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Thread: Disaster strikes!

  1. #1
    Boolit Master 44Blam's Avatar
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    Disaster strikes!

    I had about 30 cast boolits (405 grn .460 gas check -- with gas check) turn into little puddles!

    I guess my oven got a little too hot.

    Anyway, it took a little effort to get the gas check out of the puddle and I'll just melt them down and try again. Anyone have any issues throwing PC'd puddles into a lead furnace? I imagine the PC just burns off...

  2. #2
    Boolit Master
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    PC burns off and floats to the top. Make sure to stir the post well and flux.

  3. #3
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    I did it while back but it was two trays with probably a total of a 6-700 9mm bullets.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Lloyd Smale View Post
    I did it while back but it was two trays with probably a total of a 6-700 9mm bullets.

    Smokin!!!

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    That's an expensive way to anneal gas checks...
    Old enough to know better, young enough to do it anyway!

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    A $10 Taylor Oven guide Thermometer would have been a lot cheaper.

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    I did this within my first three batches of .45 just starting out.

    Since then I bought an oven thermometer and found out that the oven was 75-100 degrees too hot. Then I made a PID and found that the thermometer I bought was 25 degrees too hot LOL

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    real kick in the but was yesterday. Ive been for 3 weeks cast and powder coating sizing 9mm bullets. About 4 hours a day. earlier this year I loaded up every piece of 9mm brass in the house and the bullet supply was down to nothing so I figured id make a bunch. Well ive filled 6 coffee cans so far and decided yesterday to put them away. Ive got a big shelf set up out in another part of the garage where I store bullets that are done. I got crawling up to the top where 9s go and there was a coffee can of every one of those 6 bullets expect for one already done sitting on the shelf. I couldn't see them because they were toward the back and that shelf is about 7 feet high. Wouldn't you know I had two more molds to cast and I don't have a single one of those two bullets. I guess the good thing is I probably will never have to cast another 9mm bullets. But what fun is that! Maybe ill haul a pile up to my buddys house so I have something to do next winter.
    Quote Originally Posted by RobS View Post
    Smokin!!!

  9. #9
    Boolit Grand Master OS OK's Avatar
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    This one doesn't lie & it's one of the cheapest you can buy...ask Dragonheart


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    Boolit Grand Master fredj338's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by EMR View Post
    I did this within my first three batches of .45 just starting out.

    Since then I bought an oven thermometer and found out that the oven was 75-100 degrees too hot. Then I made a PID and found that the thermometer I bought was 25 degrees too hot LOL
    Yet 25deg isn't melting your bullets. oven therm will be close enough.
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  11. #11
    Boolit Grand Master
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    Your oven control is definite ***** to create pools of melted boolits. Those cheap little toaster ovens use the cheapest bi-metal thermometers China can build.

    I bought an Oster top-o-the-line toaster oven with digital control and display and it controls temps within 3F of setting...checked with lab-grade thermocouples and meters.

    Get yourself a GOOD oven thermometer!!!!!!!

  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by EMR View Post
    I did this within my first three batches of .45 just starting out.

    Since then I bought an oven thermometer and found out that the oven was 75-100 degrees too hot. Then I made a PID and found that the thermometer I bought was 25 degrees too hot LOL
    remember the PIDs can also be off
    did you check it with boiling water? 212° (mine is C so 100° was a nice round # to aim for)
    C units aren't all that difficult to work with--set at 207°C and the bullets won't care
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    With a new oven, put a test bullet in, and leave it for 20 minutes to be sure it doesn't slump. If not, you are good to go.
    The solid soft lead bullet is undoubtably the best and most satisfactory expanding bullet that has ever been designed. It invariably mushrooms perfectly, and never breaks up. With the metal base that is essential for velocities of 2000 f.s. and upwards to protect the naked base, these metal-based soft lead bullets are splendid.
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  14. #14
    Boolit Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by waksupi View Post
    With a new oven, put a test bullet in, and leave it for 20 minutes to be sure it doesn't slump. If not, you are good to go.
    Well not really. Polymers start to flow well under 200 degrees a long way from most manufacture's recommended 400 degrees for 10 minutes. Leaving you bullets in an oven for an hour that has not come up to or maintains the required temperature does not constitute proper curing of the polymer. By the time lead slumps the temperature is way too hot.

    Whether you choose to go with a PID or just spend $10 for a glass thermometer the fact is if you want properly cured PC bullets time and temperature are critical factors, it is just the basic physics of the PC operation.

  15. #15
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    I melted the first three test runs with my thrift shop toaster oven. Thermostat sits right at 300, polymer melts after 2-3 minutes and I take it out at 10. If I go to 350 on the thermostat, I get melted bullets. Funny, though, was that the puddles were perfectly powder coated.

  16. #16
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    I had similar issues. I have a two shelf oven. I put a cheap pan on the top shelf to block some of the direct heat and only use the bottom shelf. It fixed my problem

  17. #17
    Boolit Master
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    Bangerjim, I give up! How many years have we been telling anybody that would listen, time and temperature is the key to getting properly cured PC bullets and the only way to know the temperature is with a good thermometer? You can lead a horse to water................

  18. #18
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    Quote Originally Posted by 44Blam View Post
    Anyway, it took a little effort to get the gas check out of the puddle and I'll just melt them down and try again. Anyone have any issues throwing PC'd puddles into a lead furnace? I imagine the PC just burns off...
    Sorry about your little puddles.

    Don't make any effort to get the gas check out of the puddles. Just toss them in the melting pot and they float right to the top, remove them with the dross, and re-used them. Annealed gas checks work just fine.
    I give loading advice based on my actual results in factory rifles with standard chambers, twist rates and basic accurizing.
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  19. #19
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    Thermometer thermometer thermometer thermometer thermometer

    Use it for a year or 3 get a new thermometer thermometer

    Thermometer prevents melted bullets thermometer ensures proper cure thermometer is more reliable than the temp dial thermometer

    These ovens do not give realistic temp control use a thermometer

  20. #20
    Boolit Grand Master OS OK's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by odfairfaxsub View Post
    Thermometer thermometer thermometer thermometer thermometer

    Use it for a year or 3 get a new thermometer thermometer

    Thermometer prevents melted bullets thermometer ensures proper cure thermometer is more reliable than the temp dial thermometer

    These ovens do not give realistic temp control use a thermometer
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Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check