DIY bullet coatings

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jeep45238
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DIY bullet coatings

Post by jeep45238 »

I'm looking to step away from tumble lubing my cast bullets. From a cleanliness and performance standpoint I want more, but don't want to buy bullets. I'm too cheap for one, me casting is another hobby to enjoy.

I've seen people coat with powder coating, others attempt to do cooper electrplating, and a polymer base called HiTek.

Does anybody here have experience with doing this at home?
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Re: DIY bullet coatings

Post by Morne »

I consult in electroplating but if I were in your shoes I'd powder coat them.

Heck, I'm thinking about buying some powder coated bullets anyway.
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Re: DIY bullet coatings

Post by jeep45238 »

THe one thing making me think twice about powder coating is the pain of getting them on the trays base down and not knocking any coating off. Some folks have had luck using airsoft BB's in while dry tumbling them, but I think having a coating that isn't baked on or liquid based while trying to orient base down is asking for a few problems as thigns inevitibly rub during the process.

What's attracting me to the HiTek coating is the dry powder they have now, so standard USPS shipping can happen. Mix with acetone, verr lightly apply in a container, shake, bake, repeat for a total of 2-3 coatings. I'm looking at getting a larger convection oven for the baking portion and a smaller one to dry them prior to baking.

My end goal is to automate as much of this as possible. My thoughts are to make a rotary mixer to apply with an old electric motor and a handheld paint bucket for brushes with the disposable liners. Put bullets in the bucket mounted on a 45*ish angle, turn on, squirt in some coating, put in oven for a couple minutes while next batch is coated. Move batch #1 to oven for coating 1, batch 2 dries while 1 cools. When done, move batch 1 back to mixer, batch 2 to oven. Repeat with the goal of having 1 batch in the mixer and 2 in the oven at all times.
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Re: DIY bullet coatings

Post by jeep45238 »

I snagged a covection toaster oven with digital themp controls for $40, it takes 2 racks that are 16x16 in size. Picked up some 1/2 wire mesh, and will make a 2 layer tray out of it with 1 being rotated 45 degrees so my bullets don't fall out, and make sure the bullets get adequate airflow for even baking. I recieved the Hi-Tek powder, so no hazmat fees and far more simplified application process.

Now to buy a bit of acetone and something to mix it/store it in. I'm hoping to give it a go on Friday.
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Re: DIY bullet coatings

Post by jeep45238 »

Swung by ace and the dollar tree on the way home and bought acetone, a cheap 3 pack of drinking bottles with a squeeze cap, a 'flavor injector' with ml markings every 5, and measuring spoons. Mixed 20 grams of powder with 100ml of acetone and dropped a bullet in the bottle to help shake things up (not sized or lubed, anything foreign will wreck havoc on the coating).

Next I wanted to verify that the oven could hold a steady temp that I entered, so I took my wife's digital turkey thermometer with the flexible cable and turned it to 375 a success, as the oven was holding 372-373. It only goes up to 393, so I couldn't verify the upper temp limit of the process but I'm confident it'll hold.
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mreising
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Re: DIY bullet coatings

Post by mreising »

Use caution with the acetone around electrical heating elements. Also, the temperature control might make small sparks when switching on and off and that might ignite the acetone vapos.
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Re: DIY bullet coatings

Post by jeep45238 »

Good thing I keep a 10 pound extinguisher on the garage with the door open! I mix a small amount in a sealed container for about 20 seconds, then lid off for 10. It has to completely dry before going into the oven, which I pre warmed and didn't turn off (hopefully minimizes sparking potential). I can still hear the controls clicking, but I'm hopeful that between the acetone being evaporated and sealed controls there will never be an issue.

Only alternative solvent is MEK...

That said, have two batches in rotation, first one came out and passed the initial solvent test with flying colors. About 40 minutes before I see if the fruits of my labor pay off! If so, I'm building more trays and will start doing higher quantities at a time with more batches in rotation.
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Re: DIY bullet coatings

Post by jeep45238 »

Good thing I keep a 10 pound extinguisher on the garage with the door open! I mix a small amount in a sealed container for about 20 seconds, then lid off for 10. It has to completely dry before going into the oven, which I pre warmed and didn't turn off (hopefully minimizes sparking potential). I can still hear the controls clicking, but I'm hopeful that between the acetone being evaporated and sealed controls there will never be an issue.

Only alternative solvent is MEK...

That said, have two batches in rotation, first one came out and passed the initial solvent test with flying colors. About 40 minutes before I see if the fruits of my labor pay off! If so, I'm building more trays and will start doing higher quantities at a time with more batches in rotation.
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Re: DIY bullet coatings

Post by jeep45238 »

My first batch:
Image

Not exactly the green it was supposed to be:
Image

But what the hey, keep pushing and learn. To verify good bonding there's two tests that need to be performed. The first is on the initial coat by rubbing it in acetone for 30 seconds. If nothing comes off, push on. The next is the fun one- smash it with a hammer and look for separation or flaking of the coating. Mine passed both with flying colors, so I loaded up 100 of them for the kicks. Much, much smoother to run these than the same bullets using liquid alox tumble lube.

