Casting temperature using WW alloy?

[Newb]

New to the forum and to casting. I'm using WW lead that I smelted down and fluxed. I have an older SAECO 11lb bottom pour furnace that seems to work ok, I checked the temperature dial settings with a digital I/R thermometer and the seem to be pretty close.

I've read that if the pour is too hot the bullets will come out frosted looking, if the temp is not hot enough the pour will not fill the mould cavities completely and will make inferior bullets.

I'm using an RCBS .358 200gr two cavity mould and on the first batch the dial was at set about 750deg., the bullets came out ok, but looked a little frosty. I lowered the dial to about 650deg. and they looked not so frosty and as far as I could tell were ok.

Any opinions on what temperatures would give the best results?

Thanks,

NEWB

[Beau Cassidy]

700 degrees should give you desired results.

[Le Loup Solitaire]

Hi and welcome to the forum. The Saeco pot that you are using is one of the best ones ever made. I have it and a Saeco 20 pounder and have been using them for 20 + years. If your bottom pour ever breaks there are folks on this forum who have written extensively on repairing them and obtaining parts. You have to rummage around in old posts and although it may take a while, the info is there. The thermostat is a good one; mine also runs pretty close to what a casting thermometer says. You are correct in stating that melt that is too cold will make wrinkled bullets. As for frosty ones, aside from wasting electricity, the mold often gets overheated and you can see this developing by the sprue puddle on top of the cutoff plate...taking longer and longer to set up/harden. You don't want to cut a sprue that is still soft as it will cause lead smears across the tops of the blocks and on the underside of the sprue cutter....and that is a pain to remove...if you don't, it usually continues to build up until you are getting raggedy- base bullets and/or off-square bases. A lot of casters don't like frosty bullets, but they shoot the same ballistically as non frosted ones....absolutely no difference. a frosted bullet can be shined with #0000 steel wool to get rid of the frost, but that's extra work so its simpler to just lower the temp as you have done. If you are getting good bullets with 650 degrees or 700 degrees then thats what you stick with. A little bit of tin helps bullets fill out better...even as little as 1-2%. A place to find it is in plumber's solder usually advertised as 60/40(%)...the 40 being the tin,so you don't need a whole lot of it to get around 1% in an 11 pound pot. The Saeco pot is cast iron which can rust. When mine is inactive I wipe the metal parts on the outside with an oily rag before storing it. Same goes for the inside of the pot...at least what is exposed above whatever lead is left in the pot. It is a god idea to leave an inch of lead in the bottom anyway to keep the valve from getting hit or knocked around. Miscellaneous...its a good idea to keep the inside of the pot as clean as you can and periodically to clean the bottom of the melting chamber and valve as thats where slag, crud tends to build up and it can clog the valve and/or cause a drip. I usually cast at around 700 and keep the pot half full so that when I add an ingot or two it doesn't drop the temp too much and cause "melt freezeup" and having to wait for things to come back up to normal. If your pot develops "wear spots " anywhere on the outside or base you can touch it up with some of that spray on "stove black" paint (1200 degree tolerance) which has a matt finish. Keep up the good work and enjoy your pot/casting. LLS

[bobthenailer]

i also have a saeco pot and ive used it for over 20 years . its now my back up. i now have a rcbs thats about 10 or 15 years old . with the saeco or the rcbs somewere between 650 & 700 degrees should work fine, except with lee moulds you may have to run a little hotter

[JeffinNZ]

700 degrees should give you desired results.

Yeap.