Help me Obiwan Boolit Casters, you're my only hope..

[Wilsknife]

I was casting yesterday and am having issues with fill out on my 45 cal boolits. Shol I raise the temp(a 7 bon the small Lee bottom pour melter)< Or flux more, OR? I'm losing 75% + due to incomplete fill out. Help! [smilie=b:
:lovebooli

Thanks for your replies.

[mooman76]

Raise the temp.

[mpmarty]

Cast faster and quit wasting time looking at the boolits. Your mold needs to be hotter, not your lead.

[jblee10]

Some other ideas.
What alloy are you using? A little tin really helps with fillout.
What mold? Some molds may not have enough venting.
How tight is the sprue plate? It should be loose enough to allow some venting under the sprue plate.

[remy3424]

What alloy? Might need a little tin, add a pinch of solder. If straight WWs, keep the mold hot. Just went through it Sunday with a new alloy mix, I finally figured out I had diluted my WWs down too much with pure lead. Added a few bits of solder until things cast as they should, then went back to straight WWs in the next pot.

[Wilsknife]

Should I raise The temp on my mold heater(Hotplate) too?

[Wilsknife]

Straight Linotype. Picked up 500# for cheep.

[Larry Gibson]

How big a 45 bullet (weight)?

Larry Gibson

[Bambeno]

Should I raise The temp on my mold heater(Hotplate) too?

Keep casting dont stop and put your mold down on the hotplate between casts your mold will stay hotter full of lead.

[stubshaft]

Once you start casting and develop your cadence you shouldn't need the dang hotplate.

"Cast faster and quit wasting time looking at the boolits. Your mold needs to be hotter, not your lead."

[KaliforniaRebel]

Usually you'll know if your cast bullets are too hot or cold by the inspecting the result. They look like there's folds and creases when poured too cold and fuzzy or rough looking if too hot.

As a noob mistake my Lee casting block was too cold on the first dozen. Try to heat up the mold by leaving it on a second burner or heat source. Dipping part of it in the metal can also do it, but you'll have to scrape the lead off or you'll cast out-of-diamater slugs. It's not fun to make 200 rounds of .05+ oversize boolits after all that hard work...

[runfiverun]

you did clean the mold,,, right?

i cast nearly pure lead from my lee 10 lb pot i start out with the mold heated up well, and on 10. then as i go i turn down the heat to about 8.5.
when i see i am gonna need to add more lead, i turn it back up and cast some more.
then stop and fill it, take a break, and let everything come back up to temp.

linotype really don't take that much heat to cast with, 650 is plenty.
so your mold still has some oil in it or your mold is too cold.

[dbarnhart]

I am a mere Padawan Learner ;-) but I'll share with you what I've learned:

1. Adding about 1% tin helped fillout tremendously. Though not cheap, I'm using lead-free solder bought from the hardware store for my source of tin.

2. The front cavity on my mold seals really well and so I have to be careful about venting issues. I've learned to use a slightly hotter melt and to pour a little slower, always leaving room through the sprue hole for venting air to escape.

[rsrocket1]

Linotype should have enough tin in it. Make sure you pour a big puddle of lead on top of the sprue plate. When I cast with my 6 cav molds, my sprue plate has such a big mound on it that it seems like there is as much lead on the sprue as there is in the mold. Not really, but it is one big continuous stick of lead. That gets the sprure plate hot quickly and ensures there is no "suck-in" of the lead leaving voids.

I drop the sprue stick right back into the pot so I don't drain the pot too quickly and the whole process keeps the temperature rather constant. Then it is just a matter of keeping the mold at a constistant temperature and cooling it once I start seeing a little frost on the bullets.

From a temperature standpoint frosty bullets (too hot) are OK. Wrinkled or unfilled bullets (too cold) are not OK.

