1st Casting Session Autopsy

[Satokad]

Hey All,
I ran my first casting session today. I'd like to take you through it, post a few pictures, and get some feedback.
I am casting out of a Lee Pro Pot. I was using lead that came from a recycler and was in 2# muffins. I was casting 1 oz. Lee 12 gauge Key Drive Slugs.
I started off melting about 8 lbs. of lead. It took a little while for the lead to start melting, but when it did, it went pretty quick.
I filled a 4x Lyman ingot mold, and they were OK, but a little uneven. They seemed to not fill out very well. I'm not sure if the spout was pouring too slow or if the lead was not hot enough.
Next, I made about 10 slugs. The first few were wrinkled pretty bad, but it evened out after that. Most, if not all, of my slugs had at least one little wrinkle on them. I water-quenched about half of them.
I had a question about the color on top of the lead which I posted in the alloy forum, and it was answered. I made some more ingots, and they were a little better. I tried moving the mold a little to get it to fill more evenly.
I switched back and forth between slugs and ingots until my Lee mold broke. I think I did something stupid. I was using a rubber mallet to knock the sprue plate over, and then to tap the slug loose. Most slugs dropped with a little tap, but I took a break for a few minutes and when I came back, I didn't re-heat the mold first. So with this slug, the whole cone fell out. Not sure if I can reattach it (I'm not real mechanical that way). I did lube it with synthetic 2 stroke oil, and I did carbon the inside of the mold with matches.
I added a few lead muffins through the process. They melted fairly quickly. I was fluxing with Marvelux powder. Not sure what it did except make a big stink. I didn't see much stuff (dross) in there, so maybe this lead was already pretty clean?
I had a blast (right up until the thing broke), and I can't wait for my .452 mold to get here.
Anyhow, any thoughts, observations, etc. would be greatly appreciated.
One other question; are the slugs with wrinkles still usable? They are just for plinking, test-loading, and not for hunting, so accuracy isn't critical yet.
Thanks.

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[roberts1]

I Think a little more heat in your mould would help your fill out and get rid of the wrinkles. I have noticed with my lee moulds once they are warmed up good the sprues break easily. Some have had problems with the 6 cavity mould sprue plates breaking. By your description id say mould temp was your main issue. Still look usable to me tho

[Land Owner]

+1 to increased mould temp to reduce/eliminate wrinkles. Just dip an edge of the mould in the liquid lead for a while, until the lead no longer sticks. Turn it over and dip the other side too, trying for even mould pre-heat throughout. Slugs with that few wrinkles would probably hit just as hard and shoot just as straight as their non-wrinkled brothers and sisters. Your shotgun and a target will tell you for certain...

You get what, 10-12 slugs per brick of Lyman ingot? Wow. That's lead CONSUMPTION.

[mikeym1a]

My experience with Lee molds are that the sprue plate needs to be up to the proper temperature to allow the alloy to flow into the cavities freely. I also polish the openings in the sprue plate. When I heat my mold, I put it on the stove, sprue plate down, and let it set on medium while the pot melts. The aluminum body heats quite quickly, it seems to me that the spure plate steel takes longer to get up to the proper operating temperature. Just my observations. mikey OH. I always remove the sprue plate, and use a small file all around the bottom lip. There always seem to be burrs along the edge. I then use a large flat file along its length to see if there are high and low spots, and finish it with short session on an Arkansas oil stone for smoothness. It seem to help my molds. Cheers!

[Satokad]

Thanks, folks.

[jm423]

+1 with Mikey on cleaning up Lee mold sprue plates--I have a diamond grit plate I use flattening plane irons and chisel backs. A few rubs on that will tell you how flat the sprue plate isn't. But not long to de-bur, then take a needle file, slip stone, or what have you and ease the edges of the sprue plate to a slight radius or bevel. Seems to help and avoid scratching or scrapes on top of mold blocks.