Atakawow
05-04-2011, 11:41 PM
Couldn't believe how easy it was. I should have done this way sooner! I learned that molten lead touching your skin is not fun. I also learned that I need to wear long pants when casting.
I have a couple of questions:
1) What causes the base of the bullets to burr? I had quite a few with sharp edges on the base. I think it's due to the fact that I cut the sprue plate too quickly before letting the lead cooled down.
2) I think I might have ruined one of my molds. I was using a pair of winter gloves with rubber palms. While handing the hot mold, I accidently touch the inside of the mold blocks with the rubber part, causing the rubber to melt and made a mess. Luckily, none of the melted rubber got inside the cavities. However, there are quite a few of burnt rubber marks surrounding the cavities.
What can I do to salvage this? It didn't seem to affect my casting much, just a bit tough to line up the mold blocks flush.
3) Is fluxing and skimming neccessary if I use a bottom pour pot? Reason I asked is because if the unwanted excess will float to the surface, why not just leave them if the lead is coming out from the bottom? I'm not trying to shortcut the process, it's just that the Lee 20# pot I have is too small on the surface and I burnt my hand a couple times trying to skim stuff off.
Here are a couple pictures of the bullets. About 1/4 would be considered "bad" bullets but I will go ahead and use them anyway.
125gr .356
http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa91/atakawow/FirstCast9mm.jpg
200gr .452
http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa91/atakawow/FirstCast45acp.jpg
I have a couple of questions:
1) What causes the base of the bullets to burr? I had quite a few with sharp edges on the base. I think it's due to the fact that I cut the sprue plate too quickly before letting the lead cooled down.
2) I think I might have ruined one of my molds. I was using a pair of winter gloves with rubber palms. While handing the hot mold, I accidently touch the inside of the mold blocks with the rubber part, causing the rubber to melt and made a mess. Luckily, none of the melted rubber got inside the cavities. However, there are quite a few of burnt rubber marks surrounding the cavities.
What can I do to salvage this? It didn't seem to affect my casting much, just a bit tough to line up the mold blocks flush.
3) Is fluxing and skimming neccessary if I use a bottom pour pot? Reason I asked is because if the unwanted excess will float to the surface, why not just leave them if the lead is coming out from the bottom? I'm not trying to shortcut the process, it's just that the Lee 20# pot I have is too small on the surface and I burnt my hand a couple times trying to skim stuff off.
Here are a couple pictures of the bullets. About 1/4 would be considered "bad" bullets but I will go ahead and use them anyway.
125gr .356
http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa91/atakawow/FirstCast9mm.jpg
200gr .452
http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa91/atakawow/FirstCast45acp.jpg