ratitude
10-30-2013, 11:47 PM
I have been lurking this on this forum for about 2 years and finally joined earlier this year. I have been reloading for about 15 years for both rifle and pistol, including boolits in my 357 Mag. I have been collecting lead for a year and a half and collecting casting equipment for over 8 months. I have been waiting for the Lyman Mag25 furnace to be released so I do not have a proper casting pot yet. I have scrounged some nice ingot molds, picked up a propane burner on clearance at Menards, added a sheet metal wind/heat shield to it, "smelted" some unknown "soft" lead, fluxed with yellow pine saw dust, and have a nice start to a pile of relatively clean ingots. I have three boolit molds but no sizing/lubing equipment or supplies yet.
This evening I could stand the suspense any long and cast my first boolits! Many are ugly and a few are very nice, yet all are beautiful even though most will get recycled. I cranked up one of my little single coil electric hot plates with a small 6" cast iron skillet on it and melted about 6-7 pounds of my cleaned ingots. The Lee 6-hole 255 grain RNFP mold won the honors for first cast. It got cleaned in hot water and dish soap with a touch of ATF to the guide pins and sprue pivot after preheating on a second hot plate. My ladle is a $.99 special from Goodwill that holds about 1-1/2 pounds of lead and works great for skimming in the big pot or filling the stainless condiment cup ingot molds, but far from a great casting ladle. I do not yet have a lead thermometer and the hot plate barely keeps the little skillet of lead fully liquid as the sides will start to freeze up when the element cycles off. Below are the raw results of my first casts. It was an exciting time and I can't wait to cast more for the rest of my life. Thank you all for sharing all of your knowledge!
85907
85908
85909
85910
85911
85912
In the last image I selected what I believe is the best representative of the lot next to a commercial cast 250gr RNFP as purchased including the partially missing lube. I may be a bit partial but I like mine better. This one weighed in at 257 grains as cast.
This evening I could stand the suspense any long and cast my first boolits! Many are ugly and a few are very nice, yet all are beautiful even though most will get recycled. I cranked up one of my little single coil electric hot plates with a small 6" cast iron skillet on it and melted about 6-7 pounds of my cleaned ingots. The Lee 6-hole 255 grain RNFP mold won the honors for first cast. It got cleaned in hot water and dish soap with a touch of ATF to the guide pins and sprue pivot after preheating on a second hot plate. My ladle is a $.99 special from Goodwill that holds about 1-1/2 pounds of lead and works great for skimming in the big pot or filling the stainless condiment cup ingot molds, but far from a great casting ladle. I do not yet have a lead thermometer and the hot plate barely keeps the little skillet of lead fully liquid as the sides will start to freeze up when the element cycles off. Below are the raw results of my first casts. It was an exciting time and I can't wait to cast more for the rest of my life. Thank you all for sharing all of your knowledge!
85907
85908
85909
85910
85911
85912
In the last image I selected what I believe is the best representative of the lot next to a commercial cast 250gr RNFP as purchased including the partially missing lube. I may be a bit partial but I like mine better. This one weighed in at 257 grains as cast.