Mesh trays for cookin boolits: methods and construction

Hey all,

So I've recently started putting together my kit for coating, in my case it will be hi-tek.
I've got the convection oven sorted, but outside of using some steel mesh paper file trays, my OCD brain is dreaming up something more heavy duty!

Currently, I'm gonna start with these trays. Found em at a yard sale for 25c/ea, so I got 5/$1 :)

How did YOU build your trays for bakin? Lead gets heavy(and hot) so the open-ended trays might work, but since there is mesh on all sides instead of solid angle iron, I figured airflow should be pretty good.

Thoughts?

Attachment 323442

I think you are overthinking it. I use old cookie sheets covered with non stick foil. Works great! Over the years the foil has become very thin. Now you can’t get more than one use with the foil.

Personally I use quarter inch mesh hardware cloth that comes in the rolls.

I put on leather gloves and get my tin snips and cut out a piece of the hardware cloth to match a template that I make out of cardboard, so I know exactly what shape it's got to be before it ends up getting folded up and so it'll still fit inside the the toaster oven, maximizing the small amount of internal volume available.

I have used this same basket for hundreds of pounds of powder coated bullets and thousands of pieces of brass drying.

It ain't got to be fancy.

One roll can last a very long time.


https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...8b6d1bfe1c.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...0155624b1b.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...4d6d0840ca.jpg

at one time walmart had some pizza screens really cheap. I bent them around a 8" square 3/4" thick board to form them into trays for my toaster oven. pop riveted the corners together.

I made 6 and still have all of them--they allow the heat to easily get from top to bottom.

there is a slight build-up of powder coating from the coated but unbaked bullets but that hasn't been a problem and we're talking years of use here

I just pour the bullets into a colander with enlarged holes to separate the BBs and powder from the coated bullets then gently dump the bullets into the trays. I use a piece of 8" sq 1/8" aluminum to transfer the baskets into the oven.

when done I pull the tray out on my gloved hand and dump the bullets into a metal baking pan to cool. In about a 1 or 2 minutes I rock the pan around to separate any bullets that might stick together

even though I don't carefully place the bullets base down, one at a time, I get great coverage

here is something similar to what I used:

https://www.webstaurantstore.com/cho...xoCz4cQAvD_BwE

I got some mesh trays 12x6x2 inch from OLLIE's years ago. They've worked fine and will hold 3.5lbs of PC bullets with 1 hand while I open the oven door with the other. I use one to sift the excess PC. I can load my double shelf Oster countertop convection oven with four of them at one time. Mine have the angled sides so they are stackable.

I use the hardware cloth for traps, cages and keeping critters out of the house.

Before you go too far, check how much weight your shelves will handle. I've overloaded one and it made a real mess in the oven.

Hardware cloth , cut with a metal cutting wheel on a angle grinder , bend over sides , still doing fine after a lot of bullets , also great for drying brass .

Only thing I have found that is as soon as baking cycle ends dump in trays do not let them cool before dumping , and then I stir them around by hand to make sure none are stuck together .

Hardware cloth is cheap and I use it for range sifting also .

For most of mine I use the 1/2" silicone ice cube trays. Work great, nothing sticks to them, boolits don't stick to each other sort of a win win for me.

I just use the aluminum tray that came with my toaster oven, and put parchment paper down between the bullets and the tray... Works fine, just don't cook it for more than 45 minutes otherwise it chars and sticks to the bases of the bullets....

Like Wheelguns 1961 said, you're over thinking it....

I don’t do the shake and dump thing. I like to stand them up so I bent up some expanded metal. With pistol lead, I just stand them up on the tray with parchment paper. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...7378353a12.png

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...686c4ca711.jpg

I do the 1/4” hardware cloth thing, square shape with bent up and doubled over sides that add a bit of rigidity, and the doubled mesh goes over a tab from the adjacent side to make the corners lock together.

I shake and bake with HiTek. A 180° turn half way through evens out the baking over the tray, and a shake at the same time loosens up bullets stuck together or to the mesh, allowing cooling on the trays until I need those for fresh coated bullets.

A thought: I don’t know how heat proof the color is on those office trays, so maybe try a few cycles without bullets first to see what happens.

Do you know what wire diameter you are using with the hardware cloth? Is 23 Gauge too light? I see here the 4x4 .025" welded galvanized is pretty cheap stuff http://www.bwire.com

Are you thinking of doing several levels at a time. I’ve only ever done one tray at a time.

I have 2 toaster oven trays, while one is baking the other is being loaded. I just stand them on the tray so they don't touch. When I take them out I place the tray on a slab of marble ( no idea where I got that) but the slab cools the try pretty quickly. And I just keep rotating the trays.

+1 OS1880!

I tried silicone ice cube trays, nope, wire mesh, but just the shallow aluminum trays that come with the ovens (with a silicone baking sheet underneath) works for me.

After I found some silicone baking sheet I tossed all my non-stick Al foil and parchment paper. Eventually there is a little powder build up but a scraper takes off the high spots. I've used the same one for many thousands of bullets.

I like silicone ice cube trays, especially for taller boolits. These are just some 124 grain 358s.

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Found that making a 1" deep hardware cloth box and sewing or lacing the corners together with SS wire, then rounding every other square hole wth a lage brass tapered punch. Turn the hardware cloth box upside down, to elevate the bullet tray itself, put the bullets into the round holes, nose down, base up, so the plain base, perfectly formed, is perfectly coated. In multiple accuracy tests the base, not the nose was the most important to get perfect for best accuracy. I also no longer use gas checks to get to 2,500 fps and sub 1/2" accuracy with a scoped rifle and cast bullets.
I use the RCBS 200 357-8 plain base mould for the 350 RM, 35 Whelen, 358 Win, 358 MGP, 357 Super Mag, and 357 Mag Rifles. Plus multiple single shot handguns and multiple revolvers.
This is the 358 Win in the M- 96 I am currently working on. Got the feed down pat. That is the PCed 200.

I use air frier basket and I also use one called Copper Crisper wich also comes with a tray wich is nice to sift the excess powder into