Copper Plating Bullets

[mattman]

Has anyone ever seen a machine for copper electroplating bullets? IN OTHER WORDS HOW DO THEY DO IT What do the manufacturers use. How do they get a electrical contact on each bullet without leaving a mark. I want to copper plate my lead bullets. I don't want to swage a copper jacket on to it. I figure I'll also have to resize them after plating.

[doubldwn]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hkr1NS7bEUU

[cassius]

man, talk about reinventing the wheel. Buy some. Sell the lead if you don't want them. No shortage of folks looking for reloading components right now.

[mattman]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hkr1NS7bEUU

Those are FMJ bullets the lead is swaged into the jacket. I'm looking for electroplating. Interesting video non the less.

[Nodda Duma]

Berry's Manufacturing

http://www.berrysmfg.com/

-Jason

[huesos]

Matt,
After reading the responses so far to your inquiry, I felt I had to post to point out the obvious. Caswell's Electroplating kits for small scale operations are the best known out there. It is slow and hard to get much volume. People posting nonsense replies to an open inquiry are particularly irritating. The purpose of these boards should include the facilitation of questions like yours.

[mattman]

Matt,
After reading the responses so far to your inquiry, I felt I had to post to point out the obvious. Caswell's Electroplating kits for small scale operations are the best known out there. It is slow and hard to get much volume. People posting nonsense replies to an open inquiry are particularly irritating. The purpose of these boards should include the facilitation of questions like yours.

Finally someone with a good answer. Thanks huesos that was just what I was looking for.

[bruceflinch]

Berry's Manufacturing

http://www.berrysmfg.com/

-Jason

10 years ago, Berry's were poo poo. Recently, someone told me they were still poo poo..

inconsistant weights, out of round..

[merritt]

You can go the electroless route or go with an electrical contact route. Caswell makes great stuff (I've used their electroless nickel on some gun parts and a few other things works well, is cheap, and comes with good instructions)

I heard the trick to evenly plating a large set of small items (like bullets) is to keep them in constant motion. maybe rig a tumbler?

[freakshow10mm]

10 years ago, Berry's were poo poo. Recently, someone told me they were still poo poo..

inconsistant weights, out of round..
I use Berry's bullets in my commercial line and they are well made. Most of them are double struck so they are sized again after plating.

Plating is basically done by placing the bullets in a bath of chemicals and copper then positively charging the copper bath and negatively charging the lead bullets (I think they are placed in a screened rack). This causes the copper to stick to the lead cores. The process is the same for chrome plating or other plating processes. Small scale is possible but Berry's does it in batches of tens of thousands at a time. I recall from chrome plating that it isn't one step and done, there's several bath tanks during the process. Cleanliness of the product and the mixture of the copper bath are essential to quality.

Plating and anodizing are very similar in concept with the polarized charges, etc.

[brass]

Berry's is good. Buy the double struck items. Consistent for HD and practice. With some sorting by weight etc, you could probably be happy for basic local matches.

[huesos]

This individual started the thread inquiring about plating processes for cast bullets. How did this become a thread on Berry's bullets? I would have to agree with the above poster declaring Berry's to be an inferior bulett. Not even worth discussing on this thread. There is no one in competition shooting using this product.