Having an issue casting round balls

[pearcetopher]

Hi guys ive casted lots of rifle and pistole bullets but now I am attempting to cast for blackpowder round balls

I cannot seem to get them to fill out correctly, I have tried having my bottom pour melter from level 6 to level 10 and i cannot seem to get nice round smoothe balls. They are not filling out correctly. I think I may have gotten wax in the mold that is causing this however by the time the wax has burned off of the top of the blocks and the sprue plate and I get one or two good balls I have to re lube the sprue and block and then it starts dropping non filled out balls again. How do you guys do it?

[cbrick]

First, stop putting wax on your mold. Back in the bad old days (when Veral Smith recommended this) I NEVER could get little enough on the mold that it didn't migrate.

Very sparingly use bull plate & use a Q-tip to remove any excess. Next is mold temp, simply have to get it up to proper casting temp. I didn't say pot temp . . . Mold temp and they are two different things. If your using pure Pb a higher pot temp won't hurt anything except your casting pace as it will take much longer for the alloy in the mold and the mold itself to cool enough between pours.

Rick

[snuffy]

Not enough info;
1. what caliber?
2. who makes the mold?
3. what alloy,(pure lead)?
4. how are you pouring, bottom pour or ladle?
5. what's the temperature of the lead?
6. are you preheating the mold?

[Dusty Bannister]

To apply a small amount of beeswax to a sprue plate hinge bolt, or perhaps the alignment pins, roll the stick of beeswax into a fine point and only touch the tip against the hot mold part. It will only melt off as much as is in contact with the mold and no more. If you are using parafin or candle wax, you are using the wrong wax.

Depending upon what I want to lube, I may also use Bullplate or other synthetic lubes.
Dusty

[Bent Ramrod]

I ladle pour round balls. and get best results by pouring them into the sprue hole from the side rather than coupling the ladle to the mould and turning it vertical. Mould must be up to temperature but switching to this technique reduced the wrinkles and ripples from a significant plurality to a tiny minority.

Don't know why this works on round balls only. It sure does not work on regular boolits.

[longbow]

What Bent Ramrod said! I cast the same way for round balls and shotgun slugs.

It would help to know mould make and ball size but in general, I tend to have more trouble casting pure lead balls than alloy balls or boolits.

Some added tin may help with fill out. I usually cast faster and increase lead temperature to aid in fill out.

Another thing is that you might try loosening your sprue plate so it almost swings on its own. That will help vent air out. I also break the top edges of the mating mould faces on almost all moulds now. Same reason, that little "V" under the sprue plate vents out air.

Longbow

[runfiverun]

I don't put anything on top of a round ball mold.
turn the heat up and keep the mold moving.
I don't even wait for the sprue to solidify fully before opening and dumping the ball out.

[btroj]

I run em hot and fast.

Round ball are easy, try casting square ones!

[country gent]

Run your pot temp around 750-800 degrees pour fast and try swirl from edge of sprue plate and dead center pour. I have gotten good result with te ladle and pressure pouring but mold has to be well vented also. Bigger bullets and pure lead require a faster pour rate to keep everything hot to allow complete fill out.

[44man]

88485I must have cast a million RB's of every caliber and I cast the same with a ladle as I do every boolit. I just turn up the pot to 800*. Pace is the same too.
Now if you want to talk OLD, when a kid I cast airgun pellets, jigs and sinkers from molds made out of WOOD!
I think I was 15 when I made this jig mold by hand. Put hooks in and pour nice jigs. I am now 76 and the mold still works.

[pearcetopher]

as an update, I have solved the problem

The issue was the pour speed, because I only had 5 ingots or so 1/2lb of pure lead my bottom pour wouldn't pour fast. As soon as the pot was full enough to get a big shot of lead down in a hurry, it solved all my problems. I'm now thinking my scrap melt ladle pour might be a better idea for pouring round balls. Funny enough this never happens with cast bullets, it must have something to do with perfect concentric circle