First cast, what am I doing wrong

[cdngunner]

Please see the pics below. The bullets come out with one side looking great and 180 deg around the look all rough. This effect is pretty consistent even mold to mold. When I melted my wheel weights, I'm sure pot never got hot enough to melt any zinc, I was using a single burner electric stove. I have my ideas just want to see what the experts think. Thanks
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[44man]

Your lead is hotter then you think, looks like a hot spot where the lead first touches the mold.

[Pb2au]

Welcome to the site!
Two things come to mind.
1) Are you fluxing your alloy? There appears to be some pitting/porosity/bubbles in some of the boolits. This could indicate dirt, grime, stuff in the allow.
2) It appears that the boolits in general are not filling out well. Make sure your mold is up to temp. Pre-heat it on the top of you vessel containing the alloy, or on a hot plate.
3) (this should have been the first point..) Make sure your mold is squeaky clean. Lots of hot water, detergent and a toothbrush and scrub the mold thoroughly, dry it out well.
4) If you lubed the mold, (the alignment pins and sprue plate) make sure whatever you used to lube it didn't migrate into the mold cavities.
5) Are you melting the WW's in the pot you are casting from? Meaning, are you converting the WW's to ingots, then melting the ingots or are you just melting the WW's and casting directly from that melt? This all leads back to making sure your alloy is clean going into the casting phase.

I hope this helps!

[cdngunner]

I am using a Lee 10 lb pot with the setting around 7 to cast. A thermometer is on my list of things to get.

I am using a kitchen pot and a hot plate to melt my wheel weights.
I use saw dust before I remove the clips and candle wax after
I flux the pour pot with a bit of wax before I start
I preheat by dipping the corner of the mold in the pot.

My guess was contamination in the pot or dirty molds

[cdngunner]

Physical inspection of the mold cavity shows nothing obvious in the cavity

[lavenatti]

My molds have all cast better after a few casting sessions. Once you use them four or five times you'll start to really notice the difference.

[Dan Cash]

Hard to tell from a distance but I would suggest: Submerge mould blocks in paint thinner, slosh around well and air dry, add a bit of tin and turn up the heat. The side of your mould that is filling seems hotter than the other for some reason. Additional fluxing with vegetable oil or parifin won't hurt any thing either.

[725]

Small pits on the side of the cast seems like oil contamination, to me. Clean the mold. Smelt the WW's and remove the clips. Skim any dross. Then add your flux (saw dust). Stir and skim again. Scrape the sides and bottom of your smelting pot and further skim any dross/debris. Pour into ingots for future use and when you re-melt the ingots, flux and skim them again.

What you have now doesn't look too bad. I'd bet they would shoot pretty good. Perfection, if there is such a thing, is right around the corner for you.

[GP100man]

Flux & stir, flux & stir !

thermometer & even preheating of the mold will help.
also stop lookin at your casts so long ! LOL
we all did it at first!

[Djones]

A setting of 7 on my Lee 10# pot will reach 800F quick. 7 is the setting the owners manual suggests for initial melting from cold state. I usually set the pot to seven until things start to melt and then I reduce to 3-4 on the dial.

Like said above a thermometer is a key piece of equipment!

[cbrick]

Vegetable oil, paraffin and wax will not flux the alloy. Vegetable oil, paraffin and wax cannot flux the alloy because they are not fluxes. They will reduce tin back into the alloy but cannot remove any contaminates. Use sawdust to flux, it is a flux, will remove contaminates AND reduce tin back into the alloy every bit as well as wax & oil.

Clean your mold again, flux with a flux again and use a hot plate to pre-heat the mold. Reduce the pot temp to 700 degrees.

When fluxing just putting it on top of the melt will do no good. Use a stainless steel spoon to bring the alloy up from the bottom of the pot and pour through the sawdust on top, keep doing this until all the alloy has been cleaned. It takes a bit of time to properly flux, simply waving something over the top of the pot does nothing.

Rick

[captaint]

Now, class - Let's all go read post # 11 again. I just don't see anything missing there !! Mike

[cdngunner]

Learning all the time...

