My first casting

[Silvyus]

Well I got everything set up got questions answered and did my first casting last night. I cast about 500 124 grain 9mm slugs. 370 of them should be loadable. I was 80 % into the casting when I realized I could cut the overfill off the mould before dropping the castings. Is this normal? Other then that everything went good it was hard to wait fir the lead to come up to temp but I'll learn to deal.

[Linstrum]

Hey, there, Silvyus, congratulations on your first batch of boolits!

I'm not quite sure what you are describing for your casting procedure about cutting off the overfill.

The way I and most others I know cast boolits using traditional type molds is to pour the molten metal into the mold just until it runs off the sprue cutter plate and as soon as the metal freezes on top of the sprue cutter plate the plate is swung so it cuts through the just-hardened metal by gently rapping on it once or twice with a small hard wooden baton, like a hammer handle, and then dumping the now solid boolit out onto a layer of damp paper toweling or into a bucket of water on the floor. Once the boolits are out of the mold there is nothing left on them that needs cutting off since the overfill is cut off before you open the mold to dump out the boolit.

It sounds like you are basically doing okay, and with a bit more practice you will get your reject boolit rate down from 130 bad ones per 500 to just a few bad ones per thousand. Good luck!

[flyingstick]

Sounds like your on the right track Silvyus. I bet 80% of my first batch went back in the pot. Just Curious, How uncomfortable is the heat (air temp) in Ohio while casting?

[ANeat]

How uncomfortable is the heat (air temp) in Ohio while casting?
[smilie=1: I think its as un-comfortable as it is anywhere when its 90 degrees or higher:)

On the plus side sizing/lubing is easier, when it gets real hot I dont even bother with the heater:drinks:

Adam

[Silvyus]

I have a Lee 6 banger and i am getting a thin laver of lead under the spure plate mostly on the 2 slots on the far end away from the handles. I solved this by using the spure plate like a blade running it back over the mold. I tried to tighten the plate but it didn't seam to move and I didn't want to break it.

[IcerUSA]

Get some sprue plate lube from Bull Shop, his link is at the bottom of the main page, I was doing all the other things, pencil lead, molly spray, smoke, then I got some of Bull's lube and walla, no, nada, nothing sticks. WWWOOOOOOOTTTTT