Beginner Casting questions - what am I doing wrong here?

[jcren]

All due respect to the good advise already given, looks like you are just getting confident enough to overheat your mold a bit and the pressure casting is making it worse. Pressure casting is mostly needed for older/larger molds with either inadequate venting or huge bullets that try to cool as you pour. Lead bits between the blocks look like silver dots with black around them, and are easily removed with a stick; pencil, or coarse rag/glove when hot. Casting too fast gets the blocks hot enough to keep the lead liquid long enough to look for somewhere to go, i.e. vent whiskers or flash between the blocks and sprue plate. Slow down a bit between pours and if you start to see pronounced mold lines or fins on the bullet base, leave the blocks open for several seconds before the next pour. Some guys also use a metal plate or damp rag to pull some heat from the mold before the next pour. If you coole the mold too much, you will see wrinkles or creases due to the lead freezing as it fills the mold. If you keep having to cool the mold, turn the melt temp down a bit to match your mold and cadence.

[Tazlaw]

Thanks Bazoo, I'll give the "free fall" method a try next time I'm at the pot. It seems it would make a bigger sprue mess on the sprue place which is why I've done the full contact pouring up until now. They turned out pretty well for a first run with this mold and I'm pretty happy. I'll do downstairs with a chopstick and see if I can rub off that bit of lead. Here is what I got done yesterday
Attachment 257451Attachment 257452

Very nice!

[jsizemore]

I keep a couple sprues around to use as an eraser if lead builds up on the mold top , faces or sprue plate. Especially effective when the mold is still up to temp.

[44Blam]

Looks like you got a booger of lead in your mold that is holding it open...

Check it and scrape off the offending lead. I would use wood (chopstick as mentioned above?) or maybe a copper brush - something soft for sure.

[44Blam]

I keep a couple sprues around to use as an eraser if lead builds up on the mold top , faces or sprue plate. Especially effective when the mold is still up to temp.

Or this seems like a really good idea... Will have to steal it.

[owejia]

Casting lead boolits seems to be part skill, part luck and a lot of voo-doo. Using the same mould for the last couple of days same temp. alloy but the second cavity will not fill out about ever dozen casts. Can pressure cast two or three times and then it work for about another dozen cast. This is an RCBS 84 gr 32 cal mould. The first two boolits cast when new were perfect, no break in period or any problems until today. Patience grasshopper. Rant over. Guess voo-doo does exist.

[fredj338]

I get the best results with about 1/2-3/4" free fall. Both in terms of fillout and not having inclusions caused by the oxidized film.

Nothing wrong with shooting those bullets. You get too picky and you won't ever have bullets to shoot. I've become a little more picky as time has passed but it depends on the application too. Plinking bullets for my 45 I ain't as picky about as say, 31141s for my 30-30.

I use a bottom pour & pressure cast but it is a balance of when to remove the mold from the spout & create the sprue. Works for me. The Magma caster has about 1/2" gap & pours directly into the cavs, also works for me.

[curioushooter]

I would try fluxing with sawdust or tallow. Let the ash float which will protect the alloy from oxidizing somewhat. Though this may be hard to manage with a ladle. I have never used a ladle to pour in a multi-cavity mold, and I think it would be difficult. I have a bottom pour pot so I can't help you there. I also use a much bigger pot (a Lee 4-20) and cover the top with aluminum foil. This keeps the alloy at a more steady temp and the weight of that big pot pushes the alloy out fast which helps get those multi-cavity molds filled quick.

Aluminum molds have always worked well for me, and NOEs are excellent in my experience, and I've never heard of one warping. You may need to adjust your alignment pins since this was a new mold I am assuming. Many used iron molds have required this for me.

[popper]

Sprue plate is loose - getting flash on the base. Didn't say what alloy, lots of tin will flow into vent lines easy and thermometer may not be accurate, too hot alloy. Typically space between blocks shows fins, not fingers.

