Results of my first casting

[The4thaggie]

Before I start, I want to thank 4719dave for his help getting the range scrap to complete my first boolit cast. He ships fast and is pleasant to work with (reasonable price too).

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Here are the crappy ingots I made from one mold a few weeks ago after processing the range scrap. They are now gone.

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I was being a bit of a chicken and didn't keep my lead/mold hot enough, so I had a high failure rate (foreground), but I have about half a pot left on my Lee 420 and this to remelt. The good boolits are in the jug in the back.

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I went ahead and picked up a toaster oven and some Harbor Freight powdercoat. Since I wet tumble brass now, my vibratory tumbler was freed up to coat the boolits. I left them in there for about an hour. The pic above is the first result, and I didn't shake off enough powder so they stuck together too much after coating. 207 boolits here.

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I then shook off the next batch real good and got a better result. No rough spots from the powdercoat sticking and being removed. 130 boolits here.

I still have over half the jug to powder coat still, but I am happy with the result. Powder coat was done @400F for 20min per FortuneCookie45LC (who I watch all the time). It was a prefect weekend outside, and I'm glad to have had the excuse to enjoy it.

EDIT: The mold I am using is a Lee 6-cavity 230gr 45ACP truncated cone. I am also using a Lee 420 pot and a water quench.

[454PB]

It's a good idea to buy an oven thermometer and check your temperature. Most ovens have thermostats that are wildly inaccurate.

[The4thaggie]

I was going by feel. I didn't have the cash to invest in a thermometer this month, but I definitely need to pick one up and a blowtorch. I'm done with the big gear purchases, so next month I'll get one. I'm probably not going to cast again until I have another resupply of lead.

[FatherAbraham]

Do you size before & after you coat? I am at the point of if I powder coat or not, but have not shelled out the money for a sizer. so I am just tumble lubing right now. no powder coat ( lee t/l 200 gr. swc )

[bigolsmokebomb]

those are some good lookin boolits. the PC definitely looks better than my first attempt but I was using the shake and bake method as I still use my dry tumbler for brass. ive since gotten some of smokes powder and use elvis ammo's 4-140 method for shake and bake and have gotten fantastic results with great one coat coverage. the HF powder just doesn't come close to the quality and consistency of the powder that smoke sells. since they are PC you may want to slug the barrel of the gun youll be shooting them out of and get a sizer. most of the time the PC is not of a consistent thickness across all of your boolits and sizing gives you the consistency that you need for accuracy. just go with the lee push through sizer, theyre about 25 bucks most places and with PC you don't need to lube your boolits, just shove em through and youre good to go.

[454PB]

You can buy an oven thermometer for around $10.

[hammer58]

You can buy an oven thermometer for around $10.

Will this also work to measure the temperature of the lead in the melting pot?

[bigolsmokebomb]

no most of your oven thermometers will only go to about 500deg F. you will need a thermometer that goes up to around 1000deg F to monitor your lead temps. I picked mine up from an industrial supplier on ebay that's worked well and proven to be fairly accurate but ebay is always a poke and a prayer.