Water Quenching WW

[steveb]

Im still learnin so bear with me. When you water quench WW does the boolits harden immediatly?? Or does it take hours for the hardning process?? I have read somewhere about 12-24 hours but cant remeber where I saw that info.

Heres another silly question, do you leave the boolits in the water after they have cooled or leave them in for them to harden??

[NuJudge]

If you drop a bullet from the mold while it is still very hot, into water, it will be much harder than an air cooled bullet.

Hardness readings on a bullet will change with time. I've never tracked these things, but you should see some increase in hardness over several days, and then only small changes over very long periods of time.

After you casting session, drain the water from the bucket they are in and let them dry, then lube, load and shoot.

Christopher Dingell

[Bass Ackward]

Steve,

A lot of variables here. Your mix, temperature of the mold / melt, your proficiency speed, the percentage of arsenic, and bullet diameter seem to dictate the most.

I have cast and water dropped and had hardness take a few days when arsenic content is very low and end up with a final hardness of 16 BHN. I just finished a 1 1/2 hour casting last night that with less than 1/2 hour to dry bullets, had some noticeably harder. So much so, that my bullet diameter varied from .4295 for the soft to .4313 for the hardest in only 2 hours total time.

This is why I prefer to size and heat treat later for those few bullet cases where it is required. If you can .... "feel" a difference sizing, you have a difference in the result.

[curator]

I usually water drop quench my .30 caliber bullets, and occasionaly those I use for .45ACP. I use wheel weight alloy with 6 oz. of chilled shot and 4 oz of 50/50 solder added per 9 1/2 pounds. I cast at 750 degrees. Hardness measures about 12 BHN an hour after casting and 22 BHN in 24 hours. Air cooled these same bullets would be about 8 BHN after casting and 12 BHN after 2 weeks. I prefer to do any sizing as soon as they are dry enough to handle. If you need to size down .002" after they get hard it is somewhat difficult. Frankly, I rarely reduce the diameter of my cast bullets if I can avoid it, preferring to use a lube-size die at or slightly over the as cast diameter. That way I am only lubeing and crimping the gas check. Bigger is almost always better!

[mooman76]

If you resize water quenched bullets you are removing the outer hard coating so you are defeating the purpose! When you lube/ size you need to use a luber the same size or .001 bigger so you don't disturb the outer hardness of the bullet!

[waksupi]

I size quenched bullets within a few hours of the quench. Wail until the next day, and they will be harder than the hubs of hell, and put stress on you, and your lubrisizer. It takes a full day, or a little more, for them to reach full hardness. Test a fresh WQ bullet, and they will test as nearly pure lead. 24 hours later, whole different story.

[Bret4207]

I'm not the world biggest fan of "hard" boolits. So take what I say with that in mind. When I water quench I find the boolits take a while to reach their final hardness. I size soon after quenching and find the boolit continues to harden after sizing and lubing. IOW- I haven't found WW quenched boolits to be "case hardened", they seem to harden through the boolit. I base this on testing sized boolits, I haven't sectioned one and tried testing it yet. This isn't something I do alot, so my observations are on a limited number of batches of boolits. I'm talking WW plus magnum shot here, not linotype or any exotic alloys. I've gone from 8bhn to over 20bhn with water quenching. Whether it was worth the trouble is still up in the air for me.

[mooman76]

Tpr.Bret

I found that interesing about resizing after water quenching. I've always avoided resizing afterward because that's what the book says but I may just try it after all to see how it comes out!

[Blacktail 8541]

Tpr. Bret, so far in my casting experience I'm with you, water quenching seems to be a hassel because of the need to size almost immediatly. I like to go at a slow comfortable pace when casting and do not like to be rushed as this is a very enjoyable pastime for me. I do not need tens of thousands of bullets to feed my habit. But quality means much to me. I mix my alloys to get the hardness I need. If I Can't get to a hardness that I think I need I will then heat treat in an oven after sizeing.

[drinks]

With the current crop of wws, I am adding a coffee measure, about 2.5oz, of chilled shot to 8-9lb of wws, water dropped, after 1 hour, I believe they were BHN 12, 24 hours later, BHN 24.
Measurements by both a Lee and a Cabine Tree tester agreed.
Air cooled bullets of the same pour were BHN 10 at 1 hour and BHN 11 at 24 hours.
The Lee tester calls for filing a flat on the side of a bullet for the test surface, I have done it that way and also on the flat nose of the same bullet, the difference was not over BHN 1.