Moly help?

[desertcj]

If you don't like moly, that's fine...I can see why. I happen to like it at this point but recently I've been having trouble coating my bullets. I use a vibratory tumbler like a lot of people. I wash the bullets in 90% isopropyl alcohol. I usually dry tumble in small peanut butter jars with copper coated BBs and I've done hundreds this way usually with good results. My problem bullets are 55gr Nosler lead free ballistic tips. I had to tumble them for so long that some of them got dings in them from the BBs! I'm talking like all night and all day in the tumbler but they did finally coat.

I just found out about wet moly tumbling and decided to try it. So far this batch of the same bullets has been going for about 8 hours now and they aren't looking like they are getting coated at all? I made sure that there is plenty of moly in the jars. It is moly mud in there. What am I suddenly doing wrong?

 

[Ridgerunner665]

Just a shot in the dark, as I've got very little experience with moly...

But could it be the 90% alcohol...or more precisely the 10% water.

Would acetone not work better?

 

[desertcj]

It worked for me before? Also, the "Wet" moly process uses water.

 

[mtwarych]

By chance is this the first time you coated the lead free Noslers?

Due to the make up of the bullet/ jacket alloy, not all bullets tumble to the same color. The slugs are probably fully coated and just be a different color. I have seen the different color on the different slugs that I tumble. About 8 years ago I decided to try Barnes bullets and they were different than the Noslers I have moly coated.

I prefer to wash my bullets in denatured alcohol due to the denatured drying without leaving any type of film. Also, most of the time you will not gain any more treatment tumbling more than two hours.

Good luck.

 

[desertcj]

Matter of fact it is the first time trying to coat this particular bullet. They are also much lighter than the bullets I've been doing. I'm not sure if that makes any difference.

 

[Cold Trigger Finger]

I tumbled all my bullets in moly for years. Just this year I started tumbling is HBN. Which I prefer. . But anyway,
I always washed my bullets in hot water with dish soap like Dawn or Joy. Dried them off good with a towel or paper towels put them in the vibratory tumbeler bowl. Put a teaspoon of moly powder on top. Put the lid on good and tight and turned it on. Just bullets and moly. It took about 2 or 3 hours and they were totally coated.
I used 1 tub for lead tip bullets and one for plastic tip or mono metal bullets.
. I'm still shooting up my mollyd bullets.
It's pretty straight forward.

 

[desertcj]

Checked them just now. Funny thing, one of the lids came unscrewed. Moly mud mess in my tumbler! After a few choice words, I noticed that the bullets are looking pretty good! I think the jars may have been too full? The wet coated bullets seem much nicer than dry coated. I'm probably just going to buy a second tumbler for my brass instead of cleaning this thing....lol.

 

[Cold Trigger Finger]

When I started moly tumbling I got the complete kit from Midway. Tumbler with 2 bowls and a jar of moly powder.
I thot about coating cast bullets for my heavy revolver bullets but decided against it.

 

[desertcj]

They are all bagged up now. It was just an optical illusion I think. They don't really look coated when you are pulling them out of the "mud" but now that they are washed in water, dried and bagged up, they are black like normal. They are much smoother than dry coated bullets and I can only assume based on what I see that the coating is not as thick.

 

[mtwarych]

That's good to hear.

I have moly'd bullets since it became popular. I have had a few moly messes through the years.

A couple of years ago, I ordered a moly bore prep from Midway. During the shipping the cap came off of the jar of prep and coated everything in the shipping bag, no evidence on the outside.

I opened the bag to find everything was coated in a layer of moly grease and called Midway. The mess was so bad, Midway told me to just dispose of everything and re-shipped a complete new order. This time Midway taped the jar shut. Lesson learned.

I will suggest that you buy an extra bowl for your tumbler and try the ceramic media sold by Midway. I get a better coated product with ceramic than I did with stainless steel BB's

 

[embork]

Under tech talk on bergers websight they tell you how they use too moly bullets. I bought a double rock tumbler from harbor frieght and use one for moly & one for wax. Works very good, the wax seems to keep the bullets clean and not come off on your fingers. berger says there bullets are clean and do not need to clean.

 

[desertcj]

I've only done this one batch of bullets with wet moly, but it seems better to me. They are definitely cleaner. The moly doesn't come off even without wax.

 

[roughneck]

Don't know if it's getting cold where you live, but for me I have to bring them in out of the garage if temps fall below 50 or so. Mine wouldn't coat at all without some heat.

Regardless of the time of year, I hit them with a hair dryer just before tumbling.

As an aside, I've noticed that 6 shot steel gives me the best finish.

 

[desertcj]

Yes, it is cold out in the garage. I put an electric heater out next to the tumbler and I think that may have helped?