How Many Times Can Lead Be Remelted???

[jleneave]

I don't know this may be a dumb question but I was thinking about practicing casting some bullets and just remelting them over and over until my Star Lube Sizer arrived. I have read on here that you shouldn't cast bullets unless you were going to size and lube them within a day or two and my Star won't be here for about 3 weeks. So, is there a limit on how many times you can remelt lead before it starts to have negative effects on it or can it be melted and remelted over and over again??? What say you??

One more question, when cleaning up new molds and boiling them in soapy water do the molds need to be disassembled before you put them in the water? Thanks!

Jody

[dmftoy1]

Melting/remelting won't hurt anything . ..you MIGHT lose a bit of the tin content if you're running it hot.

I usually clean my molds while they're mounted on the handles. FWIW

Have a good one,
Dave

[Hip's Ax]

Why would you have to size and lube them within a day or two?

[Leftoverdj]

Sizing and lubing within a day only applies to water quenched bullets. You can wait years to size air cooled. The water quenched harden over time to the point that you may not be able to size them in a few days. The sizing process also reduces the surface hardening of the water quenched which is another good reason to do them promptly. The air cooled also harden over time, but not to the point that sizing becomes as problem.

Go ahead and play. Cull relentlessly, and recast your culls. By the time your stuff gets in, you should have worked through the beginner's bugs and have a large stash of perfect bullets ready for sizing and lubing.

[montana_charlie]

If you remelt your lead so many times it turns into gold...you should probably stop.
CM

[DrJay1st]

That made me chuckle.
Jerry

[Bullshop junior x2]

Me to, thats what I was going to tell him
Tony

[johnho]

I needed that. gold
yeah right
I couldn't get it past silver before it turned to dust and blew away.

[johnho]

Just saw where I had 99 posts.

I had to post this to get to 100.

I feel better now.

[Frank V]

Jody, when I clean a new mould I use alcohol, (denatured not the drinking kind) I just swab them out with a rag soaked in alcohol & they will dry themselves. This will cut the oils they are shipped with. I do treat them with a mould release that I got from NEI, I think it's a teflon solution with an alcohol base as it dries pretty quickly. That's just how I do it. I also think the long break in period we hear of now & then is just not cleaning the mould before you use it. My Wife got me a RCBS 45-270SA mould for Christmas & that's how I cleaned it & as soon as it got up to temperature it threw good bullets. Hope this helps. Frank

[jleneave]

Hip's Ax and LeftoverDJOK, I must have misunderstood. I didn't realize that it only applied to water quenched bullets. Thanks for setting me straight.

Montana Charlie, that is a good one!!! I got a good laugh out of that! But, on a serious note if the prices of lead keep rising it may be worth more than the gold. So I think I will leave it alone.

Frank V Thanks for the tips on cleaning my molds.

Anymore mold cleaning tips out there??

Jody

[Leftoverdj]

Anymore mold cleaning tips out there??

Jody

I keep telling people to boil their moulds in soapy water for half an hour. It works. Others keep telling new casters to use other methods. Some of them work, some don't, some make things worse, some work part of the time. Part of the problem may be that different things get used to protect moulds and some solvents only work on some of them.

Boiling in soapy water works on everything I've ever run into. Feel free to try any other method you want to, but I'm at the point that I'm gonna start screaming, "I TOLD YOU SO!" at all the those who "cleaned" their moulds and still get wrinkled bullets, rounded corners, or poor fill out.

[jleneave]

I keep telling people to boil their moulds in soapy water for half an hour. It works. Others keep telling new casters to use other methods. Some of them work, some don't, some make things worse, some work part of the time. Part of the problem may be that different things get used to protect moulds and some solvents only work on some of them.

Boiling in soapy water works on everything I've ever run into. Feel free to try any other method you want to, but I'm at the point that I'm gonna start screaming, "I TOLD YOU SO!" at all the those who "cleaned" their moulds and still get wrinkled bullets, rounded corners, or poor fill out.

If I boil them in soapy water do I need to take them apart and take any screws out of them?? Thanks

[Three44s]

Yes, take the molds apart and place the parts and pieces in a tea strainer and place strainer in a boiler ........ bring to a boil with a bit of dish washing detergent.

In a kettle .... also boil some water ..... no soap here ...... after the soapy water boil .... use the boiling rinse water to rinse the strainer and it's cargo.

While the mold and it's parts are hot .... quickly dry with Q-tips etc. to avoid rusting and also to remove minerals before they can become dried deposits on the mold.

Three 44s

[cbrick]

Jody, I use denatured alcohol and a tooth brush on new moulds. After I'm positive it’s clean I do it again with clean alcohol. I picked up a used mould that had been stored for years with some sort of grease or oil dried & caked on it. I got the lumps off with break cleaner and then used the alcohol. Another used mould had a fair bit of rust and a bronze tooth brush type of brush and the alcohol had it looking like new. I've got 50+ moulds and none are oily or cast wrinkled because of not being clean.

Aluminum moulds are not coated with anything to prevent rust but cutting oil is used their mfg and so must be well cleaned also. Don't forget the sprue plate, it has oil on it also and if not cleaned when its heated up the oil will migrate into the cavities. Amazing how little oil is needed in a cavity to ruin your whole day.

I've boiled a few aluminum moulds and it does work well. If you do decide to boil them in water then in answer to your question, yes, I would remove all set screws and everything else that comes off. You don't want water trapped inside a screw hole in case the mould isn't heated up right away to dry it completely. An aluminum mould wouldn't rust but an iron one and/or the screws and such could.

Rick

[Hip's Ax]

Sizing and lubing within a day only applies to water quenched bullets. You can wait years to size air cooled. The water quenched harden over time to the point that you may not be able to size them in a few days. The sizing process also reduces the surface hardening of the water quenched which is another good reason to do them promptly. The air cooled also harden over time, but not to the point that sizing becomes as problem.

Go ahead and play. Cull relentlessly, and recast your culls. By the time your stuff gets in, you should have worked through the beginner's bugs and have a large stash of perfect bullets ready for sizing and lubing.

Whew! Thanks! I'm sitting on a couple of thousand 30 cal cast that Bullshop made for me a couple of years ago, as cast and unsized. I was worried there for a minute!

[cbrick]

Hip's Ax,

Its not that they cannot be sized after quenching, its just much easier on both you and your machine to size before they harden. Depending on the alloy and the time since quenching they would be in the range of 18-20 BHN, I've re-sized oven HT boolits of 30 BHN. It can be done, just not much fun.

Rick

[jleneave]

Thank all of you for the assistance. I have 3 new molds that I need to get cleaned up and ready to start casting. Hopefully my lube sizer will be here soon. Thanks again.

This is also my 100th post!!! WoooHooo!!

Jody

[Hip's Ax]

Hip's Ax,

Its not that they cannot be sized after quenching, its just much easier on both you and your machine to size before they harden. Depending on the alloy and the time since quenching they would be in the range of 18-20 BHN, I've re-sized oven HT boolits of 30 BHN. It can be done, just not much fun.

Rick

Thanks cbrick, these are cast from 20:1 and something similar to Lyman #2 alloy so I should be fine.