I think leftoverdj is correct on this. I have some wheel weight .30 cal 191 grainers that I recently ran through my lee lube/sizer. These start pretty large, so I expected some problems. I washed them with some liquid alox and ran them through, gaschecking them at the same time. I did not wait for the alox to dry. It worked just fine. These bullets were already hardened to 11 or 12 over a period of several months. I've not gone any further with this experiment, but my plan is to wash the alox of with mineral spirits and then oven harden a few just to see what the results are. My plan was to then pan lube the hardened bullets with LBT Blue and shoot them alongside the unhardened ones just to see how they might differ. These would be shot out of a 30-30 at a max of 2000 fps so it may be that the hardening of the bullets beyond 11 or 12 is an unneccesary excersise
I like leftoverdj's idea of the lanolin even better though.
As to the depth of hardening, I'm sure it goes all the way through if the bullets are soaked long enough to heat them all the way through, but that is only a guess. I don't have a hardness tester so can't check that. Also, I'm not sure how deep any softening may extend into the bullet by virtue of the sizing operation. DJ is on the right track with hardening after sizing and of course sizing would be even easier if done the day they are cast and at their softest.
The quality of the bullets after sizing in the lee sizing die was so much better than what came out of my lyman sizer that it seems well worth the bit of extra work. Especially since the Lee system does not contact the nose of the bullet. Also, the lee system is just as fast and any one lee sizing die is as cheap or cheaper than a die to fit my Lyman sizer.
The maximum hardness you're gonna get outta straight w/w is 11/12? Straight w/w will attain this hardness on their own over a 2 wk. period or can be rushed by running them through the oven?
If i take what you said above literally, then it's not quite correct. If you cast with wheel weights, they will be about 8 or 9 bhn after they have cooled. over a period of about two weeks at room temp, they will gradually harden to 11 or 12 and will stay there permanently. I know of no way to rush that two week period and arrive with any accuracy at the 11 or 12 number. The oven treating process can be done immediatley after casting but is typically meant to harden the bullets beyond the 11 or 12 number. Heating the bullets in the oven for an hour or a bit more at a temp just below the melt point and then quickly dumping them into cold or cool water will cause them to harden over a period of several days to bhn numbers as high as 30 or even more. They will then begin a long slow process of softening on their own always headed back toward that 11 or 12 number. This can take a very long time and is effected by the ambient temperature. Some casters keep their hardened bullets in the freezer which is said to slow the process mucho. I don't have a hardness tester, so I can't answer how long.
My system if using hardened bullets is to keep track of the oven temp used and the time they are heated
and to dump them into the same temp water every time. In other words, while I don't know the actual hardness rating, I can repeat the process to get bullets hardened to the same degree as previously if a particular oven temp worked well. Using a lower oven temp will give you a somewhat softer bullet. Once again, I have no tester and don't know the actual number. I really don't care as long as I can repeat a process to arrive at the same performance. I don't store bullets very long before use so am not concerned about softening over time. If I do have some that have aged months or a year or more I will sometimes run them through the oven again.
That said, since I gave up shooting high velocity lead bullets in handguns, I rarely heat treat any more but am getting back into it with the 30-30 project. My other castings are lead/tin or pure lead for round balls and bp velocity bullets.
Sorry to go on and on and take so many tnagents. I hope I answered your question or at least addressed it correctly.
