Boolit high dive

[leadeye]

I started water dropping my boolits today, changing from a old towel because the fibers were occasionaly marking the boolits and I had read about the advantages of water dropping on this forum. I am getting dents in the finished boolit, not big ones but would like them gone.

I cast off the tailgate of my Dodge, can't beat it as an outdoor work bench. I drop the boolits from the mold into a plastic 5 gallon bucket with about 2 gallons of water in it. Increase the water depth or find a lower bench? Any input on this from people water dropping, how do you do it? I will try the water tomorrow.

16-1 lead to tin, 850 casting tempature, boolits fron 240g 44s to 405g 45s.

[docone31]

Wow, if I poured on my tailgate down here, I would also be down two pints of blood.
Mosquitos!!!! The state bird.
What I do,
I pour, sitting, and then on a chair next to me, I have a stainless steel 10qt pot. I desprue, then drop into the water. I never get up, or out of my chair.
To get the lead out of the stainless pot, I use Rust Off! Sodium bisulphite, potassium bisulphite. It eats everything but the stainless pot.
I also use it to drop gold out of Auric Chloride solution, but that is another hobby.

[oneokie]

Haven't water dropped yet, but a few tips found on this site. Place an old towel with a slit cut in it over the bucket of water so that the boolits hit the cloth and then roll through the slit on their way to the water. Keeps splashing to a minimum.

Some use packing peanuts to cover the water to reduce the chance of splashing. None of these folks specified what kind of packing peanuts they use. (styrofoam or the biodegradeable ones)

More water would help.

[Shotgun Luckey]

I have a 5 gallon bucket mostly full of water, covered with a towel that has a hole, (actually a slit). The bucket sits on a crate that places the top of bucket at a convenient height. The towel is held in place by a bungee cord. The towel is loose enough to form a bowl shape that causes the bullets to roll to the slit and drop through. I moisten the towel when starting, and the splashes of the bullets tends to keep the towel damp.

[dominicfortune00]

Some use packing peanuts to cover the water to reduce the chance of splashing. None of these folks specified what kind of packing peanuts they use. (styrofoam or the biodegradeable ones)

I would guess the styrofoam kind, as the biodegradeable ones made from corn turn slimy and dissolve when they get wet.

[EchoSixMike]

You're not going to get much, if any, hardening out of a binary tin/lead alloy. You need antimony to be able to heat treat.

I drop onto a multiple folded towel in a aluminum roast pan and have no issues, but I'm only dropping 2-4" from the mold. S/F....Ken M

[44man]

I just fill a 5 gallon bucket with abot 4 to 4-1/2 gallons, no towel needed. That alloy will not harden but water dropping is convenient.
Seems like awful soft lead for a .44 though. OK for a 45-70.

[oneokie]

I would guess the styrofoam kind, as the biodegradeable ones made from corn turn slimy and dissolve when they get wet.

Learned something new today. :drinks:

[Sprue]

I've always just dropped them into the 2.5 gal bucket filled about half full of water. In the bottom of that bucket I always place/sink a rag or a few paper towels. Some of the boolits get dinged but nothing drastic to me. They'll look worse when I pick em up from down range later on. ( reminds me, the wife was all the time wanting to use my new bucket for something, I always told her - no. I got her one after about the second confrontation. I wrote Poison on mine)

Anyway, my pot/melt is sitting on my tablesaw that I have covered with plywood so I can use it as another work station.

While standing there casing I drop the boolits into the bucket thats setting in the floor. Yea, I get a little splash but nothing I'm concerned about.

I might get around trying the above slit rag suggestion one of these days.

Another good question! I like to see these type of posts, they're always helpful and a good read to boot.

Thanks for post

[longbow]

leadeye:

If you are dropping boolits out of the mould hot enough to marked by a towel I would say you are dropping them a little soon as they are still soft. They may even be distorting a little as they leave the mould if they are that soft. I'd give them another few seconds to firm up more or lower the casting/mould temperature a little.

I usually tap on the sprue puddle until I see it is not mushy before cutting the sprue and opening the mould whether for water dropping or air cooled on a towel.

The proof is in the shooting though. If they are working well for you its all good.

Longbow

[OLPDon]

Leadeye:

I use the shipping peanut you get when you order something good and the friendly UPS Guys comes to the door. I float about 3" of the peanuts. No splashing and no marks, if the peanuts stick to the Boolit it wipes off easy. Now if you didn't save those peanut, guess you will have a reason to order something you want. Now you can be guilt free when you order something you just must have.
Don

[runfiverun]

drop them closer to the water.

[beagle]

Take a clean 5 gallon bucket and fill 2/3s full of clean cold water. I say clean in both cases as I've seen bullets quenched in dirty water start to oxidize in several days due to contamination from the bucket's previous contents...example: pickles from McDonalds preserved in vinegar.

