My first cast, some good, some not, How come

[BACKTOSHOOTING]

5613756138Been doing my first cast with a Lee TL452200swc and im only getting about 50% of good bootits and a lot of rejects and I cant figure out why its not more consistant.
Some the lube rings are not pronounced and others have a horseshoe type u on the heads and some have angled voids from the heads into the lube rings.

The 5 on the left came out really good, The 5 on the right Not

Can i get some advise on what i should do for better fill out and much more consistancey.

Steve

[DLCTEX]

Heat that mould up! Either cast fast and furious, raise pot temp, or preheat the mould on a hot plate. I had the same look tonight until the mould got hotter. Oh, first cast? Clean that mould with mineral spirits or acetone, scrubbing with an old toothbrush, then get it hot. Oils from machining are absorbed into the metal and have to be gotten out. Do not smoke the mould, regardless what Lee instructions say. The keepers probably were cast after the mould warmed.

[BACKTOSHOOTING]

Heat that mould up! Either cast fast and furious, raise pot temp, or preheat the mould on a hot plate. I had the same look tonight until the mould got hotter. Oh, first cast? Clean that mould with mineral spirits or acetone, scrubbing with an old toothbrush, then get it hot. Oils from machining are absorbed into the metal and have to be gotten out. Do not smoke the mould, regardless what Lee instructions say. The keepers probably were cast after the mould warmed.

Mold was hot and i started to get frosting and still had those defects, tried at 725 deg and down to 625, didnt seem to matter. My thoughts were it was not hot enough also. Should my lead fill be fast or steady out of a Lee production 10lb pot ?

[41 mag fan]

Follow what DLCEX said, lees like to be run HOT. All my Lees have to be run hotter than my NOE's or Accurates. Frosted boolits will shoot just as good. try running your pot temp up to 750* and see if that'll help. If not you might look at your melt and add some tin to help with fill out

[BACKTOSHOOTING]

Follow what DLCEX said, lees like to be run HOT. All my Lees have to be run hotter than my NOE's or Accurates. Frosted boolits will shoot just as good. try running your pot temp up to 750* and see if that'll help. If not you might look at your melt and add some tin to help with fill out

OK i will try the hotter melt, As for my mix heres my recipe -
tin - 2.33
ant - 3.92
ars - .26
cop - .02
led - 93.5
BHN - 12.9

[nhrifle]

I had that problem with a couple of Lee moulds too. Then I got their mould for the AK boolit and it wouldn't drop a casting after it solidified without a savage whack on the handles. I got some Frankford Arsenal mould release spray from midwayusa.com and the boolits absolutely fell out of their own accord. Every mould coated with that magic spray casts beautifully filled out boolits too and I don't have to run the mould as hot anymore. Maybe that will help.

[Aje]

Hi mate. Did you notice if all the wrinkled boolits came out of the same cavities? May have some sort of contamination oil or something or posibly a venting issue or a combination of heat, contimination & or venting. I am certainly no expert but if you have no luck upping your mold temp these are some other things to look at. Good luck.

Aje

[41 mag fan]

OK i will try the hotter melt, As for my mix heres my recipe -
tin - 2.33
ant - 3.92
ars - .26
cop - .02
led - 93.5
BHN - 12.9

Heres another thing that might help. I didn't see if you're using a 6 banger or 2 cav Lee??
If it's leaving voids, try tilting the mold while pouring. On the sprue hole, try getting a swirling action, so to speak as you're filling, it could be a venting issue this could help resolve. Don't pour straight into the sprue hole.
The void on top could be you're not leaving a big enough sprue puddle. Try leaving one that almosts covers the whole sprue plate and see how that does. If you watch when you have a minimum puddle it'll suck down and leave a u shape in sprue puddle, which means the melt is trying to fill out completely but needs more puddle on top to complete.
Watch the time it takes for the sprue puddle to solidify, anything longer than 6 sec, the sprue plate is too hot. Put it on a wet rag just a sec or two to cool it down.
With Lees, like DCLTEX said you have to cast fast, 3-4 cast per minute. If not, the cheap aluminum Lee uses will cool down too quick and you'll start getting voids, and wrinkley boolits.
Also look up how to "Leement" your mold, this will help with release and fill out too. Any mold I buy gets this done and the casts fall out on their own. No mold release or smoking needed

Try adjusting the stream on your Lee pot. I believe if IIRC my bottom, I slowed it down when it was full and did a constant adjusting to faster as I emptied it.
I now use a Lyman and the Lee sits.

It'll take some time to get the Lees to cast how you want, thats the nice thing about casting, you can experiment and you don't get the results you want, throw them back in and remelt and keep trying.

[cbrick]

Two problems with the boolits.

The mold is not clean from oils. Yes, you probably cleaned it but not enough. The manufacturing oil HAS to be removed completely.

The biggest problem is that the mold is not hot enough. The mold, not the pot of alloy. Aluminum looses heat very rapidly, you need to stop inspecting the boolits while the mold is cooling off. Cast faster, keep the blocks closed as much as possible between pours, as soon as you drop the bullets close the blocks and refill, plenty of time for inspecting the boolits after the casting session is over. Get and keep the mold hot.

