Glass Beads for Media or Impact Media for Hex Boron Nitride Coating

[Romulus]

My friend was troubleshooting HBN impregnation consistency from different brands of bullets (amax, hybrids, vlds, smks), and a real good shooter recommended doing them in a glass jar. I got to thinking about that and since I have access to glass beads, I thought I'd try some as media and some as impact media for HBN.

I know guys use BBs, some use the walnut shell type media first, and I'm sure there's 99 variations of HBN processes. There's also the stainless media now for brass cleaning.

I've got no info or experience yet, but thought I'd put a feeler out if anyone has tried such stuff. Planning to try some brass in the Beads tomorrow if no one had any horror stories - not expecting magic, just curious.

I'll try not to spill the damn things and break my tailbone ;D

 

[Michael Courtney]

My friend was troubleshooting HBN impregnation consistency from different brands of bullets (amax, hybrids, vlds, smks), and a real good shooter recommended doing them in a glass jar. I got to thinking about that and since I have access to glass beads, I thought I'd try some as media and some as impact media for HBN.

I know guys use BBs, some use the walnut shell type media first, and I'm sure there's 99 variations of HBN processes. There's also the stainless media now for brass cleaning.

I've got no info or experience yet, but thought I'd put a feeler out if anyone has tried such stuff. Planning to try some brass in the Beads tomorrow if no one had any horror stories - not expecting magic, just curious.

I'll try not to spill the damn things and break my tailbone ;D

I used BBs in glass mason jars. Tumbled them in the tumbler that came with the stainless media. Uniformity and consistency were good.

The Department of Defense published our careful study of friction resulting from coating different bullets with HBN, WS2, and MS2 (http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a568594.pdf ). HBN showed some promise, but not more than 12-15% reduction in friction for jacketed lead bullets and nearly nothing in solid copper bullets.

We kept coating most of our bullets for a while, but eventually determined that any improvements were hardly noticeable and not worth the extra fiddling.

Glass is harder than steel BBs, so it should work.

 

[gunsandgunsmithing]

More than one way to skin this cat, for sure, but I prefer the Lyman ceramic media over the other methods I've tried. Lyman sells this media specifically for coating bullets.
http://www.lymanproducts.com/lyman/tumblers/super-moly-replacement.php

 

[Romulus]

Thanks for the article & Cermaic makes sense - kind of like this glass bead thing.

 

[stool]

no real mass in the glass beads...so less IMPACT in the coating.
just one thought

 

[Michael Courtney]

no real mass in the glass beads...so less IMPACT in the coating.
just one thought

In most applications, the bullets weigh much more than the added spheres. The bbs we use weigh 5.44 grains, compared with bullet weights of 55 to 220 grains. The bullet weight is providing the impact. The spheres provide something hard in the mix and a hard surface to give more uniform coating than just the bullets and powder in a tumbler would.

A much more important issue than whether the spheres are steel, glass, or ceramic is the cleanness of the bullets before tumbling. It is critical to remove any and all residual waxes and oils from manufacturing or handling before tumbling with the desired lubricant. Impact plating depends on molecular adhesion. We clean our bullets with stainless tumbling media using the lemi-shine and Dawn dish soap, rinse and dry thoroughly, and wear gloves when handling before and after tumbling.