Okay... need help with frosting and fillout

[Bazoo]

Im having some problems, that i've previously not had much, and I need some advice. Ive cast 38s and 44 and 45s and 30 caliber projectiles previously with no problems with the same moulds, pot, and ladle.

But now, im having this problem. I get incomplete fill out on the driving bands with varying degrees of frosting from none to complete. I've tried a couple different heat settings, and consequently several different mould temperature ranges. I am running a lee 430-310-rf, that previously run okay when just below frosting temperature. So I switched to a lee 30 caliber mould that I know runs good.. and I have some better success, but not as good as the mould normally does.

I am using straight wheel weights. But I aint using ingots, im melting them right into my pot and fluxing with sawdust and beeswax. I know it aint right but its been working for me a while.

Fluxing with beeswax as needed between pot fill ups.
I've cleaned my moulds with brake cleaner or lighter fluid.
I ran them dry a short period for a base, and then lubed with the tiniest amount of synthetic 2 cycle oil to make sure that I wasnt getting contamination.

I dont have a thermometer. Im using a lee pot and lyman dipper.

I think, my problem is the melt is not hot enough. Edit, I also think that It could be I got a small batch of bad lead that either aint got enough tin in it or something else with it aint right.

I had a few months not casting, and I left my pot outside on the covered porch, and it rusted. I wire brushed it and went to work, but Im thinking that the heating element might have rusted inside and is affecting the amount of heating vs the numbers that i've previously used. I had the melt hot enough that I was getting purple on the top if I left it for a long break, then I cut it back some.

So... Do i need to add tin? Is my melt not hot enough? Im I just stupid? What Am I missing this go round?

Thanks for the help.

~Bazoo

[Joe K]

I have experienced this also. When heat adjustment didn't help, I would add tin and have good fill out. Now I mostly use half coww, half range scap and an ounce or so of pewter tin for most of my casting. I am sure the more experienced folks will be along soon. Hope this helps.

[Bird]

If you can get frosty bullets, then everything is hot enough. I have never added tin, but you may need to.

[David2011]

Frosting is not a problem in itself. As the mold gets hot the alloy cools more slowly. Slow cooling allows antimony crystals to form which manifest as frosting. I suppose it is possible to get the mold too hot with an under temp alloy bit not sure how. You would be casting really fast to do it, I think.

When you pour, do you pile a big puddle over each cavity? You should do that and you should see the center of it "suck in" as the boolit cools and shrinks. That is essential to get good fillout.

Can't really help diagnose the amount of heat you're getting but if you get it working again keep the pot our of the weather!

You might open the pot up (unplugged, of course) and inspect the heating element. Make sure the connections aren't corroded or rusted. If it's an old pot it may have asbestos in it so wear a good respirator. Is it the 4 pound pot? Does it have a thermostat? (I have an old one that doesn't.) I've never measured the temp of my 4 pound pot but it gets really hot by seat of the pants judgement, hotter than necessary for the alloys I use. I just use it to melt sprue to dump back into the big pot.

Clean the pot so you know it's not contaminated.
Melt and clean your ingots elsewhere; not in your casting pot. WW are filthy and you're probably contaminating the pot.
Flux with sawdust every time you flux. Don't worry about beeswax.
Clean the mold again. Add Soft Scrub or Dawn with a soft toothbrush as a final cleaner after the solvent cleaning.
Lube it when hot with boolits in the cavities being very careful to keep lube out of the boolit cavities. Only lube to bottom of the sprue plate, the top of the mold but avoid the cavity edges and the sprue plate pivot. The correct amount of 2 cycle lube is: shake the bottle, take the lid off. Touch a Q-Tip to the inside of the lid. It should wet about half of the Q-Tip cotton. That's plenty for a 2 or 4 cavity mold. You want the thinnest possible film of 2 stroke oil and no more.

Tin wouldn't hurt but as you've read, 2% is plenty. More is wasted money.

The best measure of your mold temperature is the time it takes for the sprue to freeze. It should go from molten and shiny to dull gray in 3 to 6 seconds. If it takes longer the mold it too hot. Shorter, the mold is too cool but it would probably be wrinkling the boolits. Sorry if I'm repeating things you know. Mold temp is controlled by the casting rate more than the temp of the melt. The faster you cast the hotter the mold. I have only cast a few boolits with a ladle so don't know how hard it is to get a small mold (as opposed to great big rifle boolits) hot with a ladle.

