mozeppa
09-23-2014, 10:01 PM
wife and i love to shoot...I think her more than me, as i like to reload more.
up til very recently i've been reloading pre cast boolits, FMJ's, TMJ's, XTP's, XTP's Plated....abc's , 123 and eieio's
never thought much about casting my own ....til lately!
bought a pot.
acquired 300 pounds of ww
and 400 pounds lino
all the tools ...implements baubles, bangles and beads that goes with it.
studied up...asked others lotza questions...watched a lot of youtube ...watched some cartoons too.
now what molds to buy?
i went cheap , and bought lee 6 bangers.
so last week i fired up my pot with the new fangled "pid" attached to it. (amazing thing it is!)
loaded it with lead.
heated up my new hot plate.
whipped out my newly smoked 9mm Lee 6 banger mold.
then held my breath.
and poured........not good
took a while to get into a cadence ...but when the mold got up to temp...some boolits wern't too bad.
many went back in.
after i got a sizable number that was acceptable ...i switched to 45 colt 255 gn. rfn profile.
man!... those were ugly wrinkled abominations!
after fooling with the lead temp...the hot plate temp....cadence speed... after about 400 boolits,
i finally got some worth keeping.
i started thinking is this really this hard?...wondering if i should scrap the whole idea and go back to pre-made boolits.
i'm in it deep supply and tools wise....i acquired 9 of these lee molds in various calibers and grain weights.
here's where it gets good!
i wanted a keith style 158 grain mold (no gas check) for 38 special / 357 mag.
lee either don't make one or i missed it when looking.
when out of the blue a member here put a 4 cavity mold just as described up for sale
in the "swappin' & sellin' " forum of our site here...(only it was a Lyman mold.)
my "OCD" kept gnawing at me .....it isn't a Lee mold...and i like my stuff to be all the same.
$70 later it arrives in the mail...i take it apart and polish all 4 cavities.
and on the first cast with it...it made the prettiest boolits! i made 769 boolits in 4 hours.
Lymans molds are heavy made!...not aluminum...( this gets scratched up with use from the steel sprue plate.)
once its hot, i never hardly ever set it back on the hot plate.
the sprue plate doesn't smear the lead like the the lee molds do..and over all the seem to be made tighter.
were as Lee molds seem to me wimpy on the hardware and looser.
LEE is okay for molding...don't get me wrong.
i think i just discovered that i like Lymans better...damn the cost!
up til very recently i've been reloading pre cast boolits, FMJ's, TMJ's, XTP's, XTP's Plated....abc's , 123 and eieio's
never thought much about casting my own ....til lately!
bought a pot.
acquired 300 pounds of ww
and 400 pounds lino
all the tools ...implements baubles, bangles and beads that goes with it.
studied up...asked others lotza questions...watched a lot of youtube ...watched some cartoons too.
now what molds to buy?
i went cheap , and bought lee 6 bangers.
so last week i fired up my pot with the new fangled "pid" attached to it. (amazing thing it is!)
loaded it with lead.
heated up my new hot plate.
whipped out my newly smoked 9mm Lee 6 banger mold.
then held my breath.
and poured........not good
took a while to get into a cadence ...but when the mold got up to temp...some boolits wern't too bad.
many went back in.
after i got a sizable number that was acceptable ...i switched to 45 colt 255 gn. rfn profile.
man!... those were ugly wrinkled abominations!
after fooling with the lead temp...the hot plate temp....cadence speed... after about 400 boolits,
i finally got some worth keeping.
i started thinking is this really this hard?...wondering if i should scrap the whole idea and go back to pre-made boolits.
i'm in it deep supply and tools wise....i acquired 9 of these lee molds in various calibers and grain weights.
here's where it gets good!
i wanted a keith style 158 grain mold (no gas check) for 38 special / 357 mag.
lee either don't make one or i missed it when looking.
when out of the blue a member here put a 4 cavity mold just as described up for sale
in the "swappin' & sellin' " forum of our site here...(only it was a Lyman mold.)
my "OCD" kept gnawing at me .....it isn't a Lee mold...and i like my stuff to be all the same.
$70 later it arrives in the mail...i take it apart and polish all 4 cavities.
and on the first cast with it...it made the prettiest boolits! i made 769 boolits in 4 hours.
Lymans molds are heavy made!...not aluminum...( this gets scratched up with use from the steel sprue plate.)
once its hot, i never hardly ever set it back on the hot plate.
the sprue plate doesn't smear the lead like the the lee molds do..and over all the seem to be made tighter.
were as Lee molds seem to me wimpy on the hardware and looser.
LEE is okay for molding...don't get me wrong.
i think i just discovered that i like Lymans better...damn the cost!