OK casting guru's

[hollywood63]

What did I do to cause this.153897

[Tatume]

Your bullets have a heavy frost, which means they were hot and probably still soft when you dumped them from the mold. Light to moderate frosting is a sign of good bullets, but I think your mold is a little bit too hot.

[Blackwater]

If you're talking about the little "chips" off the leading edge of the shank, my guess is that you just opened the mould a little too soon. I've seen this type of thing before. Dropping the bullets before they're quite fully solidified can cause this. Try a couple seconds longer before breaking the sprue and dropping the bullets and see if that doesn't cure it. FWIW?

[dubber123]

Most likely too hot as the fellows above pointed out. I have gotten molds with a burr that contributed greatly to this happening. Dragging a Q-tip around the cavities will point out any burrs pretty quickly, as they will snag on the cotton.

[scottfire1957]

Yep! to all above. I've done it.

[Bullwolf]

Happens to us all at one point or another. The mold has simply gotten too warm. I bet the sprue puddle took a long while to solidify as well.

Wait a bit before opening the handles next time you notice it happen, and let the boolits solidify some in the mould. The waiting buys you time for the mould to cool off as well.

Your casting cadence is likely really fast if your doing that, or you are preheating the mould too much.

Give the mould a bit more time to cool off between casts, and the boolit frostiness will go away some - Although many do like to cast a lightly frosted boolit. Key word here is lightly, if the boolits are crumbing after being dropped your quite a ways past lightly frosted.

If you really enjoy the fast casting cadence you're currently using with that mould, you could try using a small fan (like a manicurist fan) to help cool the mould down between casts. Some folks even use a lightly dampened towel to speedily cool down a boolit mould between casts.

When casting with a very quick cadence - The mould gets hot and stays HOT, and will eventually yield frosty boolits since there isn't enough time enough for the mould to cool down between casts.

When casting with a very slow cadence - The mould has ample time to cool down between casts. If you really drag your feet and leave the mould open for a good amount of time while inspecting boolits, a mould can actually cool down enough to yield shiny, wrinkled poorly filled out boolits. Then you need to speed up your casting cadence and play catch up again.

Somewhere in the middle is where happiness, and boolit perfection is most likely to be found.



- Bullwolf

[Ola]

I've seen that before!

The bullet wasn't released from the mold and you decided to pry it out.. Been there done that..

[hollywood63]

Thanks guys I was going fairly fast and it was my first time with a 6 cavity so I would image it holds heat longer then a smaller mould.

[hollywood63]

How's this I slowed down the pace to one cast where I did two before
153948

[hollywood63]

I guess I was worried about the mould cooling off. Learned another lesson with casting. More to come I'm sure :bigsmyl2:

[Tatume]

Jolly good, Hollywood.

[Bullwolf]

How's this I slowed down the pace to one cast where I did two before
153948


Looks much better. Like everything else there's a bit of a learning curve to casting nice boolits. I'd say you are a quick study!


- Bullwolf

[hollywood63]

Thanks