Observation first-time

[Lead melter]

Usually I have found the various Lee molds to be plenty good enough for my casting needs. I know some despise them, but others, like myself, have no problem with the aluminum jobs. Matter of fact, I have at least 4 times the Lee molds as any other.

A few months ago I came across a deal on some used Lyman molds at a great price. So I picked them up and put them away for later use. I got one out today in .358" RN/FP, smoked the mold with a candle, heated it on top of the pot of melted alloy for about 45 minutes, then began casting and water quenching.

I noticed that some of the boolits came out perfect, but some came wrinkled. Took just a few minutes to figure this out.....as the wind increased outside, the alloy flow was interrupted in comparison to the flow with no or little wind. As the flow danced around the sprue plate, fillout was not uniform and resulted in wrinkled boolits.

This had never been an issue with the Lee molds, but surely was with the steel/iron Lyman brand. This is a 4-cavity mold and all my Lees are single or double cavityies, but I don't think the number of holes had anything to do with the matter.

I just figured I would post this for anyone to see. Maybe others have had similar problems and could help out a lot of rookies with simple observations like this one.

[targetshootr]

I had a two cavity steel mold on loan last year and I never could cast a decent boolit from it. Which is just as well since six cavity molds have spoiled me.

[Buckshot]

.................Another issue can be with the candle you used. God only knows what they can make candles out of these days, but for general principles smoking the cavities with one is not a good idea. The soot off them can carry fats, oils, or other not so good stuff that will interfer with fillout. Get yourself a Zippo and some Naptha at the hardware, or simpler yet a Bic type lighter. Sometimes the later will produce a piss poor flame. On the good ole Zippo you just pull the wick up a bit.

....................Buckshot

[nicholst55]

.................Another issue can be with the candle you used. God only knows what they can make candles out of these days, but for general principles smoking the cavities with one is not a good idea. The soot off them can carry fats, oils, or other not so good stuff that will interfer with fillout. Get yourself a Zippo and some Naptha at the hardware, or simpler yet a Bic type lighter. Sometimes the later will produce a piss poor flame. On the good ole Zippo you just pull the wick up a bit.

....................Buckshot

Don't I feel silly, using wooden matches all this time! :) I reckon a Zippo would work, too.

[NVcurmudgeon]

After years of burning my fingers with matches and Bics, I learned about barbecue lighters. You CAN teach an old dog new tricks, but it takes a while.

[DanWalker]

I use an acetylene torch.

[Lead melter]

Duh! I have no idea why I wrote that I had smoked with a candle, I used a wooden kitchen match.:roll: