"Frosty" bullets dropping for a "cool" mold. Please help

[Kenk4]

Hello,

I am relatively new to casting bullets. While I had done it as a teenager with my grandfather, I didn't pick it up again until recently, in my 40s.

I am having a problem with a mold that drops bullets that appear "frosty" as if the mold was too hot. The mold is not too hot as I go from wrinkly to frosty immediately. My inclination is that the mold is defective and has a rough casting surface.

The mold in question is a brand new RCBS 45-325-FN-U two cavity plain base flat nose. I am pouring wheel weight alloy sweetened with tin to 2% Sn. This same alloy is used during the same casting session without any frosty appearances. In fact, those other bullets are plum fine. The pot in question is a 20 lb lee bottom pour controlled by a PID.

I understand the principles behind large holes in relatively small molds. These will heat up much faster that a small hole in a large mold. The problem is that I am getting bullets that still have wrinkles, but still appear "frosty". I have tried casting temperatures as low as 645° F. I have also used a fan to cool the mold between pours. Nothing seems to help. It goes from wrinkly and shiny, too wrinkly and frosty, too filled out and frosty.


168641

If I am unable to resolve this issue here, my next step is to contact RCBS and see what they have to say. I have other RCBS molds, that I've never had a problem with.

[Toymaker]

If you're getting sharp edges and consistent weights then rub them down with a flannel cloth and they'll shine. Frost in the lube grooves will help the lube stick. Honest, you don't have a real issue.
You say your mold isn't too hot. How do you measure it?
How did you initially clean your mold?
Using a PID should give you really good control of your lead temperature.
I've had more frustrations with multi-hole molds than I care to think about.

[bangerjim]

Frosty boolits are not a problem at all. If they are sharp, filled-out, not any holes or voids, have flat bottoms........"forget-about-it!" Load 'em and shoot 'em.

If it really causes you to loose sleep, lower your casting temp and/or let the mold cool off a bit. Then you will probably get wrinkles and voids. Much worse. Cold molds do NOT cause frosties! They cause wrinkles.

Always pre-heat your molds on a hotplate to FULL CASTING TEMP B4 ever dropping a single boolit. You will get perfect non-wrinkled boolits from the 1st one. Grease does not cause wrinkles......cold molds do.

I get frosties all the time. Shiny boolits are only for "bragging rights" pictures on here. Remember, they ALL go splat on the other end, so why would you care about what they look like?????????

The 2 in your picture are perfectly fine for 99.9% of the people shooting cast.

I PC everything and a frosty surface even helps it stick better. Same with grease.

I see this is your FIRST post. Welcome. There is a ton of reading on here if you have not done it yet! Read the stickies and most if not all of your questions will be self-answered. Also see www.lasc.us for an excellent free book on all things lead and casting.

banger

[Kenk4]

I believe the mold isn't too hot because I'm getting frosting on bullets that are wrinkled and the sprue cuts are hard. There doesn't seem to be a middle ground. I cleaned the mold initally using break cleaner and a cotton cloth. Then I cleaned it again using a nylon parts brush and rubbing alachol. I'll try rubbing the bullets with a cloth and see what happens.

[Beagle333]

They look good to me. Let 'er rip! I don't even consider that frosty. Good job, I say.

[Kenk4]

Weights are consistent, bottoms are flat and edges are all sharp.

Also the pictures are a good representation of what I'm seeing. They don't appear to have lost any details to light or what have you. Although the right bullet is a little out of focus.

[kenyerian]

Shoot them!!

[Kenk4]

Frosty boolits are not a problem at all. If they are sharp, filled-out, not any holes or voids, have flat bottoms........"forget-about-it!" Load 'em and shoot 'em.

If it really causes you to loose sleep, lower your casting temp and/or let the mold cool off a bit. Then you will probably get wrinkles and voids. Much worse. Cold molds do NOT cause frosties! They cause wrinkles.

Always pre-heat your molds on a hotplate to FULL CASTING TEMP B4 ever dropping a single boolit. You will get perfect non-wrinkled boolits from the 1st one. Grease does not cause wrinkles......cold molds do.

I see this is your FIRST post. Welcome. There is a ton of reading on here if you have not done it yet! Read the stickies and most if not all of your questions will be self-answered. Also see www.lasc.us (http://www.lasc.us) for an excellent free book on all things lead and casting.

banger

Thanks for the welcom aboard. I've download and printed out "From Ingot to Bullet" (if I remember the title correctly) and read it from cover to cover.

I don't think it's a temperature problem as I am getting frosty bullets with wrinkles and other sighs of an otherwise cold mold.

After reading the other comments here, I'm inclined to shoot these and see what happens.

[runfiverun]

those ain't frosty.
your just getting to the point where your getting antimonial dendrites on the surface of the boolit.

keep going, the wrinkles will go away and you'll get a nice galvanized look on your well filled out square cornered boolits.

[Tom W.]

Nope, those ain't frosty. And they look like they will kill paper or plink steel just fine.

[CPL Lou]

those ain't frosty.
your just getting to the point where your getting antimonial dendrites on the surface of the boolit.

keep going, the wrinkles will go away and you'll get a nice galvanized look on your well filled out square cornered boolits.

I'll second that ! ^^^

CPL Lou

[Shiloh]

Those would be keepers and shooters for me.

Shiloh

[sandman228]

I agree with the others , there's nothing wrong with those bullets

[tradbear55]

Look like keepers to me. I'd just shoot them. Don't over think it. They're just cast boolits.:lovebooli

[gwpercle]

Those boolits in your photo look fine, not what I would call "frosty" at all . After the alloy heats up to a proper temperature , they stop looking real shiney silver and look like the ones in your photo , its a dull grey ...it's the way they should look . In fact that's how I want mine to look. If all the corners are sharp, base is flat and well filled out then you're casting proper boolits. Load and shoot !
Gary

[gray wolf]

I think you just want to show off your perdy boolets.
They Look good to me.

[P Flados]

I think "showing off" comes as close to any reason I can find for the OP photo.

With my current boolit alloys (a minimum of 25% wheel weights), I do not think I have cast even one well filled out boolit with any less "frost" than what I see in the photo.

If you were getting what you seem to think is "no frost" and you were getting good fill out, I wonder if it was due to a non-typical alloy.

[bangerjim]

If one wants perfect shiny silver boolits, try 30-40% Sn.

Or just polish what you have with a rag and jeweler's rouge!

"Picture-perfect" boolits are NOT what I strive for.

banger

[Digital Dan]

I think they look horrible. Send me a couple hundred and I'll test them for you without charge, write a comprehensive analysis and probably offer to do phase 2 testing. For a very small fee.

[country gent]

One other thing to do is when cleaning the mould use a point on a bamboo skewer, awl, ice pick, point on an exacto knife or scribe and pull it lightly and gently thru the vent lines on the moulds faces, trapped air can cause wrinkles also. I would look at the cavities under magnification see what the surface actually does look like, and go from there If they are to size dropping out good and above all shoot good where is the problem?

[Walter Laich]

they look great, blast away

Glad you found us and welcome. Wealth of knowledge on this forum.

[Kenk4]

Thank you for all the great feedback. I'm going to load up a bunch of these and see how they shoot.

[robg]

Bangerjim is on the money ,crisp edges flat bottoms good to go .look fine to me