My First Cast Boolits!!!A few questions??

[rbertalotto]

Today I received my Lee Electric furnace, a couple sets of molds and a few other accessories. Yesterday I received some alloyed lead from RotoMetals and a set of molds from Ranch Dog............So tonight it was out to the shop, and melt some lead!

Here is a picture of the very first boolit I ever cast......

http://images59.fotki.com/v112/photos/2/36012/9713753/DSC_2705-vi.jpg

I did about 30 of these from a Lee six cavity mold and then switched to a Lee two cavity mold for some 45-70 boolits....

http://images57.fotki.com/v496/photos/2/36012/9713753/DSC_2713-vi.jpg

All the above boolits were cast with RotoMetals Hard Cast Lead......

I'm pretty happy with what I got on my first attempt. I did a bunch of experimenting with lead temperature and mold temperature. And with how long before I opened the mold. After I cast that first .452 boolit, they started coming out with lots of wrinkles. I think I let the mold cool off too much? But once I got into a rhythm, they started dropping with consistency.

So a few questions:

Do you cut your sprew and let it fall right back into the pot?

If you have poor bullets, do you put them back into the pot to remelt?

What about any spillings? Just put back into the pot?

I'm using a bottom pour. There is a thin layer of **** on top of the lead. Is this OK with a bottom pour furnace?

When you are finished casting for the night, how do you leave the furnace. The Lee manual says to leave 1" of lead in it as this will make heat-up easier the next time you cast?

What do you do to your molds when done for the night? I'm using Lee and Ranch Dog aluminum molds.


Please critique the above boolits. Let me know what I should be doing to improve upon them.

Thanks in advance!

[Az Rick]

Those bullets look good! Fine Job. I cut my sprews off and then add them back after I get a few but am concentrating on only adding lead to the pot, add the rejects at the same time. You want to be careful not to splash lead. I leave quite a bit of lead in my pot, half full sometimes, but it's good to leave enough to cover the spout and stopper.

Best, Rick

[rbertalotto]

Thanks Rick.........

BTW, no one told me that if you add wax to the lead to flux it, it goes up in a huge ball of flames!!!!!!!!

I was using my dust collection system to remove fumes over the furnace and it sucked the flames right down the pipe! No harm done, but really got my attention.

With a bottom pour, how important is fluxing as I'm casting?

[462]

Excellent boolits, for the first time

[cbrick]

So a few questions:

Do you cut your sprew and let it fall right back into the pot?

Yes and no. If I am ladle casting I'm stirring the pot with the ladle anyway so the sprues & rejects go right back in. When bottom pouring Nothing goes in the pot, not rejects, sprues, nothing.

If you have poor bullets, do you put them back into the pot to remelt?

See above.

What about any spillings? Just put back into the pot?

See above.

I'm using a bottom pour. There is a thin layer of **** on top of the lead. Is this OK with a bottom pour furnace?

I flux with sawdust and when bottom pouring I leave a good layer of this on top of the melt to keep air off the melt. Also, I never cast hotter than 700 degrees, this will also go a long way in reducing the oxidation. When ladle casting I remove all of the sawdust ash, stirring with the ladle and not casting too hot will prevent the oxidation.

When you are finished casting for the night, how do you leave the furnace. The Lee manual says to leave 1" of lead in it as this will make heat-up easier the next time you cast?

I use the Magma 40# pot, when finished most times there is at least 25 pounds left, sometimes more. What is in it stays there until the next casting session when I fill it and flux.

What do you do to your molds when done for the night? I'm using Lee and Ranch Dog aluminum molds.

Nothing, I wouldn't dream of putting oil or anything else on any of my clean molds. I use air/water tight plastic food storage containers that have a snap on all four sides of the lid. The lid also has a silicon gasket in the lid. These are from the grocery store and come in many sizes, the size I use most cost $4.00 and holds two SAECO 4 cavs, cheap insurance for your molds. I also add a desicant chip to each container. I've done this for years and have yet to find a speck of rust on any mold. I store ALL of my molds this way, aluminum, brass and iron. The aluminum and brass won't rust but the sprue plate could for sure, besides, they are all stored in marked labeled containers and stacked 5 high in side by side rows in the bench making finding them easy.

Hope this helps, and by the way, for your first attempt they are excellent. Wish I could say my first attempt looked anywhere near that good.

Rick

[geargnasher]

VERY nice boolits for a newbie!

I'll try to address your q's.

1. I collect my sprues in a pan and add them back all at once, with more ingots, once I've cast the pot down low. The reason is the cool sprues sink to the bottom due to higher densithy than the molten lead in the pot, and the oxidized metal from the surface of the sprues gets trapped on the bottom, underneath the mass of the molten lead, and then that oxide-dross migrates to the spout, causing it to drip and also make little "dross inclusions" in my boolits, visible as little dirty pocks and craters in the surface (and no doubt throughout) my boolits.

2. I shoot most of my poor boolits also if just plinking, but I do segregate them from the "keepers". As for the really bad ones, I put them in the sprue pile to be recast later.

3. Same as above.

4. That thin layer of (*#$@!* on top of your lead is dross, metal oxides and other stuff you should get rid of. Please read Glen Fryxell's article on fluxing over at the lasc.us site, there is a wealth of knowledge that you need to have in a very short article. I'll post a link if you need, but PLEASE read it, it will answer your question fully, and it's a good question.

5. I leave my pot full of clean, fluxed, reduced, ready-to-go alloy, I cast frequently and it heats back up faster if full. If you leave it like that for more than a week in a humid climate, the liner will rust, I don't care what Lee says. Keep that in mind. For storage longer than a week, or for a hectic schedule, drain it and wipe the inside with any kind of light oil other than WD-40. Gun oil is perfect. Don't worry, it will burn off just fine when you fire it up.

6. I wipe the underside of the sprue plate off with a denim rag immediately after cutting the last sprue, this will get any soft filmy lead streaks off before they set, then I wipe the sprue plate lightly with Bullplate sprue lube, top, bottom, and sprue well. Same with the alignment pins. The blocks are fine, it would take a lot of really bad weather to hurt the aluminum. Just leave the blocks clean and dry.


I can't add much as good as your boolits look, just try to keep the moulds hot by keeping your casting pace up (this controls how well they fill out, and the surface finish. Hot mould="frosty" boolits, cold mould=shiny wrinkled boolits. Alloy works best when kept cooler, about 100 degrees over fully molten is all you need. If your boolits are shiny and wrinkled like starting off with a cold mould, cast faster until they get a slight satin look rather than overheating your alloy by cranking up the pot dial. That dross and ^*&(^$@# on top of your alloy? That's metal oxides, and it contains a large percentage of tin and antimony, and it gets a lot worse a lot faster the hotter your alloy is! Running a cooler alloy will minimize the loss of these valuble metals through oxidation. Rely on proper mould temperature through correct casting pace for your particular mould and alloy to regulate boolit fillout and consistency. Three to four pours a minute usually is about right for the Lee moulds, both kinds.

Gear

[rbertalotto]

You guys are amazingly helpful to a newbie! THANKS.........

I've read (and re-read) Glenn's article. I'm going to incorporate some of his methods next time I cast.

I hadn't thought about what adding the sprew back to the pot could do. I'll hold it aside and add at the end and then flux before I shut the furnace down.........Yes?