my first attempt at casting

[jnyegard]

this is my first attempt at casting bullets. it is a 7.62x39 160-grain bullet from a 2-cavity lee mold. i was using a lee pro 4-20 pot on the 7 setting. i warmed up the mold some by letting it rest on the pot while the pot was warming. i also cast a couple dozen bullets and put them back in the pot to help warm up the mold before i saved these 2 bullets. they obviously didnt turn out well. i have read some forums and used some advice that i saw. please give me and help that you feel you can provide. thanks in advance.

[WILCO]

Mold temp, alloy temp, mold cleaning method, smoked mold with a match, method of pouring alloy into mold, fluxing and so on. Tell us how you are casting and what tools you're working with.

[WILCO]

Oh yeah, Welcome to the forums!

[jnyegard]

it is the lee 7.62x39 160-grain 2-cavity mold using a lee pro 4-20 melting pot with bottom pour spout. i melted the lead and left the pot on the #7 setting while casting. i did not smoke the mold before casting. i used a little candle wax as flux for the melted lead in the pot. i did a pour from the spout to fill the 2 cavities and let it sit approx. 20 secs before knocking the sprue plate with the wooden end of a hammer and ejecting the bullets. the ingots i was using i made using mostly bullets with some wheel weights. i made those in a cast iron pan with 6 triangular shaped cavities in it. the ingots were made several months ago. thanks for helping.

[jnyegard]

i just used a rag to clean the mold. suggestions for cleaning the mold?

[sw1115]

Welcome

I had some boolits come out wrinkled like that from a new mould last night. From some reading on this site it appeared I had not cleaned the mould enough and had left some oil in the cavities. I cleaned it with gun scrubber(carb or brake cleaner should work) and tried again. Boolits came out beautiful after a little temp and cadence adjustment.

[ShooterAZ]

Clean the mold really good, gun scrubber works good...and pre-heat it on a hot plate before starting. Your mold is way too cold!

[WILCO]

Swing the sprue plate out of the way and dip the mold into the pot for a few seconds. My LEE molds perform best somewhere between frosty boolits and quick hardening of the puddle on the sprue. Turn up the temp a bit on the pot too. Also don't forget to try putting the pot spout directly into the sprue hole when pouring, or try holding a bit lower. Molds are like women. Finicky. Make sure you smoke the mold. When your boolit bases are sharp, you're on the right path.

[462]

Dawn dish soap and hot water, a mineral spirts soak, or spray brake parts cleaner are some mould cleaning methods.

Toss the Lee instruction sheet in the trash, and read the Leementing stickies, instead. A properly prepared mould does not need to be smoked.

A hot plate is an excellent mould pre-heater, and the addition of a "mould oven" makes it even more so. If done correctly, a pre-heated mould will produce first-drop keepers.

[GP100man]

I clean new Lee molds by boiling em , dawn scrubbing & all but the best way to get all the oil out is to get it good & hot by turning up the alloy & casting fast .

You`ll be able to tell when it all gone trust me !

I have had to run thru 3 cycles to finally get it all out .

[41 mag fan]

Get a thermometer to start out with, run your pot around 700* make sure your Lee mold is hot by preheating on a hot plate.
Lee 2 cavs like running hotter than molds of better quality or even lees 6 banger molds.

Also do a search on here for threads about casting, look at the stickys and read. You'll be amazed at the info you will come across on here

[David2011]

Welcome! The advice you got is all good. Open the sprue plate quickly after the sprue puddle freezes. Don't open it too soon, though. If you do you'll smear alloy across the top of the mold and the bottom of the sprue plate which can gall the top of the mold. Letting it set for 20 seconds will make it harder to open and slow the heating of the mold. The faster you run alloy through the mold, the faster it will heat up and burn off the last bit of contamination. When using aluminum molds you have to cast as fast as you can to keep them hot enough. Slow the casting rate slightly when you see the boolits start to become frosty and the temp will be just right.

David

[jnyegard]

Here is my next attempt. They turned out better. But, I'm sure they could be improved upon. These are a few of the batch I did. Please give me any further advice based on the results you see this time. I had the heat on the LEE pot turned up all the way and dipped a corner of the mold in the lead to help heat it up. Thanks for all the advice. It seemed to improve my results.

[462]

If you are having to turn the pot's temperature all the way up, your mould is, still, not hot enough. Boolit quality is directly related to mould temperature, opposed to that of the pot.

Buy a thermometer from Tel-Tru (about $20) and you will soon discover that a properly pre-heated mould temperature of 375 to 400-degrees and a melt temperature of 675 to 725-degrees will produce quality boolits.

The numbers on Lee furnaces are for reference only, and vary for one to another, but 4 1/2 keep my 10 and 20-pounders in the above mentioned range.

[MikeS]

Remember mould temp is more important than pot temp. You still need to get the mould hotter, but for your forst attempts, you're doing ok. Rifle boolits by their nature are harder to get casting right than short fat pistol boolits are, I got the hang of casting pistol boolits a lot sooner than I got the hang of casting rifle boolits.

[leadman]

Looks like you are getting there.
Are you working the wax thru the lead with a spoon or similar? Flux until you get no chunks of debris and the lead is nice and shiny.
I have had several Lee molds lately that had to be cleaned several times. I am now using a purple liquid cleaner from Sam's Club that is similar to Castrol super clean and Purple Power that can be bought at Wally's and most auto parts stores. Do not soak an aluminum mold in it though, just scrub with a toothbrush and rinse.
Then open the sprue plate and dip it in the pot until it is hot. If the is any oil left it will smoke. Then let it cool down before casting with it.

If the boolits do not want to release from the mold read the sticky on Leementing.