My first casting

[Lonely Raven]

A friend gave me his older .308 2cav mold, and I gave it a run last night under my Lee Pro 4 20.

I tried temps between 650 and 800, and I had the mold so warm that it was smoking between casting. This was the best I could get.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/412606_10150923592777188_504847187_9889164_2479808 45_o.jpg

Alloy was WW given to me, that I smelted into muffins over the winter.

Any suggestions how I can do better?

I also did some 1oz slugs with the Lee slug mold. The first couple dozen didn't fill out, but then started dropping really nice, smooth looking slugs...till I had a problem with the mold and I could get it to close all the way. I set that aside to investigate...it was probably just a dripping caught somewhere, but I didn't see anything.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/411062_10150923590282188_504847187_9889163_1282552 403_o.jpg

Lastly, I tried the Sharpshooter 000 Buckshot mold...but that wasn't pretty. I could only get one ball in each pair to fill out, and even then it was just ugly. I'll have to set aside an evening just for Buckshot to figure out how I can do this better. It's been months since I read Sharpshooters guide on how to do buckshot, so I'm going to review that before my next casting...plus find where the hell I lost my flush cutter.

All in all, after 2.5 hours of heating and casting, I got maybe two dozen .308 I would consider usable, and about a dozen 1oz slugs that are actually pretty good.

I'm open to suggestions. ;-)

[Lonely Raven]

Sorry for the camera phone photos by the way..I snapped these on my way out the door to work this morning. Next time I'll break out the Nikon, but I wanted to get these up right away for suggestions.

[slide]

If you have any tin you might add it to your ww's, about 1 %

[swheeler]

Looks like you need to clean the 30 cal mold real good, scrub with dish soap and hot water. Get your alloy melted in the pot and preheat your mold, burner on the stove works just fine. I can see a void in the slugs under the sprue plate, leave a bigger puddle of alloy on the sprue plate. Take the buckshot mold to the sink and give it a good scrubbing, preheat it on a stove burner and cast away, am guessing a lot of your wrinkling and poor fill out is caused by a cold mold.

[Lonely Raven]

wheeler, all my molds were smokin' hot, I can't imagine getting them any hotter without taking a torch to them.

I'm shopping for some Tin (solder drippings) now. I'll try adding 1% tin and see what happens.

[454PB]

A mould should not smoke, and if it does, it means there's oil on it.

Do as swheeler suggested and thoroughly degrease the mould.

[Lonely Raven]

Will degrease, thanks!

[runfiverun]

you can tell the oil by the similar lines on the boolits nose.
the wrinkles have very similar patterns and are in the same place.

the bands not filling out can be the oil plugging the vent lines or pouring technique.
i'd say a combination of the two.
once you get the mold cleaned out properly,take your time and see what makes the best boolit for you.
shoot the alloy straight into the sprue hole for a couple,and swirl for a couple.
fill fast,fill a little slower.
give them a quick look over while you are going along you'll see which one fills out best.
then work on a cadence and a routine.

[Lonely Raven]

Awesome, info, thanks!

Cadence and Routine are easy, it's just the details from experienced casters that I lack.

So thank you guys for sharing the tips!

[gwpercle]

Raven,
Either your moulds are contaminated with oil, grease or whatever. clean them real good with a good stiff toothbrush. If hot water and Dawn doesn't work try brake cleaner or someother automitive degreasor or my favorite ....denatured alcohol. In extreme cases acetone will clean them. and you may have to clean them more than once , with more than one product to get the contamination out.

The other problem might be your metal. Flux and stir every 15 to 30 mins.
If you melted the wheelweights and they were all clip on type it should be OK and a little tin might be all thats needed. I cast with wheel wts and never add any tin- they come out acceptable. If your metal has stick on wheel wts in it there may be contimination from zinc and whatever else they may use in stick ons.

If thats causing the wrinkles I am not sure how to solve that problem.
Clean the moulds really good and give it another try. If you don't get good bullets after 15 to 20 mins of steady casting stop, something is not right. Also moulds should not smoke, even when hot.

gary

[Lonely Raven]

When I cast the muffin ingots, the temp never got over 650, so I'm hoping any Zink that may have made it in there was pulled off the top.

It was WW and stick ons. I admit I didn't flux in the furnace, but when casting the ingots I fluxed twice; once with hickory saw dust and once with wax.

I'll scrub the snot out of the molds tonight and give it another run. Since 3 different molds gave me trouble, and only one of them clearly had oil in it, I'm starting to think my alloy needs work.

Is there a particular temp I should have the furnace at? I really did try everything from 650-800 where it started turning blue so I dialed down and tried to keep it at 750.

