Little buggers

[TexasGrunt]

I've been casting boolits for about a month. I've been pouring lead for years making fishing tackle.

My Lee .22 caliber mold is a fickle little beast. On my best session with it I'm getting about 50% usable boolits. On a bad session I don't want to talk about it.

I inspect every one of those little pills with a 10x magnifying lamp.

I'm running my pot hotter than normal to keep the mold temp up. Smoking the mold is a must. I'm still getting lots of lines and wrinkles in them little pills.

Is my experience normal or is there something I'm missing?

All my other molds are .40 and .45 and I have no problems casting those.

[farmerjim]

Mold not hot enough.
Are you preheating it? Is it a 2 or 6 cavity? I cast 3,000 of the lee Bator last week. 95% good. Mold preheated on a walmart hotplate set between med and Hi. Lyman Mag 25 set at 725, first drop fine, cast as fast as I can and mold stays hot. If I have to pause for anything I put the mold back on the hotplate.

[KYCaster]

Yes, what Farmerjim said! Start with a hot mold and cast fast to keep it hot. If you stop to inspect the boolits, the mold is cooling while you do that. Cast 100 or so before you stop to inspect. If they're not right, dump them back in the pot and start over, altering your method to cure the problem.

And...smoking the mold is NOT "a must". Applying a mold release (like smoking) is just covering up a problem. If the boolits don't drop freely from the mold, especially with tiny boolits, your mold is cooling too much while you're trying to get them to drop. "Lee-menting" will probably help, but it can be a real challenge with itty-bitty cavities.

Sometimes there is a very narrow range of metal temp/mold temp/pouring cadence that works. It may take some experimenting to find the sweet spot.

Good luck
Jerry

[runfiverun]

the lead you put in the tiny cavity's just don't replace the heat the air takes away.

[TexasGrunt]

Mold is hot. Pot is at 775, verified with thermometer. Not stopping to inspect while casting.

[CastingFool]

Add a little tin, to improve fill out, maybe.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

"lines and wrinkles" ...the main cause of this is the mold being not hot enough, oil residue can cause it as well.

have you cleaned (degreased) the mold real well?

did you put the new sprue plate on? how is that functioning?

[samari46]

What did you use to smoke the mold with?. If a candle it leave a greasy soot which could be part of the problem. try using the old kitchen matches or butane lighter. Frank

[Doggonekid]

I don't know how many boolits you have cast out of your .22 cal mold. If it is a new mold I have found sometimes it takes a while for my mold to break in. I think that weather or not you smoke your molds wont change the wrinkles. Good luck with that. I have never tried to cast boolits that small. In theory wrinkles are from a mold that is not hot enough.

[44man]

I make my own molds and never needed a break in for any from mine to all factory molds. Dish soap and hot water is enough. I have cast every size boolit and the first is perfect so mold heat is important as is cadence.
Watch the Walmart or most any hot plate. There is a thermal fuse in the bottom that will blow out. I bypassed mine when it quit. No liquid to draw off heat. I bring my molds to 500° in a little electric box oven with a BBQ thermometer in the top.
Worst mold was heavy brass that drove me nuts keeping hot. Had to cast like Superman. Darn thing will make wrists slump.
I hate Lee sprue plates. Molds work fine though.

[TexasGrunt]

I've added tin.

New sprue plate did the trick!

I used a butane lighter.

Mold has been cleaned.

I've cast over 1000 boolits in the mold.

I'll try getting it really hot and see if that helps. I did notice that most of the good boolits were a bit frosty.

[44man]

Frost is OK but boolits can be under size.

[runfiverun]

try filling the mold slower.

[quilbilly]

I agree the new Lee .22 is a fickle mold especially if it is a 6-cavity. I have an old style Lee Bator .22 in 2 cavity and it puts out great boolits immediately with 90%+ useable but then when I switch to the new model in 6-Cav.using the same batch of lead at the same temp., I will be lucky to get 50% useable unless I just use three of the six cavities which improves the usable to 75%. My 223 bolt gun likes the newer style mold at higher velocities but my Hornet prefers the old style at more leisurely MV's so I do both.

[Oklahoma Rebel]

sounds like you aare hot enough now, at least that my opinion

[TexasGrunt]

Well I figured out the problem.

