Please Help! Homemade lead shot dripper...

[Kev18]

I rigged up this abomination trying to make it work all day. I dont know what im doing wrong. Im using the lee lead furnace with a homemade ramp and a water container to catch the shot. I also made my own dripper from a bolt I drilled. The shot comes out a decent size. its mostly round which is good enough for me! My only issue is that I dont know how to get rid of the tails... they all look like tear drops! WHY!? Iv'e been trying all day.
I heat up the ramp, change my container to catch them to a cylinder... nothing worked.

Do I needd a longer ramp? Less heat? Im going mental trying to figure this out.

At first the lead would popcorn up since it was to hot. So I fixed that. Now its only the **** tear drops! How do I get rid of them and get spheres?!

[megasupermagnum]

I hate to say it, but you are going to have to go back to the drawing board. Look at a shot maker, and take note of the lip, which is probably the most important aspect of making good shot. On my Littleton, instructions say to clean perfect, buff lightly, and coat with welder chalk. That's besides that it needs to be the right temp, right angle, right height, right length, etc. A cut off chunk of bed frame wont cut it. Drop from lip to coolant needs to be close, I get mine less than 1/4".

[rancher1913]

first thing is to learn to use the search function in the upper right hand corner, could have saved you hours of frustration. look up ghosthawks thread on his homemade dripper, lots of photos of several members set ups that produce usable shot.

just from a quick observation your ramp is way to long, mine is about 3/4 inch long. having the shot drop down may be hurting you as well, most drippers are sideways and the lead kind of bounces, spins and hits the coolant. water is not a good coolant.

[skeettx]

And graphite the ramp

[Rcmaveric]

You ramp is super long and what kind of coolant? I use pure straight dollar store fabric softner.

Your ramp should be about an inch long and super hot. If the ramp is cold you will get a stream. Get the ramp super hot. Heat and ramp angle will make the lead skip down the ramp like a stone across a pond.

You want the ramp from .25 to .75 inches away from the coolant. There is a point at which the lead shot is round as it skips off the ramp due to surface tension. Yoy want to freeze its shape then. Falls too far before turning solid then you get tear drops.

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[Rcmaveric]

Coolant vat needs to be deep enough to cool the shot as well.

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[GhostHawk]

Like rcmaverick I have had good luck with dollar store fabric softener as coolant, but I did thin mine some with water. Probably would have worked better straight.

Ramp as mentioned above is also crucial. It needs to be short, at about a 45 degree angle and no more than 1/4 to 3/8ths an inch above the coolant. Helps if the coolant is not cold also.

Google is your friend. Do some research. You can maybe use your bottom pour to help feed your shot maker. But trying to make one the way you did is simply not going to work. It is not rocket science, but you do need a little better idea than that one IMO.

Good luck.

[Kev18]

I shortened the ramp to about an inch or less, and used dish soap for a try and then anti-freeze.

1) dish soap actually improved. They only had little tails like hairs on them, but 98% off everything gets clumped together in the soap. The soap starts boiling only after a few shot. So That probably wont work.

2) I only had about a cup and a half of fabric softener, so I dumped it in a can of soup and tried it out. That was probably the best outcome. Some clumped together alittle, with few tails. I feel like if I would add a bigger container and fill it with softener it might work decently. Il go buy some tomorrow.

3) My ramp isnt hot enough.Il ned to use a torch and make it really hot then drip the lead on. Il see what the outcome is...

[megasupermagnum]

That ramp will not work. Angle iron will not work. You need something flat and clean.

[bmortell]

I would load an ounce in a shotcup and print it on paper at 10 yards then upload the photo, then proceed making new device.

[country gent]

A short flat ramp polished very smooth. the correct coolant and lead temp to get the drips and not a stream. coat the ramp with dry lube to keep lead from sticking to it. A medium dia deep container for catching the shot.
I believe for production a manifold made for the pot with a centered hole for the spout a cross hole and 6-8 sized holes for shot size. get it hot enough to drip onto the trough and the short roll into the fabric softener. Now instead of one stream you have 6-8 running

[Rcmaveric]

You dont need a large container. Just a deep one. So that shot is cool before it settle to the bottom. Otherwise you get pillars of lead. I am contimplaiting putting an aquarium pump into mine, it happens to be large and deep, to circulate the coolant. As of now i have to stir the coolant so i dont get pillars.

