Does anyone else have difficulty ladel casting with an LBT mold?

[happy7]

With the shape of the splue plate on an LBT mold I can't get a good seal around the niple on the ladle and so I find it is virtually impossible to ladle cast where you tip the mold on its side and pour while righting the mold. I can't get good bullets unless I tip. What is the secret? Thanks.

[bhn22]

All of my LBT moulds cast perfectly with a ladle. Pressure casting isn't necessary in every instance, just rest the ladles nozzle next to the hole in the sprue plate and fill 'er up.

[44man]

Tipping a ladle is not pressure casting. It is to allow the shrinking boolit to pull from molten lead in the ladle instead of the sprue.
The ladle nose must be kept clean and you can't have a piece of lead in the sprue taper.
Some ladles were cast with uneven noses so some work might have to be done to it.

[bhn22]

The operative word here, is "seal" That indicates pressure casting to me.

[Pat I.]

You're not supposed to turn the mould on it's side to fill it like conventional sprue plates. What you do is hold the mould upright and pour the lead into the back end of the plate and let it fill both cavities and run out the front left corner. It's easy as can be and makes great bullets with filled out bases. Veral used to include a copy of his instructions with his moulds explaining the lube points and how to fill the thing but from what I gather it's hit or miss anymore.

[Marlin Junky]

I pour into the cavity near me first, when it overfills, I pour into the far cavity, when it overfills, I pour in between the two sprue holes for about second to make sure both cavities are filled and have plenty of sprue to draw metal while cooling. Sprue solidification, when the mold is at normal operating temp, takes a couple seconds depending on cavity size. Rowell#1 ladles are my favorite for filling two cavity molds. Obviously, this technique requires pouring over a large enough pot to catch the overflow and results in consistency and speed. I haven't used my RCBS nipple dipper for about a decade.

MJ

[canyon-ghost]

Pat is right, I pour directly into my molds. The LBT casts like a dream that way, too.

Ron

[happy7]

Ok, thanks for the help. I have a four cavity 600 grain. It is about impossible for me anyway to pour one cavity without getting lead in another and my ladle didn't hold 2400 grains to do it in one pour. But I remembered I had another larger one back in my stuff somewhere and managed to find it. This does work, although the long nose bullets it makes are not as pretty as with the rotating the mold kind of casting. For now anyway, I am not at all a fan of these sprue plates, but I guess I will have to make due. Perhaps the concept works better with smaller bullets, but it is a little tricky to get it to fill good. You cannot do like the above instuctions because the cavities are so big and the holes in the sprue plate small enough that all you get is the lead freezing the sprue hole closed on the bottom cavity before the top cavity is full. I did make it work by starting on the bottom cavity and working my way to the top, but am having a lot of lead run off the mold in the process. If it was a two cavity mold, it would probably work better.

[Pat I.]

Why don't you email Veral and see what he has to say. Maybe he'd suggest opening the sprue holes a bit to get a faster fill rate.

[HARRYMPOPE]

Pat is right, i tried the tip method and it never worked for me with my 30 cal.Now my .22 LBTs pour fine with a bit of tip.

HMP

[44man]

You're not supposed to turn the mould on it's side to fill it like conventional sprue plates. What you do is hold the mould upright and pour the lead into the back end of the plate and let it fill both cavities and run out the front left corner. It's easy as can be and makes great bullets with filled out bases. Veral used to include a copy of his instructions with his moulds explaining the lube points and how to fill the thing but from what I gather it's hit or miss anymore.
I guess you are correct, I don't have one of his molds and that is a funny plate! :veryconfu No way to seal a ladle.

[MikeS]

Is that sprue plate a sheet metal stamping? If so, I would think it would be hard to get it to hold any heat.

[bhn22]

To avoid dribbling lead into other cavities, pour the front cavity first, then the next, and so on. Tip the mould slightly forward and focus on one cavity at a time. You're pouring a lot of lead in each cavity, so it may work better to fill the front cavity, then refill the ladle, and fill the next cavity, and so on. This should help with your sprue plate issue too. Sometime, when casting big bullets it take a bit of time to fill a cavity, and the lead in the ladle is cooling off during that time. This is likely the cause of your sprue plate freezing. I have several LBT moulds, and have concluded that the sprue plate is a diabolically clever design. At first, I thought it was weird.