Silicone pad

S

Sharps '74

CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Rating - 100%
21   0   0
A pal gave me a tip when powder coating bullets.

He doesn't use parchment paper which gets brittle after use. He bought a silicone oven pad and cut it to size.
 
I had a roll of non stick tin foil that got all used up and for the last couple of years ,have been unable to find it available in any store within 40 miles. I have used Parchment paper, the tin foil & silicone pads, all work satisfactory but prefer the 'throw away factor of the parchment paper after it gets a bunch of "drip splater'" and stiffens up.
 
I find that the parchment paper can be re-used many times before you have to discard it. It does get brittle with use but that does not seem to affect it's non-stick qualities. The problem I have had is that it since it comes on a roll it curls when you try to lay it flat. I just bought a pack of the cheap little disk magnets at Dollarama (in the crafts section) and since my trays are steel just put a magnet on each corner of the tray to hold the paper flat. Works fine and you can't bet the price. I've done thousands of bullets and I'm still on my first roll of paper.
 
Bought a square baking pan today at a Dollar Store and they had silicone "hot pads" in several colours that fit it perfectly.

Also a couple of lbs of powder at Princess auto - flat black and bright blue.

I'm good to go tomorrow !
 
Proved the worth of the silicone pads today.

My first efforts with .38 Spl. 158 SWCs came out a little thin with Princess Auto 'black' powder. I may recoat them. Next up was a batch of .45 230 RN. Same thing, so I recoated them and this time they are black and shiny.

I increased the powder on the next batch of .38s and they are in the over right now. We'll see how that works.

BTW - I heard that some black powders are abrasive. Is the PA product among them?
 
Sharps '74 said:
The batch done with more powder came out fine. As long as the driving bands are coated, I'm happy.
Click to expand...

That all you need, the grooves, in a powder coating sense are only good for a tweezer grip spot that wont damage the covering on the driving bands.

I have found that even a very thin coating will effectively eliminate leading. I can get a very thin coating on slugs with the spray gun that only increases dia .001" quite consistently. The thinnest coatings I can remember with shake-n-bake is .0015 but usually .002 or over. With a bit of testing I have been able to combine shaking time & powder type/color to be able to get consistent thicknesses of 3-4 thou if I need to, even multiple coatings to increase dia as much as .007".
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom