Need Feedback on 1st casts

[jsteed]

First casting:
Mold : RCBS 35-200-FN
Lyman 61 furnace
Room Temp 45f
The pictures show some of the better casts, several dozen were put back to begin with. They didn't fill well at 700-750, so I started playing with temp and flow to the cavity. The furnace is an old one and to get the best looking bullets I had the temp up to 800+. Also opened the bottom feed to get a faster fill.
They all weigh 209gr +/- .5gr. Just got the mold yesterday and wanted to try.
Alloy : coWW

[dverna]

I think you have some issues. The grooves/bands are not good at all. There are pits and/or impurities all over the bullets.

Was this a new mold or a used one?

Weight variation (.5 for a 200 gr bullet) is good!!! Load them and try them. Any idea why they look the way they do?

[.45Cole]

Did you preheat the mold? How long had you been casting with the mold before you casted these boolits? You may be cutting the sprue a tiny too early (divot in the base). Also the source (composition) of the Pb you use is pretty important. Did they (boolits) fall out when you :
1. opened the cavities
2. small tap
3. played the drums on the mold

[462]

Your mould is too cold, and your alloy contains impurities.

Clean the mould, pre-heat it (400-degrees?), flux the alloy, and turn the pot's temperature down (700?). The reason an 800-degree alloy produced better boolits than the lower temperatures is due to the mould starting to come up to its optimum casting temperature. However, the pictured boolits show that it never got there.

Toss those back in the pot and go at it again. Don't worry, with a bit more practice, it'll all come right.

[jsteed]

Brand new mold! The bullets fell out at the lower temp. Really have to rap to get them out at higher temp. Preheated the mold on a hot plate. First time casting, first time with the new mold. Fluxed with sawdust, may be fluxing wasn't complete?
I cleaned the oil off the mold and then used a lacqure thinner and Q-tip.

[snuffy]

Those boolits in the pics would all be rejected by me.

Depending on the alloy temp, those should have been cast at no more then 700 degrees. If it's really soft, then maybe 750 degrees.


Room Temp 45f

That right there is your main problem. It's difficult to maintain mold temp in a cold environment. A hot plate is your best friend to pre-heat the mold, and to keep it hot while you add metal.

Also you need to flux that metal a lot more than you are, assuming you are fluxing it at all . That dirt and crud in the lead won't do any favors to your barrel. Use sawdust to flux, if you can't find sawdust, then go to a pet store, get cedar shavings used for bedding for wabbits or other tame varmints. A big bag will last for years.

[ShooterAZ]

Sometimes a brand new mold will need a few heat cycles to really start to work well. I suggest scrubbing it with a toothbrush and Dawn dish soap, preheat the mold and go at it again. There may still be some oils remaining in the mold. Flux some more. A good temp for that mold would be 725-750.

[cbrick]

I would reject all of them, cold mold and dirty alloy. On the other side of the coin, I wish my very first bullets looked that good. :mrgreen:

Follow the suggestions already given for pre-heating and fluxing. Fluxing isn't just adding some sawdust on top and giving it a quick stir, use a slotted spoon and bring as much metal up from the bottom and into contact with the charred sawdust as possible, skim off the dirty carbon and repeat.

The reason they were harder to fall from the mold at higher temp is because as they cool they shrink, higher pot temps means it takes longer for them to cool enough to shrink enough. You need higher mold temp, not higher pot temp.

I'll add the suggestion of using Bullplate on the sprue. Give the sprue puddle about a 3 count after it freezes & then open.

Rick

[jsteed]

All the comments make sense, I probably need warmer casting room, plus look for contamination in the new mold and flux more. I'll try some more.

[jsteed]

After thinking this over, I think alot of the contaminates that show in the bullets are from the furnace. I recently melted several buckets of WW and the walls and botomm of the furnace has a brown dusty substance about the consistancy of fine flour. I'm going to clean the pot and spend more time on the flux. I have the option of saw dust or wood shavings. Is one better than the other? Thanks again.

[dragon813gt]

You should get a pot just for smelting. You found out the reason why you want one. I know my smelting pot is a mess no matter how much I try to clean it.

[cbrick]

Either will work, the sawdust will char to carbon quicker is all. The carbon is what your after.

Rick

[snuffy]

OH!

Now we see why there's so much trash in your boolits!

When you clean that #61 furnace, pay special attention to the valve seat. Make sure there's no **** or crud around it as the molten alloy will drag it with it into your boolits.

Once clean, get a separate pot to do your smelting in. Best bet is a turkey fryer propane furnace, with a cast iron dutch oven. Make sure the fryer base is built heavy enough to support over 100 pounds of pot and lead. Like this;

65877

65878

I reinforced that stand with some simple 3/8 rods welded in along side of the original uprights. It was too wiggly as it was. The LAST thing you need is 100# of hot lead on the ground.

[Wayne S]

What I've learned about fluxing with saw dust is if toss in a piece of candle about the size of one of your bullets, give the melt a good stir, scraping the side of your pot, them toss in a "kitchen match" or two, let the saw dust & wax burn out, give the melt one final good stir. then skim off whats on top. IF there is any weight to what you skim off, put that in with your sprue cuttings for re melting.

[Echo]

If I knew what I was talking about, I might say that it also appears that you could use a little more Sn in your alloy - some edges look pretty round. But then I'm a noobie, too...

[MtGun44]

Control mold temp by casting speed, to get up to temp cast with ZERO inspection time. Fill, cut,
dump, fill, cut, dump - as fast as you can go - do not stop and admire your work - the mold is cooling
down. Once the mold is up to temp - then slow down the tempo, and you may need to even touch
the bottom of the mold to a damp cloth or sponge periodically to cool it a bit. If this is necessary,
cooler metal will help. Each fill adds a certain amount of heat to the mold. As you wait, the mold
cools. The metal temp controls the amount of heat per fill. Hope this makes sense. If the metal is
too hot, you need to wait for the mold to cool a touch between casts. OTOH, as a newbie, you are
probably running very slowly - which means the mold is cooling down and/or never even getting up
to temp all the way. If it does, with the pot set at 800, you will quickly get too hot a mold temp
if you start getting smoother - which means faster with your mold manipulation and stop inspecting
the results each time, so you wind up putting more heat into the mold as you cast a bit faster with
too hot metal. Balancing act - metal temp and casting rate have to be right to keep mold temp
right - ONCE YOU GET THERE. Fast casting gets you there quicker and all the first boolits will be
junk until the mold comes up to temp.

And I agree on the crud in the metal - vigorous stirring to get the junk to the top and skimmed off.

Actually - after all is said and done - they look pretty darned good for a first try, really.

Bill

[jsteed]

Mt Gun44 has hit it pretty close. I was indeed checking each cast and in turn allowing a cool mold to cool some more. I cleaned the entire pot out and checked to be sure the thermostate setting is accurate and now I will wait for some warmer weather and start over.BTW, those bullets mic out at .358 and I was hoping for a bit more dia.

[runfiverun]

get things right and they will be a click bigger.
all you pictured were not filled out properly.
I cast in my shop at 55-f in the winter and have no issues.

clean the pot, and get the mold warmed up.