First bottom pour casting session

[seaboltm]

I started casting when the ammo madness started several years ago. My equipment has consisted of Lee molds, a Lyman iron pot, a Lyman ladle, and a Lee stirring spoon. That's it, except for my Bayou Classic burner and a section of broom handle about 18 inches long.

So I bought a Lee 4 20 furnace and used it for the first time today. Melt time was as advertised, about 20 minutes. I had the valve screwed shut, but there was no dripping while melting.

I was using a Lee .379 for 38-55 that was bored by JES. I sized the boolits to .378 in an RCBS lubrisizer using White Label 2500+ lube. I am the kind of guy who wears belts and suspenders just for extra safety, so after sizing I did a light application of 45-45-10. Boolits sized and lubed came in a 253 grains.

For mold lube I used Lucas semi-synthetic 2 cycle oil, because that's all my local Autozone had in stock, but before this I had only used wax.

Some observations:

I never had to use the broom handle to release a boolit using the Lee bottom pour, but I have to use the stick pretty frequently when using the ladle.

There is no comparison between using wax as a lube and 2 cycle oil a mold lube. I now think I have destroyed some molds with wax. But I learned on Lee molds, so I guess that's cheap tuition.

I only got drips one time: when I added more lead to the pot. The Lee pot began to drip a lot right after that. I guess the rapid addition of a large ingot raised the valve from its stem. It was easy to stop.

I opened the valve one full turn. I had too many boolits with wrinkles. I think I should have opened the valve more for faster flow.

I got more near-perfect boolits that I ever got from ladle casting.

Lead temperature was much easier to control as compared to my Bayou Classic. I never over heated the mold. With propane I have probably destroyed a couple of aluminum molds due to over heating.

[JASON4X4]

Glad you like it. You can't beat it for the money. I made a pid for mine and it brings it to the next level.

[dikman]

In my experience wrinkles are caused more by temperature than flow. In my case I dropped the temp from around 750 to 650 and got much nicer boolits. (But I have a PID :bigsmyl2:).

[seaboltm]

In my experience wrinkles are caused more by temperature than flow. In my case I dropped the temp from around 750 to 650 and got much nicer boolits. (But I have a PID :bigsmyl2:).

So as you lowered the temperature you got better boolits? Why does higher temp result in wrinkles?

[el34]

A cold mold seems to be a big contributor to wrinkles. But how cold is cold? I've fiddled with a way to measure mold temp, it pretty much worked, and found that lead at 700 and the mold between 400-500 makes everything happy. But that was only on 230gr 45 boolits, Lee 6-cav mold. Smaller boolits seem to get a bit trickier and hotter lead/mold seems to help out.

Frozone www.jconninv.com (http://www.jconninv.com) has a box with a pot PID controller AND a mold temp measuring thing all in one chassis. Don't know how cumbersome it is to have a thermocouple stuck in a mold but it's intriguing and might become commonplace someday. Finding the happy combination of lead and mold temps would be great. And repeatable.

[dikman]

seaboltm, that was my recent experience casting .44 cal 212 gn boolits. I had the pot set at 750 (I'd been casting pure lead for roundballs) and the boolits had wrinkles and weren't very pretty! So as I was using range scrap I decided to drop the temp, as alloys usually need lower temps than pure lead. Result was nice smooth boolits.

[Idaho Sharpshooter]

Very interesting. How do the boolits look? What was the weight spread, on how many boolits, and what percentage did you throw back?

I shot CBA Matches and Schuetzen both, for several years competitively, and never saw good agg's with bottom pour in competition. I would appreciate your' sharing the accuracy with us as compared to the ones shot with the ladle. I poured 250-400 boolits, 215gr 32 caliber with a 3/10ths spread over a two to two and one half hour casting sessions. I threw the first half a dozen back, then kept the next hundred or so before refilling the post and fluxing.

Rich

[seaboltm]

I did not weight them for spread. I generally use boolits for plinking and light hunting in calibers like 44 magnum and 38-55 Winchester and 45-70. Truthfully I prefer jacketed bullets for serious accuracy or hunting work. I did not cast many, about 56 as I only have 50 38-55 cases. Of those the first 6 were not so good as the mold was brand new, so I had to heat it up and season it a bit. After the first 6 the next 50 were fine with 45 of them near perfect and 5 of them with minor defects but usable. So other than the first 6 through a brand new mold, I threw none back. But truthfully, if were into long range accuracy with boolits, I would have thrown the 5 back into the pot, so that is not too good at 90%. But, once I had things going and the mold was hot, I was getting a lot of great casts. Had I cast 100 I am sure the percentage of keepers would have gone up.

[bangerjim]

ALWAYS preheat your molds on an electric hot plate to CASTING temp, not just spit-sizzlin hot. You will get wrinkle-free perfect boolits evey time........I sure do!

As said and you have found out, temp is the key to good castings.

Send me those molds you "destroyed with wax"! [smilie=s:

Only way to really destroy one is ding the cavities or warp it. Wax will NOT ruin anything. It is a hydrocarbon and can easily be dissolved and removed with a little acetone and 0000 steel wool. I have done it successfully numerous times. I use beeswax all the time as screw/plate lube for my molds and never a problem. NOT candle wax or paraffin! Haven't ruined a one yet!

banger