you guys post the closer I'm getting to dropping the coin. Oh yeah, where do I get it?

I did a quick spring cleaning of the garage Saturday and headed to the scrap yard. I walked away with five, five gallon buckets of wheel weights and $102 in my pocket. I knew old catalytic converters were worth something but I was surprised when they told me they would give me $100 for it, plus money I got for the other scrap metal. And they were happy to get rid of the wheel weights, the guy said he didn't want to sort through them and offered them to me for $20 and said he'd loaded em in the Jeep for me. With the unexpected extra cash burning a hole in my pocket I ordered my Lyman Caster's Handbook today. Tomorrow I'll be ordering the Lee 20 Pro pot, a couple molds and sizing kits, damn it was a good weekend! Think I'll give the shop another overhaul and hit the other scrap yard next weekend!

Now I've got to sort the lead from the zinc and steel and get smelting!

[Michael J. Spangler]

For a newbie at coating, is there colors of Hi-Tek that would be better? I rather stay more toward natural lead or copper color but would give in for success. The more I read this thread and see the pics you guys post the closer I'm getting to dropping the coin. Oh yeah, where do I get it?

I did a quick spring cleaning of the garage Saturday and headed to the scrap yard. I walked away with five, five gallon buckets of wheel weights and $102 in my pocket. I knew old catalytic converters were worth something but I was surprised when they told me they would give me $100 for it, plus money I got for the other scrap metal. And they were happy to get rid of the wheel weights, the guy said he didn't want to sort through them and offered them to me for $20 and said he'd loaded em in the Jeep for me. With the unexpected extra cash burning a hole in my pocket I ordered my Lyman Caster's Handbook today. Tomorrow I'll be ordering the Lee 20 Pro pot, a couple molds and sizing kits, damn it was a good weekend! Think I'll give the shop another overhaul and hit the other scrap yard next weekend!

Now I've got to sort the lead from the zinc and steel and get smelting!

Wow that's an awesome day.
Seems it all works the same. The metallics are supposedly better suited for the heavy loads as I understand.
Either way they all work well and for general pistol loads up to the hot stuff I don't think you can go wrong with any of them.
I have used mainly the old liquid gold and the color really grows on you after a while. Nice stuff.

[Avenger442]

Both bayoubullets.net and gatewaybullets.com can get you the coating. Usually one or the other has different colors.
There are two systems liquid and powder. They say powder is easier and it ships cheaper. Have some black powder but have not tried it due to success with the gold metallic liquid. The metallic colors can stand the pressure/heat in the barrel better according to Hi Tek. They are mostly blacks greys golds and coppers. There are others. Some non metallic in the greens reds .... Ausglock and Joe can chime in on the colors. Maybe some day there will be a color chart like at the paint store.

You are doing better than I did last week at the scrap yard. They let me sort through the weights out of a 55 gal drum for 40 cents a pound. There were so many steel and zinc in there that I only came away with 75 lb of lead after digging through the first foot of weights. It was fairly common to find about 150 lbs each time I went last year.

[gunoil]

Gateway, do u have the 38/357 rnd nose flat boolit from star for sale? They say you bought the die and gave me your #. It's 125 gr.

[Avenger442]

60 Hi Tek bullets through the .223. While groups were not good, no lead in barrel.

[leadman]

Avenger, I found that the harder the boolit the better in the 223 Rem. Out of my 16" AR15 with one in 9 twist I can get 1 to 2 moa with heat treated linotype and a max load (27grs?) of H4895. Same load in my Contender 23" 1 in 12 twist barrel will hit over 3,600 fps. In the Ar it is about 3,050 fps.
Loads a couple of grains less do shoot better but just wanted to see how fast I could get them to go and still hit the target.

