boolit problems

[chevyiron420]

hey guy's, im still having boolit quality problems and wondered if there is anything wrong with useing ww + 1-2 % lino for alloy. im asking because i have never had this much problem before and thats all i have changed. i casted about 200 boolits today with my LBT .330 dia 238 gr mold. this mold has been a favorite for years because of it is easy to make good boolits with. i ended up remelting every one of them. i get frosty spots on one side of the boolit that will have parts of the bands missing, and pourus and grainy looking and shiney on the other side! it doesnt seem to be in the same place every time either. i an haveing this problem with other mold too so i dont think thats it. if i try reducing the temp of the alloy or slowing down the casting i get wrinkles and still have the frosted spots but not as bad. even though i took about five years away from casting, i never had it this hard to make good bullets before. this is also the reason i used the LBT mold today because i never had a problem with good boolits from it before. i do seem to have a little less trouble with iron molds but its still there. i made some 38 wadcutter last week and eventhough i got some keepers they dont look great!--phil

[jhalcott]

what temperature are you casting at? is there a chance that a few zinc ww's got into your melt? is the SPRUE plate up to heat before you start to cast. And last ,are you dipping or useing a bottom pour pot? Are you using a thermometer to adjust your heat?

[MGySgt]

When I have the same problem 'Shrunken Bullet Syndrom' I cast a little faster or turn up the heat.

I have tried faster pours and slower pours, it still happens, the only way I have been able to get rid of it is go hotter.

IMHO - The mold isn't the same temp all the way around. I have had it in Brass, Iron and Aluminum molds and in different batches of alloy - WW is the main metal.

Drew

[leftiye]

Chevy, As mgysgt said - probably hotter overall, especially at the sprue end. I'm guessing the boolit isn't staying molten at the sprue and the middle is collapsing. If the top were solidifying last , metal would be sucked from the sprue to prevent a central cavity. If you're using a molt prep, release agent, smoking the mold, etc., then clean it off as this will reduce the frosting, and thus allow higher alloy temp. I use a hotplate, or mold heater to allow me to better control mold temp. If you had something like this, you could turn the mold upside down to heat the top of the mold.

[chevyiron420]

ill try these ideas tomorrow before i change alloy. i have slowed my casting routine down. years ago i used to cast like the house was on fire. used to get some streaks on the top of the mold too. i dont know, its frustrating when something that used to work so well has turned into a PITA. if i dont have any luck im going to change back to a lyman#2 and have another go. i have been trying to save what little 50\50 solder bars i have left. the stuff i have that i think is lino came from a old mom and pop print shop and is in various size sheets about a inch thick, but i havent got into it yet. there were coffie cans of scrap numbers and letters and little pieces that i have been adding to my WW. maybe i need to save that stuff for pure lino bullets?-phil

[Iceman]

hey guy's, im still having boolit quality problems and wondered if there is anything wrong with useing ww + 1-2 % lino for alloy. im asking because i have never had this much problem before and thats all i have changed. i casted about 200 boolits today with my LBT .330 dia 238 gr mold. this mold has been a favorite for years because of it is easy to make good boolits with. i ended up remelting every one of them. i get frosty spots on one side of the boolit that will have parts of the bands missing, and pourus and grainy looking and shiney on the other side! it doesnt seem to be in the same place every time either. i an haveing this problem with other mold too so i dont think thats it. if i try reducing the temp of the alloy or slowing down the casting i get wrinkles and still have the frosted spots but not as bad. even though i took about five years away from casting, i never had it this hard to make good bullets before. this is also the reason i used the LBT mold today because i never had a problem with good boolits from it before. i do seem to have a little less trouble with iron molds but its still there. i made some 38 wadcutter last week and eventhough i got some keepers they dont look great!--phil

Sounds like aluminum contamination, probably from the WW.

[Iceman]

Sounds like aluminum contamination, probably from the WW.

[44man]

Some kind of contamination! Start the pot just below 600 degrees and when it is melted, skim the crap off the top until it is clean, ( Don't flux when doing this.) then try casting again by taking it to 750-800 degrees.

[Bass Ackward]

hey guy's, im still having boolit quality problems and wondered if there is anything wrong with useing ww + 1-2 % lino for alloy. im asking because i have never had this much problem before and thats all i have changed. i casted about 200 boolits today with my LBT .330 dia 238 gr mold. this mold has been a favorite for years because of it is easy to make good boolits with. i ended up remelting every one of them. i get frosty spots on one side of the boolit that will have parts of the bands missing, and pourus and grainy looking and shiney on the other side! it doesnt seem to be in the same place every time either. i an haveing this problem with other mold too so i dont think thats it. if i try reducing the temp of the alloy or slowing down the casting i get wrinkles and still have the frosted spots but not as bad. even though i took about five years away from casting, i never had it this hard to make good bullets before. this is also the reason i used the LBT mold today because i never had a problem with good boolits from it before. i do seem to have a little less trouble with iron molds but its still there. i made some 38 wadcutter last week and eventhough i got some keepers they dont look great!--phil

Chev,

You have two choices. Increase the temperature of your mix or cool your mold on a wet sponge before your next fill. What is happening is the blocks are too hot and the sprue is cooling before the melt inside and there is no draw down. The crystiline frost is because this temperature is cooking your tin out of the bullet.

