relatively new caster here ...and i'm in love!

[mozeppa]

wife and i love to shoot...I think her more than me, as i like to reload more.
up til very recently i've been reloading pre cast boolits, FMJ's, TMJ's, XTP's, XTP's Plated....abc's , 123 and eieio's

never thought much about casting my own ....til lately!

bought a pot.
acquired 300 pounds of ww
and 400 pounds lino
all the tools ...implements baubles, bangles and beads that goes with it.
studied up...asked others lotza questions...watched a lot of youtube ...watched some cartoons too.

now what molds to buy?

i went cheap , and bought lee 6 bangers.

so last week i fired up my pot with the new fangled "pid" attached to it. (amazing thing it is!)
loaded it with lead.
heated up my new hot plate.
whipped out my newly smoked 9mm Lee 6 banger mold.

then held my breath.

and poured........not good
took a while to get into a cadence ...but when the mold got up to temp...some boolits wern't too bad.
many went back in.

after i got a sizable number that was acceptable ...i switched to 45 colt 255 gn. rfn profile.

man!... those were ugly wrinkled abominations!

after fooling with the lead temp...the hot plate temp....cadence speed... after about 400 boolits,
i finally got some worth keeping.

i started thinking is this really this hard?...wondering if i should scrap the whole idea and go back to pre-made boolits.

i'm in it deep supply and tools wise....i acquired 9 of these lee molds in various calibers and grain weights.

here's where it gets good!

i wanted a keith style 158 grain mold (no gas check) for 38 special / 357 mag.
lee either don't make one or i missed it when looking.

when out of the blue a member here put a 4 cavity mold just as described up for sale
in the "swappin' & sellin' " forum of our site here...(only it was a Lyman mold.)

my "OCD" kept gnawing at me .....it isn't a Lee mold...and i like my stuff to be all the same.

$70 later it arrives in the mail...i take it apart and polish all 4 cavities.

and on the first cast with it...it made the prettiest boolits! i made 769 boolits in 4 hours.

Lymans molds are heavy made!...not aluminum...( this gets scratched up with use from the steel sprue plate.)

once its hot, i never hardly ever set it back on the hot plate.
the sprue plate doesn't smear the lead like the the lee molds do..and over all the seem to be made tighter.
were as Lee molds seem to me wimpy on the hardware and looser.

LEE is okay for molding...don't get me wrong.
i think i just discovered that i like Lymans better...damn the cost!

[1johnlb]

Each mold seen to have their own attitude,regardless of maker. Did you clean the lee's and smoke the cavities? Oil in the molds can cause the problems you described. I normally have to clean Lees with gas and smoke twice to get them to cast good. The smearing with the sprue plate is to hot. Either your mold is to hot or your cutting your sprue to soon.

[waco]

A properly cleaned and prepped mold should not need to be smoked or have any kind of release agent sprayed into the cavities. Carbon build up or anything else in the cavities just make you boolits smaller than you might want.
Glad you have had good success early on! Cast iron molds are much different than aluminum ones. They both have there ups and downs. You just have to learn the quirks of each mold material.

[smokeywolf]

I guess I got started the easy way. Still don't own an aluminum mould. I know that some are excellent; NOE being a good example of this. Most of my moulds are old Ideals, a few Lymans, a couple of old old Winchester moulds, a couple of homemades and a couple of others.

smokeywolf

[1johnlb]

Even NOE's prep procedures say to smoke the mold. Carbon does act as a release agent but it's main purpose is for conditioning the mold just like casting a couple hundred rounds would do. It also aids in spotting any oil left in the mold, it turns a shiny black were ever there's oil. And after about 10~20 cast it's mostly gone causing no effect on boolit diameter.

[RED333]

70 dollars for a 4 cavity Lyman mold, you got out on the cheap side, congrats.

[mozeppa]

70 dollars for a 4 cavity Lyman mold, you got out on the cheap side, congrats.

yeah !...even came with handles!

to 1johnlb... i use a dremel and jewelers rouge applied with a bullet shaped buffing pad to polish each cavity to a mirror like surface.
when the molds are in the mood to cast, they make a really pretty boolit!

[bedbugbilly]

congrats on your new endeavor! It only gets better . . . and more addicting! I use Lee, Ideal/Lyman, Ohaus, RCBS as well as some "no names". As stated . . . every mold has their own personality. Glad you had such a successful start and just remember .. . it doesn't make any difference how many years a person has been casting . . . we all have bad days when things just don't seem to "come together". :-) I'm sort of like you . . . I don't know chick I like better . . . the casting, the reloading or the shooting. Sounds like you and your wife have a good time . . that's what it's all about!

[quilbilly]

Welcome to our happy addictions! Suggestion - Next time you go into a Walmart, head to the fishing section and look for some lead-free, pure tin splitshot sinkers. Pick up a package of size 7's and add those to your next batch of 3 pounds when you want to make those 45's. That extra tin might just make those 45's look better faster. It is a bit expensive to buy pure tin this way but those packages of splishot sinkers are a good way to experiment without committing a lot of money.

[1johnlb]

to 1johnlb... i use a dremel and jewelers rouge applied with a bullet shaped buffing pad to polish each cavity to a mirror like

Even more reason to smoke the mold!

[mozeppa]

Even more reason to smoke the mold!

sorry john...the jury is still out on smoking the mold.
i polished the 228 round nose 45 acp lee 6 cavity mold last night.

it took about 45 minutes to polish the cavities to the point of each looking like chromed mirrors.
i actually could see my reflection in the cavities...they were beautiful!

fired up the lead pot ...got up to temp and started.

they drop out as if they were buttered!:bigsmyl2:

[1johnlb]

No need to appoligize to me fellow caster, I was merly giving you tips on getting you Lee's working. To each his own, as they say. I have 16 different lee molds, after about the third one and reading the directions, as I'm sure you did, I perfected my break in procedure and have had no problems since in any other molds. MANY folks on here constantly rag Lee for their quility and 93% of the problems aren't the mold but the USER, because of improper break-in procedures and someone trying to redesign a good thing. All my molds release good, their always " in the mood" and will cast between 400-500 boolits an hour out of one double cavity.


PURDY boolits don't shoot better nor are they more accurate, but good to look at yourself with, I guess. In fact if polish enough could cause that boolit to be out of balance at higher velocity. Thus increasing your group size.


BE BLESSED AND HAPPY TRAILS

[bangerjim]

Welcome to the Pb casting madness.

I have probably 26 Lee molds and all are excellent. I have a couple Lyman steel ones and they are very good too......just very heavy and prone to rust. And some MiHec aluminum ones also. Good stuff!

Your problems with wrinkles rests in the under-temp of your mold, as long as your pour metal is at temp. Heat the molds to FULL CASTING TEMP....not just "spit sizzlin' temp" on your hot plate. I do that and get perfect wrinkle-free boolits from the 1st drop most times. (There are ALWAYS gremlins in there somewhere!)

Don't give up on Lee aluminum molds. I really like them. And so do many thousands of others out there! I crank out tons of boolits from 223 up thru 45 with no problems.

As said, perrdy boolits are no better than frostys and slight wrinklies. They all shoot the same for me. My castings are NOT for a photo-op, they are for MY fun! Most people on here sort and polish for the camera. I would too, but I don't care! I PC everything.

Have fun! And save that money you were spending on pre-made slugs. I am sure you wife can find a way to spend it! Mine does. HA.....ha!

banger