New to casting, and have a few problems.

[cs86]

Hello all! I've been wanting to get into casting and I've had a few people from thefiringline.com tell me to check out this site for casting. This site has a lot to it! So about the problems I'm having, and forgive me if I haven't made it to all the stickies, there are so many.

I've been collecting wheel weights and melting them down into ingots with a colman stove top and cast iron pot. As I've saved money and can afford bits and pieces, I've so far purchased a lee .45 mold and lee sizer. I haven't purchased a smelting pot or thermometer yet, but they will be purchased soon. I don't know if its necessary to have a BHN tester and I really don't want to drop the $ on it right now.

With my excitement to cast a few bullets I decided to pour a few with a spoon. I smoked my mold and made sure I preheated. I'd try and make multiple just to help with heating the mold. Today I tried making the lead a bit hotter because most times I have trouble getting the colman to melt large pots hot enough to liquify and I had troubles with the molds filling out.

First thing I noticed about the batch was that the excess lead (I think is called the spree?) that was cut would drop in a pan and kind of fall apart like it was very brittle. Also I still couldn't get the molds to fill out around the base edges, and the base was cutting off like I was pulling the lead from it instead of cutting it. I'll attach a few pictures to show what I have.

I know I'm probably not doing a lot right, but this is just some prelim testing. I'm trying to get a little more knowledge under my belt before I get the equipment to start cranking out bullets. Any help is appreciated.

Hopefully the pics attach and I've done this right

60330
60331

[Phoenix]

It looks like the lead was freezing as is got close to the sprue plate. I am guessing the sprue plate wasn't hot enough. How many castings did you do before you got these results? if it was 1 or 2 then I would cast more to get the mold up to temp. The lead may not be hot enough to be able to stay pourable while the mold and sprue plate is absorbing the heat. This is all accomplished by getting a good rythm and maintaining a consistent cycle time.

In other words Those are dam good for using a spoon. The lead could probably be a little hotter depending on your cycle time. The best thing is probably to do more cycles and try to get the cycles faster to keep the mold hotter or increase the lead temp some to compensate for slower cycle times.

Final Assessment: I would shot them. Not perfect but not that bad either. Just some fine tuning.

[MikeS]

For your first attempts at casting, your boolits are not that bad. Your sprues breaking up just means that you cut them off before they were fully cooled, and that's no bid thing. The bottom of your boolits look fine, there's nothing wrong with the way you cut off the sprue, That look of being torn out is fairly common, and doesn't effect your boolits accuracy at all. The boolit mould you're casting from has a very slight bevel base to it, so it's sometimes hard to see if the boolit's fully filled out or not. As you get more experience casting you will get better. Just like how you get better at shooting a gun the more you do it, the more boolits you cast the better you'll get at it.

One thing you should do is clean your mould really good to get rid of the smoke you put in it, you'll do better with a perfectly clean mould than with one that's smoked. Just preheat the mould well before casting with it (I use a single burner hot plate) and things will go along much better than trying to preheat the mould by putting it on top of the melting pot. If your Coleman stove is a double burner type, put a flat plate of aluminum, or something else such as that over the second one, and preheat your moulds on that. Remember that the mould temp is more important than the pot temp. When casting with clip on wheel weights there's no reason to get the alloy above 675F if you even get it that hot. When casting with an alloy of lead/tin/antimony you only need to get the alloy to a temp 100F over it's fully liquid temp. As you can probably tell, having a thermometer is an important thing, and probably the next equipment purchase you should spend if you don't already have one.

And, before I forget, welcome to this site, and to the addiction of boolit casting!

[YunGun]

First thing I noticed about the batch was that the excess lead (I think is called the spree?) that was cut would drop in a pan and kind of fall apart like it was very brittle. Also I still couldn't get the molds to fill out around the base edges, and the base was cutting off like I was pulling the lead from it instead of cutting it.

In my experience this usually indicates that the melt is plenty hot and you're not letting the mold and alloy cool enough before attempting to cut the sprue. That's why you're pulling lead from the center of the base when attempting to cut the sprue, and you'll also be dragging that lead across the top of the mold blocks, which you don't want. I don't see any wrinkles on the noses or anything, and the tumble-lube bands look well defined, so I think your mold and melt are hot enough, but pouring a larger puddle on the sprue plate will greatly help with the fillout on the bases. Try simply letting the mold cool for a second or two longer and see if that helps with sprue cutoff.

They look really good for some first casts, & welcome to the site!

[cs86]

I don't see any wrinkles on the noses or anything, and the tumble-lube bands look well defined, so I think your mold and melt are hot enough, but pouring a larger puddle on the sprue plate will greatly help with the fillout on the bases.

