Introduction - JBinMN

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

SNIP...

I actually went out and casted about 200 boolits from a Lee 356-125-RN 6pack mold Tuesday. I cast them & water cooled them in 2-1/2 gal bucket with an old t shirt as a "slow down catch" to keep them from hitting the bottom of the bucket hard & to make them easier to get back up out of the water. I then took a Micrometer to a few & they cast out at .358 one way & as I rotated the bullet I was getting up to .362. I thought it being a .356 mold I wouldn't be getting that size or close to it & the molds look fine, so I am not sure of the cause for the out of round conditions.

JB,
If this is your first time casting with a Lee 6 cav mold, I'm gonna guess you may be "gripping" the Sprue plate handle against the other handles. The Sprue plate handle/lever has a cam, if you apply pressure, so the cam is pushing against the mold, that may open the blocks a tiny bit, and give you oblong boolits about the size you are describing.

Most of the time, a Lee 356 mold will make a boolit .001 or .002 larger...So you .358 size is about correct, but the other dimension shouldn't be .362 If it is, and you are gripping the Lee mold correctly, then I'd consider returning that mold to the vendor, becuase, Ideally, you don't want to size them down more than .002 or .003 at the most...and since you water-dropped them, sizing a .362 oblong boolit down to .358 will be a chore.
Jon

[xs11jack]

Welcome JB, this a really great place to learn from the masters and meet a lot of nice people. This is a great place to spend a quiet evening with the information and a good cup of coffee.
Ole Jack

[MaryB]

Welcome JB I am over in the SW part of the state west of Redwood Falls.

[JBinMN]

Thanks to you all again! Making me feel very welcome & I appreciate it!


I am going to do a bit more casting today & use the other molds, plus check the one I used before like JonB in Glencoe mentioned in his post above. If it turns out to be the mold, I will be sending it back, but I want to check the other first so I can see if I got not only one possible bad one, but maybe another. Save me some postage.

I rec'd the 2 sizers I ordered & the other .356 is still backordered from MidwayUSA, so I will wait another week before I go looking elsewhere for one. But, I am going to use those sizers a few times to see if I can get the boolits down to a better size. Being watercooled & waiting a little while might made it fruitless due to hardening & their shape taking the grooves out, but I will try. Otherwise I may just put them back int the melting pot and start over. I don't mind if I have to. I am not out anything but a lil time. I hope it is not the mold, and was just a technique issue, because I don't like to have to return things. I use molds for the fishing stuff, but they are a bit different , so I have a technique, but it might have to be modified to work with this type. I will run some air cooled to check their shape & then water cool some, before I make a decision.


Thanks once again for the Welcomes!

JB

[blackthorn]

Welcome from BC Canada! Before you throw those bullets back in to melt, you might want to try oven heat treating them and size them shortly after they are quenched. Heating them back up and quenching will make them return to close to the same as water dropping from the mould.

[koehn,jim]

Welcome aboard.

[KCSO]

Howdy from an ex Park Rapids fellow.

[JBinMN]

Thanks again for the Welcomes!


In case some missed it, I have reloaded before, just not casted until now. I am learning fast & reading a lot. I do have a Speer manual#11 from when I used to reload in the 1980's, & have purchased the Lyman #50 recently to catch up on things.I have downloaded & have been reading many references from online including the Lymans Cast Bullet Manual #4. I appreciate folks pointing out references , so I can go look at them if I have not yet done so. So , thanks for that too!


Just today I cast some boollits using the 358 - 158 - SWC mold & so far I have some that are ranging from .358 at the seam to .364 at 90 degrees. Others are much closer. I made sure to check out the mold for issues & how I held it most of the time, but I was interrupted for a little while when casting, by a friend who came into town from 200 miles away ( My friend Clayt, the one I mentioned in my first post who I reloaded with in the 1970s), so I may have inadvertently caused a few bad ones by note being as vigilant in my casting the OOR ones. I will cast again in a couple of days with all 3 molds before I do anything like returning them.

