Ammunition & Hand Loading > Cartridge and Shotshell reloading
Powder Coating Lead Bullets
unfy:
--- Quote from: GreyGeek on April 11, 2013, 09:25:26 AM ---Thanks for the info, Unfy.
BTW, I really enjoy your postings about your experimentation, and they've been highly informative as well. They make me wish I still had a brain.
--- End quote ---
Glad you enjoy them. And informative is something of a pet peeve... seen plenty of posts / videos in other forums / blogs / etc and such where folks don't explain dick and it's infuriating. By attempting to explain some of my lunacy, others offer their own ideas and things improve overall. Been awesome :).
Annndddd... I'm sure after a year of reloading again you'll start to itch with ideas on stuff... and will hopefully start to safely tinker as well (and post things here about it hehehe) :D.
unfy:
Bullets sat in the jig "overnight" (rather, through a sleep session)...then took them outside and PC'd them. Getting them into the jig required a little bit of work on my part. Not a whole lot mind you, but a bit.
Anyhoo, so... my tension isn't super tight but tight enough to warp the jig a little. The bullets generally sat with wire in lube groove fairly easily. There was enough slack in the wire to be able to fiddle with the wire to get things better (or make worse). An example of making things worse worse, attempting to squeeze the wire so that it cupped the lube groove better would usually end up causing less tension on the bullet and it would fall through.
Most bullets did alright. There was some thin spots that I'm willing to blame on myself rather than shadowing (I can't even use a rattle can correctly heh).
One bullet did end up cockeyed in the jig... it's visible in the left of the first picture and right of the second picture... and on the right of the very last picture (obvious line on ogive). I'm not sure when the cant took place - if it was after flipping the jig over to coat noses ... or if it was when flipping it over yet again to stick into the oven base up.
Several bullets have wire contact marks touching where the edge of the lube groove meets the base driving band.
One bullet did actually slip out of the lube groove (second picture of row of bullets, third bullet).
It was getting late (as first few pictures show it's dark with a light) so I didn't bother attempting running another set of bullets through the jig (air compressor noise / neighbors). Wire seems like it'd do just fine for more runs. Dunno if will need to address conductivity or not (ie: the wire is now powder coated as well).
Now, if I were to suggest a better way to make this existing jig ...
a) don't use long bolts for the wire tension, deflection / warping is a concern
b) chainlink steel tension bars are probably better for holding the bolts in place than the 1/8th x 1/2 x 1/2 aluminum angle bar i was using (note: converting failed jig etc). chainlink tension bars are cheap and decent if ya don't care about how they look.
c) place the "table" so that the "top" is in the middle and "legs" stick out 1.5 inches on either side (ie: so you can flip it over)... like a |-------| shape.
d) use short bolts akin to the wood setup where the screw is screwed all the way in (should help reduce deflection, increase tension, etc)
I brought supplies with me tonight to work on making the hollow pointing jig after work. We shall see. Hollow point molds can be had for $80-$120 though.
bkoenig:
You can also modify your existing mold to drop hollow point bullets.
bk09:
Looks like some painkillers in the background of the last picture UNFY. Giving you a headache figuring this out? lol
unfy:
--- Quote from: bradkoll on April 12, 2013, 09:22:25 AM ---Looks like some painkillers in the background of the last picture UNFY. Giving you a headache figuring this out? lol
--- End quote ---
ROFL. Taken at my desk at work ;). And yeah, ibuprofen. More for my back than headaches hehehe. Sorry about looking a mess, been a long night at work and then a bit of fiddling with hollow point drill guide stuff.
--- Quote from: bkoenig ---You can also modify your existing mold to drop hollow point bullets.
--- End quote ---
*You* might be able to... I don't have a lathe nor a mill nor ..... :)
Hollow pointing jig.
* 2x2 piece of wood
* 5/16th's steel rod, cut to 3/4" in length
Found the drill size that matched some 6D nails (what I chose for PC jig). Then picked a tiny size or two bigger to act as the drill guide. Yeah, it's a one-off bit ya gotta buy separate.
Drilled a slightly smaller than 5/16th's hole in a 1x3 to hold the rod while was drilling the guide hole.
Anyhoo, attempted to drill down the center of it using a not so great drill press at work. it's a bit off center :(.... but.. for proof of concept I'm content. Also, the bit I was using has a 1 inch cutting depth... so ended up snapping the bit towards the end (original goal was a 1" guide hole, not 3/4" heh).
In the 2x2, drilled a slightly smaller than 5/16th's hole all the way through, then on the opposite end drilled a 13/32's hole. 13/32 ~= .406, I'm working with .40 bullets... so... yeah. Turns out that PC without sizing them first - it's a snug fit in the hole (I forgot to bring an uncoated unsized bullet with me... unsized virgin casts fit properly).
Anyhoo, bullet base sticks out of the bottom of the board, allowing ya to push / clamp the piece of wood to something flat, thus holding the bullet in place (instead of free spinning).
Then use a hand drill (preferably slower speed) to drill out the hollow point.
I'll stick a nail or drill bit through the hole and use my calipers to see if I can spin the steel rod to try to center it better.
As of right now, the thickness of the wall of the hollow point at the outer tip of the nose/ogive is 0.105 along 3 axis, and 0.110 along the 'long' fourth axis.
We've got a better drill press at work, when I re-attempt it, can try with that thing.
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