Casting problems

[Deadeye]

I tried to cast some bullet today using a Lee 4" production pot, Lee .452dia. 255gr. mold and some WW lead with some 50/50 solder added. I keep having problems with wrinkles in the bullets. The wrinkles seem to be worse on the top 1/2 of the bullets. I preped the mold just like the instructions said tried raising & lowering the temp all to no avail. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks Deadeye

P.S. I tried to post a quick reply to my last thread & it kept telling me I did not have permission. Whats up with that?

[kywoodwrkr]

Deadeye,
Make sure your mould is hot enough.
Wrinkles could be from a cold mould I believe.
I am having trouble gettin a WTS entry in the swappin section.
Me thinks the new system may not be ready for prime time.
Good luck.
DaveP kywoodwrkr

[Bigjohn]

I have had the same issues with some of my LEE molds and the solutions were as suggested by this forum and friends;

Smoke the cavity, 'play' the flame of a match over the cavities to lay down a layer of carbon. Alternatively use a butane lighter.

Pre-warm the mold, place it on the top of the pot as you get ready to cast, open slightly ot expose cavities.

Increase the temperature of the metal/pot, 850 F (use a lead thermometer).

Increase the rate of pouring/casting, then settle into a cadence determined by the rate at which the sprue sets off.

Be careful with the application of lube to the mold as mentioned in the instructions. Too much will migrate into the cavities and give you wrinkled boolits.

Some or all of the above suggestions may or may not work for you, try them and settle into what works for you. I can not advise you from this distance the exact solution to you problem.

These are what it took to correct my problems and you may need to start the mold cleaning cycle again. But this time try rinsing with Metholated Spirits.



John.

[robertbank]

You should normally see the wrinkles disappear after dropping a few bullets. Once the mold is hot should work. If it doesn't then let the mold cool and degrease again. I just use dishwasher soap on my molds with an old toothbrush to scrub with. Dry thoroughly and start again.

Take Care

Bob

[KYCaster]

Sounds to me like it needs to be cleaned. I use MEK(PVC pipe primer). Brake cleaner works, but some of them will not evaporate completely and leave a residue.....not good. Some guys report good results with boiling water and dish soap.

Jerry

[Cloudpeak]

I clean my Lee 6 cavity molds with acetone on a Q-tip and then smoke them with a wooden match (don't use a candle). I bought a cheap electric, one burner stove at WalMart for around $10.00 and set my mold on it to warm it up. I then pour the first bullets, cutting the sprue immediatly but letting the bullets stay in the mold for a bit to help warm it up. I dump the bullets on a towel and keep doing this until the bullets come out OK.

Cloudpeak

[Deadeye]

Wow, thanks for the fast replies guys. I just got back from wally-world where I purchased a hot plate to preheat my molds. I've been using bullet lube to lube the mold. I've heard that silicone lube also works, I think I,ll try that on a Q-tip to see if I can get better control of the lube. I've been Smoking the molds but am not sure how much to blacken the cavity. I've been cleaning my mold with carb cleaner but may switch to acetone to see if that works better. I plan to add some 95%tin/5%antimony rosin core to my WW lead. I read someplace that a 18" piece of .025dia. solder will raise the tin content of 1lb. of lead by 5%, but the roll I got is .115dia. I don't have any way to calculate this other than the T.L.A.R. (that looks about right) method. I'm not looking for any specific hardness, so I,m hoping that will work ok. Will the rosin core also help to flux the mixture? Sorry if I sound long winded, but I really love this stuff & want to get it right.
Thanks Deadeye

[garandsrus]

Deadeye,

I have never heard/read about using silicone for lubeing a mold. I wouldn't think it would hold up to the heat and may make quite a mess...

As for adding tin, you can figure out the ratio by weight. 1 lb of tin with 19 lbs of lead = 5% tin. You probably want about 2% tin so you would use 19.6 lb lead and .4 lbs of tin. The 5% antimony in the solder will give you around 0.1% antimony so you can pretty much just ignore it. It may be enough antimony to allow you to heat treat the boolits though.

Have fun...

John

[MtJerry]

DON'T USE ROSIN CORE SOLDER!!!!!!

Solder is fine, just NOT rosin core. You won't like the result.

[Deadeye]

Thanks for the warning MTJerry, But that leaves me with no source of solder. I'm also looking for some NEI mold prep. Can't find neither one in Miday catalog.
Thanks Deadeye

[Bigjohn]

Deadeye;

Your later posts gave me some further information.

Avoid Candle "WAX" which is normally paraffin anywhere near the mold, if you get it in the cavity you will have a job and a half getting it out.

Lube the mold with BEESWAX, Lithium wheel bearing grease or Water pump grease as suggested in LEE information sheets and use it SPARINGLY.
If you bought a pound of the stuff and only used it for lubing your molds, your heirs should still be using it long after you.

It may pay you to re-clean the cavities before you try again; I use 'Shellite' to wash my molds and rinse in Metholated Spirits then air dry.
I smoke the cavities until I can see a light layer on the entire cavity surfaces. I don't concern myself with any which may stray outside the cavity. DO NOT use a candle as most are made from paraffin as previously mentioned.

