Share Your Tip Of The Day

[Tom W.]

Don't eat yellow snow.

[3GRacing]

Tip-
3/2/19-
1/2 lbs of Marvelux on sale at Brownells

[RedlegEd]

Hi all. My tip of the day is to get some Stainless Steel pet watering bowls at W-marts. The small ones are under $3.00 and the larger ones under $4.00 if I remember right. They are impervious to solvents and chemicals, heat, water, and they're unbreakable. I can't count the number of times I've used them for different things from sorting/moving brass, collecting used primers, shaking off powder coating (they easily wipe clean,) to who knows what. Just thought I'd throw it out here. Ed

Attachment 239669

[Slugster]

While cruising the thrift shops for pewter, I keep an eye on the kitchen appliance section as I have found many muffin pans (ingot molds) pie and cake pans (cookie cutter lube pans) and various electrical gizmos that come in handy in the reloading room. All at dirt cheap prices.

[dbosman]

What a great idea. My rendering pot is a rectangular SS steam table container. Stirring it is occasionally an issue if the paint stir stick, catches on something at the bottom or I pull the stick too fast.
Thanks.

I found that a potato masher does a quick job of thoroughly fluxing my casting pot and a Stainless Steel Mesh Strainer https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N9HNX6O...LI96NDYI&psc=1
Does a quick job of thoroughly fluxing my smelting pot and I can skim most of the crud with it too.

[Mad Mucus]

have a go mate!

[parkerhale1200]

not a bad idea to have your lead levels check one in a while

Just to discover that you was a young fool, with no brain and that lead is not leaving your body, not even after 40 years.....just saying.
Still casting and kicking after 40 years....BUT my two cents:
Proper ventilation (i have 360m3 an hour air displacement to the outside right on top of my pot)
Put on some cotton gloves to avoid any contact with fresh lead, burns will heal, your white blood cells don't.(to make a point, sorry)
When seating, lubing or testing for hardness, use those dentists blue gloves to avoid further contact.
Dont smoke drink or eat while handling lead.
Wash your hands just in case, take a shower after a casting session...
Ten years ago i had 1.9 now i have 2.0, still casting strong.

Take this warning, there is no way back

[gpidaho]

Dielectric grease makes a great top of mould- bottom of sprue plate lube. two cycle oil on the pins. Gp

[GONRA]

GONRA (younger Son too) always cast boolits in the back yard - no Lead Problems in Fresh Air!

Tip: When loading small powder charges - put a nail in each charged case so you will be reminded NOT to "double charge".
CANNOT reliably eyeball small powder charges waaaay down in some some of these looong cartridge cases!
(Using a progressive press? GREAT - but NOT FOR THESE SMALL POWDER CHARGES!)

[44Blam]

Use powders that fill a large percentage of the case -- that way you cannot get a double charge.

[Conditor22]

For pouring gunpowder back in the bottle, Cut the top off a 2-liter pop bottle, this makes the perfect sized funnel.

[Conditor22]

A quick method for using the hammer type boolit puller.
1) drop a nickel in the cap
2) shove some paper towel in the cap to hold the nickel
3) put the cartridge in the appropriate shell holder
4) place cartridge/shell holder in/on back of hammer type boolit puller
5) screw on the cap (with the nickel and paper you should only get 1 full twist and it's tight )

[ACC]

OK, here is my tip.

I have some Lee molds that I have had for 50 years and they still cast beautiful bullets every time I use them.

Would you like your Lee 2 cavity molds to last a long time? Well here is my tip.

Don't cast too fast. If you cast too fast, when you knock the sprue plate there will be a divot in the base of the bullet and there will be a lead streak on the bottom of the sprue plate or the top of the mold blocks or both.

What I do is use two sets of molds. They may be the same or not, just depending on how I am feeling that day.

Also lube the molds. I use 2 cycle synthetic. And have for as long as I can remember. You can ruin a Lee mold fast if you don't. Even a six cavity mold will be ruined in a short time if you don't lube it right.

I was just looking and Lee doesn't even make the mold I use for my .357. It was and is the 166 grain SWC. I shoot those when I'm shooting my .357 mags. And the 140 SWC for my .38 Specials.

Also I use a hot plate to keep them up to temp.

My next experiment is to try powder coating these bullets.

I keep my .357 bullets at about 1100 FPS with H110 and my .38 Specials at about 900 with HS-6.

Hope this helps somebody out there.

ACC

[ACC]

Oh BTW I have never smoked a mold.


To hard to light!

ACC

[Fly]

Fluxing! I have done fluxing to my lead pot with wax, for years. Then I went to using saw dust as was what the ole timers
and have every since. I think it gets all the impurities out much better. I started casting today & noticed I did not have an
saw dust. I looked around & had a bag of ground up corn husk from my brass cleaner. Threw a little in the pot & it works
better than the saw dust. It is very fine, smokes like a Muzzle Loader but you mix it in to the bottom & when it floats to the
top of the melt, it pulls all the junk with it.

Remember ( Stick with me & you will be wearing jewels) Wink Fly

[Conditor22]

You can use a transparent hot melt glue stick to see the bore of your gun.
stick the glue stick in the chamber and have a light source nearby it will illuminate the bore.

[Conditor22]

Fluxing! I have done fluxing to my lead pot with wax, for years. Then I went to using saw dust as was what the ole timers
and have every since. I think it gets all the impurities out much better. I started casting today & noticed I did not have an
saw dust. I looked around & had a bag of ground up corn husk from my brass cleaner. Threw a little in the pot & it works
better than the saw dust. It is very fine, smokes like a Muzzle Loader but you mix it in to the bottom & when it floats to the
top of the melt, it pulls all the junk with it.

Remember ( Stick with me & you will be wearing jewels) Wink Fly

I use sawdust and then dip a candle in (and mix) just before casting. It does better than just sawdust

[Don L]

When it comes to reloading and/or cast boolits, is there a tip of the day you would like to share ?

I have a tip to share that might suit those who like to tinker and have a little spare time on their hands. Over the past few years I've been making little exploded-view cartridge dioramas set onto old shooting trophy plaques. They make for interesting (and even educational) displays. The last one I built, I decided to make a comprehensive video tutorial, showing how I do it. You're welcome to take a view at the link below and subscribe to my channel if you'd like to see more, as that helps keep more of the same coming.

https://youtu.be/7oZP0xaIBEk

[kevin c]

Cake icing spatulas with flexible spring steel blades make great scrapers for casting and processing pots. Sometimes found at GW or thrifts for a dollar or two, but even new from a place like wallyworld the small ones aren't too dear.

The long edges and rounded tip can be used to scrape around and down the straight cylindrical sides of a full pot of alloy. Ground flat, the tip of another spatula can do the bottom, with the corners of the flat good to get into the right angled seam between wall and bottom.

If you can, get the dog leg/offset blade versions.

[deboog93]

glad I am not alone