Well, I quenched for the first time

[Patrick L]

Attempted my first heat treat/quench last night. Only did about 20 bullets, just to see how they do.

Took my .310 sized 311041s (no lube or GC) and baked them at 425 (my toaster oven's max temp, checked with an oven thermometer) for 2 hrs, then did an immediate drop into a bucket of water.

I'll run them thru my .311 die to lube and GC. I won't get a chance to shoot them till mid next week, which is good because I understand they harden a bit more with time.

Oh, BTW, my wife likes her new toaster oven!

[Bret4207]

Fun experimenting isn't it? For what it's worth, I quench right out of the mould. Never saw the sense of heating and re-heating, etc. Your mileage may vary, as may the opinion of other guys here.

[waksupi]

Here's something that may be of interest to you. A board member recently sent me a conversion chart, for use with my Cabin Tree hardness tester, to convert to Brinell. Can't remember who, but then again, I still haven't found the cup of coffee I set down this morning.
Any way.
While doing some testing at different temperatures, I came up with these differences. All were straight wheel weights, and were heated for an hour, and dumped immediately into cold water.

300 degrees 11 Bn
350 " " 13 Bn
400 " " 15 Bn
450 " " 18 Bn

I'll be doing some more of this testing as time permits, to get a more complete chart put together. Seems like a handy thing to have around.
As it is, there is a definite trend that can be seen.

[Willbird]

Waksupi, for that to be of any use to me I would need to know how hard in brinell the woodpecker lips are that I use to calibrate my fingernail hardness tester :-)

Bill

[waksupi]

Willbird, that is a very inconclusive test, unless you know the age and Bn of the woodpecker lips, to start with.