mold fillout

[hiram]

Casting ww at 750 deg. Using the group buy 150 gn, 30 cal gc mold, 1 wide lube groove and 3 crimp grooves. The cavities have been polished with toothpaste and the mold was boiled with dish soap. Using Lee 10# bottom pour pot. Some bullets had incomplete fillout. I noticed the stream of lead was smaller than the hole in the sprue plate. Would ladle pouring, which offers a larger stream to the sprue hole help???

[Down South]

I'm not an expert but I'd say you need more heat. Either the mould or melt or both is not hot enough.

[oso]

Boiled in dish soap or detergent? I use dish detergent and a final rinse of isopropyl alcohol. Did you smoke the mold with a butane lighter?

[mooman76]

I am assuming it is a 6x being a gb. A 10# pot may not be big enough. You need the heat cranked all the way for a 6x and with a 10# pot by the time you just start to crank out good bullets you will run out of lead.

[hiram]

The melt was 750---checked with a thermocouple. the mold was not smoked. I can crank the heat to 775 or 800---My pot will get that high. Sometimes there was a slight frosting in the crimp grooves. I did not rinse with alcohol.

[44man]

Check the bottom spout for crud. It only takes a small chunk to stop getting nice boolits.
Switch to the ladle and get away from the problems! [smilie=1:

[hiram]

I'll check the spout.

[MakeMineA10mm]

Boiled in dish soap or detergent? I use dish detergent and a final rinse of isopropyl alcohol. Did you smoke the mold with a butane lighter?

Agreed. You want no residue in there from the cleaning. (Isopropyl Alcohol is a good idea - hadn't thought of that one...) A lot of guys use brake cleaner because it's cheap and so available.

Also, when the cavities won't pour plain, smoking is a good back-up plan. (Heck, Lee even recommends it and gives instructions on how to do it... They should know how to get their moulds to work...)

You've already polished the cavities, which is good.

I think you're heat is good, as long as that number is accurate. This is definitely looking like insufficient heat. Are you trusting the scale on the thermostat, or do you have a casting thermometer? - Never mind, you answered this, while I was typing and everyone else was jumping in!! :-)

Although I don't know if it will address that type of fill-out problem, I'd also suggest adding about 2% to 2.5% tin to your WWs. It will help with fill out. You're bullets look a little shiney, so maybe you've already supplemented the WW with tin? Again, this looks more like a heat fill-out problem than an insufficient tin one...

Lastly, I'd mention that the smaller the cavities the harder it is to get the mould up to temp and to keep it there. You have to use a pretty fast casting rythm in the beginning to get the mould thoroughly heated up and then a medium-fast rythm after that to not let the mould cool too much in between pours. You don't mention at what point in the casting process you got these, or how fast of a process/rate/rythm you were using, but I've gotten boolits like that when I've gotten tired at the end of a several-hour casting session and couldn't keep my rate up...

[DAFzipper]

Try preheating the mold on a hot plate. Up alloy temp to 775 to 800. Works for me.

[Maven]

"Would ladle pouring, which offers a larger stream to the sprue hole help???"

Hiram, I have that mold and lapped each of the 6 cavities then thoroughly degreased them as the lapping compound was oil-based. Using a ladle, I get a few poorly filled-out CB's, but they are in the minority. If you have a ladle, try this: Bring the temp. of your alloy to 750 deg. F. Fill the ladle and pour the [molten] alloy into cavities #1 - 3 from ~1/2" - 1" above the mold. Discard the results of the first 5 or 6 pours as they will likely be flawed because the mold isn't yet hot enough. Cast until you get perfect CB's and have enough of #1 - 3's droppings. Separate them and do the same for cavs. #1 - 4. Also, wipe the top of the mold and bottom of the sprue cutter periodlically with bit of bullet lube on a rag to prevent galling, but don't get any into the cavs. as you'll need to degrease them. While this hasn't totally eliminated flawed CB's, it has reduced their number.