Sitting the tin close to the pot doesn't work. You actually have to put the tin in the pot.

I went out today to give it a try and while getting ready I found the tin sitting next to the pot. Since I only have tin out when I refill the pot I realized that I had forgotten to put the tin in.

So I got the melt going, added the tin. Got the mold hot and started casting.

I did close to 600 with my two cavity and only had about 20 rejects. Most of those were problems with the base of the boolit.

[merlin101]

Well I figured out the problem.

Sitting the tin close to the pot doesn't work. You actually have to put the tin in the pot.

I went out today to give it a try and while getting ready I found the tin sitting next to the pot. Since I only have tin out when I refill the pot I realized that I had forgotten to put the tin in.

So I got the melt going, added the tin. Got the mold hot and started casting.

I did close to 600 with my two cavity and only had about 20 rejects. Most of those were problems with the base of the boolit.
Don't ya just hate that? been there and done stuff like it. you just KNOW you did it right just like a hundred times before and then you find the drain plug on the floor next to a puddle of oil! Oh well at least I didn't start it up!

[beagle]

The aluminum jobs are really hard to regulate with .22s as they dissipate heat so darn fast. I can take a HP Lyman mould and cast as fast as I can and due to the time it takes to release the pin, you can cast all day and never get overheated. Same with the RCBS iron moulds but aluminum, you really have to work at to keep them up to casting temp./beagle

[TexasGrunt]

I'm figuring that out. It's a constant balancing act with the 2 cavity Lee .22 cal mould. I did a bunch more casting today and just about everything that could go wrong did. Had to smoke the mold twice. Went from wrinkles to no wrinkles after smoking. Didn't even have to reheat the mold. Then I had both cavities having base problems. Keep heating up the sprue plate and that didn't help. Cleaned the entire mold and plate, smoked it again, heated it up and solved that problem.

[skeettx]

To TIN or not to TIN,
That is the question
:) :)

[georgewxxx]

It does make a difference as to what you're using to smoke a balky mould. The carbon build-up insulates it and the more you keep on the surfaces, the hotter it'll stay. Try different types of matches. Wood ones seem to leave a bit more carbon. I've had Lee's that needed to be re-smoked every 25 cycles to keep making usable boolits. Seems like after a while they'll start working without having to do so. Also never set the mould down on a surface that'll act as a heat sink.

[TexasGrunt]

I've been using a butane lighter.

The secret to that particular mold is get it HOT and keep it HOT. If it starts to wrinkle it needs a light touch of smoke. If I could figure out the problems at the base of the boolit it would almost be 100%. The base problems seem to happen totally at random.

With all my larger molds I can run the pot about 675, with the .22 cal mold it's got to be about 725 to keep the mold hot enough. At 675 there's no way I can cast fast enough with those two little cavities to keep the mold hot enough.

[georgewxxx]

Don't be deterred by some surface blemishes. Those little pills seem to overcome some of your mistakes or rejects. I cast .22 boolits using 15 different moulds and found they still can be quite accurate. One mould in particular, a old Modern Bond hollow point that someone damaged and tried to repair, before I ended up with it, outshoots most all the others with some nasty squiggles on the bottom lube ring.

[TexasGrunt]

Don't be deterred by some surface blemishes. Those little pills seem to overcome some of your mistakes or rejects. I cast .22 boolits using 15 different moulds and found they still can be quite accurate. One mould in particular, a old Modern Bond hollow point that someone damaged and tried to repair, before I ended up with it, outshoots most all the others with some nasty squiggles on the bottom lube ring.

Thanks! I'll get some pics up so I can get some advise. I've been trying for perfect. Perhaps too much so since most of these will be used with reduced loads.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Sometimes a cure for base fillout, is to "break" the top edge of the faces of the mold block with a fine file or fine(320) sand paper, it creates better venting.

[skeettx]

YES.
Hot plate with iron cover for the mould to sit on,
pre-heat the mould ( I use a propane tourch with wide flame constantly moving),
cast with only that mould to keep it HOT,
smoke as necessary, proper tin mix. Higher temp on the lead pot.
In this case, heat is your friend.
Mike