First run and not to bad

[TaylorS]

We ran our first run of lead through today casted around 150-200 and got 52 keepers so I’m pleased as punch! Took a while for the molds to heat up and fill out but once they did they came out beautiful.


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[odfairfaxsub]

I feel that way a lot w brand new molds too. I’ve been cleaning them w dial and a brush, brake clean, carb clean they always need good heat cycles to get better. I think heat cycles helps them work more off the bat

[NoZombies]

A couple of suggestions for the future if you don't mind:

A cheap hot-plate to pre-heat the molds on is something that is recommended a lot, and once you experience the difference it makes, you'll understand why. When cleaning molds prior to use, I like hot water, dawn dish-soap and a soft bristle toothbrush, but I do the cleaning immediately before casting, I clean the mold then it goes on the hot-plate to pre-heat. Don't use carb cleaner, as it leaves an oily residue that will give you wrinkled bullets until it burns out.

[TaylorS]

I layed em on top of the pot for a few minutes before we started casting we just didn’t leave em long enough first hundred or so we water dropped and the last 50-75 we air cooled and they dropped out pretty clean for the most part unless I missed the hole in the sprue plate and the lead cooled before it hit bottom imma try to get back out there and melt my trash and sprues this evening. will a regular kitchen spoon get the **** off the top of the pot? I bought 2 big kitchen spoons and the pot is tooooo small for em to skim well.


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[Grmps]

Good job for the first go around.

If you are using a bottom pour pot, skimming isn't that critical. A regular large "eating" spoon or soup spoon (the curved kind) works for skimming. I flux with pine sawdust and leave the dross (looks like grey granules) on top , it acts as a sheild to prevent oxidation and helps prevent splashing when returning the sprues to the pot.

If you use a hot plate, put a piece of metal on top to help distribute the heat more evenly, many guys use saw blades, I found a piece of 1/4 in plate at the scrap yard.

On a 2 cavity mold, you can dip the end in the lead until the lead doesn't stick to the mold

sometimes smoking the mold with a butane lighter of wood match helps.

A pid temperature controller (you can easily DIY for <$50) (search forums) helps a lot by giving consistent control over the temperature

the 3rd boolit is caused by "missing the hole", lead overflowing into the next hole or not getting a consistent flow into the hole

[lightman]

It looks like you had a good day! Your bullets look good.

[Oily]

Tell us what you rejects looked like and we can help you along. Sounds like you need to preheat your mold on hot plate as others have said. Also what mold are you using 2 cavity, 4 cavity, 6 cavity. And what material aluminum, steel, brass on the mold. And what is your lead temperature ? Give us some feedback and you will be getting keepers after first or second throw. And have fun

[TaylorS]

I’ll take some reject pictures when I go back out there a lot of them were from what I figure were cold mold and slow pouring we took some time and dropped em dry but I plugged the pour spout on the pot today so had to ladle out most of the lead and clean everythingXD after we cleaned the pot and pour spout we only dropped 50 or so cold ones before they got good. The mold is the 356125 Lee 2 cavity running 2 of them with 1 guy pouring and one knocking sprues and dropping boolits.


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Last one is the keepers from today’s batch

[jdfoxinc]

Some of those are from the machining oil out gassing causing wrinkles, most are mold too cold.

[TaylorS]

Maybe the Ed’s red I cleaned the molds with? Some of the ones that were to short I think my sprue plate was way to cold and the allow had swung back to just molten so I covered the hole before getting much if any in the cavity. I need to find some good rubbing alcohol to get that atf from the Ed’s red out


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[TaylorS]

Which ones are which error?


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[Pardini]

I use a tablespoon to skim my casting pot. I drilled it full of 3/16" holes so the lead Will pass through it. Flux the pot before you skim it. Most of the oxides will reduce back in to the melt.

I have a 40 pound pot. My proceedure is probably different than the majority. I cast till it's almost empty. Then scrape down the sides of the pot and flux, skim off the dross then add the sprues back and add enough ingots to refill the pot. I run two four cavity moulds and it empties the pot in about an hour casting 40's and 45's. It goes longer with 9's and smaller. An hour and a half is as long as I care to sit in front of the pot.

While the pot is coming back up to temperature I inspect the bullets I just cast. I preheat the moulds on a crepe maker to about 400 degrees. My rejection rate is probably 2 or 3 percent. I look at the top of the mould after I cut the sprues. If the base isn't filled out or I see holes in the bullets, I sort those out as the bullets drop out of the mould. Most of the time I can tell while filling the mould if one of the cavities didn't fill out.

Once the pot is back up to temp I flux and skim then cast for another hour or so.

Your rejection rate will drop greatly if you preheat the moulds longer/hotter.

[Oily]

Spray brake cleaner will get almost all oil out. The boolits with the wrinkles are most likely from the oil residue. The ones with a flat spot on the side or nose is also from oil residue. Then the ones that look like they are layered or have voids are most likely mold not up to temp and or lead is not hot enough.Clean that mold really good with brake cleaner then Dawn dish soap and water with a toothbrush. Then when you are heating your pot up lay the mold on top of your pot to get hot. Turn your pot up a a number or 2 from what you used last casting session. Dip the corner of your mold into your molten lead for about 1 minute and then start casting. You should get good boolits after first or second cast. Make sure you are getting a fast stream of lead going into your mold and leave a big sprue puddle on the sprue plate for a while to get it hot. Cast away till you start getting frosted looking boolits then you can back off the temp to your preference.

[NoZombies]

Bullets cast from molds with a little residual oil look a lot like bullets from a cold mold, and visa-versa.

[TaylorS]

Thanks to advice from several here was round 3 today and I think I won



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