TurkeyHuntsman
01-21-2014, 03:08 PM
Guys:
First off...I'M HOOKED! Casting lead is the coolest thing going!
My mold is a 6-cavity LEE .44 mag with GC..model C429-240-SWC. Brought it to a friend's house whom is a very experienced caster to give it an initial try. Cleaned the mold and lubed the sprue. One thing we did NOT do is "smoke" the cavities per Lee's instructions. We cast with ~ 14 BHN lead/tin that he smelted and has been using successfully in many different molds.
At first, we got incomplete fill (wrinkling) but as the mold heated they filled out and we got to the point where the boolits were coming out a slight bit frosty, but looked rather well-defined. They dropped out of the mold very easily, without even tapping it.
Measured them with a micrometer and found that in all cases, measurement across the mold part line was just .4275 -.428" or a tad less, while measuring from one mold half to the other yielded .432" or so. This dropped egg shape of .004" differential seems like a lot to me...or is this common? When I sized them in the Lee push-through rig (its a .430"), the sizing shaved off the high spots to .430" but of course didn't touch the low spots across the part line. I now have GC boolits that are .428" smallest dia, and .430" large. My bores measure just .4295" so .430" - .431" are good finished sizes for my needs.
My questions are this: Is .004" out-of-round before sizing, and .002" after sizing an excessive amount for a .44 hunting boolit? Should I even bother loading these, or just remelt them?
Why might the mold be dropping so small in one axis? Could the fact we didn't smoke the cavities have something to do with this? I read that smoking has nothing to do with boolits sticking, but rather that the smoke is a micro-insulator that prevents the aluminum from sucking heat out of the pour before it has a chance to fill out completely. Might smoking the mold solve this problem?
"Beagling" won't help me as that would only increase size across the mold halves...and this dimension is already OK.
Or...do I just have a bad mold that needs to be sent back?
Thanks for all advice!
Regards,
Dennis
"Turkey Huntsman"
San Diego
First off...I'M HOOKED! Casting lead is the coolest thing going!
My mold is a 6-cavity LEE .44 mag with GC..model C429-240-SWC. Brought it to a friend's house whom is a very experienced caster to give it an initial try. Cleaned the mold and lubed the sprue. One thing we did NOT do is "smoke" the cavities per Lee's instructions. We cast with ~ 14 BHN lead/tin that he smelted and has been using successfully in many different molds.
At first, we got incomplete fill (wrinkling) but as the mold heated they filled out and we got to the point where the boolits were coming out a slight bit frosty, but looked rather well-defined. They dropped out of the mold very easily, without even tapping it.
Measured them with a micrometer and found that in all cases, measurement across the mold part line was just .4275 -.428" or a tad less, while measuring from one mold half to the other yielded .432" or so. This dropped egg shape of .004" differential seems like a lot to me...or is this common? When I sized them in the Lee push-through rig (its a .430"), the sizing shaved off the high spots to .430" but of course didn't touch the low spots across the part line. I now have GC boolits that are .428" smallest dia, and .430" large. My bores measure just .4295" so .430" - .431" are good finished sizes for my needs.
My questions are this: Is .004" out-of-round before sizing, and .002" after sizing an excessive amount for a .44 hunting boolit? Should I even bother loading these, or just remelt them?
Why might the mold be dropping so small in one axis? Could the fact we didn't smoke the cavities have something to do with this? I read that smoking has nothing to do with boolits sticking, but rather that the smoke is a micro-insulator that prevents the aluminum from sucking heat out of the pour before it has a chance to fill out completely. Might smoking the mold solve this problem?
"Beagling" won't help me as that would only increase size across the mold halves...and this dimension is already OK.
Or...do I just have a bad mold that needs to be sent back?
Thanks for all advice!
Regards,
Dennis
"Turkey Huntsman"
San Diego