"Learning" casting session yesterday

[sniper]

Getting back into it, after years.
I ended up with ~350 usable boolits. And, I am sure I'll get faster as I do more. :smile: Fun!, but, I do have some observations and questions.

My Lee 20 lb. pot worked a treat! I read all the opinions, and agonized over the purchase, but as usual, the $$$ won. If you have been hesitant to buy one, don't be! It does the job in fine fashion. Drips? Yes, but not much, and I just keep my ingot mould under it. "Problem" solved!

Man, Aerokroil in the cavities works, I don't know why, after all the years of being told "NO OIL IN THE MOULD!". It does, tho. It seems to ease casting and boolit drop amazingly. Just a little is all it takes.

Bull Shop Lube works well on sprue plates.

Pat Marlin's flake flux works well, too, and smells good in the bargain!

Now, question: after you stir the carbonized flux into the melt, and all the stuff comes to the top, do you skim it off, of just leave it, as an insulating blanket on top of the metal?

My alloy, which is the recipe on a page I got from somewhere, labelled "near Lyman #2, made up of 17-18 lb. wheelweight and 2 lb. 50-50 bar solder, seems rather soft. I guess I will just have to wait and see how they shoot.

My RCBS 162 gr. Gas Check boolit has some very small casting wings, and I don't know if that will affect accuracy. Anybody know?

Is there some way to get rid of them? The mould was refurbished by RCBS last year, so will the mould "wear in" to a tighter fit?

Lubed and sized with LLA diluted ~30% with Mineral Spirits last night; now all ready for reloading.

Is it necessary to lube, size, and relube, or do just I size, then lube?

Boy, I got lots to relearn.:bigsmyl2:

[Wayne Smith]

First, I'd break off the wings before I sized it. Either your mold is not right or you are not closing it. If the latter this will result in a larger boolit. Sizing does not remove weight, if the boolit is big it simply lengthens it. Weigh a few boolits and see if they are at weight or heavy and consider the results in your load.

[Bloodman14]

Lube, size/seat check, lube again. I leave flux/junk on top for awhile, does act as insulator/heat trap. Welcome back!

[Edubya]

Might want to start over with the mould. You probably need to clean it real good before you heat it up and Kroil it. I'm thinking that the face is not clean and that causing the mould to not close completely which is causing the wings. You might be able to detect this with your calipers. Does the bullet measure exactly the same when turning it 180 degrees?
EW

[HORNET]

RCBS did a refurbish last year on the mold? Check the alignment pins. Make sure the receiving holes are clean and deburred (use a case mouth deburring tool if needed) and make sure the pin heights are correct. The mold should close completely but snigly without leaving any gap and you shouldn't be able to wiggle the 2 mold halves together once they're closed. Adjust the pin height if needed with a small punch and light hammer.
Make sure the slot in the sprue plate isn't hitting the side of the stop pin and holding the halves apart.
Make sure that you're holding the handles firmly (but not TIGHT) so the mold doesn't open any during casting. Even veteran casters sometimes find that their grip gets tired or they get lax after running the molds for a while. That's why Cabine Tree sells locking handles.
I assume that you've already checked the sprue plate for flatness and loosened it up so it operates easily? It'll usually get tighter as you run, even with the lock screw tight.

[garandsrus]

Sniper,

Another cause for the wings is that the alloy is too hot or you are using too much pressure. Both are easily corrected.

For the heat, turn down the alloy and allow the mold to cool more before casting the next boolit. You might want to search on "Bruce B's Speed Casting" or something similar. It shows a way to rapidly cool a mold.

If the problem is pressure, reduce the height of the mold from the bottom pour spout. You probably are allowing the lead to drop too far before it hits the mold, or you are casting with the mold up against the spout. Both can cause too much pressure in some molds while working well with others.

Good luck...
John

[sniper]

Hornet and Grandsrus:
Thanx for the suggestions. :D I did what you said: I cleaned the mould blocks, checked, and noticed a very thin line of light between the halves, so I took the blocks off the handles, and chamfered the alignment holes, then tapped the alignment pins as suggested. After several light treatments, the gap is much less than it was, and I can make it disappear with only a little firmer grip than usual.

