What a great weekend!!

[mcdonl]

Man, it finally got warm in Maine and I was able to get some warm weather casting done!!

I was encouraged about my production AND future possibilities!

I had a little over two 5 gallon buckets of WW's, I used about 1/8 of my WW's and came up with about 100 Lyman ingots... I used 25 of them and got nearly 1000 bullets!! (about 600 9mm, 200 7.62x39 and 150 or so 38's.....)

I have some question though, as I had never casted that long before.

First, how do you guys deal with the sprew? I knock the sprew off, and when I got down to the last 1/2" on my 10# Lee, I put the sprew back in the pot and then add an ingot... Is this normal? Should I use ingots up first?

Also, how to do you guys rotate molds? I was doing it where I would stop using a mold when it would take a "long" time for the sprew to harden, then I went to a 10 fill, 5 fill and 5 fill rotation with the 9mm getting 10 fills (20 boollits) as I shoot more 9mm's... how do you all do it?

I also had time to go shooting with a friend, and we shot about 500 rounds (Never shot that much at once!!) and had not a single misfire other then the 20 round mag in my SKS giving me trouble.

Awesome weekend!!

Leroy







Then off to my brand new reloading bench I built during the week



I got off to a slow start but I am cooking with gas now!!

[BrianB]

Your weekend looks like it was way more fun than mine!

[ghh3rd]

Great way to have fun for sure. It feels good to get those WW flying downrange, doesn't it?

[mcdonl]

Great way to have fun for sure. It feels good to get those WW flying downrange, doesn't it?

Kinda fascinating to be honest... lol... I am not sure what I obsessed about more, keeping track of my 7.62x39 brass or digging out my boolits to see how well that held up.

[HangFireW8]

Sounds like a great weekend. I had a great Easter weekend too, but nothing to report on the casting front.

First, how do you guys deal with the sprew? I knock the sprew off, and when I got down to the last 1/2" on my 10# Lee, I put the sprew back in the pot and then add an ingot... Is this normal? Should I use ingots up first?

I knock my sprue's into a separate box, and from there into a little RCBS 10lb pot I keep on a Coleman single burner Sportster stove. I warm up my ingots in there, too. With Coleman fuel it is not hot enough to melt most casting alloys, but gets them very, very close.

When I let a mold cool off a minute, I'll dump the ingots and sprue's into the melt, where they melt instantly. Like, you can see where they went in, but when you go to push on them with a stirring rod, they are already melted.

Then I do a little flux and stir, and by the time I'm done that, temperature-wise, it is ready to go again.

-HF

[DLCTEX]

I wear heavy gloves when casting and cut the sprue with my thumb pushing the plate. I catch the sprue in my gloved hand and drop it back into the pot while still hot. I do this with a rolling over motion of the hand to cover the pot some to prevent any splash from getting out.

[mcdonl]

DLCTEX, that sounds like sometime to try. I used to peel shrimp for a living and you can get quick doing stuff like that. I mean, I already have more boollits then I have time to shoot them, so I am not TRYING to make a production line but somethings just have not fallen into place yet such as where to put my stick and when.

I also wear "decomissioned" fire fighter gloves so handling molds would not be a problem.

[runfiverun]

i only wear a glove on my right hand.
break right into my gloved hand drop in pot, open and dump. the stick goes to the right of your dump pile,or at an angle from left to right where you can get it if needed.
lot of molds dump with a shake.
some need some encouragement.
some of my 2 cavs will drop the boolits if i push on the corner of the mold when opening.

[mooman76]

I pu the sprue back in the pot right away. When the pot is low enough that I won't splash lead out, it goes straight in. It's already hot so it keeps the lead up and easier to keep a steady temperature. The heavier sprues (6 cavity)I don't drop straight in, it splashes too much, I'll drop it in by hand.

[jawjaboy]

A fellow forum member and I had a lil hoot this past Saturday afternoon, cooking down a few hundred pounds of ww's.

[mcdonl]

Thats awesome! I wish I had someone to work with, must make the time go by better.

What do you use for a pot that takes an ingot so big? I like the ingot molds too!

[DLCTEX]

mcdonl: I hope you aren't smelting in that aluminum pot. Aluminum has a nasty habit if coming apart while full of molten lead. That much liquid lead can be bad for your health.

[mcdonl]

Oh no. I use a steel pot. I put a wet towel in the bottom of the aluminum pot to knock my boolits into. It came with the turkey fryer, so it was free game

[jawjaboy]

Thats awesome! I wish I had someone to work with, must make the time go by better.

What do you use for a pot that takes an ingot so big? I like the ingot molds too!

I had met my buddy here before, a couple of brief times here 'n there. We got together on a whim and passed a lil time together. I sure enjoyed it. He did the bulk of the work. My old back ain't any good any more.

The smelt pot is a 14" cast dutch oven I bought about 25 years ago. The ingot moulds were made by another buddy, from my directions and materials.

I use the finished ingots in a 20 pound LEE bottom pour pot.