Ammunition & Hand Loading > Cartridge and Shotshell reloading
Copper Plating
unfy:
ghknives: tnx for info. after one or two plating attempts, we'll see if stuff is needed.
even doing it outdoors, making ingots out of the wheel weights... i can still taste that smell. blech :(
also, my original pot i was gonna use melted through (why does my lead keep turning yellow / blue ?!). so ended up using a wide thick skillet that... well.... was slow and a pita.
anyhoo, got 11 muffins out of it. plenty left in bucket too.
took a break, getting tired. casting bullets will have to wait until tomorrow.
note: sizing die punch pin doesn't fit under my LNL press shell plate. i will have to come up with *something*.
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edit: updated to reflect too tired to cast bullets and punch not fitting LNL press.
unfy:
woke up and swear i could still taste that nasty road grime >:D
tonight will be bullet casting and hopefully getting them into the dip!
*stoked*
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I still lack a solution for the sizing die punch. I will prolly take shell plate off the press.... and.... figure out some way of pulling the punch back down manually. This is a definite problem.
Also -- re: punch -- i wonder if the thick part at the bottom....
^^^ Stock image, not mine
The punch is the thing on the left (for those who may not know). I wonder if I can grind the thicker bottom portion down a bit so it fits in under my shell plate holder ?
unfy:
after an hour trying to get my lee pro 4 20lb to cooperate outside ... and the lead still semi-solidifying along surface around the ring... and the pour spot always becoming solid....
i turned everything off, gonna let it cool for 30min, then try again inside with a fan for ventilation.
20f outside with a breeze just might be impossible :(
unfy:
moved in doors with fan in window
cast went smoothly \o/
plating will have to wait, it's too late now.
unfy:
Today at work was a company pot luck kinda thing. I made a ham.
Anyhoo, this morning while the ham was in the rotisserie, I went about attempting to rough up and wire hook 100 bullets I had cast last night.
I got frustrated trying to work with the steel wool, got tired of doing bullets one at a time with a brush, so I ended up just putting steel wool and bullets in a bag and rubbed / worked everything for a while.
It took 2 hours to rough up and wrap ~ 100 bullets.
So with how I'm doing things now, this might be fine for rifle plinking rounds... but for high volume pistol rounds.... this is way too slow.
To possibly speed up wire hanging stuff.....
* two wires running parallel
* twist wires
* put bullet at twist and curve wire around bullet groove
* twist wires on other side, thus clenching the bullet
* put other bullet on new side of twist
* repeat, repeat, repeat
this way, depending on wire thickness (for strength to keep'em from collapsing the wire), you can run several bullets in a line. haven't tried it yet, i know the 24awg i'm using for hangers right now is too thin. The 14awg might work or might be too stiff, I dunno. Hell, might even be able to just make VVVV shapes in the two of the 14awg wires instead of actually twisting it (and using thin wire or something else to clamp them together to hold the bullets).
This still leaves the time consuming process of roughing the bullets up.... which... if ya take a recently cast bullet and throw it into some strong acid, this shouldn't be a concern (ie: etch it).
I ..... don't wanna mess with the acid stuffs just yet though.
The rotating basket idea or something is prolly really needing to be figured out... this skips the hangers completely (although I do like the VVVVVV idea)
Anyhoo, the ~100 bullets in hangers are bathing in acetone while I'm at work today. When I get home, I'll get to plating them.
edit: i wonder if we go from mold -> quench in distilled water -> acetone bath -> the VVVV hanger idea.... if the entire etching / roughing up step can be skipped ?? They do come out of the mold very pretty.... and oxidation shouldn't be a problem at that point ??
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