dented boolits

[gole]

I've run into a problem that I've not seen discussed before. I'm casting with WW in a 3 cavity mold. I empty the mold about 3 times per minute. I drop the bullets into a box lined with folded towels. After several casts, the pile of bullets covers the bottom of the box, and (I think) the new drops are being dented when landing on the the cooler ones. I inspect them closely before sizing, and I rejected more than half of the last batch. If you've seen and solved this problem, how did you do it? I've considered making a slanted box so that the bullets would roll to the far end after landing on the towels and would therefore be out of the way of the fresh, hot casts.
Can any of you advise me? gole

[Heavy lead]

Yup, can't dump hot boolits on hard ones. I drop on the bench I cast on on three old towels folded up and after all the room is gone (about 30 to 50 boolits depending on size) I fold the towel over and roll the boolits into a pile and start over, that way no hot ones drop on the hard ones.

[RogerWatsonfromIdaho]

gole,
I fold a towel to make 4 layers. I drop the bullets onto the towel making sure not to drop onto other bullets. When the towel fills up with bullets, I pour them into a one gallon plastic milk jug which has the top half cut off. I try to be careful not to damage the cast bullets.
Roger

[pharmpoke]

lay your layered towel/sheet in a paint roller tray; it has a gentle slope to it. Just lift the end of the towel every few casts and gently roll the bullets to the bottom of the tray.

[HeavyMetal]

Dude: This is why you drop your boolits into water!

A 3/4 full 5 gallon bucket with any old towel, t shirt or foam rubber in the bottom will work just fine!

Your boolits will be cool and hard enough to resist average handling long before they hit bottom!

Any additional hardness generated is simply a free bee.

Set yourself up so that you must make a Qtr turn to your right ( if your right handed) to dump into your qunching container. This will give you plenty of room to keep any small splashes out of your lead pot. If the quenching bucket is also lower than your casting table so much the better cause now the water not only needs to go around you in must go over you as well!

Suggest you try this next time you cast.

[waco]

all good advice
if using water to quench, be sure to KEEP THE WATER FAR AWAY FROM THE LEAD POT!!!!!!
one small drop of h20 in molten pb WILL ruin your day!!!!!!
play our game with caution!
waco:drinks:

[revolver junkie]

i drop my boolits on a square oven mit and then transfer them to a box to hold the cooled ones.

[warf73]

Dude: This is why you drop your boolits into water!

A 3/4 full 5 gallon bucket with any old towel, t shirt or foam rubber in the bottom will work just fine!

Your boolits will be cool and hard enough to resist average handling long before they hit bottom!

Any additional hardness generated is simply a free bee.

Set yourself up so that you must make a Qtr turn to your right ( if your right handed) to dump into your qunching container. This will give you plenty of room to keep any small splashes out of your lead pot. If the quenching bucket is also lower than your casting table so much the better cause now the water not only needs to go around you in must go over you as well!

Suggest you try this next time you cast.

I do the same other than my bucket is 1/2 full or 1/2 empty your choice. But this is one of the reasons why I water drop my boolits. The other reason is I size after I'm threw with casting, and the boolits are nice and cool ready to handle.

Warf

[Bret4207]

all good advice
if using water to quench, be sure to KEEP THE WATER FAR AWAY FROM THE LEAD POT!!!!!!
one small drop of h20 in molten pb WILL ruin your day!!!!!!
play our game with caution!
waco:drinks:

Correction- water that gets BENEATH the melt will give you problems. Water landing on top of the melt just sizzles away.

In any event, be careful.

I drop my boolits onto an old pair of moth eaten wool pants. Each fresh mould gets emptied onto an area where they wont strike other boolits. I lift the pants a bit to roll the boolits out of the way. When the piles get big enough I tumble them into another container.

Some boolits will bend if they aren't allowed to cool enough in the mould. A banana shapped boolit doesn't fly too well.

[armyrat1970]

all good advice
if using water to quench, be sure to KEEP THE WATER FAR AWAY FROM THE LEAD POT!!!!!!
one small drop of h20 in molten pb WILL ruin your day!!!!!!
play our game with caution!
waco:drinks:

And not just water. I use a butter knife to stir my pot when fluxing. I always keep my ladle and butter knife under my pot to keep the moisture and humidity off. One night I left the stirring knife sit on the side for a little while. When I started to stir my pot bam! The alloy splashed up to the top of my 8ft. covering on my porch and lucky I had my glasses on because a few specks hit them. They would have been right in my eyes if I didn't have the glasses on. Just the little time I left the knife sitting on the side allowed it to build up enough moisture to cause a small eruption in the alloy. Be safe and remember what you are doing at all times. It only takes one mistake to cause injury when playing our game.

[Boerrancher]

I have a small cardboard box that I place an old folded t shirt in. I leave it high on one end so the boolits roll down it. When I get a few piled up I just lift the high end of the shirt and the boolits roll the rest of the way into the box. I lay the t shirt back on top of the pile of boolits, and when the box gets full I am done.

Best wishes from the Boer Ranch,

Joe

[R.C. Hatter]

I use an old paint roller tray (the kind that has one end higher than the other) with a doubled towel in the bottom. The boolits then have a soft place to land and when the space fills up, just pick up the high end of the towel. This causes the boolits to roll to the lower end of the pan, leaving room for more castings. Never a dented bullet for me.

[shotman]

where have you been? Joined in 06 and just posted 1 shotman

[armyrat1970]

where have you been? Joined in 06 and just posted 1 shotman

I guess been lurking around and reading a lot. That ain't bad.

[gole]

Thanks to all of you that replied to my post. Apparently I'm not the only one to have observed this problem. I like the idea of water dropping, but I don't want the bullets any harder than they are. I'll be trying sloped box (or paint pan) next time I cast. Again, thanks for the advice.

[truckmsl]

gole - why not dilute your ww lead with softer range lead or whatever and then water quench? your ww lead will go further and you get the benefits mentioned above regarding water quenching. With a little experimenting you can get the hardness you want.