Outdoor cold weather casting

[Kenk]

Any of you cast outdoors in the winter months? I?m sure it?s doable as long as you keep your pot and molds hot enough. Are there any other cold weather variables I haven?t taken into not consideration?
Thanks

[DDRiller]

Don't do while it is snowing. LOL  I cast a lot in the winter in my garage with the door opened about half way.  Once I get going no problem keeping everything hot.

[Kenk]

Absolutely, snow could definitely wreck a guys day pretty quick, Thanks!

[sqlbullet]

Bullet hardness will be impacted, especially over time.

Bullets air-cooled at room temperature from the typical WW style alloy (lead 95-96%, antimony 2-5%, tin 0.5-1%) will usually harden over several months and stabilize at 16-17 BHN.  Most folks who cast don't notice this as they:  1 - don't usually test hardness to begin with and 2- certainly don't test again months later.  I had two kids who I cajouled into science fair projects about ternary alloy heat treating and we used lead for the tests.  With the first child, we made a bunch of samples with different heat treatments.  Two years later the second child re-tested and did a comparative analysis of the changes over time.

We found that bullets that were air-cooled in a room temperature room were a 10-12 bhn after a few days, depending on casting temp, and aged over 24 months to 14-17, again based on the initial casting temp.  Bullets that were in any way heat treated stabilized after 24 months either in the 12-13 range (low heat treat to 350F and cooled in oven) or they stabilized at 22-24 bhn (high heat treat to 450F and quenched)

Data:  http://fellingfamily.net/isolead/

Later experiments validated that casting in a cold environment (below 32F) and air cooling provided a higher initial BHN (12-14) that remained more or less stable over time.

As a parent brag:  Those two kids are both graduating college this spring.  The older will get their masters degree in material science engineering, and the younger their bachelors in the same field.  One will begin their PhD in metallurgy in the fall and the other will be entering the workforce as an educator in technical schools.  Seems like those science fair projects had an impact (or we are just nerds!)

[Kenk]

Wow, that should make for some nice careers for both of them, great job in helping them