BTW, Clayt runs a Tire shop & auto repair in Ashland, Wisc. and is my supplier of lead WW & occasionally he runs into plain lead. He also guides for fish on Lake Superior & makes his own sinkers & jigs also. But he is very willing to share the lead stuff with me at no charge. It is nice to have a great friend for 40+ years. He hinted that some of the stuff will return to him, in the form of boollits most likely so he doesn't mind parting with his stash of lead. LOL


As far as putting them into the oven as Blackthorn suggested, rather than returning the OOR ones to the pot, I think that once I have tried the lube & sizer on them, I do not want to risk the wrath of the missus by putting them into our oven. Particularly in the Winter with the windows shut. I will remember & save that method for another time if I continue to have issues. Thanks for sharing that option though. It is much appreciated.


I am going to tumble lube most of these bullets with 45/45/10 this afternoon and likely size them tomorrow or Monday to see what happens.Then I will likely put them aside to age a bit while I cast more. And make my decision on what to do about the OOR situation then. I will just reload some of the old stuff I had stored up from long ago to shoot & I have some cartridges that I need to shoot for the brass anyway, as I don't have enough brass currently any how to actually make it worth the while to load anything right now with the cast stuff.

Thanks again for the Welcomes & hope ya'll are having a great weekend!
JB

(P.S. - Is there a place where folks kind of keep a diary of their doings with casting & reloading in this forum somewhere? I have looked a bit , but not yet run across anything. I thought it might be nice to have something like that to share what someones ideas as they advance along, or to share their daily doings when it comes to their casting & reloading. I may have missed it in my searching around, but I thought to ask here while it was on my mind. If I find where it is if it is around here. I will try to return & edit this post. Thanks to any who answer this! )

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

(P.S. - Is there a place where folks kind of keep a diary of their doings with casting & reloading in this forum somewhere? I have looked a bit , but not yet run across anything. I thought it might be nice to have something like that to share what someones ideas as they advance along, or to share their daily doings when it comes to their casting & reloading. I may have missed it in my searching around, but I thought to ask here while it was on my mind. If I find where it is if it is around here. I will try to return & edit this post. Thanks to any who answer this! )

There is this sticky thread, that many use to post about what they are doing today.
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...day&highlight=


But, I would recommend starting your own thread, you'll get more interaction that way.
When I start a project, I will start a thread that documents it, like the link below.
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...eat&highlight=

I chose that link, as someone suggested to you, to use an oven to heat treat. Most of us that do, use a dedicated toaster oven, they can be had at a thrift store for $5 or so, once you use it for lead, it's probably best not to use it for food anymore.

[JBinMN]

Thanks JonB!


We do have a toaster oven around here. Never thought of that. We don't use it often, so I am going to talk to the missus about using it for heat treating.

Thanks for the links. I will certainly check them out.


JB

[bedbugbilly]

Welcome JB! Lot's of great folks here . . . glad you joined all of us!

[lightman]

Well JB, Thanks for your service and Welcome Aboard. We like pictures so consider posting up a few when you cast or smelt. Also feel free to ask questions or share your knowledge. Enjoy the ride!

[JBinMN]

Thanks for the Welcomes once again!


I have been pretty busy reading here & trying to find answers to my questions.
I Usually find them , but there is so much here to go through it can be a daunting task. I have been using google with a "site:" parameter & http://castboolits.gunloads.com, to narrow it down to this site & then add in the search words. Even with that, it can get a bit complicated to try find the answers I a seeking.
I am avoiding posting any topic with any questions, until I work hard at trying to find the answer through searching first.
I can get pretty frustrating, but i just go away for a while & then try again. It has worked so far but I have been tempted to try to ask the questions directly to speed things up.

Anyway, Thanks to you folks for the warm welcomes & eventually I will try to post something worth reading other than these little updates as I go along here.... Maybe a diary of my doings & discoveries as I start doing more than I have already posted here in this topic. Maybe that will help the next person in searching for their answers.


Ya'll take it easy!


JB