There is a new technique that just came about yesterday (it wasn't me), but it uses the old dry tumble technique with a new exciting and very improved twist! You still tumble in a #5 recyclable container (CoolWhip bowls have the #5 in a triangle on the bottom, as do other things.... it's a type of plastic that seems to generate static well through friction), but you add a bunch of black Airsoft BBs in there to tumble with the bullets. We don't know exactly why, but black seems to be the only color BBs that will work. The other colored ones didn't generate static and pick up the powder and make the powder stick to the bullets.
The BBs sort of ping the powder onto the bullets like the old moly coating technique. The soft BBs just press the powder to them in a very fine statically-charged even coat.
Alright, here's the gear. I put about 1/3 of that CoolWhip bowl full of BBs, dumped in about (well, you'll see) so many bullets, and about a heaping tablespoon of HF red powder and shook it pretty vigorously (holding the lid on tightly) for 2 mins. Then fished em out by the nose with my needlenose pliers. After you pick as many as you can see, just swirl gently and the others will "float" up in the BBs. Then stack em on non-stick foil and bake as by directions.
I did use too much powder this time, as I have a lot of it left in the bottom of the CoolWhip bowl. No worries, it'll be there for the next batch, but it would help coverage if I had used a little less. But I was in a rush.
And here is my first hurried test of it...... I think this is vastly better than the other tumble dry methods I have tried! This really works great! 100% of the driving bands are covered and if one was careful with tweezers or hemostats or picked them up by the lube groove with some sharp-tipped bent tweezers, they wouldn't have a scratch on em. As it is, I got a couple of light scratches on just a few of the noses.... but not many at all! I could have still cherry picked 3/4 of these for a glamour photo if I was wanting to impress somebody.
And as I'm always saying... the driving bands are what matters. It's a slippery coating between the bullet and the barrel, the nose and base coating is just for people who want a shiny nose. But this does make a beautiful coat.
One shake, one bake.... with no air compressor, no HF gun, no wasted powder, no flashing..... awesome! This ought get anybody off the fence who was interested but didn't want to spend the $$ on the other equipment.
I'm saying this method rocks!
Here they are, fresh outta the oven, untouched, unsized and still about 350 degrees. One pass through my Lee sizer die and they'll be slick as glass and ready for loading! (if you haven't read about coating before, it adds about .002 to the diameter of the bullets, so they are resized before loading, if needed)
And as I mentioned above, I got the powder a little thick on this first try...
start off light and add more as you need.... there's no ticking clock, 'matter-of-fact - you can even put em back in the bowl and do it again if you don't like the coat or you scratch one up while transferring. It's not going to suddenly get hard or cure on you until you actually bake it. Take your time and have fun!
The BBs sort of ping the powder onto the bullets like the old moly coating technique. The soft BBs just press the powder to them in a very fine statically-charged even coat.
Alright, here's the gear. I put about 1/3 of that CoolWhip bowl full of BBs, dumped in about (well, you'll see) so many bullets, and about a heaping tablespoon of HF red powder and shook it pretty vigorously (holding the lid on tightly) for 2 mins. Then fished em out by the nose with my needlenose pliers. After you pick as many as you can see, just swirl gently and the others will "float" up in the BBs. Then stack em on non-stick foil and bake as by directions.
I did use too much powder this time, as I have a lot of it left in the bottom of the CoolWhip bowl. No worries, it'll be there for the next batch, but it would help coverage if I had used a little less. But I was in a rush.
And here is my first hurried test of it...... I think this is vastly better than the other tumble dry methods I have tried! This really works great! 100% of the driving bands are covered and if one was careful with tweezers or hemostats or picked them up by the lube groove with some sharp-tipped bent tweezers, they wouldn't have a scratch on em. As it is, I got a couple of light scratches on just a few of the noses.... but not many at all! I could have still cherry picked 3/4 of these for a glamour photo if I was wanting to impress somebody.
And as I'm always saying... the driving bands are what matters. It's a slippery coating between the bullet and the barrel, the nose and base coating is just for people who want a shiny nose. But this does make a beautiful coat.
One shake, one bake.... with no air compressor, no HF gun, no wasted powder, no flashing..... awesome! This ought get anybody off the fence who was interested but didn't want to spend the $$ on the other equipment.
I'm saying this method rocks!
Here they are, fresh outta the oven, untouched, unsized and still about 350 degrees. One pass through my Lee sizer die and they'll be slick as glass and ready for loading! (if you haven't read about coating before, it adds about .002 to the diameter of the bullets, so they are resized before loading, if needed)
And as I mentioned above, I got the powder a little thick on this first try...
start off light and add more as you need.... there's no ticking clock, 'matter-of-fact - you can even put em back in the bowl and do it again if you don't like the coat or you scratch one up while transferring. It's not going to suddenly get hard or cure on you until you actually bake it. Take your time and have fun!
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