Can you get your hands on a pound or two of pure lead/stick on WW? Straight lead melts at 621 degrees. If it sits in the pot for a while and turns blue and gold on the surface it's getting hotter than the melting point. Lots of people have cast lots of boolits without a thermometer but they come in real handy when you suspect a problem with the pot.

Well, I've been thinking and typing for an hour and that's all I can think of right now.

Good luck!
David

[lwknight]

The first thing you really need more than anything else is a thermometer. Frosting means that the mold is a little too hot.
It does that because the bullet is cooling slowly. The lack of fill out is more likely from too low casting temperature.
Yes you can get the mold too hot with too cool alloy.
P.S. Get a thermometer!

[Grmps]

+1 on adding 2% tin modern wheel weight don't have the same alloys that they used to have

[Bird]

Top off your lead pot, and, or increase the flow from the spout.

[hermans]

The first thing you really need more than anything else is a thermometer. Frosting means that the mold is a little too hot.
It does that because the bullet is cooling slowly. The lack of fill out is more likely from too low casting temperature.
Yes you can get the mold too hot with too cool alloy.
P.S. Get a thermometer!

I totally agree. The moment I got my PID, which also gives you a readout of the alloy temperature, casting became a lot easier. My best boolits are also slightly frosted as well.

[DAFzipper]

One other thing to remember is ambient air temperature. Going from winter temperatures to spring and summer temperatures I always have to remember to leave the mould open to cool for a few seconds or I get something like you are talking about. I use that time to do a quick inspection of the bullets I just dropped.

Sent from my SM-T713 using Tapatalk

[psweigle]

I get frosting if I pour too slowly.

[26Charlie]

I sometimes get better results by smoking the mold. I save a few birthday candles for this use. The soot seems to even out the heat flow.

[William Yanda]

"When you pour, do you pile a big puddle over each cavity? You should do that and you should see the center of it "suck in" as the boolit cools and shrinks. That is essential to get good fillout.

The best measure of your mold temperature is the time it takes for the sprue to freeze. It should go from molten and shiny to dull gray in 3 to 6 seconds. If it takes longer the mold it too hot. Shorter, the mold is too cool but it would probably be wrinkling the boolits." David2011

What he said.

[lightman]

A couple of things that I can think of. Lighter fluid leaves behind a little bit of oil. Jewell recommends lighter fluid for cleaning their triggers, stating that it provides enough lube for the trigger. I would give that mold a good scrubbing with Dawn, hot water and an old tooth brush. I use brake cleaner with my iron molds. The other thing I thought was Zinc contamination. Are you pretty good at sorting wheelweights and spotting the Zinc ones. I've never had to add tin to wheelweights to get good fill and I would save that as a last resort.

[Whitespider]

Yes you can get the mold too hot with too cool alloy.
Absolutely true... especially in warm weather.

I feel your pain Bazoo, I've fought with the incomplete fill out with frosted boolits myself (and I'm a ladle caster without a thermometer like you). I seem to have more of that sort of problem using aluminum molds because they're easier to overheat even with an alloy not hot enough.

Anyway, assuming the mold is spotlessly clean without any residue and venting properly, I've come to the conclusion when I see incomplete fill out with frosty appearance I have two problems and I'm making one worse by trying to compensate for the other. The first problem is the alloy is not hot enough (without a thermometer it's easy to get anxious and start dipping before the alloy is up to temp, especially after adding to the pot). Then, in an effort to correct the fill out problem I cast faster to get the mold hotter, and I overheat it (often unevenly, in just local areas of the mold, producing localized frosting).

So here's what I do...
I fill the mold, cut the sprue, and set the mold aside with the boolits in it (to help retain heat in the mold)... or I may set the empty mold in my "mold furnace" (a circular saw blade set on an electric burner covered by a cut down coffee can).
I sit down and have a smoke (about 10 minutes) and then flux the pot again with sawdust thoroughly stirring and skimming (another 10 minutes or so)... this gives the alloy about 20 minutes to come up to temp, and me some time to reflect on my errors.
I set the ladle in the pot and wait about 5 more minutes for it to come up to temp.
I fill and dump the mold three times as fast as I can without looking at the boolits (actually dump them in the sprue pile).
On the fourth fill I dump and inspect the boolits... typically the fill out problem is gone, and the boolits are slightly frosty (mold is a touch to hot but alloy has come up to temp). If I still have a fill out problem I turn up the heat on the pot and go back to step one.
Once the fill out is corrected I begin to adjust my casting rate using the small fan (mounted on the wall, blowing down) I use to blow air over the mold and regulate temperature until the boolits start dropping bright and shinny.
In other words... one thing at a time... I correct the fill out problem before addressing the frosty appearance. The fill out problem is almost always an alloy temperature problem, and there ain't a darn thing I can do about it with "technique"... so that must be corrected first. After that it's just a matter of adjusting technique (or experimenting with technique) to achieve bright, shinny boolits with sharp cornered bases.

