I'm addicted

[BBGun]

Just thought I'd share my fun today with my first real casting. I have the Lee 4# furnace and used the Lee DC TL452-230-2R mold.
I don't know the drop weight yet as they are still cooling. I got about 60 decent boolits out of about 100. Not too bad.
I'm gonna let them cure for a few days and then look them over good. I'll micro and weigh them and get back with a quality report.
I also melted and made 5 more ingots today from my scrounged wheel weights.
Anyway. Just thought I'd pass along the fun. Maybe someday I'll get 90 out of 100 casted. :lovebooli

[runfiverun]

pre heat the mold in the pot by holding the corner in the melted alloy till the lead don't stick.

a few more heat cycles will help the mold too.
and maybe another cleaning,once you get it you'll have no more problems.
you are still learning to cast AND breaking in a mold at the same time.

[44man]

Good advise. One problem is the sprue plate will still be cold. Heat soaking in a little mold oven will also heat the plate and garnish you perfect boolits from the first cast.
Playing a propane torch on the plate also helps.
A torch will not hurt a mold, just keep the flame going all over evenly.
I try to make the whole mold 500* to start. I have an oven thermometer in my little oven.
Pre heating and a nice even temperature throughout casting is really the secret. You quickly learn to adjust your pace.

[cbrick]

Good advise. One problem is the sprue plate will still be cold. Heat soaking in a little mold oven will also heat the plate and garnish you perfect boolits from the first cast.
Playing a propane torch on the plate also helps.
A torch will not hurt a mold, just keep the flame going all over evenly.
I try to make the whole mold 500* to start. I have an oven thermometer in my little oven.
Pre heating and a nice even temperature throughout casting is really the secret. You quickly learn to adjust your pace.

Very wise advise, mold temp (including the sprue plate) is key to good casting.

Speed of casting, bullet size & pot temp all effect the mold temp. Once you learn the proper mold temp bullets will fall out that simply amaze. Mold temp will also effect bullet weight so keeping a consistent mold temp helps a lot.

It's a learning curve like anything worth doing. It's not a difficult thing, just takes a bit of practice.

Rick

[ronbo40s&w]

Awesome. Godd Job! Of course I benefit from all the advice as i wait for my gear to arrive.

God Bless!

Ron

[youngda9]

I use a hot plate to heat up the mold prior to casting. From there I can get good boolits in a couple pours. A bonus of the hot plate is that while I'm casting I stack lead on it, on the low setting, to get it really hot. I can then drop hot ingots into the pot and keep on casting.

[trixter]

Get a '(solid top) hot plate, and set your mold on it for about 10 minutes as your pot is heating up. On mine I found the the middle of the 'medium' setting was about 600deg, and then each time I added lead it went back on the hotplate, until I was ready to go again. The very first boolits that came out of the mold were keepers. It was only operator error (not filling it enough) that caused unusable boolits. Keep on keep'n on and your addiction will become very pleasurable. Oh can i say that? OK

[Cherokee]

Congratulations BBGun !! Its a learning process per the posting above and gets more fun and productive. I find myself casting boolits that I already have a large supply of.

[rmatchell]

I agree with using the hot plate, to be honest I didn't make a good looking boolit till I started using one.