AFK
12-14-2014, 11:24 PM
I received my LEE pot in the mail today and I just had to try it out. I had some clean ingots of range scrap so I decided to give my pot and new molds a try. I didn't figure I would get any great results tonight, but I wanted to play around with flow rate, temp of melt, temp of molds, etc. I still want to order a thermometer so I can log temp when it seems to be right. I experimented with higher melt temp and lower melt temp to try to see the differences. I wanted to see how the bullets would drop when things were too cold and too hot and what they looked like. It took me a while just to figure out what the flow rate should be to get a nice sprue puddle. After I started dropping, what I considered to be, decent bullets, I let them cool and measured them. The mold was a LEE TL452-2302R. The bullets were measuring .451 and were very frosty. I lowered the temp of the mold unitl the puddle hardened at about 5 seconds and I added a little pewter to the mix. By the end I have bullets that meaure .452-.453 and weigh 234-235 grains, although only a handful. I also tried the LEE 356-120-TC mold and was dropping bullets at .358 that weighed 124 grains.
I have a couple of questions too. I am going to check the BHN of these bullets, but it seems to me that they might be a little soft due to the fact that they are weighing heavy. Would that be a correct assumption? I am going to start out with a BHN of around 12 for .45 ACP, 9 mm, .38 Special, and .380. If they are a little soft and heavy, should I add a little lino?
Anyways, below are a few pics from my phone. I am wondering about the bases. It seems like they taper a slight bit at the absolute bottom. Should they be 100% straight? Any critiqueing would be appreciated. I am looking forward to smelting some of my lead, in a different pot outside, in to ingots and really spending some time casting and learning. I am gonna take the handful of bullets I have now and try out the 45/45/10 lube recipe and run them through my LEE sizers just to learn how all of that works.
http://i1231.photobucket.com/albums/ee516/afkeating74/3-2.jpg (http://s1231.photobucket.com/user/afkeating74/media/3-2.jpg.html)
http://i1231.photobucket.com/albums/ee516/afkeating74/2.jpg (http://s1231.photobucket.com/user/afkeating74/media/2.jpg.html)
http://i1231.photobucket.com/albums/ee516/afkeating74/1.jpg (http://s1231.photobucket.com/user/afkeating74/media/1.jpg.html)
I have a couple of questions too. I am going to check the BHN of these bullets, but it seems to me that they might be a little soft due to the fact that they are weighing heavy. Would that be a correct assumption? I am going to start out with a BHN of around 12 for .45 ACP, 9 mm, .38 Special, and .380. If they are a little soft and heavy, should I add a little lino?
Anyways, below are a few pics from my phone. I am wondering about the bases. It seems like they taper a slight bit at the absolute bottom. Should they be 100% straight? Any critiqueing would be appreciated. I am looking forward to smelting some of my lead, in a different pot outside, in to ingots and really spending some time casting and learning. I am gonna take the handful of bullets I have now and try out the 45/45/10 lube recipe and run them through my LEE sizers just to learn how all of that works.
http://i1231.photobucket.com/albums/ee516/afkeating74/3-2.jpg (http://s1231.photobucket.com/user/afkeating74/media/3-2.jpg.html)
http://i1231.photobucket.com/albums/ee516/afkeating74/2.jpg (http://s1231.photobucket.com/user/afkeating74/media/2.jpg.html)
http://i1231.photobucket.com/albums/ee516/afkeating74/1.jpg (http://s1231.photobucket.com/user/afkeating74/media/1.jpg.html)