However... one thing to keep in mind... sometimes it's just "one-of-those-days" that defies explanation.
I won't keep endlessly frustrating myself if it's "one-of-those-days" where I ain't makin' it happen... some days it's just better to find something else to do and try again tomorrow. It's amazing how the very next day, without changing a single thing from the day before, it all comes together and the boolits pile up.
*

[rintinglen]

One 2 Ounce Zinc WW in the pot can flummox the whole melt, at least if you have a 10 pound pot.. Fill out becomes poor, you crank up the heat until you get excessive frosting and still, you have rounded corners and uneven weights. If you have a clean mold, one that hasn't been oil contaminated, and has given good service in the past, the most likely problem is the alloy. Given that you said that you don't make ingots but rather, smelt in the same pot you cast from, I think this is a thought worth pursuing.
My solution would be to drain the pot, and make ingots out of the melt that remains, then brew up a fresh batch of alloy. I would closely check to make sure that no zinc-ers managed to slip past my previous inspection, and I would flux the heck out of it. If it was casting well, I'd run off a hundred or so good boolits, then I'd add an ingot of my suspect metal. Flux, stir, bring it back up to temperature, then cast up another 100 or so boolits. Carefully inspect the second batch, use a jeweler's loupe or a magnifying glass if you need to. If the second batch shows more examples of rounded corners, curved bands, etc., you will have found the culprit.

However, some days are diamonds and some days are stones.

As has been said, sometimes you do everything right, only it isn't. Taking a break and coming back sometimes fixes "it" without conscious effort.

[gwpercle]

A little tin helps a lot with fill out. I have a box of printers type that is high in tin content and add a strip or two to each pot full.
Frosting will not hurt anything, I tend to cast mine just at frosty .
Keep the zinc out. Beeswax works as a flux, just watch out for flash up, the bursting into flames can be unnerving.
It may be wrong but I also will stick wheel weights into the pot melt them, flux and cast . Being doing it for decades . No harm that I can see .
Gary

[Bazoo]

Thanks everyone. I know that some of you put a lot of effort into answering my query, and I appreciate each answer.

The pot im using is the lee 4 pound pot, and it has as heat control. Its less than 2 years old. It was setting on the covered porch, and got moisture from the air, but wasnt rained on so I assumed it'd be okay.

I have previously used lighter fluid to clean moulds and didnt have any problems that I recall. With the problems im experiencing now, i started with lighter fluid, and switched to brake cleaner to make sure I was getting a good clean.

I am 100% sure I didnt have any zinc as I sorted the bucket by hand, nipping each weight with a pair of dikes before it was put in the good bucket.

It was fairly warm that day, which im sure is why I was getting frosting cause I was keeping the same pace I previously had. I know frosting aint a problem, and I normally keep frosted bullets as long as they are filled out well.

I had not thought about some possible contamination in the pot itself, or the ladle.

As for the amount of sprue puddle, I know it should be fairly large and suck down in the center, But honestly I had forgotten all about it in my frustration and didnt pay it no mind, which of course only compounded my problem.

I've been doing the melt weights flux casting thing instead of making ingots a while because I aint got around to getting all the stuff I need for making ingots until just recently. I should be able to make ingots now, and will do so soon as I can find the time.

I think my problem is that the melt was not hot enough and I was not letting it come back up to temperature properly after adding more. I did use some ingots I had once I got going.

Thanks again for all the replies.

~Bazoo

[beagle]

Okay, here's an answer from left field. How many cavities? It is possible to cast too fast and too hot which will surpass the mould block capability to dissipate heat especially with multiple cavities and large bullets. I've experience this with DC 429421s. This will cause the bullets to frost naturally and also give you incomplete fill out. Try casting a little slower and I even use a small 4" fan directly on the mould for big .458" bullets in small blocks.

Walt Melander at NEI had a computer program that computed all this. Unfortunately, this was lost at his death as I have seen no one mention it since.

