Does Panlube lower BHN?

[bkbville]

I use my oven to harden boolits - heat them up to about 450F and quench them.

From what I've read hear and elsewhere the higher temperatur you can go (without melting the boolits) the harder they get.

The other day I was pan lubing some of these and got to wondering if the heating of the boolits while pan lubing - granted at a substantially lower temps - has the effect of softening the boolits.

Has anyone experience or tested this? I don't have a hardness gauge (on my list of things to buy for a while...) or I'd try it myself.

[JSnover]

It shouldn't. I don't think pan lubing temps get over 200 f. But now I'll have to lube a batch and stick a thermometer in. I melt my lube in a double boiler and take it off the burner as soon as it's all melted. Never thought to check the boolits afterwards.

[gray wolf]

For our needs-------NO

[captain-03]

It is the "quick quench" had hardens 'em ... pan lube be no different than cloth dropping IMO ..

[AZ-Stew]

It is the "quick quench" had hardens 'em ... pan lube be no different than cloth dropping IMO ..

But the re-heating may remove the "temper" added by the quench and subsequent aging. The issue is, does the pan lube temp reach a value that will de-temper the hardened boolits. My guess is, no, it won't. I don't think the temp is high enough, but it's an interesting question that will take an experiment to verify. A solution would be to develop a lube that melts at 150 degrees or so, which is high enough to prevent lube messes during hot Summer weather, but should easily be cool enough not to disturb the boolit temper.

For me, this another "Round Tuit" project.

Regards,

Stew

[rhead]

It probably does but the difference is so small that no body notices. What would be the effect of slipping a bullet into a group with a BHN of 22 when the others have a BHN of 22.05? What effect does the work hardening of running them through a lubersizer have on them? Both will have some small effect. If you rule them both out what do you have left? I don't even know which direction it would go. It may harden them by accelerating the aging process. It can be slowed by storing at low temps.

Do you have any evidence that lowering it by whatever amount would be a bad thing?

[Shiloh]

No.

You need a bit more heat than 200. There was a thread about this sometime back. Try the search feature.

SHiloh