BCall
01-07-2011, 06:30 PM
To ladle casting that is. I started casting like alot of people with a cheap Lee ladle and was frustrated for awhile. Then I got a bottom pour pot and never looked back. As most have seen, I like to cast and shoot small caliber stuff, 22's are my favorite. I had been looking forward to the new NOE 70 grain RN 22 mold. It arrived the other day and the frustration began.
I don't normally have a struggle with 22 mold. I have way more trouble with stuff over 30 than any 22 mold, but this thing was about to send me through the roof. I started where Swede had mentioned he cast at. 680 degrees on the pot, just over 300 on the mold. I couldn't get the wrinkles out. I cranked up the heat, and by the time there were no wrinkles, the boolits were extremely frosty and not filled out all the way. Cool it down, and wrinkles came back. I went through all the warm up cycles that Swede reccomends before casting, cleaned the mold, so I recleaned, several times, with anything I had. Brake cleaner, acetone, Dawn dishsoap, Still wrinkles and dimples until I got it too frosty for my liking. I smoked the mold, then cleaned it again, tried more flow, less flow, didn;t seem to matter. I was about to go crazy.
I began to think, did I get some zinc in my melt somehow? I use WW plus tin, but haven't had any trouble in the past. So I pulled out my favorite mold. A single cavity 225462 that Buckshot hollow pointed for me. After warm up, lead at 720, and in just over 100 casts, I had 100 great boolits. I love this mold. It works beautifully and will drop perfect boolits as fast as I can go. Here they are-
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh259/blcall/SN851302.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh259/blcall/SN851300.jpg
Less frustrated now, I went back to thinking about the NOE mold.
So it wasn't my melt, I've tried all temps from 600-almost 900, and cleaned the mold until I'm sick of it. Pressure pour, longer drops from the spout, shorter, nothing seemed to matter. Then I got to thinking, maybe it's a HVLP thing. More volume needed, but not more pressure. I didn't know how to do that until I got to thinking about the Rowell ladle I bought from Charlie Sometimes a while back. Broke it out, lead at 720-740, and bang, useable boolits. I am not a good ladle caster, I have devoted all of my time to bottom pour and ladle casting is just something I don't do. But this did work. I have some useable boolits. There is still a slight rounding on some fo the bases as you can see in the pic, but I'm sure it is my poor ladle casting technique. With a little more work I think I can cure that. I can also bring the temps down some as there was some frosting, but not bad at all. A few of the base bands have a bit of rounding as you can see in the far left boolit. These I reject.
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh259/blcall/SN851303.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh259/blcall/SN851304.jpg
So if you have read this far, thank you for listening. I'm not sure the HVLP thing really explains the results I have gotten, but it did work and will work better once I improve my technique, mainly my repeatability to hit the sprue hole properly with the stream of lead.
Then I began to wonder about some other long for caliber boolits that I had. The 314299 and the 311467. I have had trouble with these as well. So I switch off molds and tried them. Much better success.
I don't think I'll give up the bottom pour, but I think in these long for caliber boolits, I have become a convert to the Rowell ladle. I can't fully explain it, but it worked and I am a much happier boolit caster now. Thanks, this board has helped me a bunch, I hope I have contributed something back. Billy
I don't normally have a struggle with 22 mold. I have way more trouble with stuff over 30 than any 22 mold, but this thing was about to send me through the roof. I started where Swede had mentioned he cast at. 680 degrees on the pot, just over 300 on the mold. I couldn't get the wrinkles out. I cranked up the heat, and by the time there were no wrinkles, the boolits were extremely frosty and not filled out all the way. Cool it down, and wrinkles came back. I went through all the warm up cycles that Swede reccomends before casting, cleaned the mold, so I recleaned, several times, with anything I had. Brake cleaner, acetone, Dawn dishsoap, Still wrinkles and dimples until I got it too frosty for my liking. I smoked the mold, then cleaned it again, tried more flow, less flow, didn;t seem to matter. I was about to go crazy.
I began to think, did I get some zinc in my melt somehow? I use WW plus tin, but haven't had any trouble in the past. So I pulled out my favorite mold. A single cavity 225462 that Buckshot hollow pointed for me. After warm up, lead at 720, and in just over 100 casts, I had 100 great boolits. I love this mold. It works beautifully and will drop perfect boolits as fast as I can go. Here they are-
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh259/blcall/SN851302.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh259/blcall/SN851300.jpg
Less frustrated now, I went back to thinking about the NOE mold.
So it wasn't my melt, I've tried all temps from 600-almost 900, and cleaned the mold until I'm sick of it. Pressure pour, longer drops from the spout, shorter, nothing seemed to matter. Then I got to thinking, maybe it's a HVLP thing. More volume needed, but not more pressure. I didn't know how to do that until I got to thinking about the Rowell ladle I bought from Charlie Sometimes a while back. Broke it out, lead at 720-740, and bang, useable boolits. I am not a good ladle caster, I have devoted all of my time to bottom pour and ladle casting is just something I don't do. But this did work. I have some useable boolits. There is still a slight rounding on some fo the bases as you can see in the pic, but I'm sure it is my poor ladle casting technique. With a little more work I think I can cure that. I can also bring the temps down some as there was some frosting, but not bad at all. A few of the base bands have a bit of rounding as you can see in the far left boolit. These I reject.
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh259/blcall/SN851303.jpg
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh259/blcall/SN851304.jpg
So if you have read this far, thank you for listening. I'm not sure the HVLP thing really explains the results I have gotten, but it did work and will work better once I improve my technique, mainly my repeatability to hit the sprue hole properly with the stream of lead.
Then I began to wonder about some other long for caliber boolits that I had. The 314299 and the 311467. I have had trouble with these as well. So I switch off molds and tried them. Much better success.
I don't think I'll give up the bottom pour, but I think in these long for caliber boolits, I have become a convert to the Rowell ladle. I can't fully explain it, but it worked and I am a much happier boolit caster now. Thanks, this board has helped me a bunch, I hope I have contributed something back. Billy