How much heat to remove heat treating

[Jailer]

I have some water dropped boolits that I want to melt the lube out and re lube with something different. Will the low temp of lube melting <200 deg. remove the hardness from water dropping? If not how much heat does it take to remove hardness from heat treating?

[Nocturnal Stumblebutt]

No you would need to heat them to their slump point, or at least near it, the point at which the boolits get soft and start to lose their shape, 450+. So no, you won't lose or change anything as far as hardness, melting the lube off is really no different that reheating them to pan lube.

[I'll Make Mine]

Generally, heat treating lead will only harden it, never soften. Lead alloys that contain antimony (which is almost all of the ones we use) soften only with work (opposite of work hardening brass), while heat treatment hardens them.

[sqlbullet]

I'll Make Mine, careful there. I agree with your statement, but the OP isn't talking about heat treating bullets, eg, heating then quenching. The OP is going to heat them without quenching. If heated hot enough this will definitely soften lead alloys.

The answer to your question is "What is the composition of your alloy?". Here is why. As you heat the alloy, some of the elements in the alloy will become liquid before others, but are trapped in the matrix the overall solid forms. When a lead alloy cools slowly, then there is migration of some of these elements into larger 'clumps'. (Keep in mind these are still microscopic in size.) When we quench them, then a more uniform matrix is quickly frozen with less migration of constituent elements.

What you are really asking is are there any constituents that have become liquid at 200° that will migrate when allowed to slowly cool. Based on the ternary (http://www.globalspec.com/reference/77779/203279/alloy-families-used-in-soldering) phase diagrams of lead-tin-antimony, you should be safe at 200°. I know in my own testing 350° was certainly enough to remove heat treatment from 96-1-3 lead-tin-antimony, which is confirmed by the diagram.

I would test a small group, and see if you have issues with lower hardness. Alternately, you could heat them to just below slump and re-quench, this ensuring your heat treatment is still in place.

[Lizard333]

I just throw the boolits in a pot with water and bring to a boil. Allow it cool and skim the lube off. I wouldn't use the wife's nice pan btw. It doesn't end well.

Btw, adding some dish soap might help, just be careful when it reaches a boil, that could get messy.

[Jailer]

I'll Make Mine, careful there. I agree with your statement, but the OP isn't talking about heat treating bullets, eg, heating then quenching. The OP is going to heat them without quenching. If heated hot enough this will definitely soften lead alloys.

The answer to your question is "What is the composition of your alloy?". Here is why. As you heat the alloy, some of the elements in the alloy will become liquid before others, but are trapped in the matrix the overall solid forms. When a lead alloy cools slowly, then there is migration of some of these elements into larger 'clumps'. (Keep in mind these are still microscopic in size.) When we quench them, then a more uniform matrix is quickly frozen with less migration of constituent elements.

What you are really asking is are there any constituents that have become liquid at 200° that will migrate when allowed to slowly cool. Based on the ternary (http://www.globalspec.com/reference/77779/203279/alloy-families-used-in-soldering) phase diagrams of lead-tin-antimony, you should be safe at 200°. I know in my own testing 350° was certainly enough to remove heat treatment from 96-1-3 lead-tin-antimony, which is confirmed by the diagram.

I would test a small group, and see if you have issues with lower hardness. Alternately, you could heat them to just below slump and re-quench, this ensuring your heat treatment is still in place.

Exactly what I was asking. The boolits in question are water quenched WW. So according to what you posted I should be fine melting the lube out at 200 deg.


I just throw the boolits in a pot with water and bring to a boil. Allow it cool and skim the lube off. I wouldn't use the wife's nice pan btw. It doesn't end well.

Btw, adding some dish soap might help, just be careful when it reaches a boil, that could get messy.

But what is the temp at the bottom of the pot right next to the heat source? I understand that water is a good conductor of heat but direct metal to metal contact of a pan on a direct heat source will probably add more heat to your boolits than you realize or desire.

[cbrick]

Probably safe at 200 degrees but 150-175 will probably be good to remove lube. That said I would boil them as mentioned by lizzard, if your concerned about the temp at the bottom of the pot just use a double boiler.

Rick

[mongoosesnipe]

So long as there is liquid water in the pot under the bullets the temp can not go above that of boiling water which is 212f/100c at sea level with a normal atmospheric pressure water, I am at about 1000 feet and water usually boils around 205f/96c for me with a bunch of bullets on the bottom of the pan without water around them the temp may get a little hotter than the but not much you could put a junk towel under the bullets to keep a little bit of water under them also you don't need to boil them to get the lube of just bring the water to a boil and turn off the heat and let them sit the water will stay hot well above the melting temp of the lube for quite a while but don't put too many bullets in at once or you may end up not being able to get all the lube off them just loosely spread on the bottom will do fine