Hi Tek vs Powder Coat

[Billy G]

To fiver Read the message I sent to Brad. I might have misunderstood what you were saying. If you were talking about 2 different powders instead of 2 coats of same powder, some colors just seem to coat better.

 

[Billy G]

Brad it sounds like you have found the perfect procedure . Congratulations . I would not stand them up either.

 

[Billy G]

I had an interesting talk today with Al at NOE molds. NOE sells molds for bullets that need to be coated and recommends Hi-Tek. I asked him why. He said they have tested P-C &Hi-Tek and could tell no difference in how well they worked. He said he uses Hi-Tek on rifle bullets & P-C on his pistol bullets. He said P-C on some rifle bullet noses will make them too fat to chamber. I thought he would say P-C was better. Weird ain't it!

 

[Brad]

The too big nose thing can be for real but his moulds have been known to cast a bit fat so PC may exacerbate that.

I have not tried Hi Tek in many years. I think I may try it again, I learned a bunch from PC that may help with Hi Tek

 

[Billy G]

Brad I'm not trying to sound like I know more about Hi-Tek than others .So if you already know this others might not. Do not mix 20 grams of powder & 100 mil. of acetone unless you are going to coat 40 or more pounds of bullets in the next few weeks. the mix will start to set up & get thick , then it is junk. just remember it is 5 milliliters of acetone to1 gram of powder. I weigh my bullets & mix enough.. to coat them 3 times. at 1 milliliter per pound of bullets for each coat .I have never needed 3 coats but it is better to mix too much than not enough.

 

[Brad]

Mine was the old liquid with the super slick stuff. Copper red color.

I think the powder makes so much more sense.

 

[Billy G]

I've tried both and I like the powder much better. It is simpler and I get much more consistent results.

 

[waco]

I gave up the wire mesh baskets for dumping them out on a piece of silicone mat to bake. Much better results for me anyway.

 

[fiver]

yep. 2 different powders.

lot of the time i just dump them on some parchment paper on a little cookie sheet.
i stand some up.
i wire rack some.
they all come out the same way.

 

[Billy G]

fiver when you say they are all coming out the same way. Do you mean they are not covered good or they look fine.

 

[fiver]

they all have the same 100% coating.
smooth and consistent.

i don't just crank the oven to 400, set the timer, and go mow the lawn though.
i'm involved with each step of the cooking process, visually, temp watching, and by time.
i do my batches in three stages of temp and time, the final one is the 400-F one.
it's the curing stage.

 

[Billy G]

Sorry, I thought you were having problems getting a good coating.

 

[fiver]

ahh.
no problems here, i even have good results with the harbor freight stuff.

 

[Walks]

I've heard that PC reacts negatively with some powders, such as Bullseye, Titegroup & Clays.

 

[fiver]

high nitro powders affect it similarly to the way they attack a powder measures plastic.
it doesn't totally destroy the coating but the powder seems to 'worm' it's way into the coating,, if that makes sense.

 

[Ian]

I think most of the hubbub about PC reacting with high-nitro powders is based on poor quality powder and people not understanding how to cure the coating properly. I have pulled cartridges loaded with Titegroup (a powder hopper destroyer), Longshot, and Reloder 7 that were loaded for YEARS and couldn't get the powder to stick to the paint for love or money. The only time it did happen, I hadn't figured out the cure process well enough.

Al's remark made me chuckle. Nobody is winning CBA matches with Hi-Tek.

 

[Glaciers]

I’ve been using wire baskets I bought from Bed Bath and Beyond. They’re a pretty fine mesh which I find easier to use than putting them on paper or copper silicone sheets. I have a cookie sheet to catch excess powder. Shake them, dump in wire basket, shake until excess powder comes off, then stand them up in a second basket other than the shaker basket. 45 caliber rifle bullets stand up easily.




Theses are 38-55 bullets which I use in the grid I made for one basket. All tall bullets are stood up in this basket after shaking to get excess powder off.

Handgun bullets and in this case some 45 cal round balls just get dumped into a basket and cooked. When cooked I remove from oven and upend the basket and slap it down on waiting towels to soften the drop. Most all come out just need to separate a few.

I at first bought Hi-Tex and read up on it, and the idea of the thinner coating was appealing, especially for a bore rider nose.
But, I was starting with PC coatings at about the same time. I found the PC coating once I figured out how to get a thin coat on a bullet, I was happy with the results.
For bullets that PC becomes a problem for the nose diameter then I use BR or BLL or a combination of the two. For handgun bullets I’ll commonly use BLL which is simple and fast.
I found that my interest in Hi-Tec went to zero and I have never even opened the 6 jars of color I have.
I’m sure it works good for some but I’m happy with PC and conventional lubricants.

 

[GRMPS]

I used to HiTek when I was coating 35 pounds of bullets or more at a time, now all I do is PC.
ALL PC IS NOT CREATED EQUALLY even different colors/finishes from the same brand don't work the same.
I have some powder that just jumps onto the bullet (shake and bake) I sift off all the excess and dump them in a pile and they never stick together
Other powders -- not so much.
For ALL my powdercoating I start by sifting ALL the excess powder off. I found these bowls at Dollartree. Marked, drilled, and sanded the holes.
I stack the bowls (there is a space between their bottoms) dump in my PC's bullets then shake off ALL the excess powder and air soft BB's that fall into the space between the bowls.[any heavy plastic bowls that have a space between them when stacked will work, I found bigger bowls at Wallyworld)
BB's [and PC dumped in top bowl will fall through into the bottom bowl leaving only the coated bullets in the top bowl

BB's and excess powder in bottom bowl



I found that when you remove ALL the excess PC the bullets don't have frame marks

 

[popper]

You gonna shoot that flat one?

 

[blackthorn]

I thought that one was for checking BHN with an LBT test set-up!