venomballistics
Member
Welcome to my Skunkworks, dungeon of doom, or horribly wasted space, depending on your point of view.
How to coat bullets.
Some folks look at all the entry level methods and see a monumental pain in the backside.
Keep in mind, those are ENTRY level methods and ARE a pain by nature. "Shake and bake" and the "Piglet method" will get you an honest test drive to see what powder coating can do for you, or in the case of the piglet method, fix a box of undersized mistakes if you do not cast.
After the test drive, it's time to get serious.
Venom Exhibit 1.
The plates.
this is a young science, without much support. you will have to fabricate a few solutions.
Think, plot and plan ahead, and you can have some decent fixtures that are a joy to work with.
This is one such plate, designed for hollow points.
its just nails welded into a piece of 16 Ga steel.
Lay it out and drill it properly and it'll serve you well.
Make up a few and use em in rotation for large runs.
A few hours in the beginning is the foundation of all future production.
Exhibit 2
200 grain HP's after 7 minutes of loading and spraying.
You want to spray from all 4 sides to get an even coat.
I hook the ground to a cookie sheet and place the plates on this. While one set is baking i'm working on the next set.
at worst, there is a 5 minute delay between sets if I have to negotiate with cords and hoses or reload the electrostatic gun.
after the Bake they are left to cool before I flip the plate into a bin and keep on truckin'
Thereafter they are sized, with only load pack and fire procedures remaining.
In recent testing, these two coatings floated to the top of the heap.
there are many colors, types and grades of powder.
Too many for any one man to test, and no, they are not created equal.
these two are teflon slip black and all powder paints Arctic Cat Green.
TSB gives a little extra velocity without penalty. it's also demonstrated the best accuracy across several 45's in which it was tested.
ACG seems the best for solving problem guns that pitch fits with cast lead. Also in decent lighting, its something of a safe and legal tracer if your observant enough to catch a glimpse of the streak.
A few notes about TSB.
This stuff makes an excelent release layer.
once cured, nothing sticks to it, including subsequent coats of itself. It must be applied via a proper electrostatic method. shake and bake test drives do not play well with it for this reason.
Also, it's not legal in all states as a bullet coating.
This issue is a whole debate unto itself.
Since I can use it properly, and legally, I love this stuff like a fat kid loves cake.
Ultimately, it's accuracy equal should be found in order to avoid the legal issues.
In recent testing, I've piggybacked an experiment on top of 45 auto testing.
I used Teflon Slip black in the gun to see how it would work as at least a semi permanent gun lube.
It does work, and can allow you to run an auto essentially dry of oil or grease.
It is not exactly easy to do.
it's fairly time consuming as the slide must be refit to the frame after treatment.
once done, the gun can be run nearly too tight to function.
My accuracy and performance improved dramatically for this effort.
I stripped the gun of all TSB to redo it, both to do a better job of it, and demonstrate some of the procedure.
after a serious cleaning, stripping and re cleaning, I scuffed the bearing surfaces to help adhesion before another cleaning in lacquer thinner.
after this prep work, I set up the frame and slide in the spray area using a failed mold to prop up the frame.
spraying is the easy part. lay the stuff where you need it and then use a few artists brushes to dust off the areas where you know you won't want it.
take your time with this part. Now is the easiest time to remove unwanted powder.
bake them off per instructions for TSB 400 degrees for 15 minutes then let cool.
the rest of the work is refitting the slide to the frame.
you can scrape or sand with 400 grit or finer. and yeah, this is a time vampire of a project.
I also did this to the barrel, bushing, and guide rod.
the action moves like liquid with no additional lubricant at all.
The initial test treatment ran over 2K rounds and seemed to have another 4K left to go, despite a few spots where the coating flaked due to inadequate surface prep.
it might be worth trying if you have the patience to do it
How to coat bullets.
Some folks look at all the entry level methods and see a monumental pain in the backside.
Keep in mind, those are ENTRY level methods and ARE a pain by nature. "Shake and bake" and the "Piglet method" will get you an honest test drive to see what powder coating can do for you, or in the case of the piglet method, fix a box of undersized mistakes if you do not cast.
After the test drive, it's time to get serious.
Venom Exhibit 1.
The plates.
this is a young science, without much support. you will have to fabricate a few solutions.
Think, plot and plan ahead, and you can have some decent fixtures that are a joy to work with.
This is one such plate, designed for hollow points.
its just nails welded into a piece of 16 Ga steel.
Lay it out and drill it properly and it'll serve you well.
Make up a few and use em in rotation for large runs.
A few hours in the beginning is the foundation of all future production.
Exhibit 2
200 grain HP's after 7 minutes of loading and spraying.
You want to spray from all 4 sides to get an even coat.
I hook the ground to a cookie sheet and place the plates on this. While one set is baking i'm working on the next set.
at worst, there is a 5 minute delay between sets if I have to negotiate with cords and hoses or reload the electrostatic gun.
after the Bake they are left to cool before I flip the plate into a bin and keep on truckin'
Thereafter they are sized, with only load pack and fire procedures remaining.
In recent testing, these two coatings floated to the top of the heap.
there are many colors, types and grades of powder.
Too many for any one man to test, and no, they are not created equal.
these two are teflon slip black and all powder paints Arctic Cat Green.
TSB gives a little extra velocity without penalty. it's also demonstrated the best accuracy across several 45's in which it was tested.
ACG seems the best for solving problem guns that pitch fits with cast lead. Also in decent lighting, its something of a safe and legal tracer if your observant enough to catch a glimpse of the streak.
A few notes about TSB.
This stuff makes an excelent release layer.
once cured, nothing sticks to it, including subsequent coats of itself. It must be applied via a proper electrostatic method. shake and bake test drives do not play well with it for this reason.
Also, it's not legal in all states as a bullet coating.
This issue is a whole debate unto itself.
Since I can use it properly, and legally, I love this stuff like a fat kid loves cake.
Ultimately, it's accuracy equal should be found in order to avoid the legal issues.
In recent testing, I've piggybacked an experiment on top of 45 auto testing.
I used Teflon Slip black in the gun to see how it would work as at least a semi permanent gun lube.
It does work, and can allow you to run an auto essentially dry of oil or grease.
It is not exactly easy to do.
it's fairly time consuming as the slide must be refit to the frame after treatment.
once done, the gun can be run nearly too tight to function.
My accuracy and performance improved dramatically for this effort.
I stripped the gun of all TSB to redo it, both to do a better job of it, and demonstrate some of the procedure.
after a serious cleaning, stripping and re cleaning, I scuffed the bearing surfaces to help adhesion before another cleaning in lacquer thinner.
after this prep work, I set up the frame and slide in the spray area using a failed mold to prop up the frame.
spraying is the easy part. lay the stuff where you need it and then use a few artists brushes to dust off the areas where you know you won't want it.
take your time with this part. Now is the easiest time to remove unwanted powder.
bake them off per instructions for TSB 400 degrees for 15 minutes then let cool.
the rest of the work is refitting the slide to the frame.
you can scrape or sand with 400 grit or finer. and yeah, this is a time vampire of a project.
I also did this to the barrel, bushing, and guide rod.
the action moves like liquid with no additional lubricant at all.
The initial test treatment ran over 2K rounds and seemed to have another 4K left to go, despite a few spots where the coating flaked due to inadequate surface prep.
it might be worth trying if you have the patience to do it
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