work softening water dropped

[Will]

If I want a harder boolit and water drop to accomplish this do I defeat my purpose by work softening the boolit when I size it?

[44man]

If you don't size much I don't think you will see a difference. I let boolits sit a long time before finishing them and they shoot the same.
If you size a lot, then you soften deeper so it would be better to size soon after casting.
You can size with soap or something, then oven harden before lubing.
I just don't pay attention to all the little things that mean nothing in the end.
The only boolits I oven harden is a softer alloy like 50-50.

[leadman]

Veral Smith in his book also stated he sizes after water dropping and has seen no difference. I use the same procedure with excellent results.

[1Shirt]

For whatever it is worth, I have always sized/checked/lubed etc. within 24 hours after casting because of hardening over a period of time. I cast hard, in excess of Lino, and up to 28 or so BH for most of my blts, and I water drop everything for convenience. If you are running them thru a sizer just to lube to the same size they drop, no problem. If however, you are going to reduce them a bit, waiting until after they have hardened for a period of time may cause a problem.
1Shirt!

[Maven]

Will, They do work soften, but I don't know how deeply the softening penetrates. I believe Dennis Marshall, a metallurgist, maintained it was more than superficial. You may want to google Dennis Marshall and look for his articles on alloys, heat treating, and work softening.

[runfiverun]

i size mine asap they can then sit around and harden.
when doing water droped rifle boolits i'll cast about 300 then check/size, you can lube them later.
i find it easier to do smaller batches over a period off time than trying to do one big batch right now.
if your worried about them all being the exact same hardness then heat treat them.

[RobS]

From my testing, if a person waits to size, they soften on the portion of the boolit where sized and only about 1-2 BHN depending on the amount of sizing going on. This is of course on the surface where the testing was done.

If a person sizes directly after heat treating or water quenching the BHN is less affected in my experiences. Readings of 1 BHN or less as been the norm for me. If water quenched or heat treated, I usually size within a few hours or so after casting to make it easier on the lubricator press a well as me for that matter. However, if the boolits are dropping as cast at the diameter a person wants and uses a sizer die that doesn't size the boolit, only lubes, then in such situation it wouldn't matter when a person sizes/lubes in regards to BHN.

[Gohon]

Okay, lets say if your casts are 11-12 Bhn when air cooled but you water dropped them and they are 18-19 Bhn. So you size those water dropped casts and they drop 1 BHN and we'll even go to the extreme and say they drop 2 BHN. Now they are 16-17 BHN. What did you really lose..........nothing. Load them and shoot them, your loads will never know the difference.

[Calamity Jake]

+1 on Gohon, 1 to 2 points bhn is no biggie, I size em when I need em and don't worry about it.

If I need them hard I oven HT.

[AZ-Stew]

[QUOTE=Calamity Jake;1090563If I need them hard I oven HT.[/QUOTE]

Ditto.

I cast, then seat the check and size. If I want them hard, I have a toaster oven set aside for heat treating. Once they're HT'd I run them through a sizer that's .001 over the sized diameter for lubing.

Regards,

Stew