First major success.

[bcr]

Well, I finally got around to piloting some of the improvements that were suggested to me by members of the forum after one of my first casting efforts with my new mould ended up with about a 25% yield due to trouble maintaining the temperature of my mould and melt. I made a little oven for my mould to sit in while it's waiting to cast, and I put my ingots on top of it to get them hot before I have to top off my melt. I don't really know what the yield of my first batch was because I didn't count, I just threw most of them back, but it had to be around 25%. On Saturday I cast 270 boolits with a yield of 99%! I was using a roughly 50/50 alloy of clip on WWs and pure Pb. The boolits look beautiful, and the fillout seems to be very good! I will be shooting these with light loads of Bullseye.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/imagehosting/thum_154884ff7b2183946b.jpg (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/vbimghost.php?do=displayimg&imgid=5804)

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/imagehosting/thum_154884ff7b23b3610d.jpg (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/vbimghost.php?do=displayimg&imgid=5805)

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/imagehosting/thum_154884ff7b25900635.jpg (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/vbimghost.php?do=displayimg&imgid=5806)

[rintinglen]

That is more like it. Lot's of boolits, few rejects. It has been 44 years since i cast my first boolits and I still find myself learning stuff here.

[jblee10]

Looks good!!! In hand gun bullets I really don't worry about anything but complete fill out. As long as my boolits have good shape when they fall from the mould, I'm good. My favorite moulds are the one that drop round and require minimum sizing.

[bcr]

I'm going to try these without sizing them, even though I have a Lee push-through sizer, unless anyone screams at me that it's a bad idea. I figure with a Mihec mold I must have a better than average chance of getting round boolits the first time.

[MikeS]

Judging by the boolit design I'm assuming that you're shooting a semi-auto? If so, I would say you ahead and size them. Even if they're all about the right size, it's always possible than one or two might be slightly larger, and just a little too large to chamber in your gun. As you mention that you have a Lee sizer I'm again assuming that you don't have a lubesizer. I would recommend that you pan lube them, then size them after you get them out of the lube so the sizer will remove any excess lube at the same time it's sizing your boolits to size. When you size them you'll be able to tell if they're all about the same size or not, as ones that are larger will require more effort to push thru the sizer. Also by sizing you'll be able to see if they're large enough. So the way I see it, by sizing them you have everything to gain, and nothing to loose other than some time, and with the Lee sizers it won't be much time lost as they're as fast to use as a Star sizer, which is to say much faster than a Lyman/RCBS sizer.

[bcr]

OK, thanks Mike, this is what I will do. Except the pan lubing, I'm not so sure about, because I was going to tumble lube these with 45/45/10 and shoot them with light loads of Bullseye. I haven't had time to research a good tumble lube recipe yet and someone on the lube forums said that the tumble lubing would be fine at these low pressures.

[462]

Nice oven!

Can't remember the member's name who first posted a picture of his oven, but I've been using once seeing it. If one believes that boolit quality is directly related to mould temperature rather than melt temperature, an oven can be a definite advantage. It is a rare occasion that my first pour does not produce keepers.

I used a 5" electrical box and cover, with a cost of about $5. Since the picture was taken, I've re-located the knob and use its original hole to insert a Tru-Tel thermometer, to monitor mould temperature.

[bcr]

I definitely convinced myself that mould temperature is as important as melt temperature. I think my oven must be 6", and at some point I'll have to figure out how to hook up an in situ mould thermometer.

[44man]

The little heater is a great thing. I set my hot plate to heat to 500*.
I had the plate quit because there is a thermal fuse inside. I bypassed the fuse.

[canyon-ghost]

[smilie=p: Congratulations! :happy dance:

About time you got serious, huh? :redneck:

[10x]

Over 40 years of casting bullets and I am still learning.

Thank you guys...