I did it!

[Hubertus]

As mentioned in the „Running out of excuses“ thread I had found a lead source and was planning to collect the required items to start casting small scale.
Our church has a second hand store where people are donating things they don’t need. Those are sold and the funds go to people in need, congregations in Africa, usually.
Anyway, I found an old enamel pot stainless steel tray, spoon and ladle for 5 bucks. An old hot plate I have borrowed from a friend. Well the only thing left was something to hit the sprue plate and, you guessed it, A MOLD.
By accident I found a used Lee459-405 HB on the German ebay for a very reasonable price and bought it.

Today after lunch I set everything up on the balcony.
I followed the instructions by Lee. While the pot was heating up I used disinfection fluid to swap out the cavity, WD40 for the sprue plate and v-ribs, after that I smoked the cavity with a lighter.

Now comes the smoky part: after about 15 minutes the all lumps had gone liquid. I used a small amount of bees wax and tossed it into the pot. Wow, smoke all over – well I guess it was a bit too much. Hopefully the fumes are not too poisonous. Skimming the dross was relatively easy, since the lead/tin mix was quite clean from the start. I fluxed 2 times more and then started.

Pouring the first fill with mixed emotions and still thinking of all the threads here – move over the water filled bucket with a towel. Open the handles and….. the boolit dropped without any interference.

Unfortunately I found out after about 20 pours that I was working too slowly. The fill-out was not complete. Increasing the frequency helped.

Well after about 1 hour of scooping, filling and dropping interspersed with fluxing, I had 64 boolits. Due to the starter problems I only kept 28. Next time it might get better.

Opening the sprue with a gloved hand was quite easy I didn’t even need the hammer handle I had bought. When the sprue plate started to open a little harder I applied some more WD40 with a q-tip – still I managed to get some tiny grooves into the block on the way of the sprue . I guess better lube is needed here.
The mike says the boolits are .459”

Please have a look at my very first keepers!!!






Now I can say for the first time:
Next time, hopefully the keepers will be outnumbering the remelts.
Hubertus

[mpmarty]

ausgetseichtnit. I hope my phonetic spelling of that was close enough for you to decipher.

Congratulations and welcome to the asylum.

[Shiloh]

Those boolits look GREAT!!

Congrats!!

With practice you'll develop a rhythm that will increase production.
See this link from the Stickies page. Check out Goatlips Speed Casting at his casting page.
http://goatlipstips.cas-town.com/index.html

Shiloh

[Ricochet]

Very nice work!

[StarMetal]

Yes I agree, and now you belong to Cast Boolits Anonymous!!! Meetings are daily.

Joe

[montana_charlie]

I saw a hint of a 'fin' on one of them which might have been the result of not keeping the mould closed tightly...but those are pretty respectable for a first try.

And, that is from a guy who is not shy about pointing out defects...

What is the 'source' of your lead? Do you know what is in it?
I bet you don't need the water bucket...just the towel.

CM

[Echo]

Super boolits, Hubertus. Und Wie Gehts!

[Hang Fire]

Looking good for first go at it and practice will make perfect, well, at least it will cut down on rejects somewhat.

None of us knew what we were doing when we first started, and after 50 years of casting, I sometimes still have doubts about myself knowing very much about the game.

[Dennis Eugene]

Some of the best first try boolits I've seen here so far. Good Job! Dennis

[rwt101]

I've done about 5 batches of 100 and I am jealous. They look great. I wish mine looked that good.
Bob T

[phishfood]

IF I were the jealous type, I would be. Those look really good.

Don't worry about the rejection rate, as my first casting session was even worse. What seemed to help was speeding up the casting cycle just a little so that the aluminum mold stayed a little warmer. I also left the ladle floating in the melt between pours.

Keep in mind that any advice that I may offer is from a rank amateur, and if someone who actually knows what they are doing says opposite, listen to them.

[John Guedry]

Your rejects probably are better than my "keepers". Keep it up.

[hydraulic]

Now, the important part-what are you going to shoot them in and what kind of a load?

[runfiverun]

excellent.
next time don't keep calling the wife out and showing her.
we expect to see pictures of the targets.

[303Guy]

Waaaay Cool!

P.S. I just found out you are supposed to light the wax fumes!

[Three44s]

I am green with envy ............

.......... Congratulations!!!! You did well!!!

Three 44s

[Ugluk]

Real nice. My first keepers didn't look that good, but I didn't want to throw them all back in the pot..

I'm guessing bullplate is hard to find for you, and if so, try 2-stroke oil with a q-tip will work better than wd40 wich seem to be mostly perfumed diesel anyway..

[Ugluk]

Also, after advice here on the site I stir the melt with a piece of slim wood. Paintstirring sticks have been mentioned and I use similar pieces of woodworking scrap. It smokes very little and give a good result. Keep the expensive beeswax for lube or leatherwork.

[Hubertus]

Thank you for all your nice words.
That’s exactly what a new caster needs to keep going, honestly I feel the itch already and I am travelling for work this week …will this ever stop?

Next time I will sure up the speed a bit to keep the mold warmer.
Regarding the fins, yes I had to reject 5 or 10 boolits after the session due to fins. It took me a while to find out that a tiny bit of lead had caught on the rim of the self adjusting pin and wedged into the groove. This prevented a full close and I removed it with a match.

The whole process was less messy than I thought. The only exception was the bees wax flux that produced quite some smoke, even the smallest amount. Even using a throw away respirator for fine dust - it tasted/smelled quite bad, next time I will use the proposed wooden stick to stirr and see.
I was particularly grateful for all the warning threads. Wearing heavy leather gloves I found at a point that one drop of lead jumped out of the pot (when putting the sprues back) and landed on the glove. That was close.

Montana_charlie you are right the bucket might not have been needed the lead is from a stained glass glazier and contains only lead and tin. The exact composition I can’t tell since he remelts it himself of the lead strips “polluted” with the solder he uses. According to my fingernail it is quite soft – I estimate it in the range of 20:1 or 30:1. Hence no hardening possible and needed.
I used the bucket because I thought it was the safest way of dropping the boolits in the confinement of the balcony. I was afraid to drop them on a towel because of heat and maybe damage of the noses. Next time I will try differently, too.
And thank you, I know you are not shy with your opinion on defects.

For you hydraulic (the others are allowed to have a look, too):
I am going to use the boolits in a 45-70 birthday present I received this year from my wife. (I know I posted the pics before and told the story …)
Still wanna have a look?

Here you go.



The load will be smokeless for starters IMR3031 in the 40 grains region after this maybe some tests with IMR4064.
Buuuuut since I managed to get a BP license last week wohooo I will of course try to get a load together with it, I am not even determined on the brand of BP yet.
Starting on common ground with SP and moving slowly towards the unknown BLACK

Proposals are always welcome.
Hopefully targets will follow soon...

Hubertus

[docone31]

Sweet!