water hardening and remelting

[762cavalier]

OK probably one of those dumb questions but if I melt wheel weights and water harden them and let them harden over a couple of weeks will that affect their hardness if I remelt them(wrinklies that I sorted after dropping into water)or will the temp of the melted alloy just start me over again

[Iron River Red]

From my experience, water quenching the bullets will give you a bit of hardness, but as time goes on they will soften up by themselves.

So run them again and water quench again when they come out of the mold.

[JohnH]

No, it will not affect the hardness of the bullets the second or even twentieth time through. Water dropping works, no matter if from the mold or out of the oven, because we are "capturing" the antimony in a molecular state which produces maximum hardness. The alloy will reach this hardness is 24-48 hours and will keep it for several years. It will not go soft all at once, but gradually as the antimony "falls out" of the harder moleculer structure. It will eventually return to the hardness of the unheatreated metal. You can also soften hardened bullets by placing them in an oven at 425-450 dF for an hour then allowing them to air cool. Oven treating will produce a harder bullet, but the trick is to have the time from oven to water at an absolute minimum. I have the water bucket beside the oven and on opening the oven, slide out the tray of bulelts and spill 'em into the water. Bullets so hardened run to 31 BHN. I get 18 BHN dropping bullets from the mold into water.

[David R]

If you re pour, re quench.

David