Shots fired!

['74 sharps]

Did my first casting on Sunday. Got mold and pot to temp, ladled first Saeco 645 480gr double mold, waited for sprue to change, and gave bullets a little time. Expected real carp my first; however, they were perfect. Shot as cast, and all is well. Mold right on the money @ .459 and 480gr.
Question....finished up and put some 2 cycle oil on the mold for storage. Did notice a few lead flakes on inside mold. Not enough to keep it from sealing, but probably should be removed. How do I do this?
Next question, does the ladle always seem to have a coating of lead? Floated and poured fine Just wondering.
Thanks all for the education on this site.....

[Seth Hawkins]

To remove the lead flakes, use anything that's not metal. You don't want to scratch the mold and create a blemish. A toothbrush, your fingernail, a toothpick, etc. will work.

[canyon-ghost]

I coat my ladle with liquid candle wax when I flux. Usually what you see is a coating of dross, just the silvery trash it attracts. It doesn't hurt anything until it gets inside, then it messes up the flow. Not a big deal.

[6.5 mike]

I keep an old scrape piece of heavy swade on the bench while casting. If I see flakes on the mould faces, I wipe them off while the mould is hot, works for me.

[bigted]

i keep a small brass brush for removing unwanted lead and general gunk that sometimes gets into my mould and causes jimminy with my casting.

i find that my heavy leather gloves wipe off most everything from a hot mould as well.

when i get too much dross on my ladel i just smack it on the now fair pile of such dross and it mostly just falls off onto my bigger and bigger pile of shaken off dross.

keep dippin and good luck on your new habit...thing is about a habit...ya got to work with it till it becomes fairly imbedded in your soul so it would take an act of somebody higher then lives here on this rock to shake it off.

[mustanggt]

Lead flakes are removed with a pencil. I keep a carpenters pencil at my casting bench. Quick and easy removal.