I Envy Your Freedom! Please Help

[SHOOTER IN EXILE]

I have been a shooter since I was a kid. Only sport I practice. So it is evident that reloading have always been a must. Now I live in a country where shooters are looked upon as enemies of the regime. For thirty years it was relatively easy to get reloading components but now it is different. It might sound crazy or a mad man's dream. In my garage and on the kitchen table I have managed to provide myself with resizing dies from steel tubings, bullet molds from brass padlocks, bullet jackets from hardware store copper tubings, 380 ACP and 22 L.R. fired cases.
Recently on a trip to Miami, I purchased a two cavities Lyman bullet mold for my 7.57 Mauser rifle and also a two cavities 357 mold to cast bullets for 38 spl and 357 mag. plus the dies for both calibers. I don't have a proper melting pot nor a proper dipper, so I'm trying to manage with an iron pot and a dipper made from scrap and a camper's gas burner. The alloy is 10 percent solder's tin and 90 percent wheel weight.
I'm working on the 7.57 bullets and haven't managed to get a single satisfactory bullet. All are wrinkled in the nose area. I'm not sure if heating the mold would wrap it after the trouble I took to have it introduced through the customs. You could imagine the frustration after more than a hundred intents, getting the shiny but wrinkled casts.

Please, any information or suggestion is valuable to me.
Only two questions: Is altering the proportion of the alloy a solution? the other: Are the venting elements of the mold those tiny lines on the inner side of the molds and when and how should they be altered to improve the casting results?

I know it sounds crazy although I'm sure that if you have experienced a situation similar to shooters and mine You would understand. Getting reloading and bullet casting equipments is next to impossible.

I thank You in advance and a lot of thanks To Cast Boolits for giving me the oportunity. If possible I would like C.B. manager how to collaborate. I'm the newest member as far as I know.

[eka]

:drinks: Keep the faith man. Great to have you on board.

I'm by far no expert, but you do need to get your mould hot for it to produce nice bullets. It sounds like the lead is being introduced to a mould that is not up to temp. It will not warp by heating it up. You can do that by floating it in the melt or standing it in a metal pan on a burner on low heat while your lead is melting. I know you probably don't have a thermometer, so I would just get the lead, dipper, and mould hot. You'll know your hot enough when you start getting good bullets. Some people don't like it, but I don't mind if my bullets are frosted. You'll know your hot enough when you start seeing that. You are certainly using enough tin and could probably get away with a lot less. I can most of the time, get good bullets with plain wheel weights, but some tin is good for rifle bullets. The small lines are vent lines and some people report that iron moulds fill out better when you lightly stone the mating edges. I've been meaning to try that, but haven't gotten around to it yet. Tried most of the other crazy ideas mentioned on here though :mrgreen:.

You're at the right place for some really great ideas on getting self sufficient and making things work for you that were not intended for shooting purposes. Use the search function to zero in on your particular questions. And by all means post and ask questions.

It's my fear that one of these days we will know exactly what you are talking about from first hand experience.

Keep sending them down range :Fire: and watch your back.

Take care,

Keith

[mroliver77]

SIE. Welcome,
It sounds like a cold mold or to low of alloy temperature. You did not state if aluminum or steel mold. New molds need to be cleaned very well. Very hot water and detergent works wel. I preheat my molds and have never warped one. I dip mold in hot alloy to just betow handles for 30 seconds and then let it set on the pot edge for a couple minutes to equalise temperature before casting.
I am not sure if you mean 10% tin or ten percent solder. With Wheel weights 3% tin is sufficient. I hope this helps.
J

EDIT, oops he did stste a Lyman Mold. me bad!

[DrJay1st]

Where was this posted from?
Jerry

[SHOOTER IN EXILE]

Sincerely I was not expecting such a prompt answer. You have embarrased me. Thank You. The moulds are the regular steel or iron. I have used such molds for years. Now EKA, did You mean stoning the mating edges or somewhat deepening very very slightly the channels? Wouldn't stoning the edges distort the roundness of the mould, or is it just in the immediate point where the mould halves meet. What instrument do You think I could use; a file or folded sanding paper or cloth?
MROLIVER 77, I usually use carburator cleaning spray which washes off traces of grease or lead and grease residues to clean my guns. I used it on the moulds. What do You think?

[SHOOTER IN EXILE]

No problem with Lyman's. Their products match their ads. I don't know if this would be considered some kind of propaganda. If so I'm sorry. The problem as stated in my post, is the fact that I, an ignorant, have to bypass the problems of purchasing an equipment, by making it with primitive tools. Could You imagine reloading dies for a 375 Winchester B.B. with an ordinary commercial drill, reformed bits, and a lot of sweat and hand polishing? Got the idea?