[Avenger442]

Avenger, I found that the harder the boolit the better in the 223 Rem. Out of my 16" AR15 with one in 9 twist I can get 1 to 2 moa with heat treated linotype and a max load (27grs?) of H4895. Same load in my Contender 23" 1 in 12 twist barrel will hit over 3,600 fps. In the Ar it is about 3,050 fps.
Loads a couple of grains less do shoot better but just wanted to see how fast I could get them to go and still hit the target.

BHN on these is harder than I normally shoot. Can't remember exact but around 20. Out of my bolt gun 24 inch barrel and 1 in 9 twist at 100 yards 27 grains of H4895 groups about six inches. Just goes to prove that old thing about guns and sweet spots. Best groups have been at 23 grains about 3 inches. It seems to get smaller as I go down so I'm headed in that direction with the H4895 or changing powder. According to Hogedon 4895 is a good reduced load powder and can go down to around 17 grains with this bullet. How heavy is your bullet?

I also have an AR15 and may try the 27 grains in it to see what it will do. Just wanted to make sure no leading before putting in the AR.

[Balta]

Range report , I shot the IDPA match yesterday and the guns running the Candy Apple Red powder and Red
copper powder mixed 125/20 with 2 coats worked great no leading no smell.
These were shot out of 9mm, .40S&W & .45 APC.


One thing I have a question on is the Black Liquid, I have it mixed at 5-1-10. The first coat and the second coat passed the smash and wipe test fine, but the third coat didn't pass the smash test. All 3coats had the same drying and baking process.
I am going to shoot some of these and see how they work in .40 S&W.

Have pics of that mix?

[ioon44]

Have pics of that mix?

Not sure which mix you are asking about, but I don't have a way to do pics.

The Candy Apple Red is more of a maroon from my baking time and temp but is working well.
The Black ended up sort of black and brown from my baking time and temp, not had time to range test this yet.

[robertbank]

From my limited experience the longer the time in the oven or heat the darker the bullets get.

Ausglock likely has a better answer for you when the sun gets to him on the other side of the planet.

Take Care

Bob

[ioon44]

From my limited experience the longer the time in the oven or heat the darker the bullets get.

Ausglock likely has a better answer for you when the sun gets to him on the other side of the planet.

Take Care

Bob

I am doing 400deg F (204deg C) and baking 12min with 2kg boolit load, the maroon color looks good and passes all the test.

I may start reducing temp & time just to see where the color changes, hate to mess with what is working as I am really tired of re melting boolits .


I have noticed that with the ambient temp getting to 30deg C I have had to turn the dial down on the oven to maintain 400deg.

[robertbank]

I am a total amateur at this but if I were you just change one thing at a time.

The process like PCing can be very frustrating at times.

Bob

[ioon44]

I am a total amateur at this but if I were you just change one thing at a time.

The process like PCing can be very frustrating at times.

Bob

Right on with changing one thing at a time, I am starting with the oven temp. I just baked some at 395deg F but didn't change the color any.
My oven is a Jen-air convection full sized built in type and I have added a layer of fire bricks on the bottom rack so when I add a tray of boolits I don't get much temperature drop so that is a factor in how the boolits look.

I am also a total amateur at this. I tried the PC process and like the HI-TEK much better.

[robertbank]

Right on with changing one thing at a time, I am starting with the oven temp. I just baked some at 395deg F but didn't change the color any.
My oven is a Jen-air convection full sized built in type and I have added a layer of fire bricks on the bottom rack so when I add a tray of boolits I don't get much temperature drop so that is a factor in how the boolits look.

I am also a total amateur at this. I tried the PC process and like the HI-TEK much better.

Me too.

I do have about 6lbs of powder to consume yet as well as a few thousand bullets. They both will get consumed in due course. For me the winter will be spent casting and powder coating bullets while the Hi-Tek will be utilized in the spring/summer/fall. Man you can do a lot of bullets in a hurry using the Hi-Tek method though. I just put the first coat on about 1200 bullets and I spent less than 15 minutes doing it. They are out drying in the warm sun and light breeze as I write this. I am going to leave them out there until late the afternoon. Cook them either tonight or tomorrow morning, do the 2nd coat and leave that coat to dry all day. Then we bake them and put them away for sizing at another time. We get lots of rain so I like to shoot when it is warm and dry. Weather looks good out to the end of the month. May is one of our drier months. After that flip a coin.