Place an old towel in the bucket and let it saturate. The first few bullets will sink it to the bottom. This cushions the bullets a bit when they hit bottom. Every 50 rounds or so, dump the bullets to the bottom and pull the towel to the top. This avoids the bullets hitting together.

Next, take another old towel and make a slit in it and place it over the bucket and depress it a bit in the center so the slit is at the bottom. This keeps water from splashing back on you and into the melt hopefully.

Cast as hot as you can and still get good bullets. Dump as close to the top of the bucket as you can. After a few casts, the top towel will get wet and this will aid in quenching. When you feel the water starting to get warm, remove the bullets and replace the water with cold water.

Remove the bullets and allow them to dry in a warm, dry place.

If the water is cold and your bullets/mould is pretty hot and you don't drop too high, you'll get some hard bullets. That's the way I do mine and it works./beagle

[pumpguy]

I went to Hobby Lobby and bouht a 4" thick piece of foam like you would find in furniture. I cut it to fit in the bottom of a 5 gallon bucket. Fill the bucket about 2/3 of the way full and go to town.

[rusty marlin]

I started water dropping my boolits today, changing from a old towel because the fibers were occasionaly marking the boolits and I had read about the advantages of water dropping on this forum. I am getting dents in the finished boolit, not big ones but would like them gone.

16-1 lead to tin, 850 casting tempature, boolits fron 240g 44s to 405g 45s.

Right there's the problem, you have no Antimony in the mix. A lead/tin bullet will never get harder than when its cast. Doesn't matter what you do to it.

For some reason I have absolutly terrible results when casting with striaght WW, but if I add 1.5% tin, my bullets come out GREAT.

This will give you a water quenchable (hard) bullet alloy.

WW "sweetened" w/ tin
pounds of WW 15.50
pounds of 50/50 0.5
batch size 16.00lbs
tin 2.05%
antimony 3.88%
arsenic 0.24%
lead 93.84%

[madcaster]

Make sure you add a car washing sponge,and try different sizes to give the boolit a soft spot to land on.Packing peanuts work great to prevent splash!
DominicFortuneOO,I did not know there was a difference!Thank you!

[jonk]

I've not put anything in the bucket. I use about a 2 gallon bucket filled half with water- and have not seen any dents. Though I am careful to drop only a few inches off the water.

[HeavyMetal]

I've always used a rag or shop towel at the bottom of the bucket to cushion the boolits.

In theory the should be to hard to dent by the time they get to the bottom of the bucket but hey they are still lead!

I don't take the time to empty until I'm done but I do reach in an rearrange to keep a spot open on the rag.

Good tip on the foam! A couple of pieces cut to fit the bucket and you could stack them as your pile of boolits builds up or you change molds.

[montana_charlie]

If one man's advice is good, advice from a group should be even better.
I prepared my five-gallon bucket with:
shop towel
Styrofoam peanuts
sunken paper towel
car washing sponge
folded towel
shop rag
4-inch hobby foam
sunken rags
biodegradeable peanuts
slit towel
and 2.5 gallons of water

Dropped hot lead/tin bullets in until it was full.
Neither bullet was damaged.

Added powdered antimony to equal 2% of volume.

Only had room in the bucket for one hot bullet.
It was undamaged...but no harder.

Emptied the bucket and recovered all materials...except the antimony.

I'm going back to dropping bullets into a box of bat guano.
CM

[leadeye]

Thanks guys! Lots of good input. I picked up the 16-1 at an auction and did not know about needing antomony for hardness with water dropping, probably should spend more time reading back through the forum. I went to a scrap yard recently looking for WW and was told a dollar a pound. I passed for now and decided to use up all the stuff I bought at the auction.

[pstew]

you need a second bucket. One upside down, then set one with the water (I fill it 2/3) on top.

[wonderwolf]

+1 for a mostly full 5gal bucket of water, I don't put anything over hit I sit on a swivel chair when I cast Bucket is to my right and arms length away. Have not had any problems with splash or with dents in the bullet. I leave them in overnight usually (as I do my casting during dark hours) next day if its a warm day I pour the bullets out onto a shallow box lid filled with news paper that is somewhat sunken in the center. boolits dry after a goodwhile. If its winter time I usually set them on top of the woodstove.

[Fleataxi]

I cast straight WW into a half-full 5 gallon bucket for 230gr .451 bullets, and I've never had a problem. I'm sitting in a chair in front of the caster with the bucket on my left.

I pour the dual-cavity mold, wait a second for the sprues to harden, cut the sprue by hitting the cutter with a broken wooden hammer handle, and immediately invert the mold over the bucket and tap the bolt of the mold handles if necessary to make a boolit release (rarely needed since mold is sprayed liberally with mold release prior to casting.)

I've made hundreds of boolits this way for my 1911, with no signs of barrel leading.

Fleataxi

[jameslovesjammie]

Montana Charlie...

That was great! I laughed pretty good on that one!

James

[leadeye]

I nearly filled the bucket and the dents are gone, I guess if you are going to make a high dive you need a deep tank!