[SHOOTER IN EXILE]

Where was this posted from?
Jerry

DrJay1st,
Besides Cuba, In Latin America only one regime wants us back to Jurassic Park. I'm sure You already know where I am.

[mroliver77]

SIE,
The carb cleaner should clean mold well enough. So I am still thinking preheat the mold and as someone else mentioned, having a proper ladle might help a lot. At least have a pour spout bent into your ladle. ( I am betting you already have)
I envy your persistance!
J

[floodgate]

EXILE:

BNo, eka and I were referring to the top, inner edge of both blocks, under the sprue-plate, front to back. One swipe with a fine file held at 45* will add a vent-line here, to let air escape from under the plate as the mould finishes filling. This is recommended IF you are having problems with base fill-out; your problems with the noses sound morelike a contaminated mould (oil) or - as suggested - too low a casting temperature.

floodgate

[SHOOTER IN EXILE]

Persistance is the key to success. Thank You again.:)

[Ricochet]

I suspect you don't yet have all the oil out of the mould cavity, and it does have to be hot as others have said. I'll dip the bottom front corner of the mould in the lead for about 30 seconds or until solidified lead no longer forms on it, then let the mould sit on the edge of the pot or hold it above the lead for about a minute to let the temperature equalize through the blocks, then start casting. You have to develop a rhythm to keep the mould hot. Often I'm cutting the sprue right after the visible lead "frosts" over, becoming dull as it solidifies, then dropping the boolit, reclosing the mould and going back to cut another. If that leads to lead smearing on top of the blocks or under the sprue cutter plate from the lead not being hard enough, I'll count off about 10 seconds after the "frosting." It'll take some experimenting to figure out what works best for you.l

[hydraulic]

No one mentioned this, so I will: SMOKE THE MOULD!!! Use a plain wooden kitchen match and put a good layer of soot in the cavities.

[Leftoverdj]

We go through this over and over and over. Wrinkled bullets from a new mould are almost always due to contamination from shipping preservative. You cannot clean them with stuff that contaminates them more, and that includes all petroleum products.

I boil them in soapy water for half an hour and rinse under hot tap water. That works.. If you insist on using some other method, use acetone, denatured alcohol, MEK, or something else that is not petroleum based.

You can also just cast until the preservative burns off. That's likely to take a hundred or more casts, though.

Wooden matches can also cause problems. They work well enough if the wood is a hardwood, but heaven help you if you happen to get pine matches. The resin will contaminate the mould and is VERY hard to get off.

[WHITETAIL]

Shooter, If this condition still lingers try this.:confused:
Take a plastic container only slightly bigger than the mould.
Place the mould back to back in the container.
pour in rubbing alcohol to cover the mould.
let it sit for a wile, say long enough to get a beer from the frig.:-D
Then take the mould out and dry it with new clean paper towle.
Now get a utility knife with a new blade in it.
Recut the vent lines in the mould.
one time per line should do it.:drinks:

[mold maker]

Welcome to the club. Making your own is as rewarding as shooting a good score.
Modifying the mold should be your last resort. Having a hot mold, dipper, and alloy should solve the wrinkles.
Frosted boolets don't hurt anything, and can solve wrinkles, both yours and the boolets.

[uncle joe]

SIE
I don't see anything in the other replies that I do not agree with. My father started me in reloading over 30 years ago. He enjoyed casting his own boolits and shooting very much. He as since died and my mom moved and I lost some of the reloading equipment we had. I have recently started reloading again and also casting my boolits, hence I know somewhat how you feel having to make do with what you have. I said all that to say this, I lost the cast iron lead ladle for filling the molds and tried to make one out of a pipe fitting. I had the same problem you had with bad boolits. I found a RCBS lead ladle in a local pawn shop that looked like it had been there since the 80's, bought it for $8 best money I've spent on reloading in a long time. My problem went away. Your lead may be cooling to much as you fill the mold if you don't have enough mass in the ladle to hold the heat.

[Ghugly]

DrJay1st,
Besides Cuba, In Latin America only one regime wants us back to Jurassic Park. I'm sure You already know where I am.

California?

[MT Gianni]

Think North of Brazil. This is not a joking matter to those people. Gianni

[45nut]

Same fella in charge that just cut off oil exports to the USA?

[Three44s]

I don't want to tip any body off when one's life is on the line.

WE FEEL FOR YOU!!!

Ok .... back to casting .... I would also suggest the boiling water and soap bath ...... and then pull out all your mold parts with a strainer that has a handle.

Rinse with distilled water and then dry impecibally and immediately with cotton Q tips. As these parts are plenty hot ... small amounts of moisture will evaporate quickly but you want to minimize mineral deposts due to excess water left to dry on it's own .... thus rinsing with distilled water is recommended.

And when you do cast again ... be sure you are using enough heat and getting your mold hot enough.

Wrinkles usually mean one of two things for me .... oily mold ..... or cold.

