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JohnH
01-16-2015, 01:12 AM
After reading a post further don about oxide colors on the melt, and another on PIN controllers for the Lee Pro-4, I've decided there is something wrong with me. I cast using either COWW or lead lino mixed at 2 to 1 for an alloy that is about the same as WW. I run the thermostat setting between 7-8 (always have even on the smaller Lee unit) I've never had colors form on top of my melt. Nor do I as a rule spend lots of energy fluxing the melt. I normally use ingots made in cast iron cornbread pans, weigh about a pound each, I preheat them by laying them atop the furnace, adding them as the melt level drops 1/2-3/4 inches or so, its an eyeball, experience thingy no hard fast rule about it, but the ingot will burn your fingers. I've actually had them melt before I could drop 'em in. I get some crude on top, but normally don't flux for to or three casting sessions, and when I do I'm as likely to use a wee tad of burnt motor oil as anything. Occasionally I have a small stick of pine lighter on hand and use that to stir the pot up but again if I do, I do; if I don't, I don't. Only time I get lots of crd built up on the melt is when I begin to toss lots of sprues back in the melt. Usually happens when I'm too lazy to make ingots or don't have a spare gas bottle to run the turkey fryer for doing so. A tad of oil, and the problem disappears. Thirty years + into this I've found that it's easy to spend a bunch of time picking the flyspecks out of the horse doo for little to no gain in the quality of the boolits I shoot. I don't compete, I ain't looking for match grade accuracy, nor am I looking for the perfect boolit, lots of 'em find their way into sub 1-1/2" groups when fired off a bench at 75-100 yards and everyone of them has made me smile. I have spent literally hundreds of hours casting, loading and shooting and my friends and I have enjoyed every minute of it... Back to the problem at hand...


Am I missing something? I don't have the problems I've read about others having with their cast over the years. The only time I've seen colors on the melt is when I'm dealing pure lead. Antimony/tin alloy's have always, always been silver on the top, even the crud. Now the dross turns black... I was also taught that lead/tin/antimony don't separate, that the oxidized metal on top of the melt is the same as that in the melt. I know that the alloys can be forced out with heat, but not at the temperatures we cast at. Maybe my info is wrong, but I've never been able to prove it, and even if I am wrong I can't tell that it's caused me any great headache. 1/2 a percent of tin or antimony one way or the other just don't make enough difference between 600 and 1800 fps to make a cat's nap bit of difference. Flux all ya want, I ain't found it to be near the problem some make it out to be, unless you're ladle casting; and that my friend is a horse of a different color...


Some folks aint gonna like this, but the only time I've ever had leading is as a result of crappy lube, a crappy barrel or simply trying to drive a boolit too fast. Good lube goes a long way to relieve heartburn and when ya got good lube, the lube star will tell you when you are about to exceed the limits of the alloy hardness/lube/pressure/velocity curve. It's possible to exceed anyone of those without much trouble, but the more you exceed a combination of them the more heartburn you get. It's really a crappy alloy from what I learned years ago, but simply put, common wheel weight will do a yeoman's work. Linotype was all the rage in my youth, I've discovered that WW, FFWL and a gas check will go faster than my reconstructed shoulder cares for and in a handgun, even self feeders, it does a better than good job. If you are shooting WW in a handgun and having leading trouble, the alloy is likely NOT your problem...

And yes, I shoot jacketed. There I said it. Count me among the unwashed heathen. Drag my accursed body into the desert and let the sun bleach my bones... Don't get me wrong, I don't think that jacketed is superior to cast, it's just easier to get good results at high speed with, and I'm old enough that I don't like to be aggravated by things I can do something about. Shooting jacketed boolits at speeds greater than 2000 fps reduces a lot aggravation. I've hunted with cast, killed well over a dozen deer with cast, I loved it, got nothing to prove. I actually think that a 44 magnum rifle will do 90% of the deer killing I need done. But I've other rifles I like to bloody once in a while too and I'm not going to go through the trouble of working up a cast load for a rifle to hunt with it using cast one season. I've rifles I shoot cast in, rifles I shoot jacketed in, and it works for me. Same as my casting method.

Glad I got that off my chest. Feel better now. Now you know too, that if I read a post about some goop on top of a melt and I don't respond, it's because I figure it's easy to make mountains out of mole hills, and I prolly don't have the answer you need anyway. Only two things continue to irritate me about casting... I hate Lee furnaces. They drip constantly, even with springs and weights on the pour handles (although I did find that my 10 pounder stopped dripping when I used some 20-1 once go figure...) I've never had as much trouble out of the melt as I've had out of Lee moulds, but I use them, a couple of them are favorites, guess it's a love/hate relationship. So there you have it, the state of my casting union. I do some, I don't so some and I make what as do as aggravation free as I can. It's like life, if it gets tangled up, keep going, it'll straighten itself out.

scottfire1957
01-16-2015, 01:28 AM
TLDR. If it works for you, fine. Why worry?

mdi
01-16-2015, 02:02 PM
FWIW, I don't remember seeing (or paying any attention to) a "rainbow effect" on top of my melt. Normally, I use methods and supplies/equipment that produces good bullets for me and my guns, regardless of what the forum experts say (Should I expect the "Casting Police" to kick in my door and confiscate my lead stash 'cause I don't cast like the Gurus do?). Not saying I disregard any input by those more knowledgeable than me, I just don't determine my "worth" by doing something different if it works for me :mrgreen:. Some problems reported, or asked about here, I have not experienced. Am I doing something wrong? Or something right? Dunno, but I do know what I shoot in my guns (lead, jacketed, swaged, Hy-Tek, Powder Coated) is what works for me and if not PC or not high tech enough, oh well....

Casting is something I really enjoy and it is very, very satisfying. I shoot 95% cast lead bullets (haven't gotten around to trying cast in my Garand), and I do appreciate the conversations/threads I see here, and I have learned quite a bit too...
:lovebooli

GhostHawk
01-16-2015, 11:11 PM
Nothing wrong with you IMO, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

While I do tend to skim my pot if I add fresh lead, I don't obsess about it.

I seldom flux, only if I'm smelting WW or raw range lead, or if I'm resmelting my skimmings. (Yeah I save them)

I do almost all my casting nowdays with a small lee dipper pot. So a little slag on the top is no big deal for me in most cases.

As long as your getting good boolits, all is well.
(I suspect most of the people with problems are running temps a touch too high or too low)

shoot-n-lead
01-16-2015, 11:43 PM
I am like you, in that, I do not pay a lot of attention to all of the posts here about all of minutiae that so many of these guys get into. I use COWW air cooled for all of my bullets...5 cartridges and my bullets are not all beautiful, but they will all shoot as well as I am capable of shooting. Used one of my old ugly 429421 bullets out of a 44 special flattop to kill this little buck yesterday and he never let on about the shortcomings of the bullet.

SO, if it worked for him...it works for me.

127681

odfairfaxsub
01-17-2015, 01:00 PM
Right in man. That's what we needed to hear shoot n lead

w5pv
01-17-2015, 01:10 PM
I have always said that as long as a load doesn,t lead for the most part I am fine with it,The animals and paper/tin cans don't seem to mind if a bullet was wrinkled,ugly or pretty.

45-70 Chevroner
01-17-2015, 08:34 PM
That was a great read. I like your style, I have been doing the same thing for over forty years and it works. I just live with the dripping Lee pot though and I have a lot of Lee molds, along with a few RCBS molds and a bunch of Lyman molds. Casting is my hobby and not making it complicated makes it a lot more fun.