An unexpected side effect I hadn't thought of was more consistent ammo. Since the seating and crimp dies aren't getting exposed to gummy bullets they can perform their jobs more consistently. And more consistent they were - I typically have a 10-15% rejection rate on the case gauge for the tumble lube. I had 1% on this batch and touched nothing in the press but the handle- no adjustments period.

Not bad at all for the investment. Tomorrow's the acid test at the range with them. I don't anticipate problems, but if I do it's likely because I was baking them at 400F, which is the upper end of the limit. According to the instructions if the bullets start to turn tan or brown after baking, the temp was too high or they baked for too long. I'm okay with having a different color as long as I get the same performance.
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Re: DIY bullet coatings

Post by jeep45238 »

Well the coating was a success, but I've had it with this bullet and mold. I've sized from .356-.359, various charges, various seating depths, various levels of crimp (including just enough to touch the case/reduce the bell), various types of lubricants, mutiple coats of lubricants, and my accuracy is still out the door. First round fired today was a keyhold out of a squeeky clean barrel with a bullet .002 larger than bore :shock:

On other forums it seems the microgroove bullets either work or don't, no inbetween, so I'll be moving on to greener pastures once I find a bullet my pistols like. Swapping all I can right now to find something that works.
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Re: DIY bullet coatings

Post by jeep45238 »

Image
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Re: DIY bullet coatings

Post by jeep45238 »

The good news is the batch I was experimenting with this morning went supurb through the Sig, and marginal (albiet better) on the Beretta. I have what appears to be fouling in the beretta and none in the sig, which has a smaller bore. I've been progressively adding more and more coating with the swirls to find the sweet spot, and how many bullets to swirl at a time, etc., and compared to last night's batch these are much closer to the color they are supposed to be. I think my biggest issue has been too little hitek with each coat, meaning that unless I hit 10 coatings I don't build it thick enough to do any work. This morning I stopped at two coats.

Anyway, the fouling didn't look like standard powder fouling, but it did clean right up so that means it's not lead. I've been loading at the bottom of the load spectrum using water dropped wheel weights, so I upped the charge to 4.2 (spec is 3.9-4.2). I'm hoping that this will flatten the base of the bullet upon exiting the case and create a better seal, which would mean full rifling engagement and no fouling. We'll see another day.
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mreising
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Re: DIY bullet coatings

Post by mreising »

jeep45238 wrote:Good thing I keep a 10 pound extinguisher on the garage with the door open! I mix a small amount in a sealed container for about 20 seconds, then lid off for 10. It has to completely dry before going into the oven, which I pre warmed and didn't turn off (hopefully minimizes sparking potential). I can still hear the controls clicking, but I'm hopeful that between the acetone being evaporated and sealed controls there will never be an issue.

Only alternative solvent is MEK...
MEK would not be much of an improvement, both acetone and MEK are flammable, although the MEK has a slightly higher flash point.
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Re: DIY bullet coatings

Post by jeep45238 »

Mark,

I've changed it around a bit so I have fans blowing out the door over the bullets and let them go for a longer period of time. I can feel the acetone start to flash off when the coffee can gets colder suddenly, and them dump the bullets on a drying rack. The drier the coating is before baking, the better, so I'm getting a safer processes and a better end result.

At the end of it all though, I get this now:

Image
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Re: DIY bullet coatings

Post by jeep45238 »

Learned a big lesson last night on this!

Previously I've been tumbling these in an old metal coffee can that was washed - has thousands of bullets through it. I could never get the coating consistent, and it was typically either heavy and slightly bubbled, or didn't coat them all. In an attempt to speed things up (or tinker...your pick) I chucked my drill up to it with an arbor and promptly tore the arbor out from the torque involved. WHoops.

For a replacement I snagged the cheapest Tupperware square I could find at Kroger's, whatever the house brand was ($2 for 4 containers/lids) with a nearly cube shape.

Instantly, I was using a LOT less coatings, and what I was seeing was exactly what I've seen in photos - a light stain for the first coat, quick dry times, and even colors in the oven. There was plenty of left over residual coating in the bottom of the container as well, indicating that my short little squirt of liquid coating was more than enough.

So - use cheap impervious clear containers for this. It provides for a more even consistent coat, and allows visual inspection of the process to see how things are coming along during the shaking process. I wish I would have done this a long time ago.
http://shootingfordollars.org Where Firearms and Finances meet.

You can't truly call yourself peaceful unless you are capable of great violence. If you're not capable of violence, you're not peaceful, you're harmless.
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