I cast my first boolit this weekend

[7x57Hunter]

Hello,

I finally got around to casting my first bullets using an old SAECO furnace and a Lachmiller 3 cavity 358 150 SWC mold. These dropped out at 155-156 grains and .360" Sometimes they would fall out of the cavities and other times they require a tap to drop...what is the trick to getting them to fall out without tapping? Also...how long should they "cool" before cutting the sprue? I was letting the sprue just "frost over" a few seconds. Here are a couple, I am happy with the results.

[Ben]

Most likely, you've got some tiny ( may be invisible to your eyes as you look for them ) machine burrs in the mould cavity.

Search " Lee - Menting ", there lies your answer to getting the bullets to fall from the mould every time.

Ben

[RedlegEd]

Hello,

I finally got around to casting my first bullets using an old SAECO furnace and a Lachmiller 3 cavity 358 150 SWC mold. These dropped out at 155-156 grains and .360" Sometimes they would fall out of the cavities and other times they require a tap to drop...what is the trick to getting them to fall out without tapping? Also...how long should they "cool" before cutting the sprue? I was letting the sprue just "frost over" a few seconds. Here are a couple, I am happy with the results.

Congratulations and welcome to the obsession! I know I don't have many posts, but I've been casting and reloading a long time. Those are some nice looking boolits, so you're obviously doing something right. To answer your questions, to help the drop (assuming there are no burrs or other metal problems - see Ben's comment ^^,) you can condition your dies (smoke them, burnish using an oak dowel, or use a little dry graphite.) As for cutting the sprue, you're doing what I usually do, wait until it frosts over. As the mould heats up, it'll take a little longer, so don't be in too much of a hurry. Finally, I know you didn't ask, but let me caution you to always wear some kind of eye protection when you cast. All it takes is one little spatter of molten lead in your eye to really mess you up. In any event, good job. Ed

[7x57Hunter]

Thanks for the replies, I will definitely look for burrs. I did not smoke the cavities so I will try that next time. I wear glasses so my eyes are somewhat protected. I had the sprue tear-out the base on a few...not sure if i cut it too early, too late or because the sprue plate loosened up on me a couple times.

Jon

[7x57Hunter]

PS. I cast 65 that look like that...which was only about 1/3...2/3 of them went back in the pot

[LenH]

Well you are hooked now, and welcome to the madness. Those look good and it sounds as if you have a handle on things.

If you have to tap to get the bullets to release, tap the bolt on the mold handles. I have some old H & G molds in 6 & 8 cavity. Most of the time they fall right out
other times the need a bit of a nudge on the handle bolt.

[bbogue1]

Great job. Your reject % is good, I find that if I wait too long I get the "tear out" on the base. According to Fryxell (author of ""Ingots to Target") As the antimony cools it forms crystaline ladders. It is those crystals you are tearing apart. I have also found if you cut the sprew too soon you can get lead smearing because the lead was not cooled enough yet. Knowing when to cut the sprew is a fine line learned from experience.

I am pretty sure your first 1/3 rejects occurred as you were mentally warming up to the motions and timing of good casting. As you and your equipment ""warm up"" to the task at hand just expect those to go directly into the pot.

[7x57Hunter]

Does anyone have experience with this bullet in a 357?

[dannyd]

Does anyone have experience with this bullet in a 357?

Its the main bullet used in 38 special and 357 magnum. Elmer Keith design. I have casted probably over 50,000.

[Cherokee]

Welcome...looks like you have a good start. You'll get better as you cast more. I wait until the sprue frosts over, then cut.

[D Crockett]

smoke your mold and get some spew plate lube that will help stop the tearing on the base of the bullet other than that the bullet look great. D Crockett

[lwknight]

That or similar bullets are the cat's meow in .357 revolvers. It is probably the most common and popular bullet for the 38/.357s
The spru plate being colder than the mold will cause tear outs. I plan the first few to be rejected anyway. I know guys can pre heat the molds but in my experience , that leads to more tear outs. On a multi cavity mold and especially a Lee 6 banger, cast and cut one cavity at a time till the plate cuts easily. Also purposely overfilling helps heat up the plate quickly.
I made a mistake of filling all 6 holes at once on a cold mold and ended up breaking the fulcrum lever trying to cut spru.

