Another newbie ' s first cast

[AggiePharmD]

Finally broke down Tuesday on my day off and tried my hand at casting some rifle and pistol boolits. Out of about 200 total boolits I had exactly 20 45 cal boolits that I could use. The rest were partial pours or had lead poured between the mould. The rifle boolits were all wrinkles and most not well filled out. My mould was probably not kept at a good temp and I probably need some tin with my COWW. Had to throw all those back. I'll try again next week but need to find some tin or pewter first.

[Le Loup Solitaire]

Partial pours are usually the result of temperature of the alloy being too low and/or air trapped in the cavity(cavities) by a too tight sprue plate. Wrinkles can be the result of the mold (cavities) having some hydrocarbon based (usually oil) element present. Until thoroughly cleaned out or burned off (a long process) you will get wrinkles. Tin at 1-2% is enough to improve the "flowability" of the alloy. If using WW metal one has to be on the look out for "a little too much zinc" which may be present...it can and will cause fill out problems. You might wonder how anyone actually succeeds in casting good bullets while struggling with these variables, but we do after making lots of mistakes; sometimes it takes quite a bit of practice (and cussing) and patience. Stick with it and you will succeed. LLS

[AggiePharmD]

Cussing is right. I'm using a burner setup and the temp is touch and go. I'll loosen up the sprue plates and experiment with that idea. I cleaned out my moulds well, at least I thought so but will spray them down well with break cleaner again and "scrub" around with a q - tip again. Hopefully that'll help. Appreciate the tips.

I am leaning to no zinc contamination based on the fact that I did get some keepers from my pistol bullets. If I can remember I think those came toward the end of my casting after I'd turned up the heat. I think I'd have better luck with a true melted even if it is as simple as a Lee.

[s mac]

Practice makes perfect, you'll get better quickly. Quit looking and letting you mould cool between pours.

[AggiePharmD]

Fat pistol moulds sure are easier to work with compared to long, skinny rifle moulds.

[pworley1]

My first ones were not very good either. After you get the temperature and your rhythm worked out your bullets will be better.

[AggiePharmD]

So did some more casting today. Rifle bullets only this time. First round saw much better bullets but ended up frosted which told me my melt was WAY too hot. Remelt ed those on my second round at kept my temp around 650. Silver bullets for most of the pours but then added some lead. Temp decreased to between 600 and 625. At this temp some of the same bullet would be silver and other parts frosted. What causes these differences on a single bullet?

[dondiego]

Most likely the mold temp differential. I prefer my boolits to be lightly frosted all over.

[AggiePharmD]

139656

First batch today.

I'm beginning to think I'm not cut out for this but I probably just need more practice. Would pour pistol bullets be easier and a confidence builder? Anybody else do it this way?

[jcren]

45 pistol bullets are among the easiest to learn with. The problem is still initial mold temp and tempo. Set a pace so that the sprue frost in about 8-10 seconds but is still hot enough to cut sprue with gloved hand. If you have to whack the sprue plate, mold is too cold (cast faster), if the sprue takes longer than 10 seconds to set, too hot (cast slower). Leave your melt between 650-700 and use the speed at which you cast (ie. How many seconds between dumping bullets and pouring anouther, mold will get hotter the longer lead is left in the mold) to regulate temp until you get the hang of it. Eventually you start to see the why's and how's of making changes, then ignore this advice.

[bangerjim]

Cold mold/cold Pb. Bring up your pot temp. Preheat your molds on a hotplate to FULL CASTING TEMP B4 starting. Wrinkles and poor fills are caused by low temps, not grease or oil. You can scrub your molds until you wear them out and you will STILL get wrinkles if you do not follow the preheating rules.

Put your molds on a hotplate and don;t bother wasting time putting them on the edge of your pot. A mold will hardly ever reach casting temp setting on your pot. Been there...done that.

By haveing the poour temp right and preheating my molds, I get PERFECT drops from the 1st pour every time. Rifle, pistol, small, large......makes no difference.

Try it......you will be amazed!

Frosties are not bad at all! I sure do not throw them back! As long as there are no voids or SEVERE wrinkles, frosties are good to go. I like them because I PC everything and the coating sticks even better. Don't waste your time and electricity. Shoot those frosties.

bangerjim

[AggiePharmD]

Thanks guys. This is the main reason I've given up on all the other forums I normally visit. Never put a guy down, always provide encouragement and help whenever needed. I will admit even if I wanted to give up I couldn't as I'm hooked lock, stock and barrel.

[Bullwolf]

Many talk about casting cadence.

Think about it like this:

If you cast very quickly. IE pour and cast every few seconds, your mould will get up to temperature (heat up) and tend to stay quite warm as it will have little time between casts to cool off. If you can keep up this superhuman pace it will probably get too hot after enough casts. Frosted boolits are likely to be the eventual result.

