Do you heat treat in your kitchen oven?

[Gunslinger]

I know this is maybe a dumb question. I'm just thinking why not? At 450 degrees lead doesn't come near melting point let alone vaporizing point. And if you use a pan especially designated for heat treating and that is not used for cooking, and let the oven be turned on for about half an hour after you're done...

Am I insane??

How many, if any, do it in your kitchen oven??

I know those of you who are married most likely do not dare attempt this ;-)

[Griffin]

i use this method and have the boolits there for one hour in 225 degrees celsius. i dont understand how this can be dangerous, since one is not melting the lead at all. the turnoff sequence of my oven is 40 minutes so i dont see a problem, i mean its also ventilated. i use a separate pan for this of course and i have two kids. i just dont let them near the boolits and wash the hands and pan really often.
karl

[Calamity Jake]

Yap do it all the time, doesn't bother the wife at all.
I have also melted hard lube from store bought boolits. About 225° is all you need otherwise the lube could burn and stink up the house.

[Shiloh]

When I ever try it, that's the appliance I'll use.

Shiloh

[Trey45]

I have a cuisinart "toaster oven" type oven in the garage that i use for heat treating. The digital readout is accurate so if I set it for 250 degrees, that's what it heats to, if I set it for 300 degrees, that's what it heats to, 450 is really 450 , and so on. It is ONLY used for lead, so there's absolutely no chance of cross contamination of foods. You bring up valid points about lead not vaporizing at such low temps, I still don't want to take even the slightest chance of cross contamination of foods in the house oven.

[Ricochet]

I use the kitchen oven. Only caveat I'll add is to be careful what lube you use for sizing before heat treating. I used PAM spray once, and Lord, did it ever stink up the kitchen! Made my eyes water. There are far worse things one could use, I'm sure. I use Murphy's Oil Soap and rinse it off before heating now.

That baked on PAM made the boolits come out looking just like Remington's "Golden Bullet" .22s.

[AJ Peacock]

Yep. Our oven has a digital readout and I use a seperate thermometer in the oven as a double check on the temperature. Not because I'm worried about 'vaporizing' the lead, but I want to make sure I can repeat my heat treat settings if I change ovens. It seems that lead will give off the same vapors at 425F that it does at room temperature, and I don't see anyone concerned about breathing in lead vapor at room temperature.

AJ

[Potsy]

Kid Sis gave me an old toaster oven that does that duty out in my shop.
Sometimes, it's just easier to find a different way than to argue about it with my wife; environmental issues not withstanding.
When you're married, you can both be happy, or you can be right.

It works, but when I went from a muffin pan to a thick, stainless pan, bullets started melting.
I guess the stainless pan is holding too much heat. I need to fool with it some because it'll hold around 150 .45's versus about 60 for the muffin pan.

[beagle]

I agree. I've heat treated in the oven and used a seperate thermometer for "calibration". Helps to preheat the oven in case there have been some spills in it beforehand.

I've done it for years with no problems./beagle


Yep. Our oven has a digital readout and I use a seperate thermometer in the oven as a double check on the temperature. Not because I'm worried about 'vaporizing' the lead, but I want to make sure I can repeat my heat treat settings if I change ovens. It seems that lead will give off the same vapors at 425F that it does at room temperature, and I don't see anyone concerned about breathing in lead vapor at room temperature.

AJ

[Gunslinger]

Thanks a lot guys, that was the answer I hoped for. I kind of expected it, but just wanted to be certain.

[mdi]

I believe the "dangers" of lead are WAAAAAY overblown. I've read studies by the CDC about lead poisoning from boolits in game (don't exist) and just common sence will tell you, it's mostly a political thing. California politicians, for example, have "saved" it's citizens from "deadly" lead by banning wheel weights! They say the weights fly off wheels (evil little buggers!) and get ground up on the road to be washed off by rain and contaminates the ground water supply! Lead is banned in some freshwater lakes to save the fish-eaters from lead poisoning (even though the fish can be consumed only ONCE per week because of fertilizer/chemical contamination from agriculture).

How in the world can a common metal heated, not melted, contaminate other items heated later in the same appliance? Besides it isn't lead in metal form that's a problem, it's the lead oxide (as used in the paint that weird kids ate). The only person I have ever known to have high lead levels in their blood was a weldor with 30+ years of experiance.

Sorrry for the rant, It just bothers me that the scare tactics used by the environmentalists are working. So if you want to dress like a surgeon or hazardous material handler go for it (I read of one guy that uses a respirator and ventalition fans to cast boolits, plus a full leather apron, long sleeved shirt, full lace up boots, welder's gloves and safety goggles).

Just my 2 cents worth...

[fredj338]

I have a cuisinart "toaster oven" type oven in the garage that i use for heat treating. The digital readout is accurate so if I set it for 250 degrees, that's what it heats to, if I set it for 300 degrees, that's what it heats to, 450 is really 450 , and so on. It is ONLY used for lead, so there's absolutely no chance of cross contamination of foods. You bring up valid points about lead not vaporizing at such low temps, I still don't want to take even the slightest chance of cross contamination of foods in the house oven.
I'm with you there. A toaster oven can be had on sale for under $40, leave it in the garage & use it for whatever you need a heat source for. No leaded items in my kitchen.

[lwknight]

Some tears back I had to have a blood lead analasys to work in a paint removal job. They wanted to be sure that I didn't start out with lead in me and sue them. Kust a CYA thing.
Anyway , I was thinking that I would have a detectable level from all the bullet making and lead handling stuff over the years. Turned out that I was lower than most of the average populas that should never have been exposed.
Handling lead with your hands is no big deal either because your hand skin is thich and has a thick layer if dead cells on the epidermis and also sheds rapidly.
That patch medication has to be applied on your tender skin around the torso and would never work on hands.
Just always wash thouroughly before eating

[lwknight]

Man, I cannot type!!

[AZ-Stew]

We poor typists are well served to re-read our posts, then select the "Edit" button in the lower right of the post to make our corrections. I've had to have mine replaced twice due to wear.

Regards,

Stew

[AZ-Stew]

I bought a "yard sale" toaster oven a couple of years ago and use it for heat treating. I wrote an extensive post on it.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=42870&highlight=toaster

Regards,

Stew

[Ricochet]

(I read of one guy that uses a respirator and ventalition fans to cast boolits, plus a full leather apron, long sleeved shirt, full lace up boots, welder's gloves and safety goggles).
Wonder if he wears that to load ammo and to shoot?

[Freischütz]

I found kitchen ranges will work but you cannot trust their temperature settings. Temperatures shown on the dial must be verified with a thermometer.

Additionally, the maximum temperature produced during a heating cycle may cause some bullet components to melt. For me the result was slumped bullets, bullets with pieces that fell off, or bullets that looked like they were sand blasted.. I believe this is what Dennis Marshall described in “Stronger Bullets with Less Alloying”.