Eastwood Clear, 375 or 400 degrees?

Mitty38

Well-Known Member
some more inspiration if you have not saw this already recognize the bullets??
I AM NOT AN ENABLER!!!!!:rofl:
That post was my first attempt at shake and bake, I was doing them with Pro equipment left over from my old business before, too much hassle, hanging all those bullets with silver jewelers wire by the lube grooves. I have since sold off that setup and all mine are shake and bake now.
 
Last edited:

Joshua

Taco Aficionado/Salish Sea Pirate/Part-Time Dragon
some more inspiration if you have not saw this already recognize the bullets??
I AM NOT AN ENABLER!!!!!:rofl:
That post was my first attempt at shake and bake, I was doing them with Pro equipment left over from my old business before, too much hassle, hanging all those bullets with silver jewelers wire by the lube grooves. I have since sold off that setup and all mine are shake and bake now.

Those look familiar! Good looking bullets!

So, how do they shoot?
 

Mitty38

Well-Known Member
Those look familiar! Good looking bullets!

So, how do they shoot?
I am still in development. I am just low noding them so far with Red Dot.
I am getting 4 moa from them so far.
Took a break on development and just having fun shooting them with the wife and boy at 50 yards, nice 2 inch group takes out cans well. Will be working on it some more later on.
 
Last edited:

CWLONGSHOT

Well-Known Member
I use powders from Sherwin Williams, Tyger Drylac, Eastwood, Powder Buy the Pound, The Powder coat Store. Carolina Coatings and a few others.

Powder coating W/Tiger dry lack Graphite Blk



I have a video on a couple "heavy Thirties" posted as well. I have used all you mention plus a few others like the one ya sold 311284, 311335 and the 041 & 299 molds as well. ALL have improved with more agitated powder application.


CW
 

Mitty38

Well-Known Member
I had some DuPont powder left from my business. It worked OK but not like Eastwood. DuPont NAPGARD was just too picky, it needed a lot of static, to work on lead.
However it was a specialty coating, designed for steel only. DuPont makes many specialty powders so I would be wrong to put them all down based on Trial with one specific powder that is only meant to be used on steel.
 

Joshua

Taco Aficionado/Salish Sea Pirate/Part-Time Dragon
The Art & Science Spectrum
It seems that a lot of this is trial and error for what works for you. Ambient temp, storage conditions, humidity, technique, not to mention the absence of calibrated thermometers, and calibrated measuring devices, slides home shop powder coating across the spectrum to the Art side.
 

Ian

Notorious member
It's only as much of a mystery as you want to make it. A large countertop convection/rotisserie oven for $40 @walmart, an infrared thermometer from azon for $20, and a few minutes studying the accuracy od the themostat while making notes with a pencil will take 90% of the mystery completely out if it.

I also recommend using a steel plate and non-stick foil if standing the bullets up. This is because the heat-sink effect of the plate will keep bullet temperature more uniform. Silicone and parchment are insulators. Basket cooking gets good air circulation too, but heat sink tiles on adjacent racks might help with thermal mass and consistent temperature.
 
Last edited:

Joshua

Taco Aficionado/Salish Sea Pirate/Part-Time Dragon
While I won’t argue the point too fiercely. I will point out that we are all using a heat source that was designed to cook Pop-tarts.

That feels pretty creative to me.

Josh

Edit: The OP said with a wink and a smile.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Ian

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
Creative is what we do.
As a group I think of casters as the most creative and free thinking reloaders and shooters.
We scrounge our lead quite often, make our own lubes sometimes with recipes we developed, and often step outside the box on loading. We refuse to believe that something like microgroove rifling not being capable of decent accuracy above 1600 FPS is a “thing”.
Many of us own a turkey fryer but never plan to fry a turkey.

Crearice? Hell yes, and we are proud of it.
 

Mitty38

Well-Known Member
Hey, the first guns were made by shoving home made gunpowder and whatever was handy, usually a spear or rocks, down a bamboo tube and setting it off. Reloading was invented by doing that till the bamboo blew apart.
Re-loaders may have not always been the most brilliant, but at least we are creative.:p:p:p:p
 

358156 hp

At large, whereabouts unknown.
Creative is what we do.
As a group I think of casters as the most creative and free thinking reloaders and shooters.
We scrounge our lead quite often, make our own lubes sometimes with recipes we developed, and often step outside the box on loading. We refuse to believe that something like microgroove rifling not being capable of decent accuracy above 1600 FPS is a “thing”.
Many of us own a turkey fryer but never plan to fry a turkey.

Crearice? Hell yes, and we are proud of it.
Brads phone invented another new word! It has been very Crearice in the past.
 

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
iPad, not my phone. That post typed on my phone would have been far worse.
 

Hawk

North Central Texas
I'm using a toaster oven I bought in a garage sale for $10.
Calibrated the dial to 400 degrees with a couple of thermomters.
I use a cookie sheet covered with none stick foil and cook everything for 25 to 30 minutes.
Never had a single problem with coated bullets.
A word of warning, some smokeless powders react to the coating and degrade the powder coating and possibly the powder.
 

Ian

Notorious member
Hawk reminded me that Brad forgot a very important adjective regarding bullet casters. We're hopelessly CHEAP.

Being cheap by nature means we'll spend six months and $30 trying to make a $10 garage sale thing work when a new one that already works costs $15 and is in stock locally. Doing a lot with a little has its own rewards and that's where the "Art" part comes in, I guess.

I've striven to remove as much mystery and black magic from the realm of the cast bullet as I can, because after all it's just science. However, as has been pointed out to me in my life, some machines tend to run better in the mere presence of a good mechanic, so there is something ethereal to the whole deal. I prefer to call it "technique". Some people can make stuff work out so much better than others using identical tools and materials. My signature line contains a quote from my great uncle who was attempting to describe that very thing.
 

Joshua

Taco Aficionado/Salish Sea Pirate/Part-Time Dragon
Cheap is right. I resemble that! Not counting the two pounds of powder I bought this morning. My first batch Of PC cost $20 dollars, for the powder, and oven, the rest was scrap.

Now time? How many degrees could I have completed, with all the time I have spent obsessing over hobbies.

A good example: Three years ago I spent a big chunk of my winter evenings and weekends carving spoons. I’ll never get that time back. Modifying hatchets, making knives(you can buy all this stuff but why would you), scrounging up the wood, and so much reading. And then I gave almost all of them away.

Technique. My students all have the exact same welding machines, the same torches, the same materials, the same instructor, and the same curriculum. Some will be better welders than me, some will be satisfactory, and some will fail.

The ones that I loose sleep over are the students that work hard to succeed yet lack some innate skill or trait. Not everything can be taught. Some people just have a stronger craftsman gene than others.

Again, a Big Thanks to you guys that answer all our new guy questions.

Josh
 

Ian

Notorious member
I come from a long line of professional teachers and you said a mouthful of truth there, Josh. Those that work hard and keep struggling are going to be good at something, they just have to find what it is be it machine operator, plumber, the next Nashville star, or entrepreneur with a vision who hires and leads technically talented people to success.

In case you haven't noticed, thread topics tend to drift a little here, it's the natural effect of the sort of people who hang out here. By page three of a thread the topic could be anything.
 

Rockydoc

Well-Known Member
I like you’re new avatar. Is that really you?
My avatar isn’t really me I just picked a photo of a really handsome guy.;)