I figure I will leave well enough alone, as I can live with squeezing a little harder, and I don't want to go too far with it. Probably another 1,000 or so casts, and it will be worn in to a perfect fit. (I am an optimist:wink:)

Thanks again. My molds drop boolits that are so close to .358, that it is hard to tell if my .358 sizer has done anything. Maybe I'll try shooting them as cast. The sized ones go through the cylinders of my revolver with very firm pressure, so I figure everything's good to go.

I noticed that sometimes the lead will shoot back out of the cavity, but not all the time. It must be something to do with spout position. I raised the mould rest up till I have to knock off the little drip of alloy from the spout to get it under. I'll keep experimenting with that.

[sniper]

Well. got back from my daughter-in-law's father's funeral about noon, and was really torn whether to drive to the local motorpark and photograph the races, when my wife said: "You could cast some more bullets."

She was right! By the time I drove there, got my press credential, and got into position, it would be almost time to come home.

Sooooo...I grabbed one of my wife's brownies, set up my casting operation, and while awaiting the alloy to get melted/stabilized, I put a coat of shellac on a set of grips I'm making for my target pistol.

Short session, but got ~200 more swc's to play...uhhhhh...experiment with. :-P

Thanks to the suggestions I received here, the "casting wings" from my 162 gr. mould in have gone away, and I found a way to reduce the lead flow from the pot's spout, for less pressure. Thank you, Lee. My pot worked flawlessly, again, and I am expecting, again...and again...and again... But that mould! It would cast beautiful bolits for a while then one or both cavities not fill out the bases. First both, then one, then the other, and then then the one that cast the good boolit would round the base, and the other one would produce a good boolit! Finally, it stopped, and started making good ones again. Temperamental sucker!

Arrrrgggghhhhh! [smilie=b:

My neighbor came over to see what all the hammering was about, and we had a good visit. I took 30 seconds, and explained all I knew about casting to him!

Anybody ever get a large, hot sprue down your hiking boot? Fortunately I was wearing heavy duty cotton socks, and wasn't burned.

Put away my stuff, lubed the boolits, and they are drying. Despite the problems, a good afternoon, even if it wasn't at the race track!

Once again, thanks to all who offered suggestions. This is more fun than I remembered!(most of the time)

[armyrat1970]

Sounds like to much tin to me causing the flashing. The recipe for #2 alloy is 9lbs wws and 1lb 50/50 bar solder. If you are using 7lbs wws and 2lbs 50/50 your adding way to much tin to the alloy, and more lead. And that's why your boolits seem softer also. You're adding much more lead. That makes the boolit softer and adding much more tin, that doesn't have much to do with the hardness of the alloy, but makes the alloy flow much better. I have a Lee 357 mold that I can see a small crack of light through and don't get any flashing through it.

[sniper]

Sounds like to much tin to me causing the flashing. The recipe for #2 alloy is 9lbs wws and 1lb 50/50 bar solder.

Yup: That was a typogoofical error. Mine is as you say.

And the boolits seem harder, now they have aged a bit.

[armyrat1970]

Yup: That was a typogoofical error. Mine is as you say.

And the boolits seem harder, now they have aged a bit.

That will happen. The reverse will happen over time.

[Bret4207]

They'll get harder over a couple of weeks, it take decades for then to soften again. Skim the garbage off, it get's dragged back into the mix when you add sprues and ingots.

[XWrench3]

isn't EVERY casting session a learning session??? they are for me. i have never been bored by it, that is for sure. seriouly, i pick up something new everytime i spark it up.

[armyrat1970]

isn't EVERY casting session a learning session??? they are for me. i have never been bored by it, that is for sure. seriouly, i pick up something new everytime i spark it up.

It is for me. My first cast was for 8mm and it seemed every boolit dropped good enough and nice enough. My second time trying, it seemed I could not get a decent boolit to drop no matter what I did and I thought I did everything the same. It seems to work that way some times but it's all fun. Have since casted for the 45ACP, 357 and 30Carbine and although I have some great sessions, I still get some bad ones. Thinking about the 223 but that's a project I am still not quite ready for yet.

[mpmarty]

AR1970 Ya gotta cast only when the moon is waning. Otherwise the plumb gods just sit back and laugh at you.:kidding:

[armyrat1970]

AR1970 Ya gotta cast only when the moon is waning. Otherwise the plumb gods just sit back and laugh at you.:kidding:

I was wondering what the problem was.[smilie=l: