A Milestone for me in casting

[JoeJames]

Tried casting from the 32 cal - 98 grain swc double cavity mold -accurate 313-100 r rg mold - I bought from a member before hot weather hit. Had two, two pound ingots, and assorted sprue casts, etc. Trying for a 20 part lead to 1 part tin alloy. Heated it up in my Lee 10# pot, fluxed, had a run of about 70 bullets, there were striations and bad wrinkles. Tried again that afternoon; same result, then just cast into the SEACO ingot pan. Looked like lava again. Finally figured out the spout was half stopped up so the trickle was so slow as to cause the lava flow aspect. Sunday I took the Lee production pot apart. Managed to free up the flow plug after I unscrewed the connectors on the top. Then cleared up the upper part of the spout. Then turned it upside down and kept tapping with a small allen wrench until it was clear. Note: before that I tried using the propane torch to melt what was stuck in the spout but it must have been slag with a higher melting point than lead, as it would not melt. So tapping it out was only option. Finally ran a good run on Monday, and began to get better less wrinkled bullets. Tried a second run, after dumping all prior castings, along with one lead ingot, after fluxing it all. And, at a higher temperature to where the lead on top of the sprue was frosting a bit. At that point the bullets began to be normal in appearance.
Learned 1. Need a good flow from the spot; a trickle will not do it, otherwise bullets look like stalagmites all layered over, and 2. Get the temp hot enough to frost the sprue puddle, but not enough to really frost the bullets.
Then learned to lube them with Lee Liquid Alox. Tumbled them with a 50% Lee Liquid Alox 50% mineral spirit mixture suggested by a member. It worked out. Then last weekend I loaded about 30 of the best ones in 32 S&W Long cases on top of 2 grains of Bullseye, and then shot a few out of my S&W Model 631 4". So this is a milestone for me. First cast boolit reloads that are good enough to shoot in my 32's. And a picture of the boolit and one of my new cast boolit loads. I am quite proud of myself. It took a spell.

[fcvan]

Awesome!

[Txcowboy52]

Looks like you did a fine job ! Congratulations !!

[Land Owner]

Looks great. Hope it shoots as well. You hit the sweet spot. Save it for future reference.

Now, before the glow of success subsides, WRITE IT ALL DOWN in detail in your personal Reloading Log, so you will have it on hand for all future casting sessions - particularly of that caliber and that mold. Print, Cut & Paste what you wrote above.

Finding this thread in the future is time consuming and iffy. Written in your log, it is assured to be found, and can be marked for reference.

I assure you, in 5 years, 10 years, and 20 years from now, you will reread your log of this day and remember the sweet success of where it all started.

[ABJ]

Here is a little trick to keeping the spout flowing. I use a pure beeswax candle, just press against the spout when hot. Also a dental pick dipped in ATF or some other soft lube. I use animal fat. The wax and grease will migrate up on the sides of the spout and help loosen the oxides.
Tony

[Cosmic_Charlie]

Good you kept at it! At some point you will have mostly successes and a fine tuned intuition into the process.

[JoeJames]

Looks great. Hope it shoots as well. You hit the sweet spot. Save it for future reference.

Now, before the glow of success subsides, WRITE IT ALL DOWN in detail in your personal Reloading Log, so you will have it on hand for all future casting sessions - particularly of that caliber and that mold. Print, Cut & Paste what you wrote above.

Finding this thread in the future is time consuming and iffy. Written in your log, it is assured to be found, and can be marked for reference.

I assure you, in 5 years, 10 years, and 20 years from now, you will reread your log of this day and remember the sweet success of where it all started.

I agree. I keep a detailed notebook. Actually I cut and pasted from my notebook for my post. Learned by bitter experience that if I have not written it down, it didn't happen.

[Thumbcocker]

Good job. Just be warned that .32's can be gluttonous little beasties and you will probably wind up with mold with more cavities.

[bedbugbilly]

Great looking boolits and they share make a nice looking cartridge!

[jimb16]

So now you have discovered that casting is as much an art as a science! Keep up the good work!

[JoeJames]

So now you have discovered that casting is as much an art as a science! Keep up the good work!

I understand the "art" concept a whole lot better now. I would not have understood what you meant a few weeks ago. My hat is off to y'all! I would not have done nearly as well if it had not been for my reviewing relevant posts on Castboolits. There is a wealth of information on here.

[Conditor22]

perseverance and good trouble shooting skills -- you figured it out and got a nice end result.

as you found out, a good flow is critical to nice boolits. to maintain this ONLY put clean ingots in your pot. I won't put ingots in my pot that I haven't smelted myself.

You will soon find that more tin/ harder alloy will flow better at a lower temperature and give you a good boolit fill out. I'll cast between 680-720° for everything but pure 750°

IF you aren't getting good fillout (and the mold is clean) you can either increase that alloy temperature or add a little more tin (I keep a jar or 1/2 ounce pewter (tin) boolits I cast handy to "sweeten the pot"

I threw this together to clean the spout when needed

[gwpercle]

There's only one way to learn how to cast boolits ... That's by Casting Boolits !
Good Job... Keep On Keeping On !
Gary
I wish this site had been around in 1967...