I bought a double cavity meehanite mould from him in .375". Different bullet styles. When I was talking with him, he said, "Wait a minute" and did something on the computer, came back and said, "It won't work".
I asked about casting one style at a time and he told me that would work so that's the way we went. Sure enough, try and cast both styles and I got frosting and incomplete fill out.

It has something to do with the mass of the mould block's ability to dissipate heat raised by multiple large cavities (mass of molten lead).

When Petey was on here years and years ago, we experimented with attaching aluminum heat sinks to iron moulds and that helped but made casting very clumsy.

Slow your casting tempo and throw the air flow from a small 4" fan (available from Radio at about $8) on the filled blocks and I think you'll see the problem go away./beagle

[gwpercle]

Thanks everyone. I know that some of you put a lot of effort into answering my query, and I appreciate each answer.

The pot im using is the lee 4 pound pot, and it has as heat control. Its less than 2 years old. It was setting on the covered porch, and got moisture from the air, but wasnt rained on so I assumed it'd be okay.

I have previously used lighter fluid to clean moulds and didnt have any problems that I recall. With the problems im experiencing now, i started with lighter fluid, and switched to brake cleaner to make sure I was getting a good clean.

I am 100% sure I didnt have any zinc as I sorted the bucket by hand, nipping each weight with a pair of dikes before it was put in the good bucket.

It was fairly warm that day, which im sure is why I was getting frosting cause I was keeping the same pace I previously had. I know frosting aint a problem, and I normally keep frosted bullets as long as they are filled out well.

I had not thought about some possible contamination in the pot itself, or the ladle.

As for the amount of sprue puddle, I know it should be fairly large and suck down in the center, But honestly I had forgotten all about it in my frustration and didnt pay it no mind, which of course only compounded my problem.

I've been doing the melt weights flux casting thing instead of making ingots a while because I aint got around to getting all the stuff I need for making ingots until just recently. I should be able to make ingots now, and will do so soon as I can find the time.

I think my problem is that the melt was not hot enough and I was not letting it come back up to temperature properly after adding more. I did use some ingots I had once I got going.

Thanks again for all the replies.

~Bazoo
Do yourself a huge favor and get a Lee Magnum Melter , it will hold an honest 15 pounds of alloy and is so much easier to get a good run of boolits going. I used a small 4 pound Lee melter for years and didn't realize how much of a handicap they are.....it's like trying to run a race with your legs tied at the knees. As soon as the metal is hot and the mold is hot...you run out of metal , stop , add metal , everything cools , you don't get anywhere being handicapped with that 4 pound capacity.
With the big pot , once everything get hot and you can cast until the arms and back give out !
Gary

[Bazoo]

The moulds I was using were all 2 cavity, but when I started having problems I started casting with just 1 cavity trying to rule out one of the cavities as being the root of the problem.

I know that the lee pot aint perfect, but its what I got until I afford a better one. My house burnt down a couple years ago. I had a lee 10 pound bottom pour pot. And when I started back, I was trying to go as cheap as I could with the idea that i'd upgrade certain things later. The pot being one of them. I figure i'll get a bigger pot for normal use, and keep this little one for pure lead which I also cast occasionally.

[gwpercle]

I understand hard circumstances. Sorry to hear about your house.
I upgraded from the little Lee 4 lb. pot to a 10 lb. bottom pour pot only to discover I don't like the bottom pour way. I was going to try to plug the 10 lb. and use open top it with a ladle....when Amazon had the 20 lb. Magnum Melter on sale....really cheap , so I bought one . I don't use the 10 lb. bottom pour any more , if you would like it PM me an address and it's yours. It leaks a little but it works....I didn't put many miles on it before discovering I do my best casting with a dipper ladle .
Actually the Lee open top pots are darn good for the price.
Gary

[Bazoo]

I gave it some thought, as what I have works, But I think it would be a blessing gwpercle. I appreciate it.

[Grump]

Just in case your diligent cleaning hasn't uncovered and/or fixed an potential problems with this:

VENTING!

I think only one prior answer has even mentioned this.

My RCBS 9mm two-holer suddenly wouldn't fill the bases for nuthin' after I looked at it and saw a tiny light gap between the sprue plate and the blocks, then hammered it flat an otherwise made it fit totally flush with the tops of the blocks.

Then I noticed a pattern of low spots on the H&G 4-cavity when I dressed down a scratch with an Arkansas stone. Went too far and base fill-out went down the tubes. Gently restored the "wave" to the blocks and problem solved.