[runfiverun]

I am a mere Padawan Learner ;-) but I'll share with you what I've learned:

2. The front cavity on my mold seals really well and so I have to be careful about venting issues. I've learned to use a slightly hotter melt and to pour a little slower, always leaving room through the sprue hole for venting air to escape.

thats because your screw on the sprue plate is too tight,back it off about 1/8th- 1/4 turn.
if it were tighter you would see finning on the base of the cavity closest to you.

[leadman]

Some more info on the boolit and mold would help. But not having that improper fillout can be caused by cutting oil still in the mold metal pores, not enough venting, and fill rate too slow.

If it is a Lee mold you have already cleaned you can do what I found that works. With the mold closed, handles held tight, sprue plate swung open, dip the end of the mold in the hot alloy until you see smoke rising from the mold. Then remove it, close the sprue plate and fill the cavities with alloy. It will take quite awhile for the mold to cool down so if you have a fan blow it on the mold. Cut the sprues when cool enough. Let the mold cool somemore before you start casting again. This has worked on several of my cantankerous molds.

If this fails either hold the mold to the spout on a bottom pour pot or hold the ladle to the SP with as much alloy in it you can. Give it a bit then remove the mold or ladle and cut the sprues and check the results.

[MikeS]

If you're casting with linotype, chances are the pot temp is hot enough, you need to get the mould temp up. The easy way to do this is by preheating the mould on a hot plate.

There's really no reason to be casting with pure linotype, and it can make boolits that are too hard. You might consider trading some of your linotype for pure lead, then mixing the two together in a 50:50 blend, that will make an alloy every similar to Lyman #2 which is a very good all purpose alloy. You shouldn't have any problem trading linotype for pure right here in the swapping & selling forum.

If you continue to cast with pure linotype, whatever else you do DON'T water drop the boolits, they're already way too hard for most uses, and water dropping them will make them even harder! Consider that Wheel Weights have a BHN of around 12 or so, Lyman #2 has a BHN of 15, and linotype has a BHN of 22, you can see where it's already very hard as far as lead boolits go, and water dropping them will just make them much harder.

[Hang Fire]

Straight Linotype. Picked up 500# for cheep.

Whoa, if I had 500 lb of Lino, no way would I be casting boolits with it.

But it is not mine, you bought it and it is not my place to be telling you what to do.

[Wilsknife]

Whoa, if I had 500 lb of Lino, no way would I be casting boolits with it.

But it is not mine, you bought it and it is not my place to be telling you what to do.

What would you do with it?
I scored it for 20 cents per pound.
It's probably more than I'll ever use.
And it runs well in my firearms... :lovebooli
:grin:

[rsrocket1]

Linotype is worth more than wheel weights or scrap pure lead. Do some research as to what a fair price is and sell it to buy more of the cheaper stuff or trade and get a differential on your lino.

[DLCTEX]

You can tell when the mould is hot enough when dipping it, tightly closed, into the melt when the lead does not stick more than a small amount. Wipe that off with a cotton cloth. Do not use synthetic or it will be on there for a while. If the boolits frost too much, let the mould cool a bit. No, it will not warp the mould. The only warped moulds I have seen were struck by an over zealous caster, or dropped, or had the handle screws tightened way too much. The handle screws should only be snug.

[Big brass ones]

I was trading a guy 2:1 pure lead for lino a few weeks ago and paying shipping costs
then I got a good deal on mono-type for the same price!

I think lino is a great alloy by itself for rifles, and mags or basically anything in the gas check range IMHO.

Lino is useful in alloying too! 2lbs lino to 18 lbs pure or range lead is a great alloy for anything I shoot which is mostly 9mm, and 40 S&W.

[Roundnoser]

I was casting yesterday and am having issues with fill out on my 45 cal boolits. Shol I raise the temp(a 7 bon the small Lee bottom pour melter)< Or flux more, OR? I'm losing 75% + due to incomplete fill out. Help! [smilie=b:
:lovebooli

Thanks for your replies.

May the Flux be with you!

[HeavyMetal]

I'll need some confirmation that what you bought for 20 cents a pound is really Linotype!

