Well, I've taken the plunge and sent Mr. Stewart payent for a shot dripper. Spent the last 2 days smelting down 470 pounds of ingots in preparation for the big day!!! Right time of year for this as waiting for it to come in the mail makes me feel like waiting for Santa.
Well- I'm on my 4th run of shot, dripped over 800 pounds so far so thought I would offer an OPINION as to the answers I was looking for.
Questions....
1- I've read about heat treating bullets to make them harder, pans of shot could also be placed in an oven for heat treatment... or is the drop into fluid enough to harden them???
A- Shot shape & hardness mattered a lot less than I thought it would at the 16 yard line for trap, shot with small dimples or tails did not have much of an effect on patterning at that range and no effect of trap average. At handicap ranges the patterns were more unstable than at the 16 yard line.
2- I've been circling building a stainless pin tumbler, this morning I saw a design on the forum that had a "drive" bucket that was a sleeve for the "payload" bucket. If I had a dedicated "payload" bucket that was for tumbling shot, would that be a step that would help to uniform the shape of the shot in addition to using it to graphite coat the pellets??
3- I've some pretty strong recommendations for the cooling fluid- Wallmart brand fabric softener seems to be the choice, as it is realtively cheap and rinses offf the shot easily... any other recommendations??? If so, why? What do you use and what makes it work for you???
A- I went with the recommendation of canola oil, worked fine BUT WAS A MAJOR PAIN IN THE KAZOO, getting the oil off the shot took multiple washings in dish soap and a final rinse with mineral sprits- too much work. Tried the cheap wallmart fabric softener and it was just great! A buddy at the club has decided to try his hand at dripping and after much discussion, he's decided to try the non-ethyl anti-freeze, very much looking forward to his first run and I'll keep you posted.
4- Coolant temperature, makeing a water jacket for the coolant tank would be simple enough, how hot does the coolant have to get before there are problems??
A- The final system was to have my 20mm drip tank in a tub of water with a hose on slow flow, worked great!
THE BIGGEST LESSON- Alloy matters a great deal, with COWW getting hard to get I was using soft lead and ended up with over sized shot, got some superhard from Roto-Metals and it did a nice job of strengthening the alloy and making shot more uniform- it was an added expense over all, but I think it will be a necessity for me with the lead that I am able to scrounge.
Thanks, as always, for the wisdom of experience.
Beez