My first boolits

[CZShadow]

Well, after reading a lot this great forum, and having my pure lead, tin and antimony, I put hands to work. First I melted the lead and tin, around 5.5 pounds of total stuff. They both melted easily. Next step, antimony. As some of you guys said, the anti dissolved little by little, into the liquid lead-tin. Finally I got a few ingots of alloy 96-3-1 (just a little tin, which is really expensive).

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/imagehosting/183244db458d7d4001.jpg

I used candle wax for fluxing (when mixing the pure metals), and after I got the final alloy, some rice husk that I use for tumbling (which by the way, works pretty good). When scaling the final ingots, I noticed I had lost around 72 gr of stuff, that I guess is the dust and scrap I cannot use; well, 3% loss is not really bad.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/imagehosting/183244db458d876f6d.jpg

Then, I got 2 of my brand new molds, both Lee, a TL 401-175-SWC and a TL452-230-2R. I'm not using a melter, just a pot in the kitchen when the wife watches her soap-opera, and a Lee laddle. At first it was frustrating, since the melt got solid on the sprue plate and not into the mold, making incomplete and ugly boolits, I guess the sprue plate was not hot enough. But after a while, things got better. I started to drop complete boolits into the quenching water pot, nice!!
Finally, after making some 100 boolits, I stopped and poured the rest of the alloy into molds. I took the boolits out of the water pot, and... well, I'm not very happy.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/imagehosting/183244db458d9008d3.jpg

These are 3 of the best .45 boolits of the batch, I consider usable, only 14 out of fifty something units:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/imagehosting/183244db4594f9708e.jpg

An these 3 the best of the .40 boolits; usable for me, only 6.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/imagehosting/183244db459502022f.jpg

Most of the .45 boolits look like this:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/imagehosting/183244db4d88c63c97.jpg

And most of the .40 boolits look like this:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/imagehosting/183244db459d91bc90.jpg

I even got a couple of this, but I know I didn't close the mold properly:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/imagehosting/183244db459d99de76.jpg

Any ideas please? Temperature? Bad pouring? Not hot enough mold? I know it takes a while to master the laddle, so I'm thinking of getting a BP melter to ease the process, but any input will be really appreciated.

Regards,

Rod.

[Doby45]

Mold is not hot enough. Heat the mold on one of the stove eyes next to the pot next time.

[stubshaft]

Mold too cold and alloy too cold. Once you master the ladle you may find that you have fewer rejects.

[Down South]

Yup, the mould is too cold. Heat the mould on another eye as mentioned and bring the alloy temp up a bit.
Next time you decide to make your own alloy, it might be better to mix the pure lead and antimony first, get that mixed and then cool down and add the tin. Tin oxidizes faster at higher temps that you need to mix antimony.

[runfiverun]

throw your mic on the ones that aren't overly obvious.
if they are in the 452 and 402 range i'd bet the gun don't care much if they are wrinkled or not.
the others covered the heat thing.
a few cycles and you'll get the hang of it.

[Cherokee]

You have to start and learn sometime and you have some experience now. More heat is needed. My wife would not be happy with me casting bullets in the kitchen, and you don't need to get lead particles near your food, do you have any other options ?

[CZShadow]

Thanks for the comments guys.
I'll try with hotter molds next weekend.
I'll try Sam's words next time I'm mixing metals, makes sense.
I'm thinking of getting a one-eye stove to take it away from the kitchen, although I'm really careful and no lead specs were left behind. But I'm also about to order an electric BP melter, is it wise to mix metals in a melter? And to melt WWs or range lead? Is it better to do those tough works on a gas stove and in a cheap pot?

Regards,

Rod

[runfiverun]

i keep all operations separate.
i smelt outside and cast in the garage.
mixing alloys in the casting pot is fine.

[44man]

Yup, the mould is too cold. Heat the mould on another eye as mentioned and bring the alloy temp up a bit.
Next time you decide to make your own alloy, it might be better to mix the pure lead and antimony first, get that mixed and then cool down and add the tin. Tin oxidizes faster at higher temps that you need to mix antimony.
Tin will help the antimony alloy with the lead. With the proper flux, antimony melts in at 600* and I will not go hotter then that.
I use the Antimony Man's flux and it takes very little.