[cbrick]

Learning all the time...

Here is an outstanding learning aid and it's free.

From Ingot to Target (http://www.lasc.us/Fryxell_Book_textonly2.pdf)

I suggest downloading it and printing it out for future reference.

Rick

[cdngunner]

I have downloaded it on my phone, just have not had time to read it yet as I was too busy melting lead wheel weights :)

I was saving reading it for when I am with the inlaws at easter, if you know what I mean ;) :)


Here is an outstanding learning aid and it's free.

From Ingot to Target (http://www.lasc.us/Fryxell_Book_textonly2.pdf)

I suggest downloading it and printing it out for future reference.

Rick

[Smoke4320]

[QUOTE=GP100man;2738322]Flux & stir, flux & stir !

thermometer & even preheating of the mold will help.

QUOTE]

and cbricks post #11 .. read and read again

I would flux with sawdust at least twice after removing the clips ..
Black specks are contamination..
plus what is the tin Percentage you are using ..1 to 2 % tin will really help fillout

[Blammer]

clean the mould, flux lead try again.

[MtGun44]

Thermometer is not particularly necessary. Casting rate controls mold temp once the
metal temp is in the ballpark. I have one, have been casting since 1976 and can't
remember the last time I got it out.

Scrub the mold with a toothbrush and dish soap and hot water. Add about 1-2% tin
to help fill out if you are using wwt alloy. Do flux like cbrick told you to do.

Bill

[AlaskanGuy]

What mtgunner said.... Scrub the holy cracps out of that mold with a toothbrush, hot water, dawn, and then do it all over again... Then heat your mold real hot, let it cool off and scrub it again.... E heat cycle will help get the last of the oils where you can get to them.....

AG

[runfiverun]

yep clean the mold.

I have a 2 cavity lyman 375449 that gives me fits like this sometimes, it must have oil soaked in it clear to the outside of the mold.
I have to get the mold stupid hot and cast fast [with 715-725 f alloy] to get it to do what I want [fill out both halves] and I have to clean the thing continuously.
you'd think the large cavity's in the small mold blocks would overheat the mold to frosty but the boolits come out nice and shiny then fade to grey as they cool.

[cdngunner]

Thank you gentlemen

[Korporal]

Hey. I hope it's okay to ask a question aboute fluxing. I flux whit sawdust. The kind used for rabbits and guinea pigs. And i experience that some of the burned sawdust settles on the bottom and the sides of my smelting kettle
This is impossible to get it all out!

Any tips?

[Recluse]

Hey. I hope it's okay to ask a question aboute fluxing. I flux whit sawdust. The kind used for rabbits and guinea pigs. And i experience that some of the burned sawdust settles on the bottom and the sides of my smelting kettle
This is impossible to get it all out!

Any tips?

I use a cast iron pot to smelt in. Over here in Texas, we refer to them as a "Dutch Oven," not sure what the term would be over in your neck of the woods. Last time I was in Norway, it was training your Air Force right after y'all bought a bunch of General Dynamics F-16s from us--1980, I think it was.

I do a bit of woodworking now and then, so I keep the sawdust from the various woods I use, which is mainly pine--and it seems to work the best for me so far as fluxing is concerned.

But I also use a wooden paint stir stick--the kind most paint shops give you for free when you buy a gallon or two of paint from them. Most of them are pine, so they also work as a flux, plus you can really use them to scrape the sides and bottom of your smelting pot thoroughly and loosen up any buildup or contaminants.

The last flux I do when smelting before I get ready to pour the molten alloy into my ingot molds is dropping a small piece of candle into the mix, igniting it with a lighter, then stirring it in very thoroughly with my paint stir stick. This seems to always remove any remaining contaminants that may still be lingering.

The only time I flux in the casting furnace is to get the tin back in and I generally do that with a very small piece of old lube or candle wax. I haven't had to flux in my casting furnace because of contamination in years.

:coffee:

[Korporal]

Mabye i need to change my sawdust to finer sawdust and also try pine. Hmmm.... that grayish black fine dust that settles down at the bottom really bothers me!! It will not flux out!

