Couple casting questions, sprue plates and fill holes

[Ido356]

1. How many caster's use a bopper to open and close the sprue cutter?

I find once the mold is hot I only need to use my gloved hand to open and close, and that's one less thing to pick up and put down, pick up and put down ect.

2. How many of you modify your sprue plates to channel and connect the fill holes?

I'm using Lee 2 cavity molds and once the molds are hot I fill both cavities at the same time, the only problem is I usually end up with a large puddle and the sprue bucket fills up and I'm making almost as much in sprues as I am making in boolits. I was thinking about getting the drimel out and grinding a grove to connect the fill holes, good idea or bad?

Thanks for your time and experience,


Kenny

[Yodogsandman]

At least one custom mold maker offers that option on his sprue plates. You can always get another sprue plate if it doesn't work out. Customize away! Let us know if it works better for you.

[runfiverun]

if your opening the sprue cutter with a glove, just slip the sprue back into the pot it's already in your hand.

[Dusty Bannister]

2. How many of you modify your sprue plates to channel and connect the fill holes?

I'm using Lee 2 cavity molds and once the molds are hot I fill both cavities at the same time, the only problem is I usually end up with a large puddle and the sprue bucket fills up and I'm making almost as much in sprues as I am making in boolits. I was thinking about getting the drimel out and grinding a grove to connect the fill holes, good idea or bad?
===
I did that to one mold and it made no difference. How would your plan to connect the sprue puddles use less alloy? You will have the same sized puddle on top, yet even more alloy to fill the trough. Sprue plates are cheap if you really think it will help. Do you think it will improve the castings?

[country gent]

I have seen the sprue holes connected ( and done a couple for friends ) I used an ballend mill and just connected with a channel deep enough to do the job, If I remeber correctly I used a 3/16 ball mill and went just about .100 deep. It worked but really didnt make much diffrence in speed of casting. I cast the bigger bullets for rifles ( BPCR) and have found the vented sprue plate is a good modification. I ladle case and these big bullets need to be consistent since I shoot them out to 500 yds. The vent allows me to fill the mould and finish pouring the rest of the ladle of lead into the sparue/Base of bullet keeping it hot and molten as long as possible. I cast bullets from 400-575 grns and they are very consistant. The sprues remail very consistant in size also. I use a small cap hammer to cut sprues and when a bullet sticks to tap the mould handles to remove it. I also tap side handle to ensure the moulds are fully closed as per Steve Brooks instructions.

[Le Loup Solitaire]

The sprue plate/cutter should close easily whether you use your hand or the tapper/object/mallet or whatever you used to open it. If it does not then you probably had it too tight to begin with. It should sit flat of course, but should also swing freely on its own weight when the mold is tipped/tilted. The question of a trough to connect sprue holes; IMHO with 2 cavity molds it doesn't really matter much for you don't have a long way to pour between sprue holes and its quickly done (with a little practice), but with 4 cavity and 6 cavity sprue plates it seems to be easier to control the movement of the pouring flow. May be just a personal thing...if you can do it without the trough and it works well for you then stay with whatever is to your advantage. Larger sprue puddles are often considered beneficial to allowing for some shrinkage to discourage voids in the bullet base. LLS