Newbie Question

[AFretired]

I have been reloading for several years but am trying to get started in casting. I have all the basic tools and equipment. But what I am needing to know is the details. I had someone teach me reloading and all the do's and don'ts but no one around me does casting anymore.

I need to know if there is any special way to clean lead WW before they are melted down and fluxed for leading. I have 3 5-gallon buckets of WW's and just need some know how.

Question 2 Do I need to prep the molds in any way since they are new?

[mroliver77]

You only need put them in a pot and add heat. If there are modern WW from the last 10? years you need to watch for zinc WW and cull these out as they will ruin your alloy. Use only enough heat to melt the lead and clips, junk and zinc weights will float to the surface. You want a skimmer of some sort to skim the crud and dispose of this in a strong covered can of some sort.(landfill?) Do NOT ADD COLD WEIGHTS TO HOT ALLOY!! as a steam explosion can happen from trapped moister. You dont want to learn this the hard way! I know:( Ladle clean alloy into some sort of mold to cast suitable ingots for your casting pot.
I clean new molds with hot detergent water and a stiff bristle brush followed by preheating on a hotplate or the top of a casting pot. Some prefer carb cleaner(and it seems to work well) or alkyhol. Hope this helps. Jay

[cbrick]

Heat will do all the cleaning, just get out the obvious junk before adding WW. If you have melted alloy in the pot use extreme caution adding more weights as mroliver said, it can be a life altering experience. The safest way to do this is start with an empty pot, fill it with weights, as they start to melt add more to the top where they don't enter liquid alloy. The heat will dry them before they melt. A casting thermometer is a really good idea. Melt the WW at no more than 650 degrees, zinc melts at 700 something and they float to the top, get em out.

I also recommend seperating the clip-on weights from the stick-on weights. The stick-on (foam tape on the back) weights are a source of a very soft lead and will dilute the antimony percentage of the clip-ons and make the bullets somewhat softer. Its a personal choice to seperate them but at least to me it seems such a waste of soft lead.

For mould prep a good cleaning is needed or you'll probably give up on casting before you get a usable bullet. Iron moulds are oiled before shipping to prevent rust. Aluminum moulds have oil on them also simply because cutting oil is used in making them. If there is the slightest bit of oil in the cavities or on the sprue the bullets will be wrinkled. I use denatured alcohol but any of many ways that get rid of the oil is fine.

The only other "mould prep" you should do is carefully check out the mould to make sure the alignment pins are correctly set, blocks close properly etc. Most mould makers do a fine job but occasionally stuff happens.

Rick

[Leftoverdj]

If the moulds are Lee's there's a sticky on "Leementing" somewhere. They have some peculiarities of their own. A short personal version is that they need a much more thorough cleaning than you might expect, Lee is dead serious about the need to lube while in use, a coating of spray graphite (mould release) on the top of the blocks and the underside of the sprue plate prevents wear, and scrubbing the edges of the cavities with a pencil eraser may make them release much easier.