[bangerjim]

If all the advice above still does not give you satisfaction, try pressure casting. That can many times solve nearly all fill-out problems regardless of temp and alloy. (You still need to follow good casting rules on correct temp and alloy mix) This will NOT solve the problems with dirt in your ingots or pot! Just put the sprue plate hole up against the spigot and fill the cavity. Depending on the size of the boolit you are casting, you will "feel" in the handles a little thud or tick when the molten lead fills the cavity and a little bit should start coming out. Be very careful that a jet of molten lead does not squirt out at you! If it does, you have dirt an crud on the spigot or sprue plate. Clean it off with your leather glove.

Try it......you will be amazed. I use it all the time with 100% success on my tricky molds.

Have fun casting.

bangerjim

ps.......just to give you a total view of what some say works and does not.....I NEVER clean my molds even when they are brand new. And I smoke them with a beeswax (only) candle. And I use beeswax for the joints lube. I preheat them all on a hotplate.

I present this, not as gospel fact or "this is the way you must to it" (as some on here have accused me of doing), but as what does work for me/myself/I all the time. Do the research, reading, and experimentation to determine what works best for your own personal needs!

bj

[Larry Gibson]

cdngunner

Clean the mould again. I scrub them off with carburetor clean, tooth brush and swab out the cavities with Q-Tips. I then gently heat with a propane torch to just the point the moisture evaporates. You will see it evaporate if you watch closely. I then lube the pivet points and alignment pins and graphite the sprue plate top and bottom.

Melt the alloy in the Lee pot and set the thermostat on 8. The numbers mean little as far as alloy temp go as each alloy is different and the numbers are not necessarily calibrated to temp anyway. Adjust the temp up or down as needed. I prefer casting at 700 - 725 degrees which is hotter than many suggest but I get excellent bullets and few rejects. I prefer to adjust my casting tempo or use multiple moulds than to casting with a colder alloy. I found with Lee pots, especially the 10 pounders, that the thermostat needs adjusting up or down as the level of alloy goes up or down also. Add 2% tin to the melted COWWs and let the smelted alloy "stew" for 10 - 15 minutes then flux several times.

Larry Gibson

[cdngunner]

Hey. I hope it's okay to ask a question aboute fluxing. I flux whit sawdust. The kind used for rabbits and guinea pigs. And i experience that some of the burned sawdust settles on the bottom and the sides of my smelting kettle
This is impossible to get it all out!

Any tips?

I have had similar experience. After fluxing and pouring ingots, when I tilt the pot to one side it seems to release sand like stuff which has been under the lead.

All in all this is all very educational to me.

[cbrick]

I flux whit sawdust. The kind used for rabbits and guinea pigs. And i experience that some of the burned sawdust settles on the bottom and the sides of my smelting kettle. This is impossible to get it all out! Any tips?

With the density of sawdust or the carbon once it's reduced to ash and the density molten lead it is not possible for sawdust to settle below the surface of the melt. Whatever is collecting on the bottom and the sides of your pot is something that was in the alloy or in the wood chips your using.

I've been using sawdust exclusively for many years and have never experienced what your describing so I'm at a loos to explain it other than it's a contaminate from the alloy or wood chips.

Rick

[Korporal]

Exactly what im talking about. I thought everything floated on lead?

[Korporal]

I tried to flux one pot only with candlewax and... no sand like substanse under the lead in the pot

[huntnman]

In the distant past, when I didn't know better i used my production pot to melt down bulk scrap into ingots. Had those same spots (junk in the alloy). After learning better, good pot clean out, my problem went away. Greg<huntnman

[cdngunner]

Just finished melting down another 20 pounds of wheel weights.

Saw dust with the clips
skim
Saw dust after clip removal
skim
Candle after saw dust ashes removed
skim
Stir Stir Stir
skim
Could feel the grit at the bottom
Candle wax stir stir scrape, use a wooden stick

Saw very, very little of the sand "stuff" at the bottom of the pot when I was done

So how much stirring are you supposed to do? I thought that to much stirring oxidizes the tin?