[454PB]

I run wheelweight alloy at 700 to 750 degrees for casting. You can control mould temperature (cool it down) by touching the bottom of the filled mould to a wet cloth as needed. This takes just a second every third cast or so, depending on how hot the mould gets. Aluminum moulds tend to run hotter than steel moulds.

[runfiverun]

with the 331041 i see some oxide inclusions in the alloy.
if you are using a thermometer,then a temp around 725 is a good place to start.
i see some pretty good boolits there, some practice and refining of a consistent technique will get you up and running.

[Lonely Raven]

Thanks RFR - I'll make sure my alloy runs cleaner, and I'll try and keep my thermometer reading 725 or there abouts.

[HiVelocity]

Lonely Raven-

Don't beat yourself up, we've all been there, done that, with various results.

All the suggestions others have posted here are right on spot. You'll have to find your own "niche" to where you're dropping acceptable bullets. I would only add that even though you're using wheelweights, you still need to flux your mix some every time you add another ingot to the pot. I found that this was the one biggest improvement I was missing.

Keep up the good work! I've done alot worse.

HV:drinks:

[Lonely Raven]

Thanks.

I am my own worst critic.

I see these beautiful, frosted bullets, with nice sharp edges and completely filled out, and I feel like mine look like shiny rat turds. LOL

[popper]

Oil and JUNK in the 30 cal. Rt side of pic shows a vertical scar and lots of poc marks. May have to scrape the junk out with a tooth pic. Wrinkles are probably an poor stream - no jokes please. Lift the valve and use a paper clip to get the stream back to a good one. Tin looks OK as most edges are sharp enough.

[454PB]

Yeah I should have mentioned.....

You're doing great. Your first cast boolits would have put my first cast boolits to shame. Keep at it, soon it will all come together and you'll be showing off your boolits to your friends.

[Lonely Raven]

Thanks for all your help everyone, I'm much closer to where I want to be now. Here is tonights cast of the same bullet, after scrubbing the die clean twice, properly heating it, and fluxing the pot every 20 minutes.

http://lonelyraven.zenfolio.com/img/s3/v25/p295610891-4.jpg

I'm pretty happy with those. I'm still not always getting smooth pours into the mould, but at least I'm getting about 60% usable casts.

I just got my NOE K31 mould...cleaned it up, heat cycled it a few times per the directions...same process, same alloy, and this is what I'm getting.

http://lonelyraven.zenfolio.com/img/s2/v50/p37609611-4.jpg

Since I"m doing everything the same as the .308 mould above, I'm not sure where I'm running stray. Maybe the aluminum is too hot? I see what you all mean by learning what each mould likes...

I did get a few slugs before something seized up on the mould again..I think the center section is binding and keeping it from closing correctly. I'll have to see what's going on with that.

http://lonelyraven.zenfolio.com/img/s2/v51/p224091233-4.jpg

Lastly, I did get my Sharpshooter #0 buckshot (I forgot that I got #0 and not #000) to work somewhat...but after hundreds of casts, this is all I got out of it (then proceeded to mess some up by flush cutting a little deep due to big sprue getting in the way). I've never loaded buckshot before...I assume they don't have to be perfect, right? Even if it's lumpy it will shoot safely...just not group tightly?

http://lonelyraven.zenfolio.com/img/s11/v37/p291134738-4.jpg

That's it for tonight...I need to be up for work in 4.5 hours.

The Journey continues!

[runfiverun]

that noe will come around too, the aluminum molds like to be run hotter.
i run my noe's in short little bursts for the first 3-4 sessions then go at it for a good long run.
that galvanized splotchy look on the 311's is from the water.
i flux my pots about every 3-4 uses too i just keep a layer of sawdust ash on top then when it builds up i throw in some candle wax and light it on fire and stir it all up then skim it off and put new sawdust on top.

[popper]

K31 still has wrinkles, clean again, run the mould hotter and pour with more pressure - hold the sprue hole closer to the spout or try ladle casing to experiment. The bases are filling OK, just a nose problem.

[Lonely Raven]

That was going to be my next question...is there a standard for how close the mould should be to the spout.

If I hold the mould low, and I aim well, I seem to get a nice jet that fills well (see the old .308 mould that's working well), but on my buckshot mould and the NOE mould, it jets in and jets right back out. If I hold it too close I don't get full fills.

I'll scrub the K31 down again and give it another run this weekend. This is very addicting and I want to sit up late at night and try and try again till I get something respectable.

