Heat treating

Hey guys, I have been heat treating for years when needed and have always kept bullets from touching.... I now have 30 cal bullet mold and want to heat treat but they are so thin that they fall over when I try to pick up the tray. Can cast bullets touch when heat treating?

Thanks
Tim

I made a sheet metal tray with holes drilled in it to stand the Boolits in when heat treating and Powder Coat baking.
The boolits I cast are GC style.
So the hole on the sheet metal matches the size of the GC base of the Boolits.
The sheet metal is 1/16" thick.
To get a precise fit , I drill the holes smaller , then team them out to size with a Tapered Hand Reamer.
I use one for spraying my PC Boolits so the GCarea on the slug does not get PC'ed and the GC's fit excellent after PC is baked.

A single layer in a wire basket should not be a problem. Just do not get rough handling the basket while moving from the oven to the water.

I started oven heat treating after reading Dennis Marshalls description and it worked perfectly. " Bullets should be well supported during heat treatment, lying on their sides and no more than two layers deep." quote by Dennis Marshall

although he does find the slump temperature of the alloy used by standing bullets on their base

Have you considered using a silicone ice cube tray? Here is a 1670 cube tray, they are small enough to get three of them in a normal oven. I have .30 cal 200gr boolits in this one, they will NOT stand up on any sheet, no matter how flat.

I loaded 100 .223 bullets in that tray right after and they also all stood up, much to my surprise!

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