Cleaning bullets prior to coating

[wboggs]

What is the best method of cleaning prior to coating with Boron Nitride? I have used tumbling with untreated corncob media and am interested in other proven methods.
Thanks

 

[spclark]

Other than washing with dish detergent & water I don't think much else'll be as effective or worth the time & effort involved.

I home-coat hBN too & typically clean new bullets as you do: vibratory cleaner for ~ 30 minutes in corn cob media.

Getting any fluid in the cavity behind open meplats is what's kept me from trying, say denatured alcohol or soap & water. Don't know whether / if either'd react with hBN.

Some newer theories on coating with MoS2 suggest a water slurry (rather than dry powder) works better so I just might try a batch done "wet" to see what happens.

 

[Terry]

I use Dawn dish washing liquid in very hot water while holding them in a plastic strainer.
Pouring them into a paper bag lined with paper towel removes most of the water.
I pour them onto a dry towel to finish the job. I tumble them in moly while still hot.

 

[ReedG]

I use Iosso liquid case cleaner on my WS2-coated bullets. It only takes 1 minute in the solution, a good rinse in hot water from the faucet, dump them on a towel and dry with wife's hair dryer. Takes about 5 minutes a batch of 100 and the resulting finish is like chrome plating.

 

[jlow]

I was going to suggest SS media, but if you are afraid of water in the open meplats, I would suggest using a paper towel and acetone. Acetone is a great general purpose cleaner as it sits between organic and aqueous and because of that will dissolve a lot of impurities. The other great reasons is it evaporates very very quickly and leaves absolutely no trace of itself behind. Remember, if you are trying to get the bullets 100% clean, this last feature is a very important one.

 

[Nomad47]

I asked Walt Berger if the bullets were handled during the manufacturing process and if the washing was necessary. He suggested I coat a box of bullets without washing them first to see how they turned out. I did. Now the bullets go directly from the Berger box into the vitamin bottle (with coated BBs inside), a pea sized amount of hBN is added, and the bottle is wedged in a small empty tumbler bowl for about 2.5 hours.
After they get wiped off, they look great.

 

[jonbearman]

What kind of coated BB's do you use Bill?How many at one time per bottle and what size pill bottle do you use?

 

[Nomad47]

All good questions, Jon. Kinda hard to tell now on the BBs with all that hBN on them. They were just cheap BBs from Walmart. Also kinda hard to describe the vitamin bottle. I would say it would hold around 250 105 grain bullets. About the bottom 3/4" of the bottle is BBs and I coat 100 105 grain bullets at a time.
I will try to remember to measure the height and diameter of the bottle tomorrow.

 

[wboggs]

Interesting that you do not clean the Bergers but put BBs in the bottle. Why the BBs?
Thanks

 

[snakepit]

Interesting that you do not clean the Bergers but put BBs in the bottle. Why the BBs?
Thanks

I have the Bullet Coatings HBN kit which comes with everything you need to coat the bullets and one of the things it comes with is a bag of small steel balls for the tumbling media that appear to be just slightly smaller than BBs so I think as Nomad Bill said BBs would also work. As per the instructions this is the media that goes in the plastic tumbling bottle from the kit with the HBN and the bullets. I have not used the kit yet so I can only tell you about the kit itself. On their website you can see a picture of the kit with the bag of small steel balls.

www.bulletcoatings.com

 

[jfseaman]

I asked Walt Berger if the bullets were handled during the manufacturing process and if the washing was necessary. He suggested I coat a box of bullets without washing them first to see how they turned out. I did. Now the bullets go directly from the Berger box into the vitamin bottle (with coated BBs inside), a pea sized amount of hBN is added, and the bottle is wedged in a small empty tumbler bowl for about 2.5 hours.
After they get wiped off, they look great.

+1 for Nomad.

I don't clean
1/16 stainless ball bearings
1 hour in a harbor freight rotory

Works for me

 

[snakepit]

What kind of coated BB's do you use Bill?

I do not mean to speak for Bill but I would assume the coating on the BB's is the HBN on them from prior tumbling while coating, or maybe he tumbles new BB's with a little HBN to coat them prior to putting the bullets in the bottle. What say you Bill?

 

[wboggs]

Thanks for the link. Have not been using the steel ball bearings but will try them.
Bill

 

[Nomad47]

I'm trying to remember back to the first time hBN was used. Unfortunately at my age my forgetter works better than my rememberer.
Anyway, yes, the BBs get coated with the hBN along with the inside of the bottle. Jeez, the inside of that bottle looks really scummy. After tumbling, I remove the bullets with tweezers. A little tedious, but the coated BBs and any remaining hBN stays in the bottle.
That first time probably took a 1/2 teaspoon or so of hBN in order to get BBs and the bottle coated. But now, to coat 100 105 grain bullets, takes what hBN stays on the end of a popsicle stick.
When the bullets come out of the bottle after being impact coated with hBN by the hBN coated BBs, they have specks of hBN on them which readily wipe off. I take 20 at a time out of the bottle and rub them in an old t-shirt. Then they have that satin look and go back in the original bullet box and labeled "coated".

 

[Nomad47]

After reading Snakepit's post again and to clarify, the BBs never get changed. New BBs get put in a clean bottle with or without the first batch of bullets. Extra hBN gets put in in order to get the BBs and inside of the bottle coated. Then the bottle and BBs get used over and over with new batches of bullets.

 

[FeMan]

Interesting that you do not clean the Bergers but put BBs in the bottle. Why the BBs?
Thanks

As far as the BB's go, I tried HBN coating with just bullets at first. What I got was bullets crusted with HBN that would not wipe off. I added some #2 steel shot to the mix and found that they did a great job of polishing the surface of the coated bullets; no more crusted HBN.

 

[ReedG]

I have coated thousands and thousands of Berger bullets and the "uncleaned" ones from the factory come out OK, but the cleaned ones look like chrome bullets. Does it matter? I'm sure it doesn't -- except they sure are pretty!

I use mid-size peanut butter jars with 1-lb. of No. 7-1/2 steel shot and do 100 30-cal. or 200 6mm/.223 bullets at a time, using 1/4 tsp. of WS2, and I put two or three bottles at a time into a standard Lyman vibrator with nothing in it. Also, sometimes put a bottle in when cleaning brass with walnut media.

I have used the large medicine bottles with the twist-on caps, but actually have had a couple times when the caps came off, so I switched to the peanut butter jars and have had no problem with them.

I dump the whole bottle into a department store colander (a dish with holes in the bottom), which passes the steel shot and leaves the bullets in the dish, then dump them into a towel and swish them back-and-forth a few times, and they're ready to shoot.

Even though I still use WS2, I think a similar process will work with hBN if that's your preference.

 

[Nomad47]

Agreed. I think the key is using some kind of small metal balls (not sure one metal or another is best) and getting a good vibration going in order to impact coat the bullets.

 

[snakepit]

Agreed. I think the key is using some kind of small metal balls (not sure one metal or another is best) and getting a good vibration going in order to impact coat the bullets.

Does it matter if you use a vibrator or a tumbler in the coating process?

 

[Nomad47]

I use a tumbler - but I wedge the vitamin bottle in a small EMPTY bowl. I guess what I'm trying to say is the vibration on the bullets is more intense than if the bottle was placed in a bowl of media (corn cob or walnut shell).