[Hanzy4200]

Good job! Wrinkles are the nightmare of new casters......and sometimes seasoned casters. Being sure to get 100% of the machining/storage oil out of your cavities is paramount. Playing with the temp of your mold can help also. My biggest breakthrough for nice mold fill out was brake cleaner. Spray that mold down all over. Then do it again. Washes all traces of oil out. I have a similar gizmo as Conditor. I just have a old pair or needle nose pliers with a thick bent paper clip pointing up. It's just become "welded" together by accumulative lead spatter. Work great.

[lightman]

Good Job! Glad it all came together for you.

[JoeJames]

perseverance and good trouble shooting skills -- you figured it out and got a nice end result.

as you found out, a good flow is critical to nice boolits. to maintain this ONLY put clean ingots in your pot. I won't put ingots in my pot that I haven't smelted myself.

You will soon find that more tin/ harder alloy will flow better at a lower temperature and give you a good boolit fill out. I'll cast between 680-720° for everything but pure 750°

IF you aren't getting good fillout (and the mold is clean) you can either increase that alloy temperature or add a little more tin (I keep a jar or 1/2 ounce pewter (tin) boolits I cast handy to "sweeten the pot"

I threw this together to clean the spout when needed

Good point on extra tin. My cousin gave me a big spool of lead free solder which appears to be 95% tin. I have made some 1 ounce rings of it for adding to get the alloy to what I think is right. May add some tin to the pot if it appears that I have the temp high enough but am still not filling out the mold.

I jumped off into casting 44's (Lee 240 grain .430 double cavity SWC) last weekend, assisted by my notes in the 32's, but the results were not even good enough for me. I think I was getting close, but then started running real low on alloy in the pot by that time. By my figuring, and if the world was perfect, you could only get @29 240 grain boollits out of a pound of alloy. The pot seems to run low a whole lot faster with 240 grain than with 98 grain 32's.

I will also make a fixed spout cleaner; - been using a pair of pliers and and a bent paper clip.

[JoeJames]

"I jumped off into casting 44's (Lee 240 grain .430 double cavity SWC) last weekend, assisted by my notes in the 32's, but the results were not even good enough for me. I think I was getting close, but then started running real low on alloy in the pot by that time. By my figuring, and if the world was perfect, you could only get @29 240 grain boollits out of a pound of alloy. The pot seems to run low a whole lot faster with 240 grain than with 98 grain 32's.

I will also make a fixed spout cleaner; - been using a pair of pliers and and a bent paper clip."

Reporting in; melted down about 3pounds of my ingots, and the 44 bullets I tried to cast last weekend. I must be getting better. Off today; so cleaned the valve rod, and got the temperature up there to where the melt on the sprue was frosty, took my time after each pour, and the boolits started looking like they were supposed to. Also added about an ounce of tin to the alloy before casting. Cast about 70 of which 60 or so were perfect, no wrinkles, and completely filled in and crisp. (I assume most of the bad ones were before the mold got hot enough) Measured them, and before they were about .428, now appears right at .430 which my Ruger BH likes best. I took a chance on getting this 44 mold, but because I finally did ok with the 32's but it paid off. The hook is getting well set now!

[fcvan]

My reply has nothing to do with this post. I love your signature line 'Certified Cajun.' My Uncle was a certified cajun, I learned a lot of that old man, some good, some not so good, but hey, don't we all have family like that? Ragin' Cajun, Rage on! Frank

[lolbell]

Good job. Just be warned that .32's can be gluttonous little beasties and you will probably wind up with mold with more cavities.

I am at this point. 2 cavities just ain’t enough

[JoeJames]

Report after shooting them on Sunday: On Saturday, October 3, 2020, fairly cool, so put 3 or 4 WW ingots in the Lee 10# pot. Got it up to temp, added an ounce of Tin, fluxed well, then started casting with the Lee 240 gr .430" SWC mold. First few were a bit wrinkled, but attributed that to mold not being hot enough; I cast about 70 total .430" 240 gr SWC’s. They came out much better than I figured was possible. Spout stopped up, but used the small allen wrench with needle nosed vice grips and also bent paperclip. Cleared it up.That afternoon, lubed them with mix of 50% mineral spirits/50% Lee Liquid Alox - then tumbled in a small container. Later on spread on waxed paper overnight. Loaded 15 rounds w/ 6.8 grains of Unique, CCI LP primers. Shot six rounds at my cousin’s Sunday afternoon. More than a little pleased. Note* I have not chronographed them yet, but they felt a tad stouter than my 240 gr. Speer swaged .430" loads with 6.8 grains of Unique which run about 890 fps. And perhaps not as stout as the same Unique load with .431 Oregon Trail 240 grain laser cast. But so far they do seem as accurate or more accurate than the Speer swaged.
Next: 1. Chronograph them
2. Load enough to adjust sights accordingly depending on whether chronograph results; *may need to reduce powder charge first.