The bullets that ended up with some wrinkles would go back into the pot. I did have a few like that. For the most part I've had good luck with the bands filling out.


pouring a larger puddle on the sprue plate will greatly help with the fillout on the bases

With a spoon, you get lots of lead all over the top of the sprue plate. Not saying its all pooling right on top of the holes, but after a few casts I should of had the sprue plate getting up to temp.

Safety tip for any other new casters: Don't let the sprue drop from the mold to the pot. I would put a lot of pressure to cut the mold and when it made the cut the sprue wouldn't just drop but kind of fly into the pot splashing lead out.

The biggest frustrating is getting the base edges to fill out. I tried to get the picture to show it. I will have to get the pot and thermometer and see if I can do a little better with that.


One thing you should do is clean your mould really good to get rid of the smoke you put in it, you'll do better with a perfectly clean mould than with one that's smoked. Just preheat the mould well before casting with it (I use a single burner hot plate) and things will go along much better than trying to preheat the mould by putting it on top of the melting pot.

I was scared to cast without putting some type of lube on the mold. If I remember the Lee directions said you could have problems without smoking or lubing the mold. I will clean it up and see what I come with. I plan on getting a hot plate and using it for preheating the mold. I probably won't cast any more with a spoon and wait until i get the rest of the equipment. I was just excited to do a few to see how the mold turned out.

I have questions on seating the bullets but will post them later when I can get the picture of them.

Thanks for the help.

[runfiverun]

nothing wrong with what you are doing.
you are not the first person to cast like this.
the basics still apply, heat in the mold,heat in the alloy,mold venting,and timing.
you need to lube the points that make contact on the mold.
i use anti sieze,, well. because that's what i have alway's used.
i use a q-tip to apply it to the female parts of the mold.
i also use it on top of the mold.
when there are hot boolits in the mold i smear it across the top and open and close the plate.
then dump the bolits out and continue.

[cs86]

i use anti sieze,, well. because that's what i have alway's used.

Isn't anti seize a zinc product? I used it on the ranch at times on machinery or car parts (spark plugs) more as an anti rust agent, but not a lubricant. Would it be ok for an aluminum mold? Are there other products that people like using?


i also use it on top of the mold.
when there are hot boolits in the mold i smear it across the top and open and close the plate.

Do you do this at every setting or how often?

Thanks

[gwpercle]

cs86,
get yourself a copy of the Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook . New 4th edition is just out . If you can find a reasonably priced copy of the old 3rd edition get it also. The best guide for casting , wealth of information at your fingertips . This book , this site and experience will have you turning out first rate boolits in no time. I got better when I got a proper casting ladle , with the little fitted spout on the side and got rid of the open spoon ... the spout presses against the hole and the molten lead has a bit of pressure to fill out the boolits nicely.
gary

[cs86]

get yourself a copy of the Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook

Thanks for the recommendation, I have the book. Not sure what edition, but its been a great tool to get me started. I'm most of the way through the book. Some things have to be learned and retained by hands on experience and I feel that's the point I'm at. I probably need to go back and brush up on a few things in the book.

[runfiverun]

anti sieze comes in aluminum,copper [couple of types],nickel,zink,blue moly and probably a couple of kinds i don't know about.
i mainly use aluminum,copper,and nickel.
and mostly the marine copper or the nickel type for the casting chores.
i save the aluminum for steel on steel contact stuff.
and the copper for stainless steel,aluminum,and brass applications.
2 stroke oil does the job too and leaves less ash behind.

but it usually ends up in motors and boolit lubes around here.

[Wayne Smith]

Your other problem is ladle casting with a spoon. The spoon does not hold enough alloy to keep up to temp as you pour. A ladle is made of cast iron, holds a lot more, and pours much more precisely. Either the RCBS or the Lyman will be a big improvement in your casting without investing in a bottom pour pot. I still ladle cast everything.

[Le Loup Solitaire]

Hi and welcome to the forum.Your bullets look good and other members on this post have given you some good advice, especially Mike S. on post #3. A spoon will work although try using a bigger one. have used a cast iron soup ladle successfully on one cavity up to gang molds and made good bullets. The raggedy holes in your bases will not compromise your accuracy, if at all. But the cause of them is primarily that you are not leaving enough molten sprue/pour/alloy on top of the sprue plate hole to feed the base of the bullet as it shrinks. This can also cause "voids" or empty spaces in the bottom of the bullet (often cannot be seen) which can cause bad grouping. The puddle that you leave is therefore important so you will need something that holds enough melt to do it. I would suggest a ladle or dipper for that. Different ones are around ranging from Lyman and RCBS to Rowell (makes different sizes). Don't worry about sloppy sprues as they go back in the pot anyway. A trick used by some casters was to pour (on multi-cavity molds with troughs on the sprue plate) along the length of the trough and then continue the pour going the other way while the sprue was still liquid. It made a huge sprue, but the bullets had plenty of melt to feed the shrinkage. What counts is the quality of what drops out of the mold and of course what it does on the target. Keep up the good work. LLS