slughammer
10-24-2005, 04:59 PM
Up to now I've been preheating on the edge of the lead pot, but it does leave a few things to be desired. On my Lyman 10lb pot there is only a limited amount of room; it kind of makes it hard to refill the pot if a mold is heating and there is not enough room for preheating (2) 4 cavity molds for sure. For me, heating on the edge of the pot seems to leave the top of the mold cool and about a dozen cast are required sometimes to get good boolits.
I've been hiding an old toaster oven from SWMBO for some time now; keeping it for a potential heat treating project. I managed to put it into use on Saturday for preheating my molds. The door was left open and the handles were allowed to stick out. A piece of sheet metal took the place of the door to keep some of the heat in. I set the toaster oven to 400deg at the same time I turned on the lead pot. Most of the molds I cast from were filling out great on the first or second cast with frosty boolits. Any disruption that would have allowed the mold to cool and I put it back into the oven. Definitely a permanent addition to my casting equipment; put 3-4 molds in at the start of a session and then switch from one to another with little interruption to rhythm.
I would think if you water drop this would also assure that your first boolits are as hard as the rest of your production.
I've been hiding an old toaster oven from SWMBO for some time now; keeping it for a potential heat treating project. I managed to put it into use on Saturday for preheating my molds. The door was left open and the handles were allowed to stick out. A piece of sheet metal took the place of the door to keep some of the heat in. I set the toaster oven to 400deg at the same time I turned on the lead pot. Most of the molds I cast from were filling out great on the first or second cast with frosty boolits. Any disruption that would have allowed the mold to cool and I put it back into the oven. Definitely a permanent addition to my casting equipment; put 3-4 molds in at the start of a session and then switch from one to another with little interruption to rhythm.
I would think if you water drop this would also assure that your first boolits are as hard as the rest of your production.