kooldecker
04-24-2011, 09:04 AM
Let me please start with a "Thank You " to all of you out there that generously post your knowledge, trials , successes , and dreams on this page. If it were not for this page, and this page alone, i would not be casting today and i thank you all! I have "lurked" on here for a while now and hesitated to post because well.....there is just so much on here to read and absorb! By the way the wife already hates you guys lol. So let me start with my story, after the purchase of a 1911, it was apparent very quickly that i would need to start this addiction to feed the 1911 addiction. Much to my suprise, looking in a box of my brothers old stuff he left me that i hadnt sifted through in about 15 years was not only a beauty of a lyman 61 furnace, but a Lyman .45 200 gr SWC (you know the one!) mold , a 450 lubrasizer and a .38 mold as well! Holy **** i was in business! I even had a tub of 45 bullets he must have cast 30 years ago! So i began by melting them down , i knew they were clean and the right alloy so i figured i would start there, smelting would come later when i got my WW at least for now i knew i could work on the molding aspect and then i figured it would be easier to pick out smelting problems after casting some with known clean lead. Started out and had the typical cold mold results, at this point i was really just fooling around to get used to the whole setup and trying to get some of the common problems out of the way, once things heated up they were churning out like butter. I stopped and shut down, to go through the new children and critique my work. The bullets themselves looked great (i thought...pics later when i learn to post them lol) but my mold had a blue tinge to it once it had cooled down. Now i remember heating metal as a kid almost glowing and it leaving it bluish in hue. I am hoping i have not damaged my mold here, and i am wondering if there IS too hot of a mold and what are the signs i can look for ? I have read Bruces technique with the wet rag, and i have seen some of your setups with a small fan for the mold. I have also seen the hotplate for the mold. Is the hotplate to get it started? Then switch to the fan or rag? Any help I could get would be GREAT!