[Leoparddog]

I'm guessing at the alloy but it was COWW originally. It was race car lead that had been melted down from WW. I picked up 150# a few years back. Unless I'm buying it commerically it always seems to be a bit of a guess for me what the truth is about the alloy. I've been cheap so far and not spent the money for a lead hardness tester. I've read about pencils and fingernails but I can't scratch anything with my nails and the pencil idea, I guess I could go back and study on that some. Should I invest in a hardness tester? If so, what would be recommended?

[Bazoo]

Hardness tester might be nice to have. I don't have one though. Keep your eyes peeled and you can get one reasonable here.

My unscientific approach is to take a razor knife and cut a sliver off of both the suspect lead and either a wheel weight or it's ingot. This tells me yep, ww alloy. I have a single ingot of Linotype but haven't run into any type yet.

The exact alloy for pistol bullets, or it's hardness is often inconsiquential. If you have any issues with fillout add tin.

I had some alloy once that was wheel weight alloy but I just couldn't get it to work even with tin. Fillout issues and wrinkles even though I was running my mould hot enough to frost. Well in the Lyman manual it says you sometimes will encounter an ornery batch of lead like that. It suggests making it into ingots and using it up a little at a time with another batch. That's what I did.

[Leoparddog]

I cleaned up the mold with a lead carpenters pencil this week and sat down this weekend for round 2 with this mold. It went much better with all your good advice. Stopped pressure casting and figured out how to ride the ladle down the mold and free pour from about 1/2" away. I got about 350 cast, coated and sized this weekend and started running them through the Dillon 650XL. I'll run out of cases before I load all of these so I guess I'll have to go do some shooting soon. Thanks everyone

[Bazoo]

Glad you're getting the hang of it sir.

[onelight]

Good job !

[curioushooter]

Hardness tester might be nice to have.

I bought my Lee Hardness tester years ago and never looked back. It works though it is a pain to get that microscope lined up. Anything smaller than 30 caliber forget about getting an accurate reading.

The LBT is a good one too. My friend has one. But with what LBT is charging for a new one I would search for a used one.

The SAECO one doesn't give BHN outputs, but I think it can be converted. Everyone that has one seems to like it. It is very portable and good thing to bring along to the scrap yard. Whereas the Lee is more finicky to use afield and the LBT is a fragile thing that you need to take care with.

I believe Cabine Tree made one years ago, and still may. It was well regarded.

[fredj338]

I cleaned up the mold with a lead carpenters pencil this week and sat down this weekend for round 2 with this mold. It went much better with all your good advice. Stopped pressure casting and figured out how to ride the ladle down the mold and free pour from about 1/2" away. I got about 350 cast, coated and sized this weekend and started running them through the Dillon 650XL. I'll run out of cases before I load all of these so I guess I'll have to go do some shooting soon. Thanks everyone

Looks great! I love Skittles!

[fredj338]

Hardness tester might be nice to have. I don't have one though. Keep your eyes peeled and you can get one reasonable here.

My unscientific approach is to take a razor knife and cut a sliver off of both the suspect lead and either a wheel weight or it's ingot. This tells me yep, ww alloy. I have a single ingot of Linotype but haven't run into any type yet.

The exact alloy for pistol bullets, or it's hardness is often inconsiquential. If you have any issues with fillout add tin.

I had some alloy once that was wheel weight alloy but I just couldn't get it to work even with tin. Fillout issues and wrinkles even though I was running my mould hot enough to frost. Well in the Lyman manual it says you sometimes will encounter an ornery batch of lead like that. It suggests making it into ingots and using it up a little at a time with another batch. That's what I did.

I don't sweat bhn that much but use a cabin Tree tester when I am just curious. Yes if you get a pot of alloy that just isn't working out, it may have some contamination with zinc. You can turn the pot up & flux the poop out of it or drain half & add known alloy back in.
This happened to me once when a buddy gave me some 15# bricks of "lead" but there was a lot of zinc in them & it froze my Magma up. Cranked it up & drained half out, put back in some known ww alloy & back to normal. I then just used up the rest of the 15# bricks sparingly.