Help! What am I doing wrong.

[Velosa]

Hi all.

I'm new to casting, and have run into a little trouble. I have an old Winchester 1885 chambered in 32 Ideal, and it has a slightly oversized bore. Long story short, I had to have a custom mold made by Mountain Molds (aluminum), to cast a 150 grain, .328 cast boolit. I've got a Lee Pro 20lb pot and I'm using wheel weights. The first time I tried casting, I used a ladle and hand poured the boolits despite the bottom pour feature on the Lee pot. That first time out, I cast 100 perfect boolits, and the rifle shoots them wonderfully. This must have been beginners luck, because the past 3 times I've tried casting, the boolits look like this:

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x294/velosareeser/IMG_0012_zps71a54e35.jpg (http://s184.photobucket.com/user/velosareeser/media/IMG_0012_zps71a54e35.jpg.html)

I've tried hand pouring, using the bottom pour feature. I've tried casting at different temperatures. I've tried hot, medium, and cold temps on my mold. I've tried to duplicate exactly what I did before. In summary, I've tried everything that I can think of and I always get the same result.

Can anyone take a look at the boolit and diagnose the problem.

Thanks in advance for the help.

Andy

[supv26]

Cold mold!! Get your mold a lot hotter and they'll "iron" out.

[Velosa]

Any advise on how best to get the mold a lot hotter. I've just been sitting it on the rim of the pot.

[littlejack]

Velosa:
Welcome to the CastBolits.
I warm my molds up on the kitchen stove burner element. Just set them on the element while your lead is melting. Medium setting will be fine. This will solve your problem. If you still have wrinkles, you may want to turn the heat up on your lead.
Regards
Jack

[Velosa]

Thanks LittleJack. Is it also OK to dip the entire mold down into the lead?

[docone31]

Stick the corner in the melt. When the lead falls off it is ready.
Definately a cold mold. They will fire, but I like mine crisp.

[Velosa]

Thanks for the help! I'll give it a try.

[dmclark523]

Here's how I heat my molds up: Open the sprue plate all the way, close the mold nice and tight, and dip the end about half an inch into the molten pot for 30 seconds. You'll know it's getting to the right temp when the lead is no longer sticking on the mold.

As long as you don't open your mold while in the pot, nothing will get inside and a quick wipe will take care of any small particles that you don't come off when you pull it out.

Best of luck!

[supv26]

I usually just put the corner of the mold into the melt for about 30 seconds to a minute and it should be hot enough..................... OR you could do like I did today...........
I was breaking in a BRAND NEW mold and dropped the mold into a full pot!! I had already started heating it up so it wasn't cold but it almost submerged it in the melt and solidified a hunk of lead around it! I thought I ruined it but after I was able to get the huge hunk of lead off of it the thing ran great!!!! :veryconfu

[Le Loup Solitaire]

Wrinkled bullets come from a mold that (still)has some oil,wax or other hydrocarbon based ingredient in it, OR not enough heat- temp in the melt. Assuming that your mold is really clean the the culprit is too low temp. Run it up until you get the beginning of frosty looking bullets and then back it down some. You can preheat the mold on a hot plate or an electric stove burner set to medium for about 20 minutes an/ or follow previous advice to dip a corner of the blocks in the melt that is hot enough. Don't worry if you have a frosted bullet...it'll shoot just as good as a non-frosted one. Some people get jittery about frosting, but it can be removed with a quick turn of #0000 steel wool and it'll look wonderful. But who needs the extra work so set things blow the frost level and your bullet fillout will be fine. Aluminum mold blocks work fine, but aluminum gets rid of heat faster than iron so they have to be run somewhat hotter and casting has to be done a bit faster. It doesn't matter whether you ladle/dipper cast or bottom pour..the results can be good/perfect either way so use the method that you are comfortable with. Just make sure that your alloy is clean and it plus your mold are hot enough, your rhythm is consistent; watch the bullet quality and not the clock. Its all about practice...a little patience and cussing also helps. LLS

[cbrick]

Here's a 4 cav MP mold sitting in the mold oven. The probe on the right side of the aluminum plate is for the NOE digital thermometer (turned off in this photo). The aluminum plate is for distributing heat evenly and the electric box is to help hold heat and keep air currents off the mold.

The two machine screws you can see next to the mold handles are for holding molds such as RCBS & Lyman 2 cavs flat on the plate & are screwed in or out for each mold height, the 4 cav brass mold is heavy enough it sits flat all by itself.

Rick

68144

[CobraMan]

Hi all.

I'm new to casting, and have run into a little trouble. I have an old Winchester 1885 chambered in 32 Ideal, and it has a slightly oversized bore. Long story short, I had to have a custom mold made by Mountain Molds (aluminum), to cast a 150 grain, .328 cast boolit. I've got a Lee Pro 20lb pot and I'm using wheel weights. The first time I tried casting, I used a ladle and hand poured the boolits despite the bottom pour feature on the Lee pot. That first time out, I cast 100 perfect boolits, and the rifle shoots them wonderfully. This must have been beginners luck, because the past 3 times I've tried casting, the boolits look like this:

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x294/velosareeser/IMG_0012_zps71a54e35.jpg (http://s184.photobucket.com/user/velosareeser/media/IMG_0012_zps71a54e35.jpg.html)

I've tried hand pouring, using the bottom pour feature. I've tried casting at different temperatures. I've tried hot, medium, and cold temps on my mold. I've tried to duplicate exactly what I did before. In summary, I've tried everything that I can think of and I always get the same result.

Can anyone take a look at the boolit and diagnose the problem.

Thanks in advance for the help.

Andy

Even tho I am a newbie BOOLIT BUB on this site I have 40 years experience pouring lead. In the last month, my very 1st time with casting BOOLITS, I started pouring 45 acp BOOLITS which came out perfect due to the fact that I received the best information available on the face of this earth for pouring boolits from this SITE. TWO very extremely important steps for pouring PERFECT BOOLITS. 1. Your mold has to be clean. 2. Mold temperature. I believe your mold has some contaminants in it, (oil, wax, something). 1st., Go to a St. Vincent Depaul Store or some donation center and pick up a single 110 volt electric hotplate for $3-$5 dollars. I actually went to a Walmart store and bought a new one for $14.00, I like the solid metal plate burner versus the coil style. Get your lead up to temp. Turn on your hotplate on the medium setting. Now, Take a toothbrush and rubbing alcohol and scrub and clean your mold. Let your mold air dry for 10 minutes. Set your mold on the hotplate and PREHEAT your mold for 10-15 minutes, all hotplates are just a little different with temp. control, keep an eye on your mold while preheating, if the mold starts to smoke a little it is plenty hot enough. Start pouring and VIOLA, PERFECT BOOLITS.................

[cbrick]

The hot plate in the photo was $12.00 at K-mart. Seemed a better deal than driving around burning up gas looking for a used one. The aluminum plate was about $2.00 at a metals supply place as a cut-off they had. The electric box big enough was like $8.00.

Rick

[vmathias]

I Bought an RCBS 243 mold last week and was pouring for the first time with a buddy that casts. I was getting the exact same thing for about the first 30 bullets. They will wrinkle until the mold gets nice and hot. You will be able to tell once the mold gets up to temp. They will fall out very easy until its hot then they tend to stay in the mold until tapped with a dowel. After it was nice and hot I cast over 400 beautiful 243 boolits. Once they start coming out nice the addiction begins. Haha.