Size verses temp?

[paul45120]

Am I correct in thinking the cooler your melt the larger the diameter of your boolit?
My Lee 228 TL 45 mold is casting about .0005 smaller than I'd like. I think this is due to having to cast at 800 to 850 drg to get good fill out. I'd like to add a little tin and see if they will fill out at 700 deg.

[helg]

My thinking the diameter depends in diameter of the mold at solidifying temperature and shrinking/expanding properties of the casting alloy from solidifying to room temperature. I do not see why temperature in the pot may affect the diameter.

You can open the mold by .0005" easily though.

[lwknight]

If you need 850 degrees to get a good mold fill , you need to add 2% tin
Obsurdly excessive heat will make smaller casts and overheat molds faster.
Excessively hot molds cast smaller and have poor band fillout
Alloy mix effects cast size more than heat.
I can get very good casts @ 650 degrees with only 2% tin and 3 to 6 % antimony.
More antimony makes bigger boolits because it stops shrinkage as it chrystalizes in the lead mix.

[runfiverun]

warm mold, cool melt, life good.