I forgot how to cast, sort of

[MikeSSS]

I haven't cast for a few months but this dandy Lee six hole .30 plain base mold arrived one day. (Thanks David.)

After cleaning it with alcohol I cast some, they were ugly.

Cleaned it with throttle body cleaner, still got more ugly boolits.

Brushed it with a tooth brush, dish liquid and water. Got even more uglies.

Guess what prep was missing?

Yup, I forgot to smoke the mold. A quick look at the LeeMenting post kicked the memory some. Yeah, smoke the mold, I always used to do that before every casting session.

So I got out a butane lighter and it didn't smoke the mold very well. Hmmm. Used all the Diamond matches next. Ahhh, it sort of came back, I turned up the butane lighter all the way and let er rip. Not a great layer of carbon but the boolits sure came out a lot better. Tomorrow I'll burn some nice clean paper and smoke the mold better and cast again.

Now, let's see, where did I hide that lead? Yeah, the lead my wife complained about when I left it out where I could find it. That lead. Out of sight, out of mind.

Next hurdle is remembering to load some ammo and remembering to go shoot same.

Pour that silver stream!

[44man]

Sounds familiar, old age. I helped the wife look for cake pans this morning and after tearing everything off the shelves, she remembered that she threw them out.
I hope you didn't throw the lead out or sell the guns!

[Rooster]

ETA-Moved to a separate thread-as you've inspired me.

[Petander]

I haven't cast for a few months but this dandy Lee six hole .30 plain base mold arrived one day. (Thanks David.)



Guess what prep was missing?

Yup, I forgot to smoke the mold. A quick look at the LeeMenting post kicked the memory some. Yeah, smoke the mold, I always used to do that before every casting session.




My first Lee 6-banger arrived the other day. It needed no smoking whatsoever, it drops pretty, silky boolits with near-zero weight variation when run quite hot, which it seems to like. I cleaned it up with brake cleaner, that´s all.

I left the smoking out on purpose ,just to see how it goes. I have smoked most of my molds before, now it´s time for me to re-think this.