New Guy Casting Questions

[Punisher422]

I am pretty new to reloading and casting. After lurking for a while and sifting through a lot of information I decided to try casting. I ordered a Lee Load-All and Lee 7/8 ounce slug mold together. They arrived, I set up my press and have since started casting slugs.
I am using WW for my alloy and am water-dropping. I have several questions. My first question is does it matter what temperature your water is when water-dropping? It is still pretty cool here in Missouri and I would like to keep the water on the warm side if it doesn't matter so I can feel my hands when I dig the boolits out of the bucket.
My second question is why is it not a great idea to cast or smelt in colder temperatures?
Thank you for the great forums and all the great info so far. I absolutely love turning free wheel weights (Yes I know I'm lucky to have a source) into boolits.

[bigjake]

I dont think you need to have hard shotgun slugs unless you have something else in mind rather than shooting deer.
I've cut open different brands of slugs and none of the slugs were hard lead.
Dont you want the slug to mushroom, rather than just passing through?

[gray wolf]

Welcome to the nut house, nice to have you here.
Would like to know a little about your smelting, fluxing and casting set up, equipment and how you are doing it.
Sounds like you are casting shot gun slugs. WW may be a little hard for that purpose.
Not that it can't be done, but they are mostly soft lead. When castings are water dropped it is for the reason of hardening the alloy, and cold water is the preferred medium. Keep your hands out of the water till you are all done casting. Then go through your bullets and cull what you don't want.
Learn a little about water dropped bullets and then use the technique if and when it is needed. It's not for everything.
It sounds like you had a good time and got some slugs done. Stay on the thread and you will have many other folks chime in for you.
Dropping your slugs/bullets on a soft towel will work just fine.

Sam

[white eagle]

I would agree
most are softer but you can use harder but i would bet
accuracy won't be very good
casting in cold weather is just a comfort thing
I have cast boolits with the temp below zero

[Chihuahua Floyd]

I never heard anythhing bad about casting in cold weather. Much more comfortable to wear heavy clothes in winter. I do almost all my casting/smelting in cold or at least cool weather.
+1 on what bigjake said on water quenching.

[Three44s]

A big welcome to the forum!!

The rate of casting may have to rather fast if it's very cold. The reason is that molds fill out better if they are "up to temperature".

Oil residue or a mold too cold will cause poor fillout.

One word of caution:

If you are dropping poorly formed slugs back into your hot lead pot and there is ANY trace of water amoungst them ............

............. you are in for one VERY BAD lesson!

Make sure WHATEVER you introduce into your lead pot is preheated ........... OR start with a cold lead pot and place the items to melt in and turn it on and let the whole pot, contents and all heat from scratch.

This goes for spoons and stir sticks as well.

Your ingot mold must be preheated as well. I do this by placing on the top of the lead pot like a partial cover and the heat raises up and dries it out.

Yes ........ solid steel is PORUS and attracts moisture vapor when it's cool or cold. Cast iron does so even more so because it's more porus than steel.

A shower of molten lead is far from fun but if you understand a few basic principles, casting can be fun rewarding and safe.

Be safe and enjoy

Three 44s

[Punisher422]

Thanks guys. I'm water quenching more as a way to get the rounds cool and keep me from playing with them before they're cool. I should have mentioned that these are merely for target practice, not hunting. We're not limited to slug guns in MO and I hunt with centerfire rifles. I heard someone in a forum on here saying that you shouldn't cast in cold weather, but I guess it was just a preference of his. I've culled the slugs that didn't form correctly, and last night I cast around 125 keepers.
I have another question now. Will frosted slugs shoot any differently than shiny normal slugs? I have a lot of frosted slugs because I was playing beat the clock with the bottom pour that was dripping pretty darn fast (I can't complain about it though because I borrowed it from a family member).

[Punisher422]

And Three 44's I make myself wait at least a day to remelt any deformed slugs or the sprues (they're all going into the same bucket). I've read too many horror stories that make me try to err on the cautious side.

[HeavyMetal]

First welcome to the site!

About the water temp, I always figured no matter how "warm" the water was it wasn't going to be anywhere near as hot as the boolit coming out of the mold.