My new photos are from an iPhone by the way...I hate the damn thing compared to my Android phone (iPhone is my work phone boss got me), but damn it has a nice camera!

http://lonelyraven.zenfolio.com/img/s2/v50/p37609611-4.jpg

[runfiverun]

no standard.
i built a little box that sits under my magma pot.
i rest my molds on that, it gives about 3/4" of room from the spout to the mold.
i use it mainly for my 4 and 2 cav's since it has two pour spouts.
i still have to line up the holes and give a good stream to some molds and hold off to the side and swirl the alloy into others.

i have a note book on the shelf behind my casting pots that has a note on how each mold likes to be poured.

[454PB]

That was going to be my next question...is there a standard for how close the mould should be to the spout.

If I hold the mould low, and I aim well, I seem to get a nice jet that fills well (see the old .308 mould that's working well), but on my buckshot mould and the NOE mould, it jets in and jets right back out. If I hold it too close I don't get full fills.

I'll scrub the K31 down again and give it another run this weekend. This is very addicting and I want to sit up late at night and try and try again till I get something respectable.

My new photos are from an iPhone by the way...I hate the damn thing compared to my Android phone (iPhone is my work phone boss got me), but damn it has a nice camera!

http://lonelyraven.zenfolio.com/img/s2/v50/p37609611-4.jpg


IF that mould is absolutely clean and oil free, it is TOO cold. Preheat it with a propane torch, crank up the alloy temperature, and cast fast.

[Lonely Raven]

Will do. Thanks 454.

[Ole]

Try smoking that buckshot mold with a couple wooden matches.

I don't smoke my bullet molds, but I do smoke my buckshot molds. That's a big hunk of aluminum to keep hot. Also run your melt hot and try to keep your casting pace as fast as you can.

[Lonely Raven]

Try smoking that buckshot mold with a couple wooden matches.

I don't smoke my bullet molds, but I do smoke my buckshot molds. That's a big hunk of aluminum to keep hot. Also run your melt hot and try to keep your casting pace as fast as you can.

I did soot the Buckshot since that's what Sharpshooter suggested. I have since scrubbed it clean to try it that way.

I'm going to get a good hotplate (I could use it for heating up coffee anyways), and see if that helps me get the moulds up to temp faster. I think them just being big hunks of aluminum compared to the old 2 cav .308 which looks like iron...I get the iron hot and ready to go much easier, and the aluminum is having trouble getting there.

[Ole]

When making buckshot, I run my melt around 780 degrees. Same with slugs. Not concerned with oxidizing the tin because I use pure lead in both apps.

[Ole]

I did soot the Buckshot since that's what Sharpshooter suggested. I have since scrubbed it clean to try it that way.

I'm going to get a good hotplate (I could use it for heating up coffee anyways), and see if that helps me get the moulds up to temp faster. I think them just being big hunks of aluminum compared to the old 2 cav .308 which looks like iron...I get the iron hot and ready to go much easier, and the aluminum is having trouble getting there.

I had a fit making buckshot the first session with my sharpshooter molds. I was banging the mod with a wooden stick to get them out. A pair of pliers is much faster.

If you have any trouble separating the mold to reveal the buckshot, your mold is too cold. You should be able to pull the handles apart by hand. Grab a sprue with some pliers and pour the next load.

I didn't time it, but if you're taking more than 30 seconds from load to load, you're probably going too slow.

[Lonely Raven]

I had a fit making buckshot the first session with my sharpshooter molds. I was banging the mod with a wooden stick to get them out. A pair of pliers is much faster.

If you have any trouble separating the mold to reveal the buckshot, your mold is too cold. You should be able to pull the handles apart by hand. Grab a sprue with some pliers and pour the next load.

I didn't time it, but if you're taking more than 30 seconds from load to load, you're probably going too slow.

I am way faster than that...but then I do have trouble opening the Buckshot mold and have to really muscle it by hand. Thanks for the tip...sounds like I really need to go HOTTA!

[edler7]

...proceeded to mess some up by flush cutting a little deep due to big sprue getting in the way...

Get a came cutter from a stained glass supplier. They look like a pair of wire cutters but they always leave a flush cut on the outer side of the cutter. I cut the sprues on my jig heads with one and they are nice and smooth.

[runfiverun]

aluminum loses heat faster than mehanite molds do.
i usually get mine to the point that the lead in them don't want to cool off, then i start casting with them.
and i get after it and go as long as i can.

[Lonely Raven]

aluminum loses heat faster than mehanite molds do.
i usually get mine to the point that the lead in them don't want to cool off, then i start casting with them.
and i get after it and go as long as i can.

That's exactly what I did last night...and then the guide pin rings fell out. :?

I need to send it in to NOE otherwise I"m afraid I'd muck it up trying to press the rings back in myself.