Rick

[Casting_40S&W]

the cheap aluminum Lee uses

I guess the whole casting community would like to know why 6061-T6 is a cheap aluminum?

[cbrick]

I guess the whole casting community would like to know why 6061-T6 is a cheap aluminum?

Not that the aluminum is cheap, it's the mfg. techniques that are cheap.

Rick

[digger44]

My cheapo Lee molds work fine. I use them CLEAN, No lube at all and HOT. Full fillout and they drop easy from the mold.

[Casting_40S&W]

Rick, check out the new lee molds on this Cast Boolits thread.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?175268-New-Lee-9mm-Molds

[cbrick]

That's nice but I have given Lee molds several chances in the past. I cast for the relaxation & enjoyment of it, aggravation & frustration are not relaxing or enjoyable.

Lee has a few nice tools but I cannot include their molds or pots in that. If I could only cast with LEE molds & pots I would in all probability never cast another bullet and cast is all I shoot in everything.

Rick

[popper]

Clean that mould with mineral spirits or acetone, scrubbing with an old toothbrush, then get it hot. bonami or comet work good to get the dirt out, I just use brake cleaner. Just pour some with the plate open & check for good fill out. That way the sprue isn't hard to cut. My 2x warms up real fast that way. When the wrinkles go away, use a large sprue puddle, cut early till the plate gets to temp. If WD'd, splash into the cavity will get it dirty.

[BACKTOSHOOTING]

Heres another thing that might help. I didn't see if you're using a 6 banger or 2 cav Lee??
If it's leaving voids, try tilting the mold while pouring. On the sprue hole, try getting a swirling action, so to speak as you're filling, it could be a venting issue this could help resolve. Don't pour straight into the sprue hole.
The void on top could be you're not leaving a big enough sprue puddle. Try leaving one that almosts covers the whole sprue plate and see how that does. If you watch when you have a minimum puddle it'll suck down and leave a u shape in sprue puddle, which means the melt is trying to fill out completely but needs more puddle on top to complete.
Watch the time it takes for the sprue puddle to solidify, anything longer than 6 sec, the sprue plate is too hot. Put it on a wet rag just a sec or two to cool it down.
With Lees, like DCLTEX said you have to cast fast, 3-4 cast per minute. If not, the cheap aluminum Lee uses will cool down too quick and you'll start getting voids, and wrinkley boolits.
Also look up how to "Leement" your mold, this will help with release and fill out too. Any mold I buy gets this done and the casts fall out on their own. No mold release or smoking needed

Try adjusting the stream on your Lee pot. I believe if IIRC my bottom, I slowed it down when it was full and did a constant adjusting to faster as I emptied it.
I now use a Lyman and the Lee sits.

It'll take some time to get the Lees to cast how you want, thats the nice thing about casting, you can experiment and you don't get the results you want, throw them back in and remelt and keep trying.
Tried these suggestions today and my keeper to reject rate went from about 30% to over 90% :happy dance:
Worked much better with the temp at 735-750 and an angled poor and a smaller stream and made like a figure 8 on the spru plate, Thanks for all the suggestions, This site is :awesome:

[MtGun44]

Scrub mold with Comet and a tooth brush and leave the mold sprays on the
shelf.

Too cold and/or too dirty is always the newbie answer.

Bill

[41 mag fan]

Tried these suggestions today and my keeper to reject rate went from about 30% to over 90% :happy dance:
Worked much better with the temp at 735-750 and an angled poor and a smaller stream and made like a figure 8 on the spru plate, Thanks for all the suggestions, This site is :awesome:

Thats good that they are working. Try taking your mold and recleaning it. I use boiling water, and a drop or 2 or Dawn, put it in th boiling water for a few minutes and then use an old tooth brush and scrub away, rinse, then boil again. Try this 2 or 3 times, but let the mold dry inbetween, so any oils left will start seeping to the surface so to speak.

One thing also, when you use a Lee to cast, dont stop and check out how they look. I learned this one the hard way. First 2 -3 casts, I like to cut the sprue, but leave the asts in for an extra few seconds. this transfers the heat to the mold blocks more, heats them up quicker to the temp the mold likes. It only takes about 3-5 sec of leviong them in, drop them do this a couple to 3 times, then start casting.
With Lees, you cast and dont stop, sort the rejects later, like if you have to refill the pot.
For some reason, and I chalk it up to a cheaper grade of aluminum, the heat dissipitation is quicker then with an aluminum mold from like NOE or Accurate or Mihec.
So when you start, don't stop casting, sort the rejects later, only slow down from a 3-4 casts per minute if your sprue plate gets hot and it takes longer than 6 sec for the sprue puddle to solidify.
Good luck on you next session!

[mkf350]

I clean my molds with acetone thoroughly soak with it then wipe with qtips in cavity allow to air dry then usually heat cycle them on electric burner twice for 30min