Mould quirk .

[Harter66]

Ive experienced it before. It happens with brand new moulds.
I wash generally twice and heat cycle 3-4x with a new NOE aluminum moulds .
I also have a brand new pot thermometer. I found that my pot has been about 50 degrees hot. Also that my hot plate is a little cool .

On to the quirk . I poured about 50 and decided to top the pot so while I was waiting I checked the lube points and culled through the 1st 50 and saved 6 . No biggie . Junk back in the pot and turned up the hot plate a tick and got the pot stable at 765 -775 (instead of 810..... the wonder of new tools). I added an oz of 50-50 solder to the reloaded 75-25 WW -1-20 @10# total . As I culled through 12# or so of finished bullets I found about 20% with "the drip" and 10% with bad bases ,again no a big deal it's the 1st run on a new mould and new tools to make better boolits. What did strike me as odd was that the drip boolits often had perfect bases . More odd were a goodly number of them that had drips ,frost and whiskers . Hot nose ,hot sprue but cold bands ? Not likely I would think . I ladle and put 500 gr inside and 500 gr outside for sprue. At the end of the session the pile was much more keeper dense than early . Among the changes as I went along were to pour 2 front to back and 2 back to front and to swirl #2 or #3 depending on whether you want to count that 4c from your hand or to it .

I have a 3/8 brass plate for the hot plate as soon as I run across it again and turning the plate up another tick .

I guess the question /point is ,how is it possible in a clean mould to have drips,frost and whiskers on the same boolit ? It has to be crud some place but it might just be the mould settling and me learning the new dialect.

[mdi]

Never had all three happen at the same time (drips?). But first off I think I'd drop the temp. a bit to mebbe 650-675, and keep the mold warm. I don't have any premium molds and I have noticed that each of my molds has it's own "personality" and may need a bit of "method tweeking"...

[Harter66]

I have experienced the same in a couple of moulds . I think it is mostly a matter of getting to know the individual mould . I have had 1 that had me just about to give up then , bang out of the blue perfect function next to no culls.

I guess I've never run just plain WW in a "good" mould , I have run it with Lee 6C in 35,40 and 45 cal without issue . Maybe I'm over thinking it all.

[44man]

I don't know, never had any problems even with a new mold and I just wash once with Dawn and hot water.
You might just have a timing issue. I suppose I am the slowest caster ever, even stepping out the garage door to water the weeds! :bigsmyl2: My reject rate MIGHT be one out of a hundred, most times none.
I was a fishing nut as a kid and cut my teeth with sinkers and even made my own jig molds out of scrap aluminum, think I started about 10 and am a few months away from 78. Casting grows on you and to me is a chore so I don't want to waste a single boolit.
Just watch timing, Too fast and you will toss too many back in the pot.
Let the force be with you!

[Teddy (punchie)]

All I can say is the range lead I got from indoor range make darn good solder. If I use a brass mold it is like asking to have a bad day. Its does cast in brass but you better not get it too warm or you have a sweated mold, what a pain to get all of it off and out of the grooves. Other then that it casts great and nice a hard. Have yet to start mixing with other lead as an alloy but its on the list.

[RedHawk357Mag]

Can you describe with a little more detail what a drip effect is?

[Tatume]

Whiskers indicate the mold is too hot. It is holding the lead in a liquid state for too long and allowing the lead to migrate into the air vent grooves.

The ideal temperature is low enough to avoid whiskers, but warm enough to give a uniform, moderate frosting. Frosty bullets are good bullets. Shiny bullets have the potential to contain voids, although it is possible to produce perfectly good shiny bullets.

[44man]

I avoid frost as boolits can be too small for your gun. The hotter the mold, the smaller the boolit.
Frost on TL grooves can prevent fill out too. Common to have half a TB boolit frosted only. Bands will be rounded.
I cast all at a 750 setting on the Lee pot, no idea of actual temps, don't care. My control is the rate. Maybe I make half the boolits in an hour but I toss none back. I don't know how some cast at a lower temp, you must be SCREAMING instead of relaxed. Cast with me, you will snooze so I need to kick your leg!

[Harter66]

147297
A picture as they say .
Not as frosty as I remembered. After looking it all over again I may have to break down and spring for a ladle ..... it could be the cooling between pot and pour.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Can you describe with a little more detail what a drip effect is?
Yeah, Me too. what is "drips" ?

[popper]

Venting problem.

[Tatume]

I avoid frost as boolits can be too small for your gun. The hotter the mold, the smaller the boolit.

It's easy enough to find out. Either measure a bullet, or look at one that has been through the sizing die. Frosty bullets are good bullets.

[Harter66]

See the picture in #9. It looks like a paint run.

[Digital Dan]

I met Cpt. Quirk years ago just outside the Delta Quadrant. Odd duck he is, you never know what's coming next.

[chuebner]

What you call a "drip" I call a wrinkle. Happens to me with a too cold mold. I like frosty bullets so I cast hot, around 775.

[mozeppa]

well then... i'll chime in.

my pot vacilates from 694 to 704 degrees....a constant up & down in temp, due to it having a "PID" on it.
my mold temp is brought up to 475 degrees via a hot plate with a thermometer on the plate itself.
and it starts throwing the nicest, shinyest, NON- wrinkled 45 acp's you could ever want.

they mic as cast at .4535 average before sizing or powder coat.

its a hardline mold in ductile iron. (too bad hardlines couldn't get their minds right as they really made great molds.)

[Baryngyl]

This is from one of my reloading books, I do not remember exactly which one right now.
147346

[Harter66]

I run the big 6 bangers like a mad man . It's the rifle bullets that I stumble on and not all of them the 301-618 4c pours like a dream as do the 225-55 fp 4c I have a 287- 150 5 c also it has 1 cav that just won't talk to me . Even the 260 120 fp didn't give me any trouble after the 2nd or 3rd run, a great pp 6.5 bullet by the way.

I will work with the temperature some next time .

[RedHawk357Mag]

I copied the text to Evernote but not sure how to share it here. This is the link I originally got the info. Member Artful posted it. The original had great pictures with the different issues. I found it helpful.
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=251386