Satokad
04-18-2014, 08:13 PM
Hey All,
I ran my first casting session today. I'd like to take you through it, post a few pictures, and get some feedback.
I am casting out of a Lee Pro Pot. I was using lead that came from a recycler and was in 2# muffins. I was casting 1 oz. Lee 12 gauge Key Drive Slugs.
I started off melting about 8 lbs. of lead. It took a little while for the lead to start melting, but when it did, it went pretty quick.
I filled a 4x Lyman ingot mold, and they were OK, but a little uneven. They seemed to not fill out very well. I'm not sure if the spout was pouring too slow or if the lead was not hot enough.
Next, I made about 10 slugs. The first few were wrinkled pretty bad, but it evened out after that. Most, if not all, of my slugs had at least one little wrinkle on them. I water-quenched about half of them.
I had a question about the color on top of the lead which I posted in the alloy forum, and it was answered. I made some more ingots, and they were a little better. I tried moving the mold a little to get it to fill more evenly.
I switched back and forth between slugs and ingots until my Lee mold broke. I think I did something stupid. I was using a rubber mallet to knock the sprue plate over, and then to tap the slug loose. Most slugs dropped with a little tap, but I took a break for a few minutes and when I came back, I didn't re-heat the mold first. So with this slug, the whole cone fell out. Not sure if I can reattach it (I'm not real mechanical that way). I did lube it with synthetic 2 stroke oil, and I did carbon the inside of the mold with matches.
I added a few lead muffins through the process. They melted fairly quickly. I was fluxing with Marvelux powder. Not sure what it did except make a big stink. I didn't see much stuff (dross) in there, so maybe this lead was already pretty clean?
I had a blast (right up until the thing broke), and I can't wait for my .452 mold to get here.
Anyhow, any thoughts, observations, etc. would be greatly appreciated.
One other question; are the slugs with wrinkles still usable? They are just for plinking, test-loading, and not for hunting, so accuracy isn't critical yet.
Thanks.
102663
102664
I ran my first casting session today. I'd like to take you through it, post a few pictures, and get some feedback.
I am casting out of a Lee Pro Pot. I was using lead that came from a recycler and was in 2# muffins. I was casting 1 oz. Lee 12 gauge Key Drive Slugs.
I started off melting about 8 lbs. of lead. It took a little while for the lead to start melting, but when it did, it went pretty quick.
I filled a 4x Lyman ingot mold, and they were OK, but a little uneven. They seemed to not fill out very well. I'm not sure if the spout was pouring too slow or if the lead was not hot enough.
Next, I made about 10 slugs. The first few were wrinkled pretty bad, but it evened out after that. Most, if not all, of my slugs had at least one little wrinkle on them. I water-quenched about half of them.
I had a question about the color on top of the lead which I posted in the alloy forum, and it was answered. I made some more ingots, and they were a little better. I tried moving the mold a little to get it to fill more evenly.
I switched back and forth between slugs and ingots until my Lee mold broke. I think I did something stupid. I was using a rubber mallet to knock the sprue plate over, and then to tap the slug loose. Most slugs dropped with a little tap, but I took a break for a few minutes and when I came back, I didn't re-heat the mold first. So with this slug, the whole cone fell out. Not sure if I can reattach it (I'm not real mechanical that way). I did lube it with synthetic 2 stroke oil, and I did carbon the inside of the mold with matches.
I added a few lead muffins through the process. They melted fairly quickly. I was fluxing with Marvelux powder. Not sure what it did except make a big stink. I didn't see much stuff (dross) in there, so maybe this lead was already pretty clean?
I had a blast (right up until the thing broke), and I can't wait for my .452 mold to get here.
Anyhow, any thoughts, observations, etc. would be greatly appreciated.
One other question; are the slugs with wrinkles still usable? They are just for plinking, test-loading, and not for hunting, so accuracy isn't critical yet.
Thanks.
102663
102664