Wet coating bullets with Hexagonal Boron Nitride

[fly spec]

I am interested in any info anyone has put together on wet coating bullets w/HBN. I know there is info out there on 91% isopropyl alcohol and HBN for coating barrels, but I haven't found anything on wet coating bullets.

 

[hedditch]

HBN & water: I didn't get it to work for me. I haven't tried it with alcohol but I have my doubts. Like other, I had great results with molly and water. Dave

 

[JRS]

hBN, in the form which we use for bullet coating, is insoluble in water, and in alcohol. It would have to be mixed in some type of an acid.

 

[normmatzen]

I know virtually nothing about metallurgy, but I believe the impact of the small bearings is key to embedding the nano sized crystals of hBN into the bullets. So, the size of the hBN particles is important as is the method of vibrating or rolling the bullets in a mixture of bearings and hBN powder. I don't think simply coating the bullets with a layer of hBN helps.
I also believe the alcohol-hBN slurry we use to coat the cleaned barrel simply puts a very thin layer of hBN and the bullet help impact it into the grain of the barrel metal.

 

[JRS]

Once that ball of fire has made it's way through your barrel, that "slurry", is gone. Impact plating is the only way for hBN to adhere.

 

[tonysnoo]

My buddy had a very odd experience. On his last batch thay all came out beautifully glazed and slick, but they were rust brown colored. So was the media.

He remembered wiping some moisture off of the lid prior to starting the process, but wondered if the foam seal may have still been moist.

It was quite a shock...that little bit of moisture...could that have been the problem? Nothing else changed, did two bottles/batches at the same time, the other one was normal.

 

[spclark]

My buddy had a very odd experience. On his last batch thay all came out beautifully glazed and slick, but they were rust brown colored. So was the media.

Interesting.... When I started using hBN-coated bullets I was buying them from D. Tubb directly. The first box of 500 came nice & slick, looked just like regular factory bullets but dullish.

The next box the bullet's appeared more brownish, not at all the same appearance as the first batch. I wondered why this might have been but they still shot good so didn't think any more about it.

Getting into home-coating it took me awhile to work out a procedure to produce results that reproduce the appearance of that first box from Tubb. They shoot too or I'd have abandoned hBN by now. It's all dry from start to finish as I've heard moisture may cause an ammonia-producing reaction with hBN and as we all know ammonia is not good to have around copper-jacketed bullets.

That what you saw appears brownish makes me wonder: boron can exist in the pure state as a brown powder....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boron

 

[heymarine1833]

i have been using moly on bullets for 10 years and just started using hbn about 6 mos ago using the same impact plating method i do with moly. it seems that hbn along with moly, danzac etc has to be peened into the bullet. ive never heard of a liquid other than what one of the guys here mentioned, that is mixed with alcohol. i wonder if there is a liquid hbn, how would it really stick to the bullet? would the liquid need an acid to etch the hbn into the copper jacket? think i'll stick with the old school way for now. i think i remember a company in the UK that makes an hbn spray but doubt anyone would pay the freight for that can

 

[heymarine1833]

Found this: http://boronnitride.com/

and this:http://www.lowerfriction.com/product-page.php?categoryID=24

all sprays. not sure how well they stick. if you get some, let us know will ya?

 

[JRS]

Found this: http://boronnitride.com/

and this:http://www.lowerfriction.com/product-page.php?categoryID=24

all sprays. not sure how well they stick. if you get some, let us know will ya?

What would you accomplish by using a solvent?

 

[heymarine1833]

i have no clue. just typed in hex boron nitride liquid and came up with these sites. unless the solvent is simply the carrier. i dont fool with liquid and sprays. just peen the stuff in the bullet through impact plating and wipe the bore down with hbn solution. the hbn so far outperforms moly as far as copper fouling goes.. just did a test monday and after 100 hbn coated bullets down the barrel, there was zero copper. after 60 moly plated bullets down the barrel, i pulled green patches out from the bore

 

[CPorter]

I apply hBN dry with BBs to impact plate them. I've tried the alcohol method and never gotten as good results. I've had the ammonia smell from tumbling too long and from any moisture in the process.

Sprays with hBN as a mold release can be found easily: http://www.grainger.com/search?searchQuery=boron%20nitride%20aerosols&nls=0&suggestConfigId=6

 

[Mozella]

hBN, in the form which we use for bullet coating, is insoluble in water, and in alcohol. It would have to be mixed in some type of an acid.

Moly is insoluble in water, but the "wet method" is the best way to apply it. No dust and any mess gets washed down the drain. Plus the bullets come out looking glossy and they're as good or perhaps even better than factory moly bullets. Done correctly the moly doesn't come off on your hands.

You don't need the Moly particles to go into solution as long as they form a slurry.

Having said that, I'll mention that I had a tiny bit of HBN and tried it using the wet method with water. It seemed to form a slurry just like moly. Unfortunately I stopped the process after about 45 minutes because I thought the bullets weren't accepting the coating.

After I rinsed and dried them, I realized that they had a very light coating, but like an idiot I dumped the HBN slurry down the drain.

So I need to get some more HBN and do some more testing tumbling in water for a longer time and perhaps test some alcohol too.