ingot quenching?

[nemesisenforcer]

Sorry if this has been addressed before, but would quenching ingots be a good or useful idea?

When remelting the ingots for casting, would they lose their "quenching hardness" and thus the quenching be rendered useless?

[Dusty Bannister]

When remelting the ingots for casting, would they lose their "quenching hardness" and thus the quenching be rendered useless?

Yes!

[sargenv]

I quench my ingots mostly to cool them down quickly so I can stack them faster as I go.

[nemesisenforcer]

When remelting the ingots for casting, would they lose their "quenching hardness" and thus the quenching be rendered useless?

Yes!

That's what I suspected but needed to be confirmed.

[osteodoc08]

No need in it and inviting Darwin to the party is up to you.

i have been known to trickle water under my pans in the past after ingots poured to speed cooling, but I don't make it a routine and needed to hurry up under special circumstance as I had the driveway blocked and the Mrs had to leave.

[btroj]

And now you know why ingot hardness doesn't mean anything

[bangerjim]

You got it! Water cooling ingots gains you ONE thing.........cold ingots much faster! When you remelt, you will revert to the non-quenched hardness of your alloy mix.

And if you really get down in the weeds, cooling a 1 or 2# ingot will be much slower than a teeny tiny boolit and the hardness will not be the same. Like btroi sez, ingot hardness means really nothing.

Best process I have found for repeatably accurate hardness is to mix your alloys for the hardness you desire and forget any phantom hardness gain from water dropping your boolits. Air cooled hardness will drift a bit depending on your mix, but it is pretty predictable. I see a 3-4 increase over time with my standard alloys in the 9-14 ranges.

I use the free spreadsheet to get the mix close. Surprisingly accurate, as long as you know your alloy feed stock percents and weights relatively accurately. That is why a good digital #/oz scale is a definite must have. The HF 11# digital is a great value. I have 2 of them.

And check out powder coating of your boolits. Allows you to shoot somewhat softer lead and stretch your premium alloys! And not loose sleep over worrying about boolit hardness any longer.

bangerjim

[Geezer in NH]

Waste of time

[BAGTIC]

Won't help the bullet caster but interestingly I once water cooled some lead by pouring it into a rectangular cake pan setting inside another cake pan that was filled with water. The 'casting' ended up about 3/8-1/2 inch thick. When it was struck with a piece of hard steel it rang clear like a bell.

[RogerDat]

I have heard but never confirmed that some unscrupulous Flea Bay sellers will water quench Ingots to harden them so they can claim they are a harder alloy. WW's to Lino hardness, then claim it is lino.
Might be true, might not. Don't think I would generally purchase premium alloy in ingot form unless the seller had a solid reputation here on the forum.