Was it in ingots or actually type? Lino is usually individual letters but not always. Big Pigs was how it was shipped before making offset print rolls.

I'd be a tad suspicious of content if it's in a bunch of Lee or Lyman size ingots.

Having said that let's say, for the sake of the conversation, that you have lino in type form.

Tin content will be way higher than you need to cast with and 7 or 8 on the Lee pot dial should be plenty hot enough!

That doesn't mean something might not be off! if you have a thermometer check the temp of the lead after a 20 minute "simmering" period on a full melted pot.

Adjust as needed to be about 700 degrees, WW metal will need a tad higher temp pending alloy.

I'll also jump on the clean mold band wagon!!

Then dip a corner of the closed mold in the alloy until it is hot enough that the alloy does not stick to it. Then dip the sprue plate ( closed of course) until the lead dosn't stick to it then pour.

Wait a good while after the sprue puddle hardens! A full minute or more on the first cast! This will keep you from smearing lead all over the top of the mold and the bottom of the sprue plate!

At this point a little time spent "eyeballing" this particular casting will give you tons of info on what is and isn't wrong with the casting you just made.

Your looking for complete fill out and all sharp edges around the mold, base and lube grooves.

Being a little frosted is not an issue with the first casting but the fill out and base "sharpness" is!

After cleaning and dipping this first cast should be perfect or darn close to it. If you have imperfections let us know what they are.

wrinkles is to cold or dirty mold, poor fillout is cold alloy or cold mold or both!

Other things can cause these imperfections but what I mentioned are the number one issues.

Eleminate these and the imperfections should go away if the alloy is what you claim it is.

and thats another thread!

[Axton1]

A question gentleman,
I seen several say that they "add a bit of solder" to bring up the tin.
Dbarnhart sez here he's using "lead free solder from the hardware store." Just to clarify - is this the rolls of solder used for gutter repair or for copper pipe solder? I've seen a couple of post that had pictures of long bars of metal that they call solder - which is which?

[Wolfer]

Nowadays copper pipe solder is called ( lead free ). It's about 95 % tin and 5% antimony . Most of the bar solder I've seen is 50/50 tin - lead

[dbarnhart]

Dbarnhart sez here he's using "lead free solder from the hardware store." Just to clarify - is this the rolls of solder used for gutter repair or for copper pipe solder?

This is what I use:

http://www.shootandreload.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/IMG_0373.jpg

[Wilsknife]

It is lino in letter form. I'm an honest person, and 'HeavyMetal', I AM OFFENDED that you would question what I say something is. One thing not mentioned here is what looks like air pockets on the surface of the bullets. Is that from having the mold too far from the spout?

Thanks for your replies.

[Wilsknife]

It is lino in letter form. I'm an honest person, and 'HeavyMetal':o, I AM OFFENDED that you would question what I say something is. One thing not mentioned here is what looks like air pockets on the surface of the bullets. Is that from having the mold too far from the spout?

Thanks for your replies.
:lovebooli

[DaveInFloweryBranchGA]

I don't think Heavymetal is intending to imply you're not being honest or factual. I think he's saying you might have been misled by the seller. It's a pretty frequent occurrence that new casters purchase lead material of one type or another, thinking they have linotype and upon pictures posted, it's identified as something else aka not linotype, but other materials, monotype or something else.

And often enough, even the seller is honestly mistaken about what the product their selling is. Lead cast up comes in many forms and it all looks silvery grey, even dirty. So not hard to get confused, fooled, etc.

[Axton1]

Thanks Dbarnhart - that's what I thought you were referring to - but have seen some refer to solder with large ingot bars shown in pic - just good info to know where to get various "additives" for cooking up a batch!

[Wilsknife]

Having been exposed to the printing business for over 50 years, via my dad and classes I've taken, I know all those little bits of metal with letters on the end are linotype. Even if it hadn't been linotype it was still a great deal :-)