Do's and Don'ts

[04heritage]

Biggest question is Smoke the Mold?

[ghh3rd]

what do you mean by lube and smoke the mold?

04heritage -

By smoking the mold I mean putting a layer of soot in the mold cavities. My choice instrument for this is my bic lighter. I open the mold, light the bic and pass it back and forth under each of the cavities for several seconds until they have a nice black layer of soot in them. This helps the boolits drop out easily. I repeat this as needed while casting - perhaps after 100 boolits come out a cavitiy.

You want to lube the sprue plate hinge to keep it working smoothly and wear free. My choice of lubricants is Bull Shop lube. I dab about 1/2 of the cotton of a q-tip into it, and then squeeze most of that back into the bottle. Then I press it against the sprue plate screw where the plate meets the mold and let some of what's left on the q-tip it seep into the 'hinge'. The rest of what's on the q-tip is used to lubricate under the sprue plate and to lubricate the places inside of the mold that mesh together when the mold is closed.

Since I'm sort of new at this myself (2 molds and perhaps around 1500 boolits cast in 5-6 sessions), I welcome anyone else who's more experienced to chime in and correct anything I've said or add something to it.

Randy

[snaggdit]

The instructions say to fill the mold (with lead, of course), open the sprue plate and then using the q-tip wetted as described wipe a layer on the top of the mold and the bottom of the sprue plate. Then, use the dry end and wipe it off. I also use the wetted end to lube the aligning pins (on the inside faces of the mold), taking care to keep it away from the cavities.

[madman]

I have not seen it yet but here goes READY here it comes.DO HAVE FUN!!

[Beekeeper]

hooserlogger,
What do you mean you can't chew tobacco while casting?
How else are you going to cool the mould when it gets too hot.
Sides baccer smells good on the fire.

beekeeper

[qajaq59]

Do read all the classics and sticky's even if they don't seem to apply directly to what you are doing right now, they often have many gems in the threads.

I'll definitely go along with this one. The books have the information that you need in order to cast, but the old posts have a ton of the little hints that make it soooo much easier.

[Whitespider]

DO NOT pick up that pretty, shimmering, new boolit, freshly dropped from your mold, to admire your prowess with molten lead, WITH YOUR BARE FINGERS!!!!

Damn, I wish I could learn that one; I just did it AGAIN last night!