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Ohio Rusty
06-30-2007, 10:24 AM
I've been doing some WW melting and cleaning and have gotten them down to usable ingots for bulletmelting. In the pic is the well known Lee ingot mould, then a pair of cast aluminum moulds I picked up at a flea market for 50 cents a piece. I'm not sure what they were originally for, but they make a half ball ingot that weights about a pound. When I first melted them into pure WW ingots, I was somewhat able to scratch the sharp edge with a fingernail, being fresh poured and cooling. Now, after setting for a week, that have clearly hardened as they are now unscratchable. When I melt down the ingots and turn them into bullets, I assume they will revert back to that softer state when freshly poured. After the bullets set for a week, will they re-harden again ?
Ohio Rusty
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v372/OhioRusty/SummerPics015.jpg

DLCTEX
06-30-2007, 11:27 AM
Unless you water dropped the ingots I would expect boolits to be the same hardness as the ingots, all conditions being equal. DALE

Typecaster
06-30-2007, 11:43 AM
It looks like they are pans for making Danish "pancakes" called aebelskiver. You pour in the batter, and as it cooks you rotate it in the pan with a fork or a knitting needle--you end up with a ball-shaped yummy breakfast or dessert, usually served with powdered sugar and jelly.

But after using them for lead or WWs, I wouldn't put them back to their intended purpose.

randyrat
07-01-2007, 06:49 AM
I would guess you need at least 2 weeks before you can get a good hardness test. Maybe even longer.

Jim
07-01-2007, 08:26 AM
Rusty,
to answer your question, yes. As Dale mentioned, the bullets should be about the same hardness as the metal you are using starts out. HOWEVER, cast bullets do harden slightly with age. I don't know what the maturity time is, though. Seems like somewhere I heard it's about a month. Don't pin me to the wall on that as I'm not sure.
If you can get the Honorable Felix to respond, I feel real sure he'd know. He's very knowledgable in this.