1/3 boolit speckled, remaining looks good, novice caster

[lar45]

When you lube the top of the mold and the sprue plate make sure that you have a freshly casted bullet still in the mold with the mold closed. I use a leather glove and a piece of towel, put some of the sprue plate lube on the corner and rub it over the top of the mold and bottom of the sprue plate.
Slide it back and forth a couple of times, then drop your bullet and cast away.

The black speckles could either be the oil getting into the mold, or as the others have said, there is contamination, dirt, crap... in the lead.
What I do to flux is take an old spoon, get a pea sized piece of wax flux, then stir the flux down into the lead several times, this seems to help get ahold of the dirt and float it to the top. Use your spoon to scrape the bottom and sides to clean out any junk that will float to the top. Pull it to the edge with your spoon and scoop it out.

Also another important thing is to not process your range scrap in your casting pot. If you do, you are just putting dirt back in the pot. Use something else to process your scrap and then clean it, flux it and pour into ingots that will fit in your casting pot.
If you're already doing this, just ignore...

Post pics of your progress, it definitely helps to diagnose the problems.

[mdi]

If your alloy was dirty, why would only the noses of those long bullets get dirty? It doesn't hurt to clean your pot but scale builds up fairly quickly. I clean my Lee pot about twice per year (have no idea how many bullets/lbs of lead I cast). I flux with saw dust once, nothing else, and stir through out the casting session with a wood slat (paint stick). There are members here that have much more experience than I do, but in casting for just 25 years stirring with a stick has presented no problems...

Lar45 mentioned something important; don't clean your scrap alloy in your casting pot. I use a Coleman propane stove and a "custom" 20 lb. steel pot to melt/clean my scrap, scrounged lead. Nothing but clean ingots go in my Lee pot, not even my culls...

[kevin c]

mdi,

I'm fairly new, so forgive my ignorance: why not the culls? Is the assumption that the casts are not up to par because the alloy in the rejects has inclusions, or is it something else that you're considering?

[soflarick]

I process range scrap and wheel weights in a cast iron pot on a turkey fryer burner. I know to use the casting pot strictly for casting. The pot had a lot of carbon down below. I fluxed the mix well before pouring it back into the muffin tins. That brought up a lot of junk I didn't see before.

Would graphite be a good replacement lubricant for oil? I have an old, small bottle of powdered graphite with needle tip.

Sounds to me a good technique to keeping it clean is to wait putting the sprue lead and scrap boolits back in the pot until I'm done, then put it all back in and flux again.

[Rcmaveric]

I use antiseize compound on my sprue plate. Use a dab of beeswax for all the pivot points. Really helps prevent oil intrusion into the cavities. Also having a bullet in the cavities is a good insurance policy.

NoE sprue oils is only two troke oil. Works well but you can easily over do it and it doesnt last long. Over heating the mold it burns off fast. Never use candle wax (brain farting and can't remember what paraffin wax is called). Its mineral based and creaps and flows quickly and easily. It penetrates everything and sucks as a lubricant.

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[soflarick]

When you say antiseize on the sprue plate, do you mean apply it to the flat surfaces of the plate? Pivot points being the hinged joints, not surfaces, correct?

[Rcmaveric]

When you say antiseize on the sprue plate, do you mean apply it to the flat surfaces of the plate? Pivot points being the hinged joints, not surfaces, correct?

Antiseize on the bottom of the sprue plate and top of the mold. I used to apply it to the the entire surfaces, but now I just apply it to the where the edges first meet like scissors. I have noticed that that's the area where galling and wearing happens so that's where I focus on keeping lubed with antiseize. Not point in doing the whole surface. Plus working the sprue will spread it out from there.

On my first Lee mold, before I started using anti seize, it has a very noticeable angle of wear and galling. Still usable but the wear and galling has stopped since I switched to anti seize.

Pivot points are the hinges. Beeswax is an excellent lubricant and won't creep and flow. Dont forget your guide pins. You dont want those galling and wearing out.

When metals get hot, they can friction transfer material and wear faster. That's what galling is. The lubricants on the mold are to prevent galling not actually lubricate anything. Lubricants on the handles are to actually lubricate things. Aluminium is bad at galling. My 9mm mold is only 4 years old and you would think my dad used it. The vent lines on top of the blocks are worn away and galled away from the sprue plate on the contact edge. Lessons learned and I pay a little bit more attention to things and care a little bit better for things.

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[soflarick]

K thanks. I have a big bottle of copper antiseize.

Did a round of casting with the 3 molds. I'm now realizing how quickly the molds heat to the point of frosting the alloy. I starting getting nice 405 hollow base boolits, once I put a wet sponge in reach, and used it judiciously on the mold base, then waiting a count of 3, then poured.

[Rcmaveric]

Using two molds at once can really help with heat.

Fill mold A.
Fill mold B
Cut sprue and dump bullets of A then refill
Cut sprue and dump bullets of B then refill
Repeat

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[Mitch]

PM sent to see where you are.willing to help you out.

[WRideout]

I process range scrap and wheel weights in a cast iron pot on a turkey fryer burner. I know to use the casting pot strictly for casting. The pot had a lot of carbon down below. I fluxed the mix well before pouring it back into the muffin tins. That brought up a lot of junk I didn't see before.

Would graphite be a good replacement lubricant for oil? I have an old, small bottle of powdered graphite with needle tip.

Sounds to me a good technique to keeping it clean is to wait putting the sprue lead and scrap boolits back in the pot until I'm done, then put it all back in and flux again.

I don't know why, but vegetable oil worked really well as a flux for smelting purposes. Elsewhere on the forum, someone advocated using a carpenters pencil to apply graphite to the sprue plate and mold top. I've tried it, but the jury is still out.

Wayne