New to me 452460 & casting

[475BH]

E-bay 4 cav. Lyman 452460
recycled .22rf lead w/ a lil 50/50 added
homemade pot (5" dia.x 6" tall piece of drive shaft):bigsmyl2: and rescued 2 burner propane camper stove
Lyman ladle and thermometer
I used wood ashes for fluxing, have a bunch. Seemed to work fine.

Alloy temp was at 700 deg. the entire time, MOF I couldn't get it hotter. The burner must be a lil too small
Once I cleaned all the lead from under the sprue plate and in the vent lines it looked good, cept for the galling at the sprue pivot bolt:mad:
Used a lil copper neverseize for the sprue plate and the pins:bigsmyl2:
I warmed up the mold on the extra burner and when it started smoking. I started pouring lead.
It took a while to get rid of the wrinkles, but when they left all looked good.

Question 1- Bullets are .003-.004" out of round, according to my dial calipers ( I know calipers are not real accurate but it's what I have)
Could the out of round be from the mold not being hot enough, even though the bullets looked filled out and nice?
Or could it be the recycled .22rf lead?
Thanks for any replies.

[littlejack]

475:
Howdy. If the boolits are dropping out real nice,(filled out and sharp corners) the mould should be hot enough. Your mould may indeed be out of round. Are your boolits out of round the small way or the large way? In other words, do the boolits measure .449x452 or are they
.452x.455? If they are big, you can size smaller. If they are small, you can beagle, if necessary. If they shoot good, there's no problem.
The rf lead should be just fine with the tin you have added to it. If you are sceptical about your alloy, you can add some ww metal to it.
Remember that your sprue plate should swing freely under its own weight. There should be no galling. Loosen the screw just enough to alloy the sprue plate to swing shut when the mould is tipped, then tighten the set screw.
I use one of the Coleman 2 burner stoves with propane to cast with. It produces plenty of heat. When the alloy is melted and brought up to temperature, I have to turn it down.
Jack

[462]

Sizing cures such mould imperfections.

[475BH]

Thanks for the reply littlejack, when I took the mold apart and inspected it, that's when I noticed the lead and the galling from the previous owner.
Having to pay the return shipping, I figured to just keep it and remember this lesson.
I cast about 100 and found 28 very good ones, I just measured them and found the out of round to vary a lil. I think maybe I should try again w/ the mold hotter.
I loaded 1 in an empty case that is .454"x .451" and it will chamber in the .45 auto barrel.
So, I think for S&G's i'll LLA a few and shoot them, just to see what happens.
Then try casting again in a day or two.

462, I was hoping I could get by w/o doing that. A lil cheaper that way.
BTW, if measuring the cavities of the mold (w/ a dial calipers at the parting line and 90 deg. away from it) they appear to be totally round.

[Cadillo]

When the mold is cold and the handles removed, hold the halves together and hold it up to a bright light or a clear daylit sky and look to see if there is any light visible between the halves. A significant gap is a bad sign.

Next check to make sure that the faces of the two halved where they mate up are clean. Oftentimes a small bit of lead or other contaminant will prevent their complete closure. Also, look closely at the alignment pins. Three of my Lymans were delivered with these pins protruding too deeply causing me to have to drive them back some with a brass hammer.

I cast, load, and shoot that same bullet in a four cavity mould, and it is an easy bullet to cast and gives great accuracy in both Semi's and Revolvers.

[475BH]

Cadillo, I just checked the faces for lead and sure enough there was a tiny speck of lead.
When I cleaned it initially I used a stone on the faces (it barelly polished out the discoloration, not taking mat'l off) and they are flat as can be.
They also seem to close tight (no light or any movement between the halves) Thanks.

[John J]

I love this boolit for bullseye..seat the boolit to an OAL 1.170 and it will feed flawlessly infact I just cast up 100lbs of then last xmass...my wad gun loves them

have fun

John J

[dualsport]

462, I was hoping I could get by w/o doing that. A lil cheaper that way.
BTW, if measuring the cavities of the mold (w/ a dial calipers at the parting line and 90 deg. away from it) they appear to be totally round.[/QUOTE]

I use that mold, pretty well beat up too. As long as you're tumble lubing you could get a Lee.452 push thru die for cheap. Mine works.

[Cadillo]

I wouldn't worry too much about the gauling under the sprue plate. My first Lyman did that rather quickly before I learned to use anti-sieze lube compound to lubricate it. I also learned that I had the plate adjusted too tight. I installed a new sprue plate and then lubed it with the anti-seize (rated to 1600 degrees F), and properly adjusted the tension on the plate. The gauling is now a non-issue and has not worsened. The Lyman split washer will also gaul the top of the sprue plate. I just put a small flat washer under the split washer, which prevents that from occurring.

I would keep the stone off the mating surfaces of any mould. I clean mine with Scotchbrite and Rem-Oil, then clean the mould with brake part cleaner just prior to casting. If the Scotchbrite won't pull the lead off the face, I use a brass bristled brush, which is more agressive. They have them at the gun shows for cheap.

[475BH]

Just finished casting some more and I think i'm casting too slow (mold cooling). That and holding the ladel too far from the mold is where i'm getting some rejects. It seemed if I held the ladel almost in the sprue chamfer I would get more good bullets, but if I held it a quarter inch or so away from it i had wrinkles or the bases wouldn't fill out as well.

As the lead was melting I added some old under sized bullets I had laying around that were somewhat soft (not as soft as the .22rf lead) and I think they helped as well. Still getting a lil out of round though.
I ordered a push thru sizer, if it doesn't help enough i'll try dinkin w/ the alignment pins. There doesn't seem to be any movement but, it won't hurt to try anyhow. Thanks all.[smilie=s: