TSP was a no-go. At least how I tried to clean the bullet with it.
I took one bullet and marked it. Weighed it too. Hot water with TSP and swirled for a good 3 minutes. Dropped it in the bath and it had a brown spot within a minute.
I went ahead and let it coat for an hour with the rest of the bullets and then pulled them. After one hour, that bullet gained 1.5 grains and .003" of plating while the other bullets over the 4 hours gained .007"! Yesterdays .0035" were tough to size to .309", so I can't imagine how hard these are going to be. I threw them in the wet tumbler with SS pins and will pull them out in two hours like last night.
lefty o, do you happen to know what the voltage/amps you plated at?
The video I found on youtube that I am going off of, said he used a 3V 5A PSU. The smallest I found that I had was a 3.3V 3A wall charger. I have no idea what it was for and whether the type of metal the wires it is made out of is the right kind for this project, but I ran with it. Some other videos show PSUs with adjustable voltages/amps, being ran closer to 1V. I don't know if you can tell from my pictures, but I am just dangling the negative wire into the bath where it will make contact with the bullets as they are being rotated in the bowl. Ghetto, but I didn't want to put too much money into a project that might fail. If it wasn't for having most of the stuff I am using on hand, or being able to 3D print the parts, I could easily be in the $150+ range. Luckily, the only thing I have had to purchase is the chemicals and a roll of 1/4 copper tubing and I am still $40 into this project.