Miserable casting session

[buggybuilder]

What am I doing wrong? I turned up the temp to get rid of wrinkles after cleaning the mold 3 times with Dawn, then alcohol, then acetone. Wrinkles gone!!! But....my bases are not sharp consistently. Maybe 1 out of 5 is really good, out of that 5 1 is really bad, the rest mediocre. Could it be that my "mix" is not right? I'm using WW and a "little" soft roof flashing. I do not have a hardness tester. Any suggestions?

[buggybuilder]

Is it possible that my mold is too hot?

[JSnover]

The wrinkles went away when the mold got hot enough but the round edges might mean you need to add a little tin.

[MT Chambers]

I'd add some tin, flows better.

[Tatume]

Hi Buggy,

Tin always helps, but I think your mold and sprue plate are not holding temperature. Keep pouring for a considerable period after the sprue is full, and let the excess run off into your pot (if you're using a ladle like me). If you're using a bottom pour pot, put an ingot mold in the bottom and let your excess run into it. This will fill out the corners of your bases by two mechanisms. First, it will keep the mold and sprue plate got while the lead has time to migrate into the corners. Second, it will keeps a bit of pressure on the molten bullet, forcing the lead outwards. I'm completely certain that this will solve your problem.

Take care, Tom

[kens]

plain lead will fill out the mold if everything is done right.
Tin does make it easier tho.
wrinkles are caused by cold temp or oil.
mold not filling out could be many things, mostly lack of temp
Lack of tin is not root cause of any problems
Tin added does make casting easier tho
high temp causes frosted look, not other defects.
high temp frosted casting is where I run the best casting session; least defects
Some days just dont work out, and I dont know why.
Some days I just give up.
Some days I get a good run going and dont want to stop and just keep going

[s mac]

I have seen the sprue plate a little too tight cause this also. Insufficent venting.

[44man]

Not enough lead feed to the boolit. Either the sprue is getting hard too fast, too small or bottom pour with spill over.
I have cast a million balls and boolits from pure with no tin. WW's really need no tin either.
Too much speed casting? The boolit needs lead as it cools. Freeze the sprue first and what do you have?

[44man]

The sprue plate has to be hot. Hard to keep so i have a propane torch for touch up now and then. Thin plates are a bummer so I make mine thick. But I feed molten lead from a ladle, never a sprue.
A big divot in a sprue is not good, it should be very small to none at all. Most of my sprue cut offs are flat.

[jcren]

How long does it take the spue to "frost"? Depending on mold, I usually shoot for about 10 seconds before I cut the sprue with gloved hand. If sprue is flashing faster or you need a mallet to cut sprue, mold and sprue are not hot enough. Hotter melt can hide a cold mold ,but if you get the mold hot enough, 700-750 works for most.

[Litl Red 3991]

I have seen the sprue plate a little too tight cause this also. Insufficent venting.

That's the case with my molds. Loosening up the sprue plate a touch has worked almost every time.

[Eddie17]

Second this, Good advice here!

[Yodogsandman]

You need to heat the sprue plate up and keep it hot. Pour a generous amount of lead over the sprue plate with each cast leaving big puddles. The heat will allow the alloy to spread across the sprue plate bottom evenly without letting it freeze too soon. When the sprue puddles "set" and turn a dull frosted grey color, cut your sprue off. Observe the sprue cut off....much too soon and you get streaks, just a bit too soon and you get divots, just right and you get perfectly flat bases and too late you get stubs sticking up.

Be sure the sprue plate is loose enough to just swing freely without any "help". That's about as tight as it should be against the mold top for proper venting.

[Seeker]

All great advice.
I'm fairly new here and without a lot of experience but I'll throw in a little bit of what I learned last night. Different things work for different folks. I have a thread here titled "am I paranoid" I thought my boolits were frosted and it turned out they are not. I have 4 casting sessions under my belt and they all went real well. Mold was filling out beautifully and it seemed to me I was doing everything right because the bullets looked great. The last 2 sessions were with some ww ingots that I smelted. That was the reason for my concern, because they just looked different than the real shiny boolits from my prior sessions. I got replies about the lead being to hot. I was casting at about 725° to 775°. I screwed up and tried lubing my sprue plate screw and got lube in 1 cavity and I had a bugger of a time getting it cleaned out, but finally did and re smoked the mold. That's when I was told "don't follow the directions from Lee, you don't have to smoke the mold" So, last night I cleaned the mold real good before I started and for the life of me I couldn't get a good boolit. After I failed to get a good one for awhile I stopped and smoked the mold. Vualla! the first pour, the boolits were perfect! And stayed that way. A few minutes later I had 250 beautiful boolits laying there on the towel. I'm not saying that that fellow didn't know what he was talking about, I'm just saying that not everything works for everybody. Hope you get it all worked out.

[osteodoc08]

You need a thermometer. You can get a cheap Tru-tel for $20-25. Heat lead to 725*F. . Adjust your sprue plate to where it just swings open under its own weight. Preheat your mold to where the sprue lube just starts to smoke. Pour the first one and get an overly large sprue puddle and allow it to hear soak to even out temperatures. Cut sprue and dump. Now repeat a few more times without looking at final boolits. Once the sprue can easily be cut with a gloved hand, you're ready to rain boolits. Get in a rhythm and enjoy.

[longbow]

Good idea to loosen the sprue plate a bit and/or take a very fine file and just barely remove the top inside edges of the mould blocks (cavity face) under the sprue plate. The very small Vee resulting vents well... just don't overdo it, just a light touch to make a few thou bevel. I have done this on several moulds.

Also, pre-heat your mould until the sprue plate lube just starts to smoke.

A little frosting is good in my opinion. I generally get better fill out with a little frosting if I am not using tin which I seldom do anyway.

Cast fast and steady to keep the mould hot.

Longbow

[jcren]

Good idea to loosen the sprue plate a bit and/or take a very fine file and just barely remove the top inside edges of the mould blocks (cavity face) under the sprue plate. The very small Vee resulting vents well... just don't overdo it, just a light touch to make a few thou bevel. I have done this on several moulds.

Also, pre-heat your mould until the sprue plate lube just starts to smoke.

A little frosting is good in my opinion. I generally get better fill out with a little frosting if I am not using tin which I seldom do anyway.

Cast fast and steady to keep the mould hot.

Longbow

+ this but for the ham-fisted among us, I just "roll" the edge with a smooth skrew driver shank. First on I used a file on still has fins at the base of bullets!

[s mac]

Also, if this a newer Lee mould, be aware the sprue plate pivot screw is lefthanded thread, and I think they use Loctite at the factory. You will have to reapply Loctite or as has been suggested here on the forum put a tiny bit of steel wool in the hole to keep the screw from working loose in use.

[country gent]

also try cleaning the vent lines in the mould. lightly work with the tip of an exacto knife dragging it thru thru the vent lines to clear clean them

[Blackwater]

You've gotten much good advice above. I suspect, though, that what you may be dealing with is simply being a bit too tentative in casting, and thus, not having a good rhythm. Variations in the amount of time from pouring to cutting the sprue let the mold and sprue plate cool off ito varying degrees, thus giving you non-uniform results. Consistent times from cast to cutting the sprue and mold give consistent results and well filled out bullets. Controlling the rhythm and heat levels of the metal and the mold and sprue plate are what gives good, consistent results. Hope this helps?