If you are trying to warm up a dead cold mould, casting quickly like this is a good way to do it.

If you slow the pace down some. IE pour and cast like every 45 seconds... Your mould will most likely cool off quite a bit between casts. It may not ever get up to the proper operating temperature. You will cast many poorly filled out wrinkled and shiny boolits. This often happens to new casters, who stop to closely examine every boolit they cast, and set the mould down in between and even leaving it open.

When you cast just right, you're in the zone. I can't tell you the perfect speed, but when you find it you won't want to stop anytime soon. You will be somewhere between casting too quickly, and too slowly. Boolits won't be frosted, or will just lightly be frosted. Frosting can be a hint that you are casting just on the edge of too warm and fast, and maybe a heads up to slow your pace down some. Also taking an exceptionally long time for your sprue puddle to cool, is another indicator that you may be casting too quickly/mould too hot.

When casting too slow, you will get those half cast boolits, wrinkles, and shoddy fill out along with really shiny boolits. Those are all good indicators to pour and drop at a much faster pace to heat the mould up more.

You can band aid slow/cold casting some by simply pre-heating the mould on top of a cheap electric hotplate.

Is an electric hot-plate really a requirement? Heck no.

I cast perfectly fine boolits for years before pulling out the electric hot plate. Just cast like mad (FAST!) until the mould is good and warm, and toss all the starting wrinkled cold rejects back into the pot. I highly prefer using the hotplate though and my first few casts being keepers.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=114930&d=1409365478&thumb=1

I go so far as to add a old skill saw blade to the top of the hot plate for a flat and evenly heated surface. When it's really cold and windy out, I'll add a coffee can lid on top of the hot plate. I really appreciate the electric hot plate as a mould pre-warmer on those cold and especially windy Winter days.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=114714&stc=1&thumb=1&d=1409027142

Often while casting in the heat of the Summer, I find I hardly need the hotplate anymore once the mould is up to temperature, and I only use it to pre-warm ingots, or an additional cold boolit mould.

Typically your very first casts will be keepers from a clean pre-heated up to temperature mould this way.

If you set the mould back on the hotplate between casting you can keep it at the optimal casting temp, which is really nice if you need to pause, or take a break for some reason in the middle of your casting session.

The hotplate can work against you sometimes, as you can also crank out boolits that are ultra frosty, or have sprues that take forever to solidify if you cast quickly enough with a hotplate. For "Speed Casting" you might find that you have to go so far as to add a fan, or a damp sponge/rag to cool the mould off some if you cast too quickly, or cast in the very warm summer months.

I find that some oils such as rust preventatives, and 2-cycle oils will contaminate an already up to temp mould causing wrinkles. If you over lube a boolit mould while it's casting nicely, and get some oil into the cavities you can produce wrinkles in the middle of what was previously a good casting session.

You can clean the mould, or even burn the oil off eventually, but in my experience some oils will just mess you up. You are less likely to have problems like this if you use something less oily (and lightly) like die electric grease, or anti-seize for a mould lubricant opposed to using gun oils, cutting oil, or 2 cycle oil. If you heat the mould up enough with a hotplate, or even by casting quickly you can eventually burn away most oils with enough time and perseverance. You will notice the (smokey) oil burning off the mould if you try this. This method is messy though, and I find it much faster to just clean a brand new mould, or one that has been oiled for storage using hot water, a toothbrush and dish soap, or even denatured alcohol before casting.

Eventually after you have done a fair amount of casting, you will begin to recognize the signs of casting too hot/fast, or too cold/slow and learn to adjust your cadence to get nicely filled out boolits. Keep trying and doing, and you will only get better.

When you find out what works well for you and your mould... Say Pouring a healthy sprue puddle, counting to 8, and dropping then filling again - Write it down. It will make it somewhat easier to reproduce those results during your next casting session.



- Bullwolf

[Blackwater]

Aggie, don't give up the ship yet. You're just going through the initial "learning process," and what you learn now will be with you for many years to come, so don't get disheartened in any way. You're just going through what most, if not all of us did initially. Those pics of the bullets you cast look mighty good, so you are on the right track. Just remember mould & metal temps, timing (cadence) and observe what works for each mold. And one last point, using a flame as you are, as the level of lead in whatever pot you're using drops, you've got the same amount of heat going into a smaller volume, so its temp increases slowly as the pot level goes down, necessitating a slight reduction in your flame. How much? I don't think anyone here can explain that readily, and you just have to learn to estimate that yourself.

Lastly, just want to bid some kudos to you for your steadfastness. You're going the right way, and any time you encounter problems or questions, the body of knowledge on this board will surely help whenever you encounter them. You're doing good. Just keep it up and before long, you'll be another "old pro" helping folks here yourself. Newbies seem to sometimes be able to help newbies better than some of us ol' pharts can, simply by being more in tune with what they're encountering.