Results of first casting session and some questions

[gwpercle]

The Lyman 450 lube sizer I bought in the early 1970's was the best money I ever spent.
Pan lube was messy, I spilled lube on me ,the floor ,the table, my pants and the dog .
Tumble lube with alox was OK but I don't like the alox all over the boolit and you have to lube them then size them then lube again .....it's a pain .
The lube sizer....one cycle of the handle , the boolit gets sized, lubed with a good lube and a gas check gets seated and crimped. Done , neat & clean , no muss , no fuss!
Buy one ...you will like it. Alox runs out when the velocity gets up.
At the time I bought the 450 I thought it was a lot of money, after doing a few boxes of boolits I was happy to have spent it and I'm still using that same unit today . It has paid for itself a zillion times.

Gary

[CASTER OF LEAD]

I am glad my first session went well, but without all the help of forum members here (and watching a bunch of youtube videos) I would have been in trouble, I suspect.

I did notice that squeezing as hard as I could did not solve the problem. There seemed to be a sweet spot as far as pressure goes. I will go over the mold carefully with my reading glasses on to see if there is anything messing up the mating of the two mold halves.

I took to heart the temp thing and bought a lead thermometer before I even fired up the pot the first time. It definitely helped keep things on track. Easy to see when the lead is getting to cool, not so much on the high side. Between 650 and 700 seemed to be the sweet spot.

I will probably end up buying a lubersizer, but I wanted to get a few casting sessions under my belt first and see where it went before shelling out even more cash than I already have. I will be starting to fool with 35 Rem rounds on the next casting session, but the focus will initially be on lower end velocities since I would like a less punishing load to shoot at paper than full house hunting loads. If LLA does not cut it when I am ready to ramp up velocity then I will probably have to bite the boolit on a sizer.

Just a suggestion here, but look in the lube section of the forum. Ben's Liquid Lube recipe is in there. It is superb stuff. I know the Johnson's one step wax is discontinued ,but I think there revised recipe is in there as well. If not shoot me a PM and I will look it up and get it to you. I use it as a stand alone lube ,as well as a top coat on my lubrisized boolits. Great stuff. Ever consider pan lubing? It works well also. Hope I helped. - CASTER

[brewer12345]

Just a suggestion here, but look in the lube section of the forum. Ben's Liquid Lube recipe is in there. It is superb stuff. I know the Johnson's one step wax is discontinued ,but I think there revised recipe is in there as well. If not shoot me a PM and I will look it up and get it to you. I use it as a stand alone lube ,as well as a top coat on my lubrisized boolits. Great stuff. Ever consider pan lubing? It works well also. Hope I helped. - CASTER

Oddly enough, after I srted through my recently cast boolits last night (with surprisingly few rejects, must have caught them as I was actively casting), I realized I had over 600 and the slow boat with just LLA would be painful. So I did a bunch of reading in the lube sub board and just last night ordered the floor wax that is necessary to make BLL version 2.

[CASTER OF LEAD]

Oddly enough, after I srted through my recently cast boolits last night (with surprisingly few rejects, must have caught them as I was actively casting), I realized I had over 600 and the slow boat with just LLA would be painful. So I did a bunch of reading in the lube sub board and just last night ordered the floor wax that is necessary to make BLL version 2.

You won't be sorry . It is an excellent lube. Btw welcome to the forum and the addiction we all love so much. Remember be safe and enjoy the ride. Hope I helped ya and will anyway I can. - CASTER

[brewer12345]

Everyone here has been extremely helpful and I am very grateful. Heating up a bunch of metal to 700 degrees so I can reshape it and fire it at 1000 FPS is an intimidating prospect. All the advice and suggestions have made a huge difference.

[tazman]

Eventually the new will wear off and you will become an old, grizzled, and scarred caster just like the rest of us. It is fun though even though not new any more.

[brewer12345]

Eventually the new will wear off and you will become an old, grizzled, and scarred caster just like the rest of us. It is fun though even though not new any more.

Heh, I bought enough safety gear (welding gloves, face shield, leather apron, etc.) that I am hoping to avoid the scarred part.