I'm sure this has been talked here about before but casting copper Boolits!

[tayous1]

I have come across some copper and I was thinking of trying to cast some HP Boolits from them or try! Is it even worth trying? I ask because I'm going to be buying a gas forge soon to restart up my knife making since a lot has changed and I have the land to do it the land that is most important well to me!

I'm buying a gas forge soon and saw how much copper that was left around the land and also how much copper I collected of the years for ammo I'm not going to reload for much I.E 40 S&W.

Read a lot of info about this mostly from other sites so I wanted to come to you all and see what you have to say! Read to just sell the brass buy lead to use the brass to make Boolits! I trust you all!

[John McCorkle]

I have come across some copper and I was thinking of trying to cast some HP Boolits from them or try! Is it even worth trying? I ask because I'm going to be buying a gas forge soon to restart up my knife making since a lot has changed and I have the land to do it the land that is most important well to me!

I'm buying a gas forge soon and saw how much copper that was left around the land and also how much copper I collected of the years for ammo I'm not going to reload for much I.E 40 S&W.

Read a lot of info about this mostly from other sites so I wanted to come to you all and see what you have to say! Read to just sell the brass buy lead to use the brass to make Boolits! I trust you all!

Melting lead and melting copper are two ballparks apart unfortunately.

The melting temps are so high that getting equipment available to complete a test run would be very expensive. Oxidation of the metal would be an issue causing voids within the bullet and resulting in wild accuracy issues ...and copper is much harder so final sizing would require yet more specialty equipment.

I'm certain with graphite molds and a jeweler vacuum or centerfuge you could cast boolits that would work. Molds would be limited use (maybe a half dozen pours) before they would be inconsistent from the first pours. Your production would be tiny....it's much more akin to making jewelry than casting boolits.

I can spend a few hours setting up and casting - ending up with a thousand boolits plus when I get into a rhythm....copper in the same time you may get 4.

If it were possible you'd likely see more people doing it

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[Winger Ed.]

Seems like the reason the ammo makers use an extrusion process for solids,
or several steps in a drawing process for jackets is because casting them just isn't practical.

If you're set up to cast Copper, there's big bucks in casting yard art sort of stuff.
In Copper, also Brass, and Aluminum.

[charlie b]

To make it work you'd probably have to go the lost wax process to make the molds.

Make wax bullets. Attach to sprue (20 to 100 at a time depending on your kiln size). Dip in clay slurry and let dry, multiple times. Fire the mold in the kiln (also burns off the wax). Then pour copper. Break apart mold and cut bullets from sprue. Repeat.

These days cnc lathes are quite fast so could make many more bullets in the time it took you to cast one 'tree' worth.

[fcvan]

Although I never considered 'casting copper' I know that serious precision means lathe turned or swaged. Some years back, I played with copper electroplating. I made it work, but what a pain. The donor copper for plating was in no way efficient. I did however complete a process working out volts/amps/resistance to get a good plating. The part that made me giggle was I used solar power with a small panel and a variable voltage control. Talk about going green! Now I powder coat everything, way easier with higher usable velocity.

[Burnt Fingers]

Copper melts at 1983 degrees
Aluminum melts at 1220-1240
Iron melts at 2100 but loses 90% of it's strength around 1700
Brass melts at 1700-1800


1. What are you going to use for molds?
2. What are you going to use for sizing?

Solve those two problems and you're half way there.