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mwjones
02-19-2011, 11:19 AM
I've spent the last month over at my dads smelting wheel weights in to ingots and getting ready to cast. Using a lee 10lb pot, and i've got about 80 lbs of ingots and another 250lbs of wheelweights that i haven't gotten to :) i ordred a mold from ebay about a month ago and just FNALLY get it in the mail.

The mould is a lee 312-160-2R mould that they say is for 7.62x39, but i wanted to try it in .303 british. Smoked the mould with a candle, and lubed the pins with a little alox (a trick from an old friend of my dads, apparently it helps the mould line up better?).

The first 20 or so that i did were full of wavy lines/waves, and i knew that the mould needs to be heated, so i tossed em back in to the pot. I did maybe 80 or so in the course of say, 15 mnutes, and all was good. I then started to get some where a little lead started leaking out on top of the mould under the sprue cutter, and would leave a ridge around the bse of the bullet. I'm told that this is because the mould got TOO hot? I wasn't sure if this was possible. I re-melted most of these, the ones that were really bad, and let the mold cool dow n for a coupe minutes sittign on the bench. Tried again, and got a couple pours before it sarted doign it again. Tried tightening the screw in the sprue cutter, and no dice; it was tight already!

Now comes to sizing. This is a tumble lube mould, so I didn't want to size them, but i needed some way to get my gas check on. Before sizing these bullet were measuring from .3105 to .3125 diameter, which kinda freaked me out a little as i thought that in general, your cast bullets will drop a little larger than the nominal size. i ran them through a lyman 45 with a lyman .312 sizing die, usng yellow dragon lube from dragon bullet lubes, and gator 30 cal gas checks. After lubing/sizing/gaschecking, they now measure anywhere from .3105-.312 over the grease grooves. Bullet weight after sizing lubing and gas checks is 170grains, +/- a half a grain.

Getting a little confused. Are my bullets shrinking after coming out of the mould? Also, i slugged my enfield bore and it came outto exactly .312. i know most jacketed bullets for.303 brit are .3105, so will my .3105-312 cast with gas checks work? I men, i know they'll shoot, but am i ging to be looking at 15moa groups or what :0? I'm going to try them out, but i'm thinking i might have to lap my mould a thou or two, and maybe the sizer? using the .312 sizing die as it came with the lubersizer, i know that there are .313 and .314 avalable.

Any thoughts? PS: Sorry for the long read!!:)

caseyboy
02-19-2011, 12:07 PM
I have three Lee-Enfield 303s that I shoot regularly. They each seem to like something slightly different. As a rule of thumb, I look for drive bands that are 0.001" over measured groove diameter and a nose (for bore riders) that is .001" over land diameter. You don't need to lap the mould right away, you can "beagle" it. This is the use of some foil tape to slightly shim open the mold for a larger size. Do a search on beagling and there will be a ton of info.:)

PS. I always wanted to try that mould. I think it would be a good boolit for the 303.

onondaga
02-19-2011, 01:27 PM
The ridge around the base of the bullet is a fin. This is caused either by a loose sprue plate screw or by hardened lead on the tops of the mold blocks or the underside of the sprue plate. A bent sprueplate can cause this also. Fins get worse when mold is too hot and alloy is too hot. A full open heat adjustment knob on the Lee pot will put the alloy temp at over 800 F. Number 5 or 6 is fine for casting. Mold temperature is more important. Dipping the closed mold corner and sprue plate tang 1/4 inch into your melt for 20-25 seconds is usually just right to begin casting good bullets immediately with a clean and properly lubed mold.

Removal of the lead is a little tricky. The sprue plate can be heated and wire brushed. the mold block tops are much more delicate and can be easily damaged. For the aluminum mold block tops I gently pencil torch heat them enough so that the lead begins to glisten and then scrape the lead off with a Popsicle stick. The heat and wooden stick method can also be used for the mold faces if you have splatter that has stuck there.. SO, do the clean up first and if the sprueplate will not lie flat with no gap it is bent. You may be able to straighten it, but removing will be necessary to do that or you can destroy the mold by pounding it while it is still mounted. A good fine flat honing oilstone can also true up a removed sprueplate.

Mold alignment pins and guide ridges are much better lubed with the tiniest amount of Neverseize or Bullplate. Bullet lube is too sticky and will bake on to the aluminum. Comet,water and a hand brush or tooth brush will clean off the baked on bullet lube.

