bsczar1
02-13-2012, 12:48 AM
Well, I finally done did it. After somewhere between 1.5-2 months of reading and collecting supplies I smelted down about 15 lbs of scuba lead today just so I'd have something to put in my Lee 10# pot. I only fluxed once with sawdust. I wasn't quite sure when the dross stopped and I was just getting skinned over lead, so I didn't work it too much, I just did enough to have a learning experience of casting 10 lead muffins. There are still two muffins in the tin because they didn't want to come out. I'll use the torch to melt them out (loosen them up) when I'm ready.
I then put 3 muffins into my casting pot-just pure lead-no tin. This whole exercise was just to get the movement down of filling, breaking, dumping, and repeat, as well as get a feel for pouring, to play with the temperature control, and observe how mold temperature affects the boolits. Everything I did tonight went back into the pot. I used a 2-cavity Lee 452-190-SWC. Without the tin I had some issues with fill out, but I learned a lot today. At first I had a few that I didn't even fill completely, in other words I stopped short. I noticed that as the mold got hotter it started filling out better, and they looked so-so, but they never really got perfect. I didn't really expect it to without tin. At one point the lead was at 760*, but I found a setting that kept it at about 660*. I also just used the mold as I got it (it's an older used mold), so perhaps cleaning it could help.
All-in-all it was a good experience today, I do have a pewter belt buckle to melt down so I can put portions of it in to make a better alloy, but I figured I'd play around a little bit to get my form down, and then I can get serious about function. Thanks to this site I was somewhat confident that I could do it without ever seeing it done in person, but as with everything it will still be a continuous learning experience.
I then put 3 muffins into my casting pot-just pure lead-no tin. This whole exercise was just to get the movement down of filling, breaking, dumping, and repeat, as well as get a feel for pouring, to play with the temperature control, and observe how mold temperature affects the boolits. Everything I did tonight went back into the pot. I used a 2-cavity Lee 452-190-SWC. Without the tin I had some issues with fill out, but I learned a lot today. At first I had a few that I didn't even fill completely, in other words I stopped short. I noticed that as the mold got hotter it started filling out better, and they looked so-so, but they never really got perfect. I didn't really expect it to without tin. At one point the lead was at 760*, but I found a setting that kept it at about 660*. I also just used the mold as I got it (it's an older used mold), so perhaps cleaning it could help.
All-in-all it was a good experience today, I do have a pewter belt buckle to melt down so I can put portions of it in to make a better alloy, but I figured I'd play around a little bit to get my form down, and then I can get serious about function. Thanks to this site I was somewhat confident that I could do it without ever seeing it done in person, but as with everything it will still be a continuous learning experience.