Fisrt casting today, looky what I did!

[oregonshooter]

Started out too low of temp I think as they were not filling in very well. Is 800deg F too hot? That was 8.5 on the Lee melting pot. They were ladled into the 6 bullet mold.



I made a video of the process, [strike]but it is not uploaded yet to youtube.[/strike]

Video done:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0oYfR3Bcd0

[bisley45]

very nice

[gon2shoot]

There ya go,

[Rockchucker]

Those are some nice looking boolits for sure, I love the round nose boolit in my 1911, it seems to like em alot, cycles great and very accurate.

[oregonshooter]

I just tested one for hardness and got BHN 8.7 is that good enough for a 9mm @ 1200fps ?

[runfiverun]

they will harden up more in a week or so.
warm up your mold to start next time,and keep a good move on.
those look pretty nice.

[oregonshooter]

Thanks r5r, I'll test one in a week to compare. These are just practice ammo for IDPA. My test chart says that 8.7 = 12391psi but I have no idea what that means in FPS

At the end I did get a rhythm and did notice that my boolits had a glazed aluminum look on the first two sets after letting the mold cool down.

Nothing like doing to enhance the learning curve!

I sorted out all that didn't look as nice as the bottom row (600+) and threw about 200 back into the pot for next casting session. Is there anything wrong with using those on top that have a good groove but some lines on the outside? Just for practice ammo?

[runfiverun]

if the diameter on them is big enough just rub a bit of lube on them and shoot away.
my girl cast up some god awful looking stuff that sized okay i made her shoot them [trying to teach her a lesson in quality] danged if she didn't shoot a smaller group with those than i did with the good looking ones.
kinda locked me up, what do you tell a teenager after that.

[oregonshooter]

You can't tell a teenager nothin after that LOL!

I didn't realize how many youtube vids are up about casting!!!! found one with common mistakes that explained my "frosty bullet" (had bout 10) being too hot lead, and base divots (another 10 or so) because of throwing the sprue before cooling.

This is addictive for sure. Next step is pan lubing which I'm finding a bunch of cool tricks on now.

[Shiloh]

if the diameter on them is big enough just rub a bit of lube on them and shoot away.
my girl cast up some god awful looking stuff that sized okay i made her shoot them [trying to teach her a lesson in quality] danged if she didn't shoot a smaller group with those than i did with the good looking ones.
kinda locked me up, what do you tell a teenager after that.

I used to cull the non perfect boolits then I saved them for practice and plates. I found there is little difference unless grossly deformed. I would have loaded at least two of those for plate shooting.

Shiloh

[geargnasher]

Oregonshooter, remember that the quality of your boolits depends a lot more on MOULD temp than POT temp. You can jumpstart the process of getting good fillout by dipping the bottom corner of your mould in the melt for 5-10 seconds and then cast like a demon until the sprue takes 5-8 seconds to freeze good. then relax into a steady pace, watching for the signs of poor fillout that indicate the mould has cooled too much, then pick up the pace. If you stop for more than 30 seconds between pours, make sure you cut the sprue and leave the boolits in the mould while you pause to preserve the temp a little longer.

Frosty, dull grey boolits are good! Pan lube sticks to them better and fillout is generally better. Frost indicates the mould was hot enough. Pure lead won't frost, but any mix with antimony and tin will.

Gear

[JIMinPHX]

800 degrees is a bit on the warm side, but if it's working for you, stick with it. I usually cast between 650-720 degrees depending on what mold I'm using, but that doesn't mean that you have to.

Don't be too afraid of the frosty boolits. They shoot fine too. They are an indication that you don't want to get any hotter though.

Try to keep your heat down a little lower when you smelt wheel weights into ingots. If you get up in the 800 degree range when you do that, then you run the risk of melting zinc weights into the mix & that will ruin your whole batch.

Nice job on the self improvement, first time out of the gate. You did good.

[hammerhead357]

Oregonshooter ya did good on the last picture. So you are learning, I think the bases of the boolits number 2,3,4 may be a little rounded but it is hard to tell. Just keep trying and it will come around for you.
If you haven't had anyone help you directly you are doing a great job...Wes

[ilcop22]

Nice job on those boolits.

[JIMinPHX]

After looking at your video, I think that you would do better if you used a ladle that has a pour spout on it. They tend to push the lead into the mold a little better in some cases. I also think that you could do better if you didn't cool the mold after each cast. You should not need to do that often at all, if ever. You may need to wait a little longer for the sprue to harden, so you might not cast as fast, but you will probably get better boolit bases.

[chevyiron420]

Good work jim! I would change ladles as well. Some prefer the RCBS style but i like the lyman ladle.

[armyrat1970]

Your first cast from the pics looks like your mold was not up to temps. Your second cast looks very good. But you are casting with a six pounder. Where is the other boolit? I run my temps very hot with my Lee molds. Once my mold is up to temps I find my casting temp at around 850 to 900 to work fine. With WWS. If they come out a little frosted it's no problem. Different molds with different boolit sizes will require different temps.
Not bad at all for your first casting session. You will just get better now. But don't get cocky because you may run into a day where nothing seems to go right. Been there. Done that. It's all fun though, and now you have the addiction!!

[Bret4207]

Pretty good for the first time out. Here's what I'd suggest-

#1- Get a real ladle. That Lee thing makes a decent pot stirrer, but that's about it.

#2- Keep the pot as near full as you can. The lower he alloy level the more temp fluctuation you get.

#3- The bricks you're resting the mould on act as a heat sink. Replace the top brick with a hunk of 2x4. Yes, it'll scorch eventually, but it'll draw less heat away than the brick.

#4- I would fell a lot more comfortable if you were able to take a quick look at the mould faces after dumping the boolits. Just a quick visual for lead smears or other problems on the faces and top. With a Lee aluminum mould you can gouge the top in a couple cycles of the sprue cutter.

All in all I think you're doing great!

[oregonshooter]

Great advise guys, really appreciate it!

If you haven't had anyone help you directly you are doing a great job...Wes

Wes, only help is from reading here and goatlips website. This is the most helpful forum on any topic I've ever been on and I'm on a lot of them.

I'm picking up a ladle in a few minutes and going to try again today.

Eventually I plan on getting a bottom pour and using the top dipper to premelt my ingots.

1. No water cooling sprues, 8-10sec wait to cut or whatever the "feel time" is.
2. board not brick for base
3. 800 is OK but I'll try lower with the mold kept hot (ps. I smelted @ 650)
4. pre-heat mold with corner in lead


BIG QUESTION: "How do I know if the stuff on top of the pot is just air cooled lead (not shiny) or needs skimming?"

I think I may be wasting a lot of lead skimming the top whenever it is not shiny silver. I stir it with a stick every now and then and skim the debris afterwards also.

[skeet1]

They sure look a lot better than my first cast.

Skeet1