Advice on what to do next!

[tayous1]

So I have all my gear to cast boolits my mold is burr free and cleaned my lead has been melted and cleaned. Now I'm looking at casting and I have a few questions about it. Do I drop the boolits in water? How long between casting, lub and sizing should I go? The lube I have is the LEE type.



I also want to know what other types of lubing is there? I keep reading about pan lubing. Since I'm new to this can anyone tell me? I have bought lead rounds before and they had wax in there rings and I'd like to know how that was done.

[RobS]

More info please:
-What are you casting for i.e. caliber/calibers?
-What alloy are you using i.e. wheel weight (WW), range scrap, lino, etc.
-What are your long term plans i.e. are you looking at making this a hobby or are you undecided
-pan lubing or using a lubrisizer/lubricator (RCBS Lube-a-Matic, Lyman 45/450/4500, Saeco, or Magma Star) all can be utilized to lube with more traditional stick lubes.
-Lubes: http://www.lsstuff.com/lube/
-please check out the stickies at the beginning of each category as these threads will provide you with the basics.

[dragonrider]

Here is one method
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tW0XVAhRIe0

and here is another, parts 1 & 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxa-UYbSXpM&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1_s4RcGtbY&feature=related

[runfiverun]

you may not even need to size them.
the lee lube takes about 1/3rd the amount you think you need on them.
i'd cast, lube when you feel like it, let it dry, size, then lube again. thats the lee method with alox.
warming the alox and the boolits helps.

or use a lubrisizer like the lyman 4500, or the star they size and lube at the same time.

i'd concentrate on the casting first.

[geargnasher]

Read this: http://www.lasc.us/Fryxell_Book_Contents.htm

Gear

[cbrick]

Or if you prefer you can read it or print it in pdf.

From Ingot To Target in pdf (http://www.lasc.us/Fryxell_Book_textonly2.pdf)

This should give you plenty of info and get you started in the right direction. Welcome to the addiction.

Rick

[jmsj]

tayous1,
RobS asked some important questions.
It's pretty hard to answer your questions w/o knowing all the information,
From what I read, the only thing I can add is to read http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=67654
Recluse's method has given me a lot easer/better results than straight ALOX.
Good luck, jmsj

[Bret4207]

I suggest you start very simply- cast, tumble lube, shoot low and slow loads. No need to water quench now, that's a tool to use after you get your fit down. FIT IS KING with cast. Remember that and start there. HARDER ISN'T BETTER, it's just another tool. So start as a beginner should, with low speed loads and put your real effort into producing near perfect boolits.

[tayous1]

More info please:
-What are you casting for i.e. caliber/calibers?
-What alloy are you using i.e. wheel weight (WW), range scrap, lino, etc.
-What are your long term plans i.e. are you looking at making this a hobby or are you undecided
-pan lubing or using a lubrisizer/lubricator (RCBS Lube-a-Matic, Lyman 45/450/4500, Saeco, or Magma Star) all can be utilized to lube with more traditional stick lubes.
-Lubes: http://www.lsstuff.com/lube/
-please check out the stickies at the beginning of each category as these threads will provide you with the basics.

That would have been nice for me to put all that info in the first place.

Casting 230 gr 45acp

I have range scrap right now, Also some lead weights that where given to me

I'm looking to make a hobby of this.

Right now for lub I have the Lee alox

[mdi]

"The only way to learn to cast, is to cast". You've got the ideas now melt the lead and give it a try (you didn't say what kind of pot your using but if it's a Lee try starting out at "7"). Pour some. You'll prolly just toss them back into the pot, but keep casting. Watch for lead smears on the underside of the sprue plate. If you see them, slow down. Try different methods and find the one that works best for you; spout contact w/sprue plate, varying distance from spout to plate, level mold, tilted mold, hotter/cooler melt, hotter/cooler mold, etc. Keep casting until your bullets have sharp corners and filled out. Then keep practicing. You'll figure out how hot to run the melt and mold by experience and practice...

BTW; range scrap and alox is fine for 45 ACP.

[RobS]

tayous1:

Range scrap will probably be fine for 45 auto loading unless it has lots of 22 LR bullets and jacketed core resulting in an alloy that could be too soft for 45 auto pressures. Just about all range lead I've seen isn't of this category though so you should be fine.

As to water quenching and making your lead harder it depends on your alloy. Having antimony present will allow an alloy to become harder if water quenched/heat treated should you have the need for a harder boolit. The 45 auto is one of the easier cartridges to start out with and has a lot of flexibility to it. The big thing with loading cast, as mentioned by bret4207 is boolit fit, boolit fit, boolit fit. Many will cast and size their boolits perfectly but then load them up and forget about the rest. By fit I mean, are those same perfectly sized boolits for your bore coming out of that loaded case the right diameter? This is where many fail in the game of casting/reloading /shooting cast. If you wonder if your alloy is too soft for your reloading setup then load up a dummy round and pull it to check diameter of the very edge of the boolit base, simple as that.

Case swage down can happen in the reloading process and from using or not using dies that will prevent this from occurring. There is one of two ways to over come this. 1) Use a harder boolit to over come the brass case's stress placed on the boolit or 2) Utilize a case expander that is .001 under your desired boolit diameter (Lyman M die as well as others). If you are reloading with a Lee Factory Crimp Die do yourself a favor realize it could be a huge contributing factory to boolit swage down and a quick search hear will provide you with some info. Whether you believe one way or the other it doesn't matter what does matter is the boolit comes from the final loaded case at your intended diameter.

Remembering some of your posts I believe you are casting the Lee 230 grain round nose (RN) tumble lube or maybe the 230 grain truncated cone (TC) tumble lube (TL) design. There is the possibility with the TL design to pan lube or even lube with a lubesizer should you want to dabble that direction. I myself feel a traditional lube groove boolit would be better if pan lubing or using a lubesizing though. The 45 auto doesn't work under high chamber pressures so you'll likely have good results using a (TL) technique providing boolit fit is good. I never had issues when I used TL with my 45 auto rounds. Here is a sticky concerning another TL mix that is an improvement to TL’ing:
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=67654

I did TL for a short while but later changed over to a lubesizer and now even make my own lube. It’s a process and a personal preference. I’ve seen forum members go the other way as well who for years had luberisized all their boolits and then discovered TL’ing and currently don’t do anything else. A traditional lube groove design and a good lube I believe has more flexibility to higher chamber pressures and demands i.e. longer barrel lengths, vs TL providing everything is equal.

[Charlie Two Tracks]

These guys say that fit is King and that has proven quite true for me. After you have cast some boolits up, let them cool and see what they really measure. I recommend getting a micrometer and check your dimensions all around the boolit. That was the big problem for me. Boolits that were not the correct size (too small) and I would get severe leading. Once I got the boolits the correct size, things really took off. Welcome, be safe and have fun.