Then I made sure the RCBS was lightly beveled on the top where the blocks came together, and restored the little bit of "bridging" of the sprue plate over the cavities. Problem with second mould solved.

Since seeing that happen, I have been more diligent about checking the vent lines before every session. The base fill problem was quite frustrating because the REST of the boolits were filling out very, very nicely. Ran hot enough to go beyond frosty and start getting fill into the mid-body vent lines and the bases still sucked. And this was even when pouring the puddle over the top for a ridiculously long time.

All the heat and tin in the world won't help if the air can't escape.

[Bazoo]

I checked the vent lines, but will recheck them.

[gray wolf]

I think my problem is that the melt was not hot enough
You have answered your own question,
higher melt temp = higher mold temp. faster casting gets the mold hotter.
your answer is in the temp. my vote is don't change your casting cadence
but add a little more heat to the pot.

Then look up (new egg) and get a thermometer.

[woodbutcher]

:wink: Just a little FYI.For one of those fans,check with a computer repair shop.They just might have on that is a take out from an upgraded tower,or a tower that died for not a lot of money OR even free.And yes,some of them are 110V.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

[beagle]

That's what the one I have is from. Works well. Just be sure to keep fingers out of the blades or it will trim your nails. They have a really high RPM./beagle


:wink: Just a little FYI.For one of those fans,check with a computer repair shop.They just might have on that is a take out from an upgraded tower,or a tower that died for not a lot of money OR even free.And yes,some of them are 110V.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

[woodbutcher]

:grin:Either that,OR stumpy or three fingers.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

[Bazoo]

Im still having problems. What Im getting is inconsistent dimples/voids on the sides of the bullet. Sometimes on the nose, sometimes on the driving bands, and on most of them. Every once in a while i'll get a good bullet.

Before i started, I took my mould blocks off the handles and scrubbed the cavities under hot water with dawn and a weapons toothbrush.

When the mold got hot, I lubed the sprue bolt with just a dab of synthetic 2stroke oil. Then the underside of the sprue plate got a dab, but wiped off with a rag so there was only a trace amount.

I also tried cleaning with lacquer thinner and running the mold with no lube, but that didnt help either.

I switched to the 10 pound lee bottom pour pot, but used the same lead from the previous pot.

Switching to the production pot helped me with keeping my melt hot, and allowed me to focus on keeping my mould at a good temperature.

I Normally run the mould hot enough that I get some spider lines but not frosted. I got to this temperature and was getting good fillout without wrinkles, But was having voids.

So, I added some tin. Dont know how much, as I just melted a small piece of pewter in. Fillout became somewhat easier, but still voids. So, I emptied the pot, and refilled it with fresh ingots so that I could rule out a bad batch of lead. This gave me the same results. I added some tin to this pot, with the same results.

Only thing I can think of, Is I have some sort of contamination on the mold. Once before I used a dab of bullet lube on the sprue bolt. That caused a baked on mess. So, I tried scrubbing it with various chemicals, lacquer thinner, soap and water, acetone. I heated the mold and tried scrubbing it with a toothbrush while hot, which in turn melted the toothbrush to the mold. I cleaned it with a combo of soaking in hoppes 9, and then carefully brushing with a bronse bristled tooth brush. I cleaned the vent lines well with the brush. The cavity got very gentle with the brush, and picked with a toothpick to get any gobs I could see. It has since done okay... not great.

Any help is appreciated.

[Echo]

+1 on adding 2% tin modern wheel weight don't have the same alloys that they used to have
Plus One!

[Bazoo]

After pondering it, and talking it out.. both on here and to the wife (for hours), im convinced I am getting 2 stroke oil in my cavities. I didnt specify, but I applied it with a q tip. I wiped the bottom of the sprue plate wet and then wiped all I could off with a cotton rag.

[marvelshooter]

After pondering it, and talking it out.. both on here and to the wife (for hours), im convinced I am getting 2 stroke oil in my cavities. I didnt specify, but I applied it with a q tip. I wiped the bottom of the sprue plate wet and then wiped all I could off with a cotton rag.

If you are applying so much oil you have to wipe it off you are applying too much. Put on just enough to see in good light with a damp not wet q tip.

[Jeff Michel]

Was your mould up to temperature and your cavities filled before applying the oil? Sounds like you over oiled. Clean it out the best you can and cast until there isn't any residue left. You'll have problems till it's burned out. I seldom lubricate mine (every second or third use) and they don't seem to suffer from galling or sticky behavior.

