Naga
09-04-2011, 12:47 AM
(Not sure if this is the correct section to post this in, so if it isn't, please delete/move)
Over the past few months, I have been failing miserably at casting. However, today, I successfully produced some Makarov boolits for the first time. As you might imagine, I am very excited, and the only point of this topic is to share my experience.
I got all of the casting supplies for my birthday in March: A Lee Pro 4-20, a Lyman 314299, 28 lbs of hardball alloy from Midway, and all the other necessary accouterments. Due to my work and school schedule, however, I didn't get a chance to try any of it out for another month.
My first casting session seemed to go very well. I had good fillout with the Lyman mold, and it only took a few raps with a plastic hammer to get the mold to release the boolits. However, upon close inspection of the boolits, I discovered that the halves didn't appear to line up: There was a pronounced ridge where the seam was. Upon inspection of the mold, I discovered that the problem was a defective mold, in which the mold halves were slightly out of alignment. Taking the advice from the posters on this forum, I sent it to Lyman for replacement.
About six weeks later, the replacement mold arrived. I tried it, and amazingly enough, the replacement had the exact same problem! I checked the stamp on the block to make sure it wasn't just the original one I sent in but in a new package, and found that it was, in fact, a new mold with the same problem. I became frustrated by this, so I decided to purchase a Lee 312-180-2R for my Mosins, and a Lee 365-95-1R for my CZ-82.
A few weeks after they arrived, I finally got around to testing one of the new Lee molds, the 312-180-2R. I found that, despite having everything up to temperature, I kept getting poor fillout. I tried on and off over the next several weeks to get them to work, but to no avail.
Fast forward to today. I am reading this message board, and discover a post about zinc causing problems with casting. I realize that my alloy was experiencing some of the symptoms of zinc contamination (most notably, "oatmeal" floating on the surface.) Since I usually cast in my garage, I realized that I probably accidentally swept up a zinc wheel weight and dropped it into the pot during clean up after one of my previous casting sessions.
A bit more searching uncovered instructions on how to remove zinc from the alloy. I carefully brought the alloy up to the correct temperature, then I fluxed it twice, to ensure that I had removed all the contaminants. After this, I sat down with my Makarov mold and began casting. I was still having fillout problems, but then the copious amount of smoke rising from the mold reminded me that I had failed to clean this mold before use! I let it cool back down, then I scrubbed it with dish soap, followed by flushing it with mineral spirits.
Finally, I sat back down and began casting. After casting a few bad boolits to get the mold back up to the correct temperature, the mold began dropping perfect boolits, requiring only a few light taps on the handle hinge to release them.
Unfortunately, I must get up early tomorrow morning, so I only got to cast about 50 boolits before shutting down. I can hardly wait for this Wednesday, though: It is my next day off, and I now plan on having a day long casting session!
I'd like to say thanks to everyone on this board who has knowingly or unknowingly shared with me the information that made today a success. This is truly a great community!
Over the past few months, I have been failing miserably at casting. However, today, I successfully produced some Makarov boolits for the first time. As you might imagine, I am very excited, and the only point of this topic is to share my experience.
I got all of the casting supplies for my birthday in March: A Lee Pro 4-20, a Lyman 314299, 28 lbs of hardball alloy from Midway, and all the other necessary accouterments. Due to my work and school schedule, however, I didn't get a chance to try any of it out for another month.
My first casting session seemed to go very well. I had good fillout with the Lyman mold, and it only took a few raps with a plastic hammer to get the mold to release the boolits. However, upon close inspection of the boolits, I discovered that the halves didn't appear to line up: There was a pronounced ridge where the seam was. Upon inspection of the mold, I discovered that the problem was a defective mold, in which the mold halves were slightly out of alignment. Taking the advice from the posters on this forum, I sent it to Lyman for replacement.
About six weeks later, the replacement mold arrived. I tried it, and amazingly enough, the replacement had the exact same problem! I checked the stamp on the block to make sure it wasn't just the original one I sent in but in a new package, and found that it was, in fact, a new mold with the same problem. I became frustrated by this, so I decided to purchase a Lee 312-180-2R for my Mosins, and a Lee 365-95-1R for my CZ-82.
A few weeks after they arrived, I finally got around to testing one of the new Lee molds, the 312-180-2R. I found that, despite having everything up to temperature, I kept getting poor fillout. I tried on and off over the next several weeks to get them to work, but to no avail.
Fast forward to today. I am reading this message board, and discover a post about zinc causing problems with casting. I realize that my alloy was experiencing some of the symptoms of zinc contamination (most notably, "oatmeal" floating on the surface.) Since I usually cast in my garage, I realized that I probably accidentally swept up a zinc wheel weight and dropped it into the pot during clean up after one of my previous casting sessions.
A bit more searching uncovered instructions on how to remove zinc from the alloy. I carefully brought the alloy up to the correct temperature, then I fluxed it twice, to ensure that I had removed all the contaminants. After this, I sat down with my Makarov mold and began casting. I was still having fillout problems, but then the copious amount of smoke rising from the mold reminded me that I had failed to clean this mold before use! I let it cool back down, then I scrubbed it with dish soap, followed by flushing it with mineral spirits.
Finally, I sat back down and began casting. After casting a few bad boolits to get the mold back up to the correct temperature, the mold began dropping perfect boolits, requiring only a few light taps on the handle hinge to release them.
Unfortunately, I must get up early tomorrow morning, so I only got to cast about 50 boolits before shutting down. I can hardly wait for this Wednesday, though: It is my next day off, and I now plan on having a day long casting session!
I'd like to say thanks to everyone on this board who has knowingly or unknowingly shared with me the information that made today a success. This is truly a great community!