Blammer
07-24-2010, 08:17 PM
Well I sort of found myself in the midst of a test of sorts.
I was casting some boolits and then checking and sizing them in my lyman 450 no big deal right? Well normally right.
This time I was paying particular attention to the nose dia.
I noticed that after sizing and checking the nose grew .001, not a big deal but something I didn't want to have happen as this particular mould was casting just exactly what I wanted.
I didn't have this problem with earlier boolits cast out of the same pot so I was trying to find out the difference. I started noticing the larger nose on the "new" run of boolits I cast.
I recall that the first batch I cast I didn't get around to sizing until about 3 days later.
So I was thinking that the AC ww's I was using needed to be "aged".
Here is the test I wound up doing.
Casting some more boolits from the same pot and same alloy.
Air cooled them.
Tried to size them the first day with no fattening of the nose.
No luck.
Tried to sized second day
no luck
tried the third day
no luck.
so AC ww's don't seem to 'harden' over a period of 3 days to prevent the nose fattening.
I also cast up some and Water quenched them. (first time I've ever WQ'ed any boolits)
Same day as casting.
sized and checked no fattening of nose
One day afterwards,
no fattening, so test ended on WQ'ed ones.
In the midst of all this "testing" I thought that my sizing die was a bit on the "stiff" side when pushing an already sized boolit into the die.
So, I added some heat to the sizer, and it moved very free. (hmm, can you see where this is going....)
I then took a AC WW's (ones I was having trouble with) and checked and sized it and NO fattening of the nose. DOH!
I suppose I'll have to remember to add some heat to the die to make it work really easy.
And of course in the process another question came up.
How well with WQ boolits work. :)
P.S. The reason the first boolits didn't deform was because there was no lube in the sizer, I checked and sized but not lubed until later. So the lube was the "sticking" point.
I was casting some boolits and then checking and sizing them in my lyman 450 no big deal right? Well normally right.
This time I was paying particular attention to the nose dia.
I noticed that after sizing and checking the nose grew .001, not a big deal but something I didn't want to have happen as this particular mould was casting just exactly what I wanted.
I didn't have this problem with earlier boolits cast out of the same pot so I was trying to find out the difference. I started noticing the larger nose on the "new" run of boolits I cast.
I recall that the first batch I cast I didn't get around to sizing until about 3 days later.
So I was thinking that the AC ww's I was using needed to be "aged".
Here is the test I wound up doing.
Casting some more boolits from the same pot and same alloy.
Air cooled them.
Tried to size them the first day with no fattening of the nose.
No luck.
Tried to sized second day
no luck
tried the third day
no luck.
so AC ww's don't seem to 'harden' over a period of 3 days to prevent the nose fattening.
I also cast up some and Water quenched them. (first time I've ever WQ'ed any boolits)
Same day as casting.
sized and checked no fattening of nose
One day afterwards,
no fattening, so test ended on WQ'ed ones.
In the midst of all this "testing" I thought that my sizing die was a bit on the "stiff" side when pushing an already sized boolit into the die.
So, I added some heat to the sizer, and it moved very free. (hmm, can you see where this is going....)
I then took a AC WW's (ones I was having trouble with) and checked and sized it and NO fattening of the nose. DOH!
I suppose I'll have to remember to add some heat to the die to make it work really easy.
And of course in the process another question came up.
How well with WQ boolits work. :)
P.S. The reason the first boolits didn't deform was because there was no lube in the sizer, I checked and sized but not lubed until later. So the lube was the "sticking" point.