However keep in mind, and this is my theory anyway, that the colder the water the better chance of hardening the boolit.

Your post mentions that your getting cold hands from picking the slugs out of the water container.

I will tell you rght now stop doing that!

If your container is to small to hold a fair amount of slugs go to a bigger container, if your wanting to inspect your slugs as you go your letting everything cool between pours and this will not be good for weight management ( the slugs not yours) as well as creating some diameter issues as well.

Keep in mind that anything that isn't up to snuff during your inspections after your done casting can be remelted.

Nothing that melts goes in the trash at my place!

So set up a water container big enough to hold the amount of slugs you want to make, get the alloy and the mold up to temp and start casting.

Do not stop and admire your work, looking at them won't make them any better looking I promise!

If your having issues with fillout or wrinkles turn up the pot a little bit and dip a corner of your mold ( keeping it closed ) into the alloy until lead won't stick to it and then dip the sprue plate ( the area you "hit" to open the mold) until the lead doesn't stick and then get casting!

You may want to re dip the sprue plate once in a while as that cools off pretty quick!

Best thing to do here is open the sprue plate and spot how well the "base" of the slug has filled out. This can be done very quickly with practise because all you want to see is a completely filed area under the sprue plate any, and I mean any, roundness or glitchy looking area means the sprue plate is cooling off and you need to redip it!

I have found that when making HP's with the old style Lyman pin molds I need to re dip the sprue plate every 3 or 4 pours depending on the size of the boolit and the HP pin.

As for smelting or casting in cold weather? It's a one word answer: condensation!

I have had several, very small, visits from the "Tinsel Fairy"! In every case I put an ingot that was "room Temp" into my feeder pot and, once under the surface of the hot alloy, actually Poped from condensation turning rapidly into steam!

Being in So. California cold is a relative term but in states that actually have a winter putting an ingot, or WW's, that are 30 degrees into a pot that hits 700 is a really bad idea!

I have seen threads where this issue was recognized and everyone pretty much pre heats ingots or WW metal before adding to the casting or smelting pot.

One other tip I'll pass on that you did not ask about: do not smelt in your casting pot!

If your using a bottom pour electric pot you curse yourself with trash that can be very annoying to deal with! Smelt in a seperate pot when ever possible and life, and your ingots, will be much better!



Dang! I gotta stop typing with one finger!

[Three44s]

I don't mind frosted boolits or slugs.

The dripping you mention is caused by crud in the bottom of your lead pot. When I get this problem too much, I clear out all the lead and start scraping out old dross and fluxing agent. You'll also need to clean out the "seat" that your lead shut off tip sits in and the stem and point of the shut off to get it to drip little or less.

By any chance are you using Marvelux?

If so .............. give it someone you don't like!

I would much rather use regular stick bullet lube than that.

Lately, many of us have switched to wood chips and a wood stick to stir with.

The fluxing process is all about carbon.

Trust me .......... Marvelux is a CURSE!

Three 44s

[Punisher422]

I am not using Marvelux. I actually smelted my first batch in ingots in my bottom pour because I had not learned that you're not supposed to do that yet. The pot I borrowed leaked when I got it and is just a temporary fix until I can buy a brand new pot.
Thank you for the advice on condensation, I will not drop any cold ingots into my pot again. I also forgot to mention that I'm water-dropping into a 5 gallon bucket and am not touching the bullets until I'm done casting and I'm positive they have cooled. They're a lot less tempting under a towel in a bucket of water rather than air dropped onto a towel for a newbie like me.
Do you guys have any advice on mining range berms for range lead? Hopefully I'm going to get to go to a public non-manned range and I hope to score some lead. Although I have a source for free wheel-weights I talked to a local tire shop and the owner told me most of the weights they were getting in now were zinc. I'm trying to accumulate as much lead as fast as possible so I don't have to scrounge for it later.

[Mal Paso]

Use Pure Lead

Your post got me thinking about casting for 12 ga. so I downloaded the Lee Instructions. 3rd line Use Pure Lead. WW are 3-4% Antimony with a bit of Tin. Thought I'd post as I just found It. Jacketed range scrap or trade for pure might do you better.