Best Regards

Three 44s

[waksupi]

Welcome aboard.

I wouldn't worry too much about keeping your location a secret here. Anyone who is interested all that much, can look at your ISP #!

[pdawg_shooter]

Sounds like kalifornia to me.

[armexman]

Hola, People not used Casting freely, have a hard time learning the ins and outs of casting. I have helped a person do just this very thing in a south of Texas country and you would have thought we were overthrowing the government. It was stressful for him but in the end he was NOT paying $5.00/round by the time we had him casting like a regular Cast Boolit forum member.Nough Said. Please help spread the Boolit Gospel.

[26Charlie]

All very helpful answers. I would also like to say:
1) I keep my moulds oiled with light household 3-in-1 oil, so I use Richochet's method to heat the mould until the oil smokes off. The first bullets will then be heavily frosted, until the mould cools a little.
2) I once ran some tests on wrinkled bullets, and they don't shoot that badly if there aren't large voids and folds as well as wrinkles.

[UweJ]

Like the good folks before said:
1:Get all residue out of your molds
2:Smoke the molds
3:Keep the mold hot
Good luck
Uwe

[Morgan Astorbilt]

Sounds like his country is treatening to go to war with Colombia.:(
Morgan

[leftiye]

Isn't Columbia an ally of ours?

[Morgan Astorbilt]

Yes, That's why Hugo Chavez is flexing his muscles. He's bent out of shape over Columbia shooting up a few of the terrorists he's been training and arming, and has moved troops and tanks to their border with Colombia. These are the thugs that kidnap and kill officials and influential people in Colombia, and elsewhere in SA.

We've got SA gangs here in the States. Here in North Carolina(Charlotte), the big one, is from El Savador, they call themselves MS13.

I think anyone who buys Citgo gas should have his head examined(or maybe stepped on).:twisted:
Morgan

[quasi]

I live in a very arid area, and find that if I degrease a mold by boiling in water and detergent, the mold will quickly grow a fine coating of rust once it is dry. This is with iron molds of course, and only seems to happen to brand new molds.

[SHOOTER IN EXILE]

Thank You all guys for such valuable advice. Today I cast about 50 boolits, nearly half were quite satisfactory. The problem was the low temperature, not any more, thanks to my daughter's hair dryer, charcoal and a cast iron pot + some bricks. Messy but effective.

You guys are quite swift, and Morgan, You've been watching CNN. That's the guy who with his second hand, half a dozen Sukhoys and a very lonely WW II leaking submarine is defying the U.S.A.

Thank You also for the tip. If I ever take refuge in the U.S.A. I'll make sure to avoid California. :drinks:

[SHOOTER IN EXILE]

No one mentioned this, so I will: SMOKE THE MOULD!!! Use a plain wooden kitchen match and put a good layer of soot in the cavities.

Should this be done before every casting session or only after cleaning the molds from oil and residues?

[tommag]

Should this be done before every casting session or only after cleaning the molds from oil and residues?

Smoking helps as a release agent, smoke before casting and whenever the mold gets reluctant to release the boolit, if it does get more reluctant than before.

Be careful of temps with the hair-dryer. You can get charcoal hot enough to melt iron with enough air-flow. I don't know if a blow-fryer will provide enough air to do this, but it's something to keep in mind.

A butane lighter will also do for smoking the cavities. The long barbeque ones are easier to use than a normal Bic lighter.

[Ricochet]

If I ever take refuge in the U.S.A. I'll make sure to avoid California. :drinks:Tennessee's not half bad. :-D

[SHOOTER IN EXILE]

Smoking helps as a release agent, smoke before casting and whenever the mold gets reluctant to release the boolit, if it does get more reluctant than before.

Be careful of temps with the hair-dryer. You can get charcoal hot enough to melt iron with enough air-flow. I don't know if a blow-fryer will provide enough air to do this, but it's something to keep in mind.

A butane lighter will also do for smoking the cavities. The long barbeque ones are easier to use than a normal Bic lighter.

The hair dryer's exit goes in a plastic bottle's cutoff base. The mouth of the bottle in a bamboo pipe, the bamboo pipe in an iron pipe, the iron pipe in the charcoal.

The bamboo doesn't transmit heat. Some melting pot, ain't it?:-D

[9.3X62AL]

Anytime I start thinking how bad I have it in California as a shooter/gun owner, I'll think of SIE and count my blessings. I greatly admire your persistence and perseverance, and the craftiness of your blowdryer-stoked charcoal casting furnace. YOU THE MAN!

[Sherlok]

All of the above recommendations are good.

Before casting degrease the moulds with alcohol.
Use a good alloy with some tin for filling out.
Make sure the mould is up to temp.
Flux the allow often.
It may take some time before the mould breaks in.
A few moulds never ever produce good bullets.

Good luck,
Sherlok