[D Crockett]

one more question how are you going to lube the bullets ??? the reason I ask is I have a lot of lube that I might never use because I going to try my luck at powder coating give me a pm if I can help you in that department D Crockett

[dimaprok]

I know guys can pre heat the molds but in my experience , that leads to more tear outs. On a multi cavity mold and especially a Lee 6 banger, cast and cut one cavity at a time till the plate cuts easily. Also purposely overfilling helps heat up the plate quickly.
I made a mistake of filling all 6 holes at once on a cold mold and ended up breaking the fulcrum lever trying to cut spru.

So you broke the lever trying to open sprue blade and you still haven't learned a thing that mold needs to be pre-heated? Preheating does not cause any tear out, but what it does helps you to start casting pretty much right away without dumping 1/3 of the pot to get mold up to right temperature.

Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk

[lwknight]

You missed the whole point. Heating the mold and not the spru plate will cause the spru to harden before what is in the mold and if you try to cut it too quickly you will find a little void. All you have to do is cast a few rounds to get everything up to temperature and it is all good to go.
When you just sit a mold on the hot plate to stay warn the spru plate still cools. It is quick and easy to keep the spru plate hot. Just keep casting at cadence and all is well no hot plate required.

And no, Grasshopper you do not have to preheat molds. It does help get things going faster but certainly is not a requirement.

As for the snarky smart a** part of your comment, I was simply warning not to fill all 6 cavities on a cold mold at once. Yes it happened about 35 years ago and I think I learned a lot since then thank you very much. Maybe someday you will learn a little tact if you are capable of such.

[DW475]

Welcome, looks like your off to a great start!

[Rcmaveric]

My experience is that the mold and sprue are hot enough when you fill the mold and the sprue stays liquid for a moment and surface tension makes a dallop that fills the sprue hole. Its cool unough3-5 seconds after you see a niddle pin indent in that dallop of sprue. Now comes the tricky part if its not cool enough it can tear the base caused by pulling out partially crystallize lead. Casting with two molds is best while that sprue cools your cutting the other sprue, dumping the bulles, and refill then set aside and pick up the cooled mold. For sing mold operation its about feeling that thunk when the spure is cut and waiting that time needed. I have used a fan, takes a while, use a wet sponge and going slow. Fill up the mold, set it infront of a fan till i see the divet in the middle and it turns grey. Then tap bottom and sprue to a damp mold then wait a second longer and the cut the sprue. You just need to develop the feel for what a cut sprue feels like. I like to feel the crisp pop, thunk or what ever you want to call it.

I only have 2 out of 7 mold that bullets just fall out of. My research tends to indicate that the design of the driving bands makes the bullets grip like that. The molds that that the bullets fall out of have rounded bands. So if you want them to fall you need a bullet with rounded or beveled bands. Most bullet designs favor the squared bands for possible accuracy reasons and ease of manufacturing, but they grip due to shrinkage while cooling. When i cast i have Philips in my hand that has a soft handle that acts as a lever for the sprue plate and pick for the sprues. The it just takes a few gentle taps from the soft handle to make the bullets fall out. I can beat that mold bolt with a rawhide mallet on the handle hinge bolts and those bullets laugh while clinging for dear life, but a gentle tap or 2 on the side of the block is like magic. Its sage advise to NOT hit your hot molds with anything, but these Lee molds have handled gentle taps with a soft plactic for a few years and still work great and better each time as i learn new tricks. Now iron blocks i would be gentle with. Iron can and does fail while being tapped while hot. You can also smoke the molds or spend hours polishing and deburing that may or may not work. Smoking the molds is definitely a great band aid fix but gets tedious and causes a sooty buikd up that can clog vents if you don't pay attention.

Welcome to the forum. Get casting, practice makes perfect.

[Wayne Smith]

You will discover that every mold is different and each has a 'sweet spot' in temp or pour style that results in dropping boolits like rain. Vary from that sweet spot and you have to tap the handle joint. Learning your mold - or molds, is the process that you are learning. There is no magic, just the limitations of that mold. Some molds have a very wide sweet spot, some have a very narrow sweet spot, and I have one that I haven't discovered it in one cavity!

[7x57Hunter]

Thanks for the great advice! I used a rawhide mallet to strike the sprue plate and to tap the handle bolt...just a light tap would drop them. I weighed the bullets on a digital scale last night and probably 80% were 156.0 to 156.3 grains with around 15% that were lighter (155.3-155.6) and 5% heavier 156.3-156.5 grains. The largest deviation was 1.2 grains. I assume this is pretty good? I checked some jacketed bullets I had that varied more than that. I’m just waiting for my sizer die to come in so I can get some of these loaded.

Jon

[7x57Hunter]

Makes a good looking cartridge