Mold fill?

[Gliden07]

I had a pretty good day today. Decided to cast some 9MM Boolits. Set up all my stuff, got to casting. Started to get a nice pile of Boolits and all of a sudden the mold just wouldn't fill all the way up I made 20 plus pours and got maybe 12 boolits I could use?? Thought the mold might be too hot, let it cool a bit but that just made it worse, thought the mold might need to be hotter still same problem, I also added a little bit of Pewter to help with fill out no go?? I was using WW ingots. The ingots were a batch that were all cast at the same time? I just packed it in. What was going on?? Any ideas? This is the first problem I've had using the alloy I was using.

[blikseme300]

Sounds like your pot is not hot enough. What temperature are you casting at?

[captaint]

Sounds like your mold quit venting somewhere along the line. Is your sprue plate real tight ?? If it is, you might try loosening that up a little. Are the holes in the sprue plate clean and open ??. Other than that, I got nothing. Mike

[Gliden07]

Sounds like your pot is not hot enough. What temperature are you casting at?

I'm not sure on temp I don't have a thermometor but like I said never had a problem before? And I did manage to cast 230ish Boolits before it stopped filling?


Sounds like your mold quit venting somewhere along the line. Is your sprue plate real tight ?? If it is, you might try loosening that up a little. Are the holes in the sprue plate clean and open ??. Other than that, I got nothing. Mike

Could be the sprue plate? I have been having problems with screw coming loose on me so I have a Phillips head screwdriver there to tighten it when it gets loose. Also I did smoke the mold according to Lee's instructions and was told (by the good folks on here)not to do it anymore! So I'll clean the mold up good and try again next weekend?

[Le Loup Solitaire]

Sprue plate(s) should sit flat on the tops of the blocks and not too tight. No up and down slop, but the plate should swing free on its own weight when the blocks are tilted. This will help allow the air in the cavity to exit when the mold is filled. Another source of trapped air can be that the pour stream is too fat in relation to the size of the sprue hole. A stream diameter about 1/2 to 3/4 of the hole diameter is sufficient for filling the cavity and set up a "swirl" if you want/need it. Aluminum molds usually need a bit more heat as the blocks shed heat pretty fast so check out that factor too. LLS

[RobS]

How did you preheat your mold? It sounds like your mold become too cool as you progressed through the casting session. It could be the sprue plate I suppose since you were adjusting it as you cast however it could be as you were messing around with it that the casting tempo slowed down and the mold could have cooled down too much.

[44man]

Heat, venting or the pour stream changed.
Not much else to look for.

[Sasquatch-1]

How old is your WW supply? Is there a chance that you added an ingot that could have had the evil zinc contamination?

[Gliden07]

How old is your WW supply? Is there a chance that you added an ingot that could have had the evil zinc contamination?

Don't think it's zinc contamination. Ive cast close to 3000 boolits with this alloy and had no problems?

[detox]

I am guessing you are using bottom pour pot. Are you holding mould against spout? If so stop doing this and hold mold about 1/8 from sprue plate hole. It's OK for the sprue plate to swing freely, this will help produce bullets with square sharp edge bases "if" it lays flat against mould. I cast between 650 and 700 degrees using WW lead with a little more tin added.

[MtGun44]

Probably venting, sprue plate tightened too much.
Or mold cooled down, so you cooled it more and made it worse.

" Thought the mold might be too hot, let it cool a bit but that just made it worse,"

Too hot makes it cast better, really. Then folks worry about the "dreaded"
frosted boolits which are not dreaded at all and pretty much just fine.

Smoke unlikely to be the problem, but does not help casting and will
slightly shrink boolit size.

Bill

[Gliden07]

Problem has been solved it was a few things. When I got home tonight headed to the Dungeon cleaned the mold, found some small blobs of lead on the face of the mold where it closed they seemed to be blocking some of the vents, there was some baked on beeswax on the face too (that I used for sprue plate lube cause thats all I had) again, this seemed to beblocking some of the venting, the sprue plate was too tight as some others had suggested, the sprue also had some lead crust on it in the fill holes. Another thing, I use the cheapo Lee ladle to pour into the mold and the little pour spout had built up some crud (for lack of better words) so when I went to pour out of the ladle it would miss the fill hole or partially fill it then harden preventing a complete fill. After cleaning it up and getting everything up to temp I managed to cast 135 Boolits in 40 min or so. Thanks guys for all of your suggestions once again the best website going!!

I have a 20LB Lee bottom pour pot on backorder but like everyone in this hobby its a waiting game right now!!

[John Boy]

there was some baked on beeswax on the face tooParaffin is an alkaline, not a wax and leaves no 'baked on reside'
Clean the mold good and chuck the beeswax to lube your mold

[44man]

I am a confirmed ladle caster and like the Lyman best. I never just pour into the hole, I keep the ladle tight in the sprue plate so a boolit takes molten lead from the ladle, never the sprue. I hate a leak there and keep the ladle nose clean.