Please define or show pic of flashing

[jonk]

Someone today said to remove flashing from my cast bullets with a sharp knife.

Ummm...

What's flashing exactly? In casting tens of thousands of rounds I'm sure I've encountered it but never heard the term.

[Tom W.]

It's the little "fins" that happen to your bullet when your mold isn't quite closed... or aligned.

[onondaga]

Flash can also be tiny fins of lead that run into the vent lines on mold blocks. That type of flash is more associated with pressure casting.

Gary

[jonk]

That's what I thought it might be. This was related second hand to me through a mutual freind. Guy 1 was selling the mold. Guy 2 brought the mold to me and said guy 1 warned to trim flash away. I don't know if this is going to be an issue with this mold or is just a case of poor technique on guy one's part.

[Lizard333]

I usally only get fins when I screw up. Sometimes it is happens for me on a mold that has cr@p in it, or any other foriegn matter.

[mroliver77]

I would call a fin a flat protrusion along the seam line from a mold that is not closed fully or badly warped. When Beagleing a mold one uses aluminum tape to purposely hold the mold halves apart a few thousandths resulting in a larger boolit albeit only 90 degrees from the seam. When sized it does somewhat rearrange the extra to make the boolit round. I have opened one quite a ways without any flash.

Now if it is fine threads of alloy following the vent holes I (many) call them whiskers. Whiskers usually brush right off with your fingers.
My Mihec .45 200 gr rf (HP) was getting whiskers yesterday with some soft low antimony alloy. I moved the mould away from the spout a bit and they all but disappeared.
Jay

[pdawg_shooter]

If, like me you size a bullet down .008/.010 for paper patching, you get a small flash of lead on the base of the bullet. I have shot these both ways, with and without cutting the flash off. Accuracy wise, no difference I can tell. It is easier to wrap the paper and twist the tail with the flash cut off. With GC designs the flash is in the reduced diameter and doesn't tear the paper.

[lead-1]

oops, wrong spot.

[trebleplink]

I'm really expert at casting with flash. I make boolits that look like little Flash Gordon helmets.

[Ozark mike]

I'm really expert at casting with flash. I make boolits that look like little Flash Gordon helmets.

I think this thread has expired bud

[Minerat]

I'm really expert at casting with flash. I make boolits that look like little Flash Gordon helmets.

That's some deep research and reading old posts. thanks for resurrecting it, I learned something new. I just started pressure casting with a ladle and have spiky flashing too if I don't hold the mould closed tight.

[Land Owner]

Concur that it was an old thread, one of which are the gems we wrote (not you or me in this case), or read, and speak of, when attempting to convey what has been learned to those new to the experience. Research is a harbinger of knowledge as is bad experience the beginning of a collective of knowledge equating to better understanding in the present and future.

There is a treasure trove in the archives here. Resurrecting a few, now and again, is good for the soul, don't you think? Getting "carried away" in the archive, enthusiastic in the acquisition of new knowledge and commenting, which brings new life to long dormant but relevant and in the moment information, is OK.

I know of no "USB" connection or cabling between human brains for the "Martix-style" transfer of information - other than the eyes and ears. Everything we know, have known, or will know had/has to be transferred, one to another, every time.

[BamaNapper]

Personally, I believe old posts are every bit as relevant and interesting as threads started today. It's a forum for boolit casting, an 800 year old process, so 10 year old info is almost cutting edge. Sometimes I go back 10 years for posts on the basics of casting. Y'all had some good conversations back then and I wasn't here to read them. Newer posts seem to be the finer points that assumes everyone reading them already has the basics down. I agree resurrecting threads is a good thing. There should be a corner of the forum dedicated to reviving old posts to restart relevant discussions or to show where old ideas have fallen by the wayside as the hobby matures.

BTW, If I have flashing 'nose to tail', I toss the bullet back into the pot and re-melt. The flashing I deal with is when I get something under the sprue cutter, and once sized, the bullet has a skirt on it. For these, I keep an X-Acto knife on the bench.

Hats off to the Flash Gordon comment. I like it.

[redhawk0]

Agreed...the Flash Gordon comment was good.

With our Hobby/Sport...unless its a powder/component that is no longer available....then even these old posts are still relevant to today.

I love seeing the old once resurrected from time to time....even if I've read it before...sometimes you forget (and it gets worse the older I get).

redhawk

[onelight]

It seems you get flashing in 3 ways wings the length of the bullet mold is not closing for some reason.
Flashing on the base like the head of a nail , something going on with the sprue cutter , to loose to tight or warped or possibly something on the blocks or cutter that keeps it from seating properly .
When lead follows the vents and you get the spikes where the vents are , could be mold and or lead to hot or to much pressure when filling that mold at the temperatures being used.
Am I missing any other types of flashing ? These are the only types I have had.

[fcvan]

I found I could get flash if pressure casting or with crud build up. One of my casting tools is . . . wooden chopsticks. The other being leather gloves, a screw driver, and a metal spoon, the usual things. The chopstick a free, long lasting, and useful for various things. 1) mild rubbing of any debris, even the rare lead between the mold halves, or under the sprue plate. 2) the other end of the stick is used to lube the proper points of the mold with 2 cycle oil. The oil soaks into the wood enough that a very light application on the underside of the sprue plate, on the opening side so as not to introduce oil in or near the cavity. Rub with the fat end, swipe with the smaller oil side. Hot metal will draw a very fine layer of lube. At the same time, hit the aligning/mating points.

I tried pressure casting but found non of my molds needed that for fill. My HP molds like heat, but they are single cavity. My first mold, a Lee 356-125 2R. has cast over 750k boolits over 35 years and has been rebuilt twice. When new, I was teaching a friend to cast and he beat the heck out of it. He offered to replace it but I just re-surfaced some parts and it was fine. He bought his own and had already learned not to beat the heck out of it. He also worked over a Lee 452-228 1R, but that one wasn't as bad or cause flash, well not as bad. The other rebuilds were just re-taping the mold block and installing a slightly larger stainless sprue plate bolt.

Both of those molds taught me to cast differently. I don't pour into one cavity at a time, I cast onto the sprue plate to the left of the sprue holes with the mold canted slightly right. This causes the alloy to swirl into both cavities and leaves a larger sprue. The sprue plate maintains more heat which improves fill. Once the sprue frosts over, the mold is ready to open, and leaves a very clean cut on the boolit base. Any impurities in the flow seem to float to the top of the sprue resulting in a cleaner alloy in the cavity, at least I think so. Sprue goes right back in the pot.

Casting as described seemed to not 'press' alloy into the mold vent lines causing whiskers/flash whatever. The weight of the alloy flow seems to ensure the sprue plate is 'weighted down' and when the alloy is cooling, the sprue plate sucks down the plate during cooling. I started casting this way with all but the HP molds as they like heat and pressure. Also, by varying temp through casting cadence, or alloy temp, I can vary the boolit diameter by 1 or 2 thou with precision.

Funny the things you can learn from here, other casters not here, or 45 years of casting. I think in my early days I learned how to repeat my mistakes with repetition :) After joining here, learning here, I was able to take the previous casting experience and apply it correctly. Now, I would say I can repeat success with accuracy. BTW, I actually started ladle casting when My Dad started casting. It wasn't long after that he bought a SAECO bottom pour and more molds as we only had to drive 20 miles to their (then) production/sales facility.

I hope this helps, Frank