Still new to casting

[Radioteacher]

I have been lurking here for months. You guys are great! Fun reads and even a book to download on the subject.

I started reloading in 1999 on a Dillon equipment to keep up with my pistol shooting. That's not really true. I helped my Father reload rifle rounds in the early to late 1970's. I came across a box of .270 Win we reloaded a few months ago. Also found three new boxes of 130gr .277 Nosler center partition bullets we used to load in them. I took a picture of the .270 load data so i could make some more later this year.

So last weekend was my second time casting.

Below are some of the results.

.300 AAC Blackout from a Lee TL mold. Here is a good one.



Here are some bad ones. The bottom pour was too slow and the mold was too cold.



Here is the range of frosting I was getting from my Lee .380 ACP mold.




Here is the ugly and the good in .300 Blackout



Thanks for posting and giving me some fine words to read and pictures to see.

Radioteacher
P.S. I used to teach Ham Radio classes.

[a.squibload]

The good ones look good!
Welcome to the forum.

[Woody3]

Keep it up. The more you cast the better you will become and the fewer rejects you will have.

BTW, the "good ones" look good.

Woody

[JeffinNZ]

Keep up the good work and welcome aboard.

[shredder]

Everyone has made boolits that do not measure up to quality control. I do it every time I heat up the mould. Keep up with what you are doing, experience is a great teacher especially if you keep checking in here and reading any hints realted to what you are expereincing. There is sooo much to learn. Welcome.

[Carolina Cast Bullets]

The good thing about the "bad" ones, they can be remelted and "done over"

Jerry
Carolina Cast Bullets

[YunGun]

Lookin good! As mentioned, you're hardly alone in casting rejects; I know I throw a fair number back in the pot, but like Jerry said above, at least you can re-do them... I seem to have a lot more difficulty with the longer rifle boolits than the shorter pistol boolits, but once everything's up to temp & you get a rhythm going, you can wind up with a decent pile of good-lookin bullets in short order! Welcome to the forum!

[Radioteacher]

Thanks for all of the comments. The whole session was a learning experience.

Two weeks ago I took the day off and drove a 420 mile round trip to buy some lead and have a nice lunch with my friend in Houston.

Lead Products of Houston had my order for 6/2 antimonial lead ready to go. I also bought some 99.9+% for my black powder gun. Nice people and I had a fine lunch at Papdeaux's.

So the 6/2 ingots had three 8 to 9 pound sections. I have a ten pound Lee bottom pour pot. How do I get a 9 pound section in a 10 pound pot? I did it the stupid way...chopping at it with a hatchet. If I would have thought about it, I would have cut the sections up with a reciprocating saw.

All of that wasted a bunch of time.

Next issue: The slow pour spout. It was barely pouring...almost a dipping spout. I was able to make a tool out of a stiff steel wire with a filed point on it to clear the spout.

More wasted time.

After all that I was able to get into production. I made about 200 of each boolit when the wife said I had to start getting ready to go out to dinner. I emptied the pot into one pound molds and cleaned up the area. Cleaned me up and went to dinner.

I need a better ventilation system. Even though I was outside in the breeze, I could still taste metallic flavors in my mouth after I was done.

I will be cutting up the sections the next chance I get to be ready for my next run.

Soon I will be ready to hit it again and get more bootlits made. I need to setup a radio so I can get into a rhythm.

I love my .300 blackout and this 230gn boolit looks like it will work really nice. I am going to load up a few and break out the Chrony to test them out in a few weeks.

Thanks again to everyone here.

RT

[Spawn-Inc]

When I first started casting, which isn't that long ago, I was getting frosted bullets galore using lee molds. I have since built a pid temp controller for my pot and have yet to see a frosted bullet! My bullets look way better.

The other thing I did since one casting 600gr bullets for my 500 mag is drill out the orifice for more flow. I reshaped the needle valve but it hasn't made as big of a difference as I wanted from dripping.

[a.squibload]

...Even though I was outside in the breeze, I could still taste metallic flavors in my mouth after I was done.
RT

Stop biting the boolits!

There's plenty of crapola in the smoke but
zero chance of "lead vapors" as
some suggest, unless you boil the lead.

[RED333]

On getting a big hunk of lead in a small pot, lay it over the pot.
Get ya a propane torch and melt the lead into the pot, makes heat up time faster as well.
Good looking boolits, Wear some kind of mask when messing with lead.

[Bullet Caster]

Welcome to the forum and the addiction. The wrinkled boolits are from a cold mould. Need to preheat the mould. And flux. You didn't mention anything about fluxing your silvery stream. I've heard that crud settles to the bottom so ya need to flux and scrape after lead melts. Just my 2 cents worth. BC

[mold maker]

Nothing settles to the bottom of melted lead except gold. The crud on the bottom is only trapped there by surface tension. When you flux, scrape the bottom and sides, of the pot away from the spout, with a putty knife, spatula, or such. Once you get the junk loose and into the melt, it will quickly float. It's much easier to keep crud out of your bottom pour, than to deal with it in dripps and speckled boolits.

[9-toes]

"I have since built a pid temp controller for my pot and have yet to see a frosted bullet! My bullets look way better.

+1 on the PID. They're not hard to build and mine kept the temp on my pot right where I set it. My boolits are much more uniform now and I could focus on casting without fighting the pot.

[justing]

welcome to the forum and enjoy the wealth of knowledge that resides here.

[glicerin]

On a new or oiled mold I scrub with detergent and boiling waterX2. I preheat mold on top of pot, then dip a 6cav(mold&sprue cutter) minimum 1 min, lots fewer wrinkles that way. good luck

[Radioteacher]

Spawn-Inc - I have a two really nice temp controllers (from the late 80's) that I used to use for Ham Radio gear. They are digital process controllers. i was thinking about picking up a K Temp probe that will work in that range and putting it to work. I have a Laser Pointer Temp gun that I can use on the mold.



a.squibload - I will try to stop the knawing.

Red333 - That is a fine idea but I have cut steel with my Makita saw (recipicating- like a Sawzal) so lead should be easy.

Bullet Caster and Mold Maker - I was using Flux but maybe need to use it more often and scrape harder.

glicerin - I have read that and did that. I washed them in Dawn, Scrubbed them with tooth paste and washed them in dawn again. Then I smoked them. I really did not have an issue with bullets sticking to the mold at all.

Better Preheat and a Better flow out of the spout would have helped a lot.

Next weekend I will setup and make another run if I have time.

Thanks again for all of the help!

[Buzz64]

Save up for the Lee Pro 4-20 pot. You can adjust the flow pretty easily. I've got a little over 300lbs through mine since I got it and hardly a drip! Agree with the above comments but also suggest you get a thermometer and don't let the level in the pot get below about a quarter full - keeps the crud away from the spout.

[Coonazz]

Don't waste your time with the sawzall, it doesn't work. I am a contractor/carpenter and that was my first thought and attempt for cutting 25# pure lead ingots. I am currently using a hatchet and a 4# hand maul to cut them into pieces.... If anybody has a better method I'm sure a lot of us on here would like to know!

[David2011]

Don't waste your time with the sawzall, it doesn't work. I am a contractor/carpenter and that was my first thought and attempt for cutting 25# pure lead ingots. I am currently using a hatchet and a 4# hand maul to cut them into pieces.... If anybody has a better method I'm sure a lot of us on here would like to know!

If (a) Coonazz from South Louisiana hasn't found a better way the rest of us might as well give up and follow your lead. Where in SE Louisiana? I spent a few years in Thibodaux. Welcome to CastBoolits!

David