Oven Temp Too Hot and Melted boolits?????

[beechbum444]

The first issue is that boolit #1 melted to a point where it is leaning. The Boolits #3 have a huge bulge at the bottom that get scraped up ALOT when they are sized in a Lee push thru sizer, afterwards the lone boolit on the right is the result. The PC is Harbor Freight red. The temperature is 400 degrees for 20 minutes. When I tried 375 degrees for 15 minutes and 350 degrees for 15 minutes, the number of bulged bottom bullets decreased ALOT. Thus the number of scraped base boolits decrease ALOT. The Alloy is COWW.

The other issue is seen in the two boolits labeled #2. There are chips at the top where the PC has flaked off. This only happens when I get the boolits straight out of the oven and pour them into water or a dry surface. They bump into each other and the PC flakes. If I wait a minute or two and repeat the process, no flaking occurs.

Has anyone had similar issues????

[30Carbine]

Ok the coating I cant help you with. cause I don't coat. get an external thermometer and check it against your oven dials, you will find the dials are off by a good margin. I did with mine and holy what a big difference.

[bigolsmokebomb]

an external thermometer will help with the boolits getting deformed. as far as the PC im wondering myself as I just started casting and PC'ing my boolits and am having the same issue.

[rancher1913]

make sure you are using a convection oven otherwise the heat tubes could cause hot spots that would melt a boolit even if the temp gauge was right.

[454PB]

You need an oven thermometer, the built in thermostats are notoriously inaccurate.

[OS OK]

Attachment 178547
Cheap, find them at local kitchen stores, reliable.

[Bzcraig]

Yes on the thermometer! Have you tried the smash test on any of your boolits, especially those you think are the best? I suspect there might be something amiss in your process because there's nothing wrong with HF powder.

[OS OK]

Well, not exactly..."There's nothing wrong with HF powder that a quality powder won't fix!"...

[Eddie17]

As stated above you oven is to hot.
As for the PC you should bake for 15 minutes after the PC powder has melted. Not just 15 minutes, in and out.
I find that I am able to leave bullets in the oven past 15 minutes with no problems.

[matrixcs]

A friend of mine asked me a similar question when showing me his results from his convection oven. He brought the undisturbed tray of bullets and it appeared that the melted bullets were located directly below the upper heating coil where the intermittent on duration must have caused at least 100degrees more radiant heat than the center of the tray... melted lead shapes etc...
Fixed the problem by centering the shelf and putting a foil covered shelf between the coils and bullets to disburse the radiant heat..

[daloper]

The first time I tried to pc my bullets also melted. I had a toaster oven that I got from my brother. I put a therm in it and found that it way over shot. I also found that I had to put some bolt nuts to raise the rack off the pan. My guess its that the pan was to close to the radiant heat. Have to agree with matrixcs on that. In the end I went out and did purchase a convection oven and have had good luck with it maintaining the heat. Still use a second pan to help shield the heat form the bottom of the pan that the bullets are on.

[Moonie]

I have a good quality convection toaster oven that I use, 350F on the dial is 400F in the oven. Always check the actual temp of your oven, the dials vary wildly. 400F will not melt your cast boolits.

[fredj338]

Oven is just too hot. I PC in a convection pizza oven, 400deg doesn;t melt the bullets. Oven therm is your friend.

[beechbum444]

All:

Thanks for the replies and suggestions. I just realized that I put this under the wrong heading...not the coatings heading. I'm using the convection over and I'm on the way to get a thermometer. I'm also going to try the other pan to block the direct heat. I agree that 400 degrees should not melt Coww lead.

Regards,

[Shuz]

I heat treat in an old toaster oven and use a thermometer. I heat treat at it's indicated 475 deg and get no boolit distortion.