After running my back yard contraption a few times a year. I have noticed that dry lubing the ramp is to just get it going. I think it has to do with heat, but after it runs for a bit its all good to go. Once its running smoothly, i just have to feed it lead and keep the head pressure up.

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[rancher1913]

the head presure is part of the art to this. I found that when it changes the shot size changes. too much was a very bad thing.

[OldBearHair]

Those little double ended thingies loaded up in shot shells might really create havoc at close range!!!!

[Kev18]

I bought a graphite lube spray. Il test it out tomorrow hopefully. My girlfriend came over, so I had to choose... Play in the garage or inside. So I stayed inside.

I flattened out the ramp like someone mentioned above. And bought some softener. I also heated up the ramp red hot and let the lead drip. It sticks to it abit but still drips over the edge.

One of my issues is that I cant put my container straight since the the stand of the lead furnace sticks out. Causing the shot to hit the sides. By the way my container is a Blue propane torch tank. The long ones. If I could put it straight underneath it would help for sure.

Now the shot has no tails, but 40%-60% of the time the shot explodes when it hits the coolant. So That means the lead is too hot. I also don't have a thermometer. Im not sure what the numbers mean on the furnace. Maybe degrees in 100's?

The shot that doesnt explode has no tail, they're different sizes, but I don't care. Some also look collapsed or flattened. Im guessing thats from them hitting the side of the container. they arent perfectly round, but I dont really mind because im making progress!

[GhostHawk]

When you get popcorn coolant is too cold, too thin.
Add more dollar store softener, thicken it up. Keep dripping into it to warm it up.

Once you start getting good shot you will want to swap cooling tanks or something to separate them.

Dripping shot is more ART than science, although there are aspects of both.
Hard enough with a good dripper made for the purpose.

I put mine away, I have a good pile of shot, have "figured it out" as much as I am going to. Have the tools, the skills, and the experience "in the box" which is mostly what I wanted.

Snows melting fast up here in Fargo ND, I think a few more weeks and I may be having a smelting session. Bunch of COWW, range scrap, some pewter. Figured I'd get me a nice bunch of consistent alloy to work with. Kind of kept putting it off due to other bigger projects. But I think its turn has come.

[skeettx]

I cast my WW/Range Scrap into one pound ingots, I give my friend 50 ingots, and an
empty shot bag.
He returns to me the bag full of shot (25 pounds) ready to use, graphited and all.

Last week I gave him 18 bags of 50 ingots and will get 18 bags of shot ready to use

[Kev18]

Alrighty! Im quite happy with my progress. Still have mionor issues that I hop you guys could help me with?

So my first attempt at shot was the picture above. Long thick tails. A failure. Probably cant be shot.

So Now here's my progress:
Actually ressembles shot. Almost no tails. And they are pretty round!


Another batch I did:


I dont have a picture of my final batch, but they are better! This is literally just dripping the lead furnace into a softener container... Thats it. A ramp doesnt work for me it seems. And i tried all kinds of materials.

Here's my issue now. Atleast 30-40% of the shot are hollow? What causes this to happen?

[missionary5155]

Good afternoon
Ya have to like the progress !
I am guessing but the holes are from the direct immersion into the coolent without the chance to "bounce / roll" cool and get stable.
I would consider cutting a slot along the center line of your Lee pot base so you can have the short ramp then drop into the softener.
Mike in Peru

[Kev18]

Good afternoon
Ya have to like the progress !
I am guessing but the holes are from the direct immersion into the coolent without the chance to "bounce / roll" cool and get stable.
I would consider cutting a slot along the center line of your Lee pot base so you can have the short ramp then drop into the softener.
Mike in Peru

I tried a ramp but it was worst. Only thing I didnt try was putting the ramp under the coolant itself. Alot of videos I saw thats what people would do, submerge the ramp 3/4 in the coolant. the lead barely touches the dry ramp.