water drop

[NSP64]

Cast up some .429 boolits last night out of w/w with a touch of tin added, and dropped some of them into ice water to see if the hardness would be better. air cooled came in at 11 bhn on my LEE tester and the water quelched was a 22bhn!!! now heres the question? if I size them will they lose the hardness on the driving bands?

[armoredman]

I gotta get a bucket, and try that.

[shooter93]

Lube them in a 430 die...nothing will happen....size them in a 429 die and the effect will be so minimal as not to notice. Smaller dies will have more of an effect but again....it would take a lot of sizing to make a significant difference.

[454PB]

If you want to size them much, do it immediately after casting. At that point, they haven't hardened yet, and sizing won't affect the hardening process.

[Driller640]

I water drop my ww and they drop at .433 eh. I then size them to .427 for my 44-40 and they remain HARD. So go ahead and size away, you can't soften then up by sizing eh. God bless

[Char-Gar]

It doesn't really matter whether those 22 Bhn bullets lose hardness or not. They are starting out way harder than any real world need known to mankind.

[trickyasafox]

I water drop all my boolits, just cause its easier and i haven't had a need not to yet.

I use a folgers plastic coffee can with ice and water and a t-shirt on top. very easy and less splash as i can put it up higher and it's easier to handle because it doesn't weigh as much.

a big casting day for me though is 500-600 boolits though, so you volume guys might not be able to get away with this.

[armoredman]

So you just tap the boolits out over a water/ice filled coffee can? No need for anything soft at the bottom? Sounds easy enough - I have an empty can, water and an ice maker, (required in AZ), so I can try this sometime soon.

[Ricochet]

If you're concerned about keeping the hardness very uniform from bullet to bullet, after you get done sizing them, stick them back in a pan, put them in an oven at 475°F or so (for wheelweight or softer alloys, linotype melts at this temp) and leave them for an hour after the oven reaches the preheat temp. Then dump them quickly in cold water. Lube them without further sizing and you're ready to go. Takes up to 2 weeks or so for full hardness to be reached, but the bullets in the batch will all harden together.

They may be very hard to size without some lubrication; soapy water or plain straight liquid soap like Murphy's Oil Soap is a lubricant that works and can be rinsed off easily prior to heating in the oven.

[trickyasafox]

just make sure you put a shirt over the top of the container with a slit in it to contain the splash so you don't get a drop of water on the inside of the mold cavities.

[Ricochet]

Unnecessary. If you have your mould well warmed up, no drop of water will survive till you put lead in the cavities again.

[trickyasafox]

wow! i didn't know that thanks ricochet. it didn't take long to set up the shirt, but it did prevent me from seeing how many i produced and that got annoying.

sorry for the misinformation

[NSP64]

I gotta get a bucket, and try that.

I go to the store and get a 1gal pail of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream, eat ice cream then use pail for casting projects
It has a nice big opening and pretty good depth.

[NSP64]

just make sure you put a shirt over the top of the container with a slit in it to contain the splash so you don't get a drop of water on the inside of the mold cavities.

I like the idea of a T-shirt over the pail, but I think I will try it with no slit. That way the shirt can be submerged and then pulled out when full of cooled boolits. That water was pretty cold the other night

[Misfire99]

I go to the store and get a 1gal pail of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream, eat ice cream then use pail for casting projects
It has a nice big opening and pretty good depth.

Oh I'm up for this. Gee honey I need this ice cream for making bullets.

[madcaster]

If you happen to eat the ice cream box "al la Cheesepaper" wrapper,you can use a 5 gallon bucket,filled about 2/3rds full of water,with a water soaked car washing sponge and then place a few packing peanuts in there to finish covering the surface of the water,this both protects the bullets and prevents splashing of the water's surface.
Don't blame me for this advice,all these FINE fellas here on the board told me all this,and it sure has been helpful!

[Sundogg1911]

Sizing will work soften your boolits. I try to keep sizing to a minimum. I never water quench or heat treat because i'll cast large batches and by the time i've finished using them up (for the most part) they've gone back to their un-heat treat or water dropped hardness. either is fine if you use them up, but if they set for a long time. (I have some boolits that I cast almost a decade ago) you should just use a harder alloy. (more Lino or monotype) I shoot tons of .40 S&W and .45 ACP but all off my oddball stuff sets on the shelf for a good long time.

[leftiye]

Size 'em and then heat treat them.

[Bret4207]

I'm in the water drop crowd. I hardly have time to cast, much less screw around with ovens. If I want a harder boolit I water drop and alter the loading to fit what I need. I might also add some magnum shot to the pot to up the antimony/arsenic a bit too. My lino supply is very small and saved for really special occasions.

FWIW- If I can manage it I shoot as cast diameter with Lee's Mule Snot or use a die that barely touches the boolit and seats the GC in the lubrisizer.

[Newtire]

So you just tap the boolits out over a water/ice filled coffee can? No need for anything soft at the bottom? Sounds easy enough - I have an empty can, water and an ice maker, (required in AZ), so I can try this sometime soon.

Have been doing this since I read about it on castboolits! They indeed are much harder.