Use caution removing the sprueplate!!!! if the screw driver slips and you ruin the screw, your mold is toast for further maintainence requiring removal of the plate. The self tapping screw is hard to get out. Here is the setup I use:

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c338/rhymeswithwhat/UnstickJig.jpg

When everything is firm and straight loosen the clamp 1/8 turn, then turn the ratchet 1/8 turn. Repeat 1/8 turns of each till the screw is loose.

The Sticky topics have posts on Beagling and Leementing, these methods will get your bullets bigger and the mold cavity great for easy bullet drop if you need to do that.. A bullet size .002" bigger than your slugged groove to groove diameter will work great for accuracy. Simple tumble lubing with that bullet and Lee Liquid Alox or the 45:45:10 mix is excellent. I use that same bullet with a 7.62X39 and have honed the cavity to drop bullets the size I want. The Leementing method using a hexnut cast to a bullet and valve lapping compound on the lube groove area of the bullet will bring your bullet diameter up but it is a do and check with casting measurement trial and error process. proceed with caution. Methodically good hand skill and precise measurements are required to complete this well.

Gary

MtGun44
02-19-2011, 01:31 PM
Sounds like you are doing pretty well. The alox lube is fine as far as function for mold
lube but burns on an eventually make a nasty mess. I suggest Bull Plate Lube, go to
Bull Shop, link at the bottom of the page. One tiny bottle will last very long as a mold lube
on alignment features and top of mold and bottom of sprue plate, VERY sparingly with
a tiny amount on a Qtip.

Your base fins, were probably too hot a mold, as you thought. The wrinkled first boolits
is normal, cast them fast and furious to get the mold hot the quickest, do not spend
time admiring them, every second the mold is not full of liquid metal it is cooling down.

As to diameter, Beagling is a good possibility, for the GCs you need some sort of a
die to crimp them on, like you are doing with the Lyman die. You probably should have
at least .001 larger than your slugged diameter. I think the Lee Enfield is a 5 groove bbl,
is that correct? If so, be super careful measuring, you have to make certain you are groove
to groove, not groove to land. From what I have read, .312 is a good small diameter for
Enfields, many report up to .316. So, I'd think you would get best results with .313 or
.314 diameter, so beagling may be in your future. Spend some time reading of it.
Basically it is using aluminum metal tape tiny squares to shim the mold very slightly open
to increase the as cast boolit diam. Yes they are oval, doesn't hurt anything, the powder
slams them round in a hurry, apparently.

Great start, you have done well to have so much metal on hand.

Welcome to the asylum!

Bill

peerlesscowboy
02-19-2011, 02:54 PM
.......... i then started to get some where a little lead started leaking out on top of the mould under the sprue cutter, and would leave a ridge around the bse of the bullet. I'm told that this is because the mould got TOO hot? I wasn't sure if this was possible. I re-melted most of these, the ones that were really bad, and let the mold cool dow n for a coupe minutes sittign on the bench. Tried again, and got a couple pours before it sarted doign it again. tried tightenign the screw in the sprue cutter, and no dice. it was tight already!
That's not caused by "too hot". Your problem is the sprue plate isn't laying down flat on the mould blox for some reason, from what you describe I'd guess prob'ly lead smears from cutting the sprues too soon? Or maybe a bent sprue plate. Might even help to loosen the screw instead of tightening it if that's what's holding the sprue plate away from the blox, I like to run the screw just up enuf' so the plate doesn't flop around when the mould's empty.

John C. Saubak

whisler
02-19-2011, 09:43 PM
"Smoked the mould with a candle".

This may be the reason for the bad initial pours and could have caused reduced as-cast size, from what I have read here. No personal experience as I have never smoked a mold with a candle.

runfiverun
02-19-2011, 09:56 PM
peerless has a good point hold the thing up to a light and look at the plate.
too tight causes a gap at the end away from the screw, and too loose can cause it close to the screw.
heat can sometimes change how things fit too, and even the cav sizes a bit.

the 312 shrinkage is from the 312 sizer.
the wrinkles was from the candle wax in the mold smoke.
i use a lighter on aluminum. or polish the cavities, polishing the cav's can help round out the mold some too.