P.S. My ladle isn't large enough to fill all 6 cavs. in 1 pour + the first 3 cavs. drop CB's which are of a different weight than the last three. Ergo, I cast s separately and segregate my bullets by cavity.

[anachronism]

I'd ladle cast too. Once your mould is up to temp, pour each cavity individually, just like casting with 6 one cavity mould. Pour #1, refill your ladle, pour #2, refill your ladle, and so on. Cut the sprue after #6 freezes. It takes a little longer this way, but if everything else is right, it's almost infallible. If this works for you, once the mould is good & hot you will probably be able to fill two cavities, then the next two, then the last two. I cast tons of wadcutters this way.

[hiram]

I did add a small amount of linotype to make sure I had some tin content. I'll try the piece-meal ladle pouring from the Lee pot. My next step is the backyard and they turkey fryer. I use the 1# rowell ladle there. I wanted to try to avoid the big setup to knock off these small bullets. I think the large overlow from the rowell will help to maintain mold temp. I haven't forgotten about smoking--that's on the list.

[jameslovesjammie]

I'd bet that when you smoke the cavities (I use long fireplace matches) that your problem will go away. I just finished casting in the shed a couple of minutes ago. I was trying a new mould I got, and was having the exact same looking boolits. I cast about 20 of them, thinking I wasn't up to temp yet, when I realized I forgot to smoke the mould. After a good smoke, I re-warmed my mould by setting it on the edge of the pot for about a minute. Presto! Perfect Boolits!

[Thumbcocker]

I really like Rapine Mould prep which is just graphite suspended in alcohol. It really helps aluminium moulds. One small bottle will treat a lot of moulds.

[hiram]

Success------I did 2 things and it worked immediately. I don't know if one was more imporatant than the other, or equally important. I cleaned the spout. BIG difference in the flow. I smoked the cavities with a BBQ lighter---there is much more carbon than from a cigarette lighter. I was getting keepers with the third pour.

[mooman76]

Good deal! We all have our little way to correct problems and I think some thing will correct others. For example a little extra heat might help where smoking the mold was a cure or where someone moves a little slower than someone else. I never smoke moulds. I learned a long time ago and never knew about smoking the mould. I tried it later on but it didn't seem to do much for me so I stopped. The whole point is do waht works for you! Glad you worked it out!

[HamGunner]

Bullets that are long for their caliber like yours require fast cavity filling in order for good fill out. Bottom pour furnace nipples must be kept clean for a good flow stream. Flux well with each filling and never let the melt get too low. Also, you will not get good fill out if your pot gets over half empty as the flow volume will decrease as your volume in the furnace pot decreases. I get good results with about 750 degrees pot temp if my mold is warm enough and I use two or more molds at once in order to keep from getting the frosted bullets caused by too hot a mold. I fill all molds. Empty them in order that I filled them. Then start over. I also let plenty of lead flow over the sprue plate to fill out the bottom of the bullet.

Your last pictures look great to me. Whatever you done must have been about right. I never smoke a mold either. I do use Rapine mold prep. before storing my molds, so they are always ready to go.

[Lloyd Smale]

I think by looking your problem is more mold temp then alloy temp. Try speeding up your rhytm a bit. I clean my molds with dawn dish soap and a tooth brush where there new and have never been one that smokes a mold. All your doing when you smoke a mold is adding a contaminant to the picture. If the mold wont drop the mold needs work not a coating. Lee molds tend to do there best when the alloy temp and your speed of casting produces lightly frosted bullets not shinny ones. When you get to the point that you got where you had just part of the bullet frosted keep going and increase your speed till the whole bullet is slightly frosted. What you need to be careful with casting like that is that its a fine ballance between making good bullets and having lead smear on the top of your mold. Lead smears can gouge the top of your mold so make sure you wipe it off. Bullshop mold lube on the top of your mold and the face of your spuce plate will go along ways toward keeping the lead from sticking and ruining your mold.