[Good Cheer]

Reading though here it reminded me of trials and tribulations with mystery metal.
Sometimes the elements come together in rebellion and turning up the heat no longer works.

199841

Never did find out what all was in this stuff. Worked with it, finally added some #2 babbitt and got it to cast good HP bullets though.

[Tom W.]

I know it sounds like heresey, but when I've tried all that I know to do and get frustrated I blast the cavities with Rem Oil. After about five or so casts with the thermostat turned wide open and taking longer than usual to empty the mold things come out well for me. That's what works for me. It may not work for you, but if you're already having problems It may not hurt to try.

[Bazoo]

Thanks everyone for bearing with me. Thanks for the advice. A member sent me a message, asking questions, and giving some advice. This is in part some of what I told him today.

I fired it all up today and figured out a few things. I started by cleaning the accurate 434240 with dawn and hot tap water. I have not boiled the molds. I forgot bout that. I wiped some graphite on the sprue plate before assembly. When I got to casting, and got the mold up to temperature, I had a few problems, but had some decent bullets. So my first problem was having contamination from the 2 stroke oil. I let my mold cool some, and cleaned it with alcohol and a brand new tooth brush. Then i had even less problems.

I read that a too cold sprue plate will cause wrinkles cause it cools the lead as it is poured through, but the mold can be too hot, and still cause frosting. This was my second problem. So I got my sprue plate good and hot, and the mold not too hot. I had my production pot cranked up to 8.5/9.

So I was fluxing with some 2:1 beeswax/crisco bullet lube I had, this was my third problem. I was not cooking off the flux and giving it enough time before trying to cast. I noticed i Started having some voids/wrinkles right after I fluxed. So.. I switched to sawdust, and let it cook longer, and it really helped. Then I switched back to the beeswax and wrinkles started to appear again.

Also, As my mold has 1 PB and 1 GC cavity, I was only casting the PB cavity. I keep a better temperature this way.

When I first started today..... I had the idea, of running the production pot to feed the 4 pound pot. This did great. I was able to keep a really good cadence without having to stop to top off my pot. This helped me also.

I dont know that I have it all figured out, but I feel pretty confident now. I made a pile of decent bullets. Not the best I ever made, and certainly not the best I ever saw, But they'll do alright for some plinking ammo at the present.

[mac1911]

One other thing to remember is ambient air temperature. Going from winter temperatures to spring and summer temperatures I always have to remember to leave the mould open to cool for a few seconds or I get something like you are talking about. I use that time to do a quick inspection of the bullets I just dropped.

Sent from my SM-T713 using Tapatalk

Once I moved my casting in doors most of my issues went away.
Do your self a favor buy a small cast iron pot and a small Colman stove at minimum to smelt your wheel weights down. I started with a Colman portable camp stove for 3$ from yard sale and a small 4"ish cast pot.

[mac1911]

After pondering it, and talking it out.. both on here and to the wife (for hours), im convinced I am getting 2 stroke oil in my cavities. I didnt specify, but I applied it with a q tip. I wiped the bottom of the sprue plate wet and then wiped all I could off with a cotton rag.

I,gave up on "oiling" my molds unless I put them up for long storage.
I just use never seize on the sprue pivot and a touch on the pins.
I take the sprue pivot apart and lube with never seize... I to seemed to get lube fouling with any other method.

[Bazoo]

Thanks to the help here, and the help in message from a member, I feel confident I have the problems under control. Thanks everyone for the comments.

[John Boy]

I don't have a thermometer. Im using a lee pot and lyman dipper. I think, my problem is the melt is not hot enough.
Bazoo - to cast non frosted completely filled out bullets with sharp edges you really don't need a thermometer.
Heat the melt and the mold to a temperature so with a 5 second ladle pour, the sprue puddle frosts in 5 to 8 seconds. The key is the frosting of the sprue puddle in 5 -8 seconds. Works for me!

[Bazoo]

JohnBoy, thanks. I fairly well figured that out last session. I had done it, before... but I got frustrated, in a hurry. taking a little break to regroup and talk it out sure helped.

[sutherpride59]

Sounds like you got some zinc wheel weights mixed in your lead.

[Bazoo]

I sorted the weights by hand and crimped every single weight before it went to the good bucket. So unless I accidentally threw a zinc weight in the good bucket, it is impossible. It did cross my mind however though.