codeNshoot
05-17-2012, 02:01 PM
Up until now I have been strictly absorbing information here. Hopefully I might have something useful to contribute.
After slugging my 1895 Marlin 45-70, Ijumped in on a few group buys, but when I ordered my sizing die, I though I'd give this lee mold a shot. It came in an unfinished form, so I did a half-hearted lee-menting, opening up a few plugged vent lines, cleaning the top of the mold of burrs, and gave it a toothbrush scrub with some Ajax.
I heat cycled it 4-5 times, and cast with it. No real joy. Traditional ladle casting gave me fins everywhere; bullet nose, main cavity, around the HB pin. So I poured into it, no problems with fill out when the HB pin was hot, so I though I was on to something. I'm sure that violates a Cast Boolit commandment or two, but I'm not very dogmatic.
I would either get a good solid base and a pitted nose, or a good nose and a poorly filled out base. Got tired of making shoddy boolits, called it a day. Gave it a hot water/dish soap scrub and put it away.
Thinking about it in the mean time, I figured out that:
Keeping the HB pin hot meant that the sprue plate was too hot. I was getting pits in the nose ( its a nose pour mold). OK, slowed down the casting, and the mold cooled off too much along with the HB pin. Hmmm....
Gave it another shot today, refining as I went.
Final process:
Got a damp towel and a water bottle to keep it hydrated. Pour into tilted mold, turning it upright. Let the sprue harden, cool sprue plate on damp towel. Cut sprue, dump the bullet. With the mold upright, gently tap handle nut while closing to make sure everything lines up the same every time. Close sprue plate, repeat until pot is empty.
This gave me 175 boolits with both well-formed bases and clean noses.
BTW, I did try letting the sprue cool with the mold on a hot plate to keep the HB pin warm enough, but found this to be way too slow.
Hope this was clear enough, and that it might prove useful to someone else.
After slugging my 1895 Marlin 45-70, Ijumped in on a few group buys, but when I ordered my sizing die, I though I'd give this lee mold a shot. It came in an unfinished form, so I did a half-hearted lee-menting, opening up a few plugged vent lines, cleaning the top of the mold of burrs, and gave it a toothbrush scrub with some Ajax.
I heat cycled it 4-5 times, and cast with it. No real joy. Traditional ladle casting gave me fins everywhere; bullet nose, main cavity, around the HB pin. So I poured into it, no problems with fill out when the HB pin was hot, so I though I was on to something. I'm sure that violates a Cast Boolit commandment or two, but I'm not very dogmatic.
I would either get a good solid base and a pitted nose, or a good nose and a poorly filled out base. Got tired of making shoddy boolits, called it a day. Gave it a hot water/dish soap scrub and put it away.
Thinking about it in the mean time, I figured out that:
Keeping the HB pin hot meant that the sprue plate was too hot. I was getting pits in the nose ( its a nose pour mold). OK, slowed down the casting, and the mold cooled off too much along with the HB pin. Hmmm....
Gave it another shot today, refining as I went.
Final process:
Got a damp towel and a water bottle to keep it hydrated. Pour into tilted mold, turning it upright. Let the sprue harden, cool sprue plate on damp towel. Cut sprue, dump the bullet. With the mold upright, gently tap handle nut while closing to make sure everything lines up the same every time. Close sprue plate, repeat until pot is empty.
This gave me 175 boolits with both well-formed bases and clean noses.
BTW, I did try letting the sprue cool with the mold on a hot plate to keep the HB pin warm enough, but found this to be way too slow.
Hope this was clear enough, and that it might prove useful to someone else.