Heating tumbler and sear to 600 deg

[Larry (Omaha)]

Have an old lock that needed some TLC. The tumbler and sear were a disaster for fit, shape (no half cock) and hardness. I ordered a new tumbler and sear from Track. The refit and installation is in progress, but I am not sure what to do about tempering. Track's, Siler lock instructions say to temper both the sear and tumbler at 600 deg. My home oven goes to 550 deg. I am not comfortable using visual color changes to identify temp. My gut is that the 550 deg would do the job, just be a tad on the hard side. What would you do?

Flintlocklar

 

[rich pierce]

550 should be plenty. Ovens are not too accurate. I’d put it in a tin can with sand, heat for an hour, let it cool

 

[dave_person]

Hi Larry,
You should be fine at 550 as long as both parts are tempered at the same temp and time. One way you could do the job would be to temper in your oven at 550 for 1 hour, then polish the parts and heat them with a propane or butane torch until indigo blue and let cool. To get the right color just start pulling the heat away when the parts start turning purple. Residual heat will bring them to blue. It is really not very hard.

dave

 

[tleeds]

I also think the oven would be sufficient.

 

[jerrywh]

600☺°F is much better. 550 is OK but I have had some sear tip break off that were tempered at 550.

 

[Alexander Efremenko]

Do you have an electric lead pot for bullet casting? At a lower setting, your probably there.