Partial water quenching

[joel0407]

Has anyone tried not quenching at all when casting but standing bullets on a tray in the oven and heating. Then when heated pour water onto the tray cooling only the lower part of the boolit

Just wondering:smile:

[BABore]

It's possible, but the cold water contacting the 450 F pan is likely to cause it to buckle and boolits to fall over. If the boolits are contained in recessed pockets, then maybe. Time will be most critical.

You might be better off to HT the batch, then stand them up in cold water and torch anneal the nose portion. I've had good luck with this. It's not real fast, but you don't need that many for hunting. A Tempil stick (welding supply) is a good aid for consistency.

[Frozone]

I use an oven heat treatment to harden my 454 boolits. While I don't use a partial quench, I don't see why you couldn't. I use a flat bottom tray with holes ( like a spaghetti strainer ) and lower it into cold water. If you put only enough water in a flat bottom container to cover the lower potion of the boolits it might accomplish what you desire.

[Shiloh]

I quench and let it go at that.

Shiloh

[fredj338]

That is heat treating, if heated for a specific amount of time, & not quenching. You can get an even harder bullet that way. Water dropping is pretty good for probably 90% of all shooting applications.

[sqlbullet]

Fred, I think you missed what he was saying.

You have to quench whether from the mold or oven. It is the sudden change from hot to cold that creates the metal matrix needed to harden the lead alloy. The antimony doesn't have time to migrate. The same thing will occur if the antimony/tin ratios are better balanced. The tin prevents the antimony migration during cooling.

If you heat the lead in the oven, and then just let it cool without quenching, you will remove any heat-treatment effects that were present.

In this case, the OP wants a hard base, but a soft nose. I tend to agree with the first responder that you will have a tough time getting the bullets to stay standing. Second issue will be getting the base to cool really fast without pulling energy from the nose. I think re-heating the nose might be a better route, although I still question if you will get enough differential hardness to matter.

[fredj338]

Fred, I think you missed what he was saying.

You have to quench whether from the mold or oven. It is the sudden change from hot to cold that creates the metal matrix needed to harden the lead alloy. The antimony doesn't have time to migrate. The same thing will occur if the antimony/tin ratios are better balanced. The tin prevents the antimony migration during cooling.

If you heat the lead in the oven, and then just let it cool without quenching, you will remove any heat-treatment effects that were present.

In this case, the OP wants a hard base, but a soft nose. I tend to agree with the first responder that you will have a tough time getting the bullets to stay standing. Second issue will be getting the base to cool really fast without pulling energy from the nose. I think re-heating the nose might be a better route, although I still question if you will get enough differential hardness to matter than water dropping.

I didn't think he was asking about differential heat treating; nose & base. Just an alternative method. Heat treating in an oven is a bit diff. as you are allowing the bullet to remain at a certain constant temp for a longer period of time then quenching. it does make the bullet harder. http://www.lasc.us/HeatTreat.htm

[anachronism]

Why not just anneal the noses?

[1Shirt]

Ya, Like anachronism says.
1Shirt!:coffee:

[Lead Fred]

I use a bucket of ice water, when the ice melts, I get another bag, rinse and repeat

[Gohon]

as you are allowing the bullet to remain at a certain constant temp for a longer period of time then quenching. it does make the bullet harder. http://www.lasc.us/HeatTreat.htm

Not exactly correct. Go to the link you provided and scroll down to "Selecting A BHN Range By Convection Oven Temperature Setting". Depending on the temperature you select the bullets will be harder than air cooled but can be softer or harder than water dropped from the mould. The real value of oven heat treating is consistency in BHN. You can't get that from water dropping.

From his post "differential heat treating" was exactly what I think he was interested in. Harder base with soft nose. Least that's how I read it.