Help casting with GB 44/444 mold

[JesterGrin_1]

Okay for some odd reason try as I might I just can not get the HP part to fill out on the bottom. Most of the time I get a pin hole which makes them light or does not fill out correctly.

My mix is 16 pounds of pure lead with 5 pounds Lino and 5 feet of 95/5 solid solder wire. :)

Help would be great as I am getting worn out trying to get good boolits from the mold. Heck I have casted over 20 pounds of Lead and only had 100 keepers.

[Down South]

5 Ft of solder probably ain’t enough. I use ½ lb of solder to 20 lb of WW. I have the same mould and made some very nice boolits with few rejects after the mould warmed up. What temp are you casting at? You may need to cast hotter. I was casting between 750 and 800 degrees.

[JesterGrin_1]

Okay how much solder should I add to what I have? And I have been trying to cast at 800 to 850F

[JesterGrin_1]

Okay I turned the Pot back on lol. And will add solder to it for 1/2 pound. If it does not work I will keep adding solder lol. These are going to be expensive BOOLITS lol.

So I am heading back out to the garage lol. :)

[Down South]

I don’t remember the tin content of Lino since I’m not fortunate enough to have ever had any. I mix my alloy up in batches 20 lb WW & ½ lb of 95/5 solder. That's ½ of a roll which is way more than 5 ft.
How about your casting cycle? Are you leaving the mould open for a period of time before making the next pour?
I’m also using a bottom pour pot. If you are ladle pouring you may need to change your technique.
I believe more solder will help with the nose fill out.

[JesterGrin_1]

Well it is better with 13OZ of 95/5. But still not there yet. I will pick up more solder friday and give it a go. :). At the very least if I put in too much 95/5 they will just get more shiney :).

[Down South]

From the information that I have gathered here over a long period of time, 8oz of 95/5 to 19-20 lb of WW should give approximately 2% tin content to your alloy. Most say that anything over 2% is wasting tin and I’m inclined to agree. You should have more than enough solder mixed at 13oz.
I would try casting hotter or faster or both and see if the nose doesn’t start filling out better.
I’m assuming that you cleaned the mould well.

[hiram]

Lino is 4 1/2 -- 5% tin.

[bishopgrandpa]

Lino alone should do the trick. I'm using straight wheel weight at approx 14 bhn at 700 degrees and have had two sessions yielding me 400 bullets and no problem with HP at all. I put the mold on the edge of the pot while heating the lead and then dip front edge in lead for about 5-10 seconds. You have the tin content and enough heat. If mold is sufficiently heated you should be good to go. Do you use bottom pour? I am strictly ladle pour.

[GLL]

Linotype from print shops is often depleted with respect to Sn ! It is often difficult to determine what % you may have to start with.

Ladle cast HP's at high temperature and at a VERY fast pace !
Do not slow down or stop to admire your work ! :)

Jerry

[Zbench]

Jester, I had problems with this too. As others have mentioned, the mould does run hot, but here are some other things you can do.

1) More tin, while it doesn't add as much hardness, it does make it flow better. I bought some commercially made 92.6.2 off a guy on Ebay, and I could not get it to work well with only 2% tin. When I goosed it to 5% by weight it worked fine. Makes me think that Lyman got it right when the devised the #2 formula. Had an interesting discussion with the guy who sold it who claimed it WAS Lyman #2. My books say otherwise. Bottom line, more tin will increase flow and fill out your mold better

2) I use a bottom pouring pot (RCBS) and I found I can get nearly perfect bullets when the mould is up to temperature when you use the rest bar on the bottom and hold the mould as level as you can and pour exactly in the center. I use a full blast approach and let it rip. My theory is if the lead stream hits the HP pin head on (don't apply directly to the forehead) it makes it more difficult to create a void. Not sure of the reason, but it helped me quite a bit. You will know that you are pouring level if the sprue plate fills evenly and doesn't shoot into the other cavity

3) Fill the sprue plates up, and wait a little longer than usual before cutting the sprue. 300 grains is a big bullet. The cavity is still pulling lead from the sprue for a while. If you cut it too soon, that will obviously stop.

4) Overfill the mold sprue plate on both sides, and when casting, go as quickly from one cavity to the next as you can. Takes me about 5 seconds to completely fill the mould.

If you do all those things, you will have great bullets in no time. Others may find different techniques, but if your lead is the right mix and your temp is correct, these will definitely increase your yield.

BTW, it wasn't obvious to me at first, but you can remove the pins and flip them over and get rid of the HP design. If all else fails, you might try that!

Pete

[GLL]

One thing I noticed was that the mould had a liberal coating of grease (not oil) on the slides that go through the mould. It took four cycles of near boiling Dawn plus acetone & high pressure air to completely remove this grease.

I have a number of HP moulds but this is my first Cramer style and my first in brass. After about twenty minutes of adjusting alloy temperature I conclude this is my VERY favorite HP mould. I started casting at pushing 800 degrees but realized things were overheated. 700 degrees is working very well ! Fillout around the HP is complete with very few rejects.

I am a very happy boy ! :)

Thank you MiHec for some great craftsmanship ! Can't wait for the H&G #503 HP ! :)

Jerry

[Lloyd Smale]

I noticed all the oil on the mold myself and wondered why it is even nessiary to put it on a brass mold.

[JesterGrin_1]

Okay How do I know if I have too much TIN in the mix?

As when it is cold the Boolits are as shiney as a new chrome bumper lol. But when it gets hot enough to cast decent the boolits are all frosty and after the sprue gets hard and I cut the sprue it leaves a small devit with a crystal nature to it.

The Mix is now 10 pounds pure with 8 pounds Lino and 1 pound 95/5 solder which is 95% Tin.

Now even air cooled I can not scratch them with a finger nail and if I water drop them I can drop them from over 3 feet on concrete and it might leave a small mark lol. And the 1 pound ones I made in a mold ring like a new bell lol.

[Lloyd Smale]

your alloy shouldnt be the problem. Its real close to #2 and if anything the only problem you will have with it is it will be a bit on the hard side for expansion with the hp. If it were me and i was looking for expansion in a hp id cut back the lino to about 5 lbs and keep the tin. Cast the mold as hot as you can without it smearing on the spruce. I will sometimes keep a little pan of water on the bench and just touch the mold bottom to the water to slightly cool a molds when it starts getting to the point of smearing. When casting like that you need to open your mold carefully and give it a second or two for the bullet to get hard enough not to deform when you drop it off the pins and into the pile. Also place a rag on top of the bullets to drop onto. About 90 percent of the problems casting hps is just not having your mold hot enough. I casted probably 500 of these yesterday like this and didnt have a single reject. One more thing that may help is if your running your mold this hot to put a little bullshop spuce plate lube on the plate and top of the mold. It keeps the lead from sticking when it does smear

[Echo]

JG1, your first alloy only had about 1% SN - your last alloy has about 6% Sn. It has been my experience that anything over 3% Sn is unnecessary, and 2% is usually workable, maybe not in your mold. I hate to muddy the waters any more, but I would re-mix your alloy 50/50 with pure lead.

And MAKE SURE THE MOLD IS UP TO TEMP!

[fredj338]

I cast my HP using 25-1 lead/tin mix & get a pretty low reject rate, even from the finicky 5pt facted pins. Adding more tin to the lino mix will likely not help. You can try smoking the pin, see if that helps. I think it's a heat issue. Getting the pins hot & having them stay hot is the key to good HP.

[JesterGrin_1]

OK One more shot lol. I will melt down what I have and make it equel parts of it and some Pure Lead. And give it another go lol. :)

Now am I going backwards or forwards or is this the pushmepullyou lol. :)