Try starting your casting session with a fast stint (cut and dump as fast as the sprue sets), until the mold is hot enough to start dropping good looking boolits then slow down and watch the colour of the sprue. When it changes to a frosted appearence it is time to cut and dump; close and refill.

Don't be too worried about asking questions here, most of us have been where you are now and advanced our skills by asking questions.



John

[BruceB]

With all the stuff I've read here over the years about trouble getting moulds to casting right, I will be JIGGERED if I know why I have so little difficulty.

I have never "Lee-mented" a Lee mould, nor do I lubricate Lee moulds beyond whatever lube they might get from the graphite spray I use occasionally on some moulds. I have about twenty-plus Lees here, and ALL make decent bullets, and they ALL do it without much difficulty. I hasten to admit that mostly I buy Lees for guns which receive fairly light-duty use with cast loads, but some of them do get used a lot. My old .338 single-banger Lee is a good example, and it's been making good boolits (and lots of them) for at least fifteen years. It's still in perfect working order, as far as I can tell. Same applies for my 30-180, which has surely cast several thousand boolits.

All I do is spray a new mould with carburetor cleaner or brake degreaser (while wearing a FACE SHIELD, not just glasses, for damned good reason as I found out) Then, I scrub it with an old toothbrush, and then re-spray it.

When I'm ready to cast, my furnace is brought to its max 870-degrees, and I place the mould RIGHT ON THE MOLTEN METAL for at least thirty seconds or so. If I see smoke from the mould, I view it as a good sign. Iron moulds sit there longer, as they're slower to heat-up. The mould gets hot, fer danged sure. Starting casting, the solidified sprue is immediately placed against my trademark wet cloth roll in a shallow dish of water. It may take a considerable while for the sprue to harden enough to safely invert the mould, after the mould has been heated in the melt, but don't worry as the temp will come down quite quickly.

Some of my Lees prefer to have a light spray of the powdered graphite, some like a touch of smoke from a butane lighter (use one of those long-necked barbecue lighters...MUCH easier on the fingers!) and some work great naked. If at first the boolit isn't filling-out perfectly, I'll cast a few with the mould in hard contact with the furnace spout, and the pressure tends to force the alloy into all the corners that might not otherwise get perfect fill. This usually stops the rounded edges etc.
Once good filling-out is achieved, I cast with about an inch of drop between the spout and the mould.

Using this routine, I once did a timed 30-minute run in which I cast 159 good boolits from a SINGLE-cavity Lee .30-caliber mould. It doesn't have to be slow....

For the money, the Lees are a great value. I like mine just fine, and they really haven't presented me with any great problems over many years of use.

[Phil]

I have several Lee pistol molds and long ago discovered that if before I ever use them I boil them in a big pan full of water with some dishwashing detergent, then rinse in boiling water, I never have to worry about doing anything else to the cavities. Within a couple of cycles they cast perfect bullets and will continue to do so as long as I want to cast. Matter of fact, I do the same thing to iron molds too.

Cheers,

Phil

[Deadeye]

Thanks for all the info guys. It may be a little while before I get to try to cast again due to the holidays, but will let you know how they turn out.
Thanks again Deadeye

[klausg]

Deadeye-
Just another comment from the peanut gallery. Lot's of good info above, read & heed. I tend to agree w/ KYCaster, it sounds like the mould needs some cleaning. I get very good boolits from my Lee moulds, though I tend to have to run things a bit hotter than my iron moulds, especially on my six-bangers. I have recently determined that I need to put them away for the winter. As I cast outside on the tailgate of the pickup, I determined that Alaska winters are too cold to let me get that 6-banger hot enough to cast, at least without more piddling around than I am willing to do. Take care

-Klaus

[mfenton]

Could be the mold is too cool, try heating the mold. open it a little and place over the top of the pot and let warm up for a few minutes. Or maybe the WW lead has some alloy.

[mfenton]

I have a problem, As I melted down a 5 gal bucket of wheel weights a couple of batches were contaminated with a almost virus type phenomenon. A gold sludge formed on the top which then turned purple. When dragged the sludge off bright silver appeared as though I was down to good metal. However within seconds the sludge appeared again. After repeated efforts and varying the temp the metal was contaminated to the end.
I melt initial metal in a cast iron pot and make clean ingots. I have melted some of these ingots in my Lee pot, which had had some contaminate in the past but I emptied the pot sanded the sides and generally cleaned up, but when I melted the good ingots the residue left in the pot seemed to contaminate the entire good ingots, like a virus.
Has anyone ever experienced anything like this?

[Silfield]

Just like the original poster, I was having a hell of a job getting decent bullets out of a new mould! I have only been casting for a relatively short while for my Martini Henry and Enfield Volunteer but recently brought a new mold for my 8mm Kropatschek and was hoping for great boolits to fall from the mold on my first attempt....boy was I in for a shock! Wrinkles and bad fill-out mainly, so back to basics for me.
Cleaned the mold again, changed my casting technique, added a bit of tin to the mix, preheated the mold some more, smoked the cavities with a bic lighter and it all came together.

Picture is a bit out of focus in places but I think you can get the idea.

[Tar Heel]

Post 3 says it all. Sometimes a new aluminum mold can be a bit prissy.

[Smoke4320]

good news is in about 4 to 5 casting sessions most mold seem to settle in and really begin to pour nice bullets quickly