dull grainy pour

[Bill]

I sent some time sorting and melt today. The ingots are not shiny bbut dull and grainy. the last batch of 9 mm casts were the smae way, not shiney:( any help? thanks Bill

[prs]

Your alloy has some antimony and tin and almost certainly at least a trace of arsenic. Plus you poured them pretty dern hot. You probably noticed they went clink instead of clunk when you bumped them and you may have noticed they were brittle. No worry, they will be strong when you cast. Back off the heat of the alloy a bit and keep the moulds relatively hot.

prs

[sqlbullet]

prs nailed it. Lots of heat will do that.

[Bill]

thanks guys. I was using a frier burner and I guess it got hotter than I thought.

Bill

[45-70 Chevroner]

Bill the best thing to do is to get a casting thermometer then expierment with different temps. until you get what you want. I don't think you boolits are grainy but more like frosted. Frosted boolits are ok but some folks like them to be nice and shiny. I have shot both and truthfully I can't tell the difference. If your lead in the pot is nice and shiney you won't get grainy boolits, but they will be frosted if the heat is pretty hot. When I cast boolits I like my pot tempreture to be around 700 to 750 degrees but each to his own.