Another Moly-questing!!

[NORZ]

I´ve been moly-coating/impactplating in a vibrating bowl. I´ve been using ceramic pellets but now I´m thinking about stainless steel pellets.

Does anyone have any experience using both of those methods, is either better og more consistent than the other, either more likely to be more hygroscopic.....?

 

[alf]

The original process patented by Neco, was moly plating/impact plating with the hardened s/s balls, which actually "pounded" the moly into the surface of the bullet jacket, with carnauba wax as a final step. Any variation of the process is to side step the application or the cost. I bought the original kit from Neco, and have used it religiously since.

I believe the people that bitch about moly, are the one that try to shortcut the system.....

 

[NORZ]

Yup, that might be the case. I suspect the ceramic pellets being higroscopic since they suddenly stopped plating after being left in the bowl for a couple of months without being used.

I just bought 1 kilo of Stainless steel pellets today and I´m gona start the plating process tomorrow.

Thanks for your answer.

 

[Bill Edwards]

I've used ceramic for years w/o any problem, but if you coat bullets w/ exposed lead tips you'll soon have to give everything a good cleaning. The lead seems to crud things up. Maybe that's why you thought they stopped working.

 

[alf]

Moly plating is best done with as little humidity as possible. I'm guessing the moly on the ceramic has absorbed moisture from the air and has contaminated it, and/or lube from the hollow points have contributed to the contamination.

I have washed the s/s balls with soap and hot water in the past to fix the lube issue. If it's just moisture, set the vibrator outside in the sun w/o the lid on and let it run. Works for s/s, not sure if the wind will send the ceramic into orbit though.

 

[flatlander]

I spent the $$$ to buy NECO's moly plating kit and a rotary tumbler, and used them for several years. Success came on a learning curve - for instance, I learned that to get a smooth coat of wax, one needs to warm both bullets & shot. I slavishly washed all new bullets, believing it neccessary to get a good coat of moly.

Well, phooey on all that rubbish. The steel shot used to moly became contaminated with something somehow, and washing it in hot soapy water, alchohol, and even acetone didn't fix it. So I started just dumping new (unwashed) bullets into plastic pill bottles, adding moly, and taping the lids on, then tossing them into a vibratory tumbler. Wa-lah! - excellent results, at least the equal of what I'd gotten with the NECO shot. I kept at using the rotary tumbler & waxing shot, and though my bullets weren't quite the cosmetic equal of Tubb's commercial ones, they were close, and are fine to shoot.

I finally got burnt-out on the black mess & tedious moly/wax process, and switched to HBN. Still have quite a number of moly'd bullets, and happily have found that there's little or no settling when using both moly'd & HBN coated bullets in the same barrel over the course of a match. Not likely that I'll ever go back to moly.

 

[jo191145]

Keep in mind moly builds on itself over time lessening the impact capability of any medium.
It is recommended to discard the medium and start anew.