I choose to keep my melt warm @ 800 degrees) and cool the bottom of my mold blocks. This way, it solidifies from the nose up. The warm mix allows enough time for cooler blocks to get the fill out you need. Next time don't add tin if you need to cast that hot.

[joeb33050]

I think that I see something happening to WW, over the past ~2 years it has been harder to cast good bullets fast. I have started buying alloy, and the problem has almost gone away. I don't know what happened, but I believe it enough to spend $$ on alloy and shipping.
Is it me?
joe brennan

[joeb33050]

I think that I see something happening to WW, over the past ~2 years it has been harder to cast good bullets fast. I have started buying alloy, and the problem has almost gone away. I don't know what happened, but I believe it enough to spend $$ on alloy and shipping.
Is it me?
joe brennan

[BABore]

If it's temperature related, look for good fillout and nice bullets after the mold warms up to good casting temperature. If it then goes south on you and gets frosted, poorly filled out spots, then it's an overheating condition. Mold's too hot and some areas are hotter than others.

I look for the sprue to start solidifying (showing a color change) in about 3 seconds and the bullets are well filled out. This tells me my alloy and mold are just about right for temperature. I hold the sprue under a small, high speed fan for a few seconds, dump the bullets, then hold the open mold in the breeze for a 3-5 count. You can run your alloy temperature wherever the mold needs it for good fillout. Paying attention to how long it take for the sprue to freeze indicates proper mold temperature.

I've had the same problem, in the past, with many molds and it's a sure fix for the so called "Shrunken Bullet Syndrome". It's nothing more than poor temperature control. If this doesn't work, take a serious look at alloy contamination and address it as others have suggested.

[RSOJim]

Ditto for what Bass Ackward said. Wet towel or wet sponge.

[georgewxxx]

The problem usually show up on multiple cavity moulds. It's worse when you add lino to your melt. Lino's melt temp is lower than WW and has a tendency to frost using the same temperature as just plain WW. Try filling only one cavity to see if the problem goes away. The fan/sponge system will drop the mould temp just enough to get complete fill, but eliminate the heavy frosting. Another solution is set your mould down on your work bench while waiting for the sprue to cool. The wood will act like a heat-sink and draws the excess heat away from the mould. When the problem occurs for me I try casting with two moulds and that slows down your casting cadence...Geo

[tom barthel]

I've had problems like that. I fixed mine by cleaning the mold, increasing the heat and slowing the production. Going slow keeps the mold from overheating. I also cool the mold by setting it down on a damp towel. Sometimes, I add a couple feet of wire solder. Just don't give up.

[fourarmed]

Did I understand that this was the first time you had used that mold in several years? Might have been some contamination of the mold itself. Did you lube the sprue plate hinge or the alignment pins?

[RugerFan]

I agree with the contamination theory. I had the exact same thing happen, but it magically went away once I switched to a known good pot of WW.

[chevyiron420]

i started out today by melting my alloy slowly and once i got it warn enough to be barly fliud i scooped out what was on top and got rid of it. at first look of the cold metal in the pot it had a gold color on the top that would wipe off with a rag. with that gone and a very low temp on the pot, and the mold warmed up sitting on the edge, i started casting pretty quickly, looking for exceptable boolits as the mold warmed up. as the mold temp went up and the wrinkles would get better it would start frosting one side and before the wrinkles were gone one side would be real frosty and bands disapearing one one side. no intermediat spot. so then i would cool the mold, turn the pot up a little and start over. this went on untill i was tired out and the pot was wide open with long cool down time on the mold. all junk! i reloaded the pot and added 1\2 bar of 50-50, turned it down to about #6 on the temp controll, where its worked good before, and let it stabilize temp and started over. the good parts of the boolits were shiney and by tilting the mold under the spout i managed to make a few that might be o.k. for plinkers but i sure wouldnt show them to any body. one side of the boolit looks like it layed in battery acid, the other side looks chrome. i have drained the pot and am going to clean it good and make sure the spout is good and clean when i get back to it. also going to fire up the little lee pot and ladle some.-phil

[Maven]

chevyiron, For what it's worth, I have 4 LBT molds (aluminum) and cast with a dipper, but all 4 cast best @ 800 deg. F.* Once they reach operating temperature, I turn the temp. down to 775. Btw, this is where a thermometer comes in handy.

*alloy is WW + 1% tin

[chevyiron420]

ok guy's, i made some nice boolits today and here is what i think i learned. first, unless something changes my mind i wont add lino to ww's anymore. it seems to me it makes the alloy to finicky. i believe i was running the pot and the mold way to hot. i was doing this trying to get rid of wrinkles in the bullets. i now think the wrinkles were caused by a restiction in the spout of my lee bottom pour. believe me the flow looked good but it wasnt. the preasure was there but the volume wasnt what it should be and because it was a gradual taper off in flow plus a long period of not casting i didnt notice it. after i drained the pot and cleaned it out i had to relearn the pouring tech. after this i could turn the pot down qiute a bit and casted good boolits as long as i didnt go to fast and get the mold too hot. as soon as the mold would get hot i would start loosing grease grooves and have real frosted spots were the metal was missing. i open the mold and let it cool a few seconds and it would go back to good boolits again. i have almost used up the alloy with the lino mixed in and cant wait to try some lyman#2 and see if it isnt easyer to work with and maybe plain ww's too. man i hope i got this sorted out and it dont turn around and bite me were it hurts.--phil