Brewer12345 hit the nail on the head regarding safety equipment. good pair of welders gloves not some el cheapo made in china ****, welders apron usually made from leather and face sheild.And definitely no darn flip flops. Wear work shoes or decent boots. Do not do any casting when tired all it takes is for your mind to wander to have it come back to bite you. Make your casting setup comfortable and could be done either standing or sitting down. Old coffee table, desk or what have you. Clean all the oil from the new mold with brake cleaner, dish water detergent or alcohol.All 3 work. Get a cheap single hot plate from wally world and use it to preheat the mold. Casting 30-40 rejects from a mold gets old quick. Adaquate ventilation either from opening doors like in your garage. Once you get good bullets coming out or your mold maintain a good casting speed. Gently close the mold blocks don't slam them closed. No need for a wood handle to open or close the sprue plate.I use the welders gloves for that. If melting down wheel weights use a gas burner and cast iron container, an old dutch oven with a lid works great. No aluminum pots cannot take the temps we use. There are themometers you can buy for taking temps of your casting alloys or get one of the infrared gizmos like the ones sold at harbor freight. And take notes and don't get discouraged. I normally size my bullets about 2-3 thousands over groove diameter. Read,read,and read some more about bullet casting, lubes,sizing or anything about casting. I see more than a few references to this website while on other forums. And first thing you should do is slug the barrel you intend to cast for and write down the numbers so you know what you are dealing with. I have a little pocket note pad and write down the numbers of the firearms I want to cast for. And clean out all the copper and powder fouling from either rifle or handgun prior to shooting cast bullets in it. Might take awhile. When I think I've got a clean barrel, run some hoppe's soaked patches and let sit for a couple days. If after you do this and get green patches repeat again until no green. Butch's Bore shine does a great job on copper and powder fouling by the way. I know it feels great when you get good groups and you can say I did this. I load cast bullets for a 1935 Finn model 27 moisin nagant rifle my estimated velocity is about 1600 feet per second. When my 72 year old eyes cooperate I get 2" groups at 100 yds. Less wear and tear on the barrel and fun to shoot. That's all I ask. Someone with better eyes may do better. And after all this scrounge all the wheel weights, lead solder (scrap yards are great for this.) you can. Yeah you are gonna get some zinc and iron wheel weights. Muratic acid is available at pool supply companies for testing for zinc weights and a good magnet for those iron ones. And don't for get the welders gloves, first thing you put on after the face sheild and the last thing you take off. Sounds like a lot to take in and it is. We've all been down this road before. I've found that the collective on this forum knowledge is freely shared so take advantage of it. And since we all have bad days if things aren't working right shut down things ask questions here and try again. Chronographs are great goodies to have and spend what you are able. Best tool for checking speeds, deviations and other stuff. Buy one when you can and when you can afford it. And don't let someone shoot through the screens when you are otherwise occupied. I had one jerk plop himself in my chair and let off a couple shots. Turns out he was a guest of another shooter. The guy he was a guest of almost lost his membership.Frank
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Originally Posted by Kraschenbirn
