Bullet coating

JMorris · Mar 10, 2013

I have been looking into setting up a bullet plating operation but ran across a thread on coating over at castboolits and thought I would give it a try as it is pretty simple and fast.

My coating chamber was built by making a few cuts in a used beer box. HF powder coater and a bottle of powder was $64 and $20 for a toaster oven off of Craigslist.

Put some 8-32 nuts on the pan kind of spread out and laid foil over them. This raises the base so it's not sitting in the liquid that forms from the powder.

Heat the bullets so they are warm then connect the PC lead to the pan and spray the powder on.

Heat at 400 for 15 min and open the door and let them cool slowly.

Then load up and shoot. At least that's what I did this afternoon. They grew about .001" but I didn't waist any time resizing the one I shot to see how the coating held up, didn't want to be looking for a bullet at the bottom of my pool after dark.

dennishoddy · Mar 10, 2013

Very cool project!
How cost effective is it compared to buying coated bullets? I figure with the small amount it wouldn't be that good but with volume the cost might be worth it?

JMorris · Mar 10, 2013

My cast bullets are free not counting time and power. If it works, I will make different jigs so it is a more efficient process but I don't generally put the cart before the horse.

dennishoddy · Mar 10, 2013

Good thinking.

drmitchgibson · Mar 10, 2013

Pretty cool

JMorris · Mar 13, 2013

Gave plating a try.

Well trying to hurry a project during nap time was a bust today but here is what I know so far.

The Zep root kill is copper sulfate and mix 1.5 cups of it with 1 gallon (-1.5 cups) of distilled water so it can dissolve while you are setting every thing up.

Strip some romex and place one strip in the bottom of a pan. I used the already stripped ground wire to make a loop around the top of the tub. Hang your bullets and pour in the solution.

Now the problem with rushing things. Check to make sure your container will hold water or you will plate the clean parts of your bench with copper.

The positive voltage from the power supply needs to connect with the wire in the bottom of the tub. If you reverse the voltage the bullets try to disintegrate and foam like the photo. The tiny wires I used also sacrificed them selves and the bullets dropped.

Connect some more wires and get head out of butt and connect voltage correctly and 10 min later you have a copper plated bullet that looks like it has been sand blasted, likely because of the etching that took place because of the initial reverse voltage.

Bench top

Zekernst · Mar 13, 2013

Please more detail, that looks like something I gotta try!

JMorris · Mar 13, 2013

What do you want to know?

dennishoddy · Mar 13, 2013

I like this better than the coating.
How critical is the voltage and amperage? The small wires were put in to be sacrificial? Were they actually necessary using the copper sulfate?

JMorris · Mar 13, 2013

The wires are to suspend the bullets in the soultion. Had I hooked the DC voltage correctly to begin with they would have built up not dissolved.

For this to be viable you would have to barrel plate and have a way to keep the solution correct. Both are a lot of work. In a week or so the bayou coating will be here and I can try it out.

dennishoddy · Mar 13, 2013

So, the bullets can't be laid on the bottom of the container, and must be suspended in the solution?

Zekernst · Mar 14, 2013

Great questions, I watched a couple of YouTube videos last night, the bullet prep seems to be a little complicated?

JMorris · Mar 14, 2013

The bullet must be connected to - voltage to get the copper to migrate to it.

Barrel plating with "danglers" that contact the bullets as they rotate is how they do large volume. And no they don't use root kill.

All I did was hit them with car cleaner and hang them up.

The "right" way is a bit more involved.

http://www.powerfactorshow.com/2012/12/31/episode-106-rainier-ballistics-tour/

Zekernst · Mar 17, 2013

Ordered a Doc power supply today, gonna try it at work. What was the increase in your outside diameter of the bullets? I'm wondering about over pressure due to 9mm bullets .359 or .360 instead of .355 or .356?

drmitchgibson · Mar 17, 2013

With plating the voltage is almost negligible, but you want a lot of current. 6 volts will do, and as much current at you can safely deliver.

dennishoddy · Mar 17, 2013

I've got a 5 volt power supply rated at 30 amps. When I lived in Asbury Park NJ, they used copper for window screens, as the steel used around here would rust away from the ocean salt spray. Wonder if that would work to rest the bullets on?

drmitchgibson · Mar 17, 2013

Anything conductive will work. Some portion of the bullet will have to be in contact with the cathode, and I would imagine that the base would be ideal. It's a sacrificial anode process, so anything conductive that will hold the bullets will work because it won't be the portion that deteriorates. The anode being the solid copper wires, you should expect to see those deteriorate over time. I updated a plating line several years ago at a plant that rebuilds starters and alternators for commercial engines, and it was pretty interesting. The zinc plating portion drew 1000 amps at 1 volt.

Dustin Cantrell · Mar 18, 2013

Zekernst said:
Ordered a Doc power supply today, gonna try it at work. What was the increase in your outside diameter of the bullets? I'm wondering about over pressure due to 9mm bullets .359 or .360 instead of .355 or .356?

I think one could figure out a process to end up with a thickness of plating that's consistent and then have a bullet sizing die reamed to resize the bullet smaller so that you end up at your desired diameter after the plating. I imagine one of the die makers would make a custom die for this.

Scott Hearn · Mar 18, 2013

Dustin Cantrell said:
I think one could figure out a process to end up with a thickness of plating that's consistent and then have a bullet sizing die reamed to resize the bullet smaller so that you end up at your desired diameter after the plating. I imagine one of the die makers would make a custom die for this.

No custom die needed. Just plate it .001 Over and run it through a regular bullet sizer.

But Guys, I can tell you from experience with other similar processes that it is not even remotely worth the trouble. Doing this in any quantity to make it worthwhile is going to require a barrel plating process. Just too labor intensive. It can be a fun experiment though.