Markbo
10-12-2010, 05:30 PM
They weren't pretty. :-? In fact of the dozen or so drops I made, they all went back in the pot. Here is what I did and what happened.
Got a new cast iron dutch oven over a 2 burner coleman stove. Put one side on pretty high and the other burner pretty low. Put 3 ingots in the pot on the high side. When they melted I fluxed with wax and stirred it all up. It looked OK to me, but what do I know?
Around a 1/4 of the bottom edge of pot (maybe 1/5 full at most) away from the burner the lead stayed hard, but everywhere else it was liquid. It was not shiney, but had a matte like skin on top. Stir that over and it was shiney under that. Once during the process it turned gold so I turned the heat down so I figured my temperature had to be about right.
Now when the ingots were almost melted I put the new Mihec brass 4 hole mold over the lower burner to heat up - spre plate to the side with the top end down over the flame. I have no idea how hot to get it or how high a flame, so I just had it on low.
I poured over the pot from a ladle front to back so I could see the next hole... when I tried it back to front or moving away, I couldn't see the next hole and it would often have some run-over in it and thus be plugged up.
Every try but one, the last hole did not fill up al the way, though every time the sprue closed over the opening. There was lead all across the sprue plate and not just over each hole as I just kept it moving to keep it flowing. I poured them as this allowed. After every pour I put the mold back on the heat for a minute or so.
They were all dropped onto a damp towel.If they were only half full or any fraction I just dropped them right back in the pot so I only kept the complete/full sized ones to examine. Of the roughly half of the bullets that were fully formed, the bases mostly looked great! Just like I have seen here.
All solid and smooth with just the little hole nicked off. They all turned out quite shiney. Surprisingly so. None were frosted . A few had rounded edges but most had nice sharp edges, but every single one was very wrinkled.
So please... anywhere along this line... where did I go wrong? I think that everything was fine except that the mold was not hot enough. Am I right?
Got a new cast iron dutch oven over a 2 burner coleman stove. Put one side on pretty high and the other burner pretty low. Put 3 ingots in the pot on the high side. When they melted I fluxed with wax and stirred it all up. It looked OK to me, but what do I know?
Around a 1/4 of the bottom edge of pot (maybe 1/5 full at most) away from the burner the lead stayed hard, but everywhere else it was liquid. It was not shiney, but had a matte like skin on top. Stir that over and it was shiney under that. Once during the process it turned gold so I turned the heat down so I figured my temperature had to be about right.
Now when the ingots were almost melted I put the new Mihec brass 4 hole mold over the lower burner to heat up - spre plate to the side with the top end down over the flame. I have no idea how hot to get it or how high a flame, so I just had it on low.
I poured over the pot from a ladle front to back so I could see the next hole... when I tried it back to front or moving away, I couldn't see the next hole and it would often have some run-over in it and thus be plugged up.
Every try but one, the last hole did not fill up al the way, though every time the sprue closed over the opening. There was lead all across the sprue plate and not just over each hole as I just kept it moving to keep it flowing. I poured them as this allowed. After every pour I put the mold back on the heat for a minute or so.
They were all dropped onto a damp towel.If they were only half full or any fraction I just dropped them right back in the pot so I only kept the complete/full sized ones to examine. Of the roughly half of the bullets that were fully formed, the bases mostly looked great! Just like I have seen here.
All solid and smooth with just the little hole nicked off. They all turned out quite shiney. Surprisingly so. None were frosted . A few had rounded edges but most had nice sharp edges, but every single one was very wrinkled.
So please... anywhere along this line... where did I go wrong? I think that everything was fine except that the mold was not hot enough. Am I right?