Take Care

Bob

[Ausglock]

From my limited experience the longer the time in the oven or heat the darker the bullets get.

Ausglock likely has a better answer for you when the sun gets to him on the other side of the planet.

Take Care

Bob

Yep. The longer you bake, the more the resin yellows.
This is why the black can actually look dark brown.
The black has a large amount of solids in it. You really should use a "shaker marble" in your mixed coating to ensure that the solids are mixed in and not sitting on the bottom of the coating container.

[ioon44]

Yep. The longer you bake, the more the resin yellows.
This is why the black can actually look dark brown.
The black has a large amount of solids in it. You really should use a "shaker marble" in your mixed coating to ensure that the solids are mixed in and not sitting on the bottom of the coating container.

I put a boolit in the can as a shaker marble, this last mix was the first time I got it shaken enough so the Black coating did not turn green after the first bake.
The mix is 5-1-10 and the first and second coats passed the smash test but when I done a third coat it did not pass the smash test.

I loaded 50 rounds of this "180gr .40cal 900fps" and shot out of a Glock lone wolf barrel with no leading and no bad smell or any build up.

Is 3 coats of 5-1-10 too thin for the liquid Black and caused the smash failure? Or does it matter if the barrel runs clean.

I done the 180gr with two coats of Candy Apple Red at 125/20 mix at the same time, passed smash test and clean barrel.

Like the powder mixes best.

Thank you for all your help.

[Ausglock]

5.1.10 is too thin for my liking.
I only use 5.1.7
Powder is mixed 20gms:100mls
Both these give me Zero failure and great coating.

When I am testing new coatings, and they are bad colours or just plain ugly, I do another 2 coats of black to cover the bad coatings and still have usable bullets.
So, that is 4 coats applied and baked. Zero failures. Easy sizing and Zero smoke when fired.

[ioon44]

5.1.10 is too thin for my liking.
I only use 5.1.7
Powder is mixed 20gms:100mls
Both these give me Zero failure and great coating.

When I am testing new coatings, and they are bad colours or just plain ugly, I do another 2 coats of black to cover the bad coatings and still have usable bullets.
So, that is 4 coats applied and baked. Zero failures. Easy sizing and Zero smoke when fired.

I was using the thin coatings during the cold weather, about time to mix more so I will go back to the recommend mixes with the weather getting warmer.

Is it normal for the Black to look slightly green after the first bake?

[robertbank]

Yesterday went great for me. Temperature was 22C with humidity at 39%. I have just over 1,200 bullets waiting for their 2nd bake today. I am going to finish them up, size and load 50 and head for the range. Weather is holding up for most of next week so I should be able to put in a seasons worth of bullets before next Friday. I have been using Gold but will switch to Green tomorrow. For the Canadians on the forum I am a fan of the Edmonton Eskimos football club. Green & Gold being the colours of the team and the University of Alberta.

I am using the powder and go 20 grams to 100ml of acetone. Toast them at 400F for 10 minutes.

Take Care

Bob

[popper]

IMHO it seems like trying to get a good 'thin' first coat by using more acetone may be a problem for many. I got what appears to be a thick first coat using the dry gold - they shot fine (300BO). Tried thinner and wouldn't pass smash - recycle. For 9 & 40 I used liquid green, 2 light coats so they are green but not 'solid' green - used 231 powder and no problem. Those were also oven dropped (1 hr bake on last coat). WST didn't work at all. Did some more 9mm and 3rd coat was thick (last years mix) AC'd - WST worked fine. They looked like they had been ESPC'd. For those of us that don't autocast - test small batches and get the procedure down pat. Recycling is cost effective but consumes time.