Author Topic: How consistent is quinching WW? (Read 650 times)

rickabristol · « **on:** March 31, 2005, 08:13:47 PM »

I bought one of the LBT bullet testers and have quinched bullets in ice water.(using Wheel weights). They came out from 20 to 24 brinell. Does ice in the water help? What are the pros and cons to quenching. I am using these bullets in a .270 rifle.

Thanks

Lloyd Smale · « **Reply #1 on:** March 31, 2005, 11:08:39 PM »

disadvantage is like you said you dont get consistant hardness and you loose some of the hardness when you size. I always had better luck alloying to get desired hardness.

calvon · « **Reply #2 on:** April 26, 2005, 08:07:49 AM »

Are you dropping the bullets from the mold into the water or are you oven heating batches and then quenching the batch all at one time?

I have never been able to get consistent Brinell numbers by dropping from the mold directly into water. Too much variability in the elapsed time between pouring and dropping.

I have been able to get much better consistency by oven heating in batches, within a Brinell number or two.

Somewhere I read (forgot where) that 65 degree water is optimal for quenching. I just use a sink full of cold tap water to quench. I made a tray that will hold about 600 9mm bullets, and thus heat treat in good sized batches.

Robert · « **Reply #3 on:** April 26, 2005, 01:36:22 PM »

Some good points here. Put all this together...and it sounds like if you size the bullets first.....then heat together in one batch and drop in water...then they will be properly sized....and would not take away the outer hardened layer. Does that sound about right?

calvon · « **Reply #4 on:** April 28, 2005, 10:04:02 AM »

My procedure is to cast and drop the bullets into a box of rags. On the same day they are cast, while they are still soft, I run them through my Star sizer without lubing them. One does, however, need to run a pre-lubed bullet through the sizer after eight or ten bullets have been sized so as to lube the sizer die.

Then I store them until I'm ready to heat treat and lube. I load up my quenching tray, put it in the oven at 450 degrees for about an hour and a quarter, then quench. Be sure to wear a glove when you plunge the tray into the sink full of water because a sizeable cloud of steam comes up. I made a mistake of not wearing a glove just once.

Following that, back to the sizer. Since the bullets have already been sized, this trip through the sizer is just for the lube.