well, i've tried to get lotsa pictures so that people can follow along.
assuming i get something that is feasible, i'll build something less prototype-ish and actually something more 'production ready' or something heh. that'll be a little bit though. a video of the process would be made as well.
Current on the todo list:
* these clothespin hanger things are sooooo close to being solid...
** a plastic popsicle stick would be ideal... or some other plasticy whatever...
** i like the wing nut route cause it might make caliber change overs easier... dunno about .300 or .22 rifle rounds tho
** still kinda fiddling with wire based lube-groove grabbers just cause it has possibilities as well
** do wonder if thin aluminum/copper sheets can be cut to make the C lube groove grabber bits ? cut a thin strip, drill a hole, use a jig with a bolt/nut to bend it to desired shape and or possibly file it ?
** whatever i use for lube grabber needs to be something easy to recreate and consistent... the wire based grabbers aren't so much
* still need to come up with an easy way to 'brush' the lead
** plumbing pipe brushes only go down to half inch
** need to look into the steel wool mitt idea... its easy and might work ?
** dunno if a groove cut in a piece of wood to hold bullets while brushing them ?
** dunno if can build a wood thing that has a groove cut in it, lined with brush heads, then an identical piece with brushes laid on top of it to produce a brush 'hole' to dowel lead through ?
Assuming the clothespin idea works out...
* a wood or pvc rig built around the tank to hold the electrically hot rods the clips clip on to would be great
* copper tubing is cheap, but dunno if some other kind of rod / all thread / whatever would be easier ?
I'd like to re-visit my DC power source. Right now it's on the more expensive side since it relies on a $50 or $60 13VDC power supply that my custom thing then cuts down to 1-6V. I also have questions as to how much power output my custom thing can handle... while the 13VDC is putting out 3 amps, i don't think I get anywhere near that through my thing. 'trace' size or something might be an issue, dunno. I'll also look at sourcing other DC power sources closer to 5V with high amperage. 13->1 produces a fair amount of waste heat.
I forgot the guy's name (oops), but earlier in the thread he posted pics and schematics for a variac i think ? And Koz suggested a DC train transformer thing (although I've not seen one locally). A transformer + rectifier would prolly be easy enough to build for my own 5V power source, but with MPJA/Jameco around that prolly have cheap enough 5 or 3.3V power supplies... meh ?
Then there's the acid stuff. It's more or less a last resort though, simply due to how dangerous it is.
SemperFiGuy has one of my plated bullets just to see / hold on to as an example. Did show Rod over at Moeller Arms some stuff, including the cut in half plate thing that DanW asked me to do. Seeing how hard / thick the plate job is ... well ... it just helps to see it for yourself heh.
Buuutttttt... before most of the above:
after grabbers finalized, need to be able to plate, say, 200-500 rounds consistently
* batches of 25-100, depending on how long it takes to plate
* need to weigh before and after, to make sure each bullet is getting similar plating... this would basically just be a big spread sheet for before/after weights and differences.
they have to survive being put through a sizing die (already done a test size so am confident)
test fire my own 50-100 rounds from bags with barrel pics afterwards as well as target results
find a guinea pig or two to test fire a magazine or two
While I'll post finished plans, I can prolly go about building kits to sell if someone really wants a ready-to-go thing. I'll prolly price a kit anyway just to see what the initial outlay would be.
Lastly, when I do eventually talk to the hawkbullets die guys, a lot of this may be moot hehe. Swage dies are just sooooo cool. Being able to use old brass cases or some kind of tubing to form a jacket would just obliterate this plating project. And their swage dies are priced about on par with moderately priced reloading dies (rather than hundreds of $$$).
Similarly, might have to talk to Lee about getting some custom molds that are .395 instead of .401 or something. This way it just does better. Forgot what pricing on custom molds are ($70-$100 i think?). Although for pistol plinking rounds, that prolly doesn't matter. Rifle rounds would definitely want a smaller mold size so less chance of bullet deformation during sizing i'd guess ?
