Finally Starting . . .

[paralaska]

Well . . . It's finally warm enough to get outside . . . So I smelted coww today - 134 1lb ingots. I'm gonna order a little tin, then in a couple of weeks I'll start teaching my self to cast bullets . . .

[Yodogsandman]

Great to hear! Lots of dedicated casters in your area, it must be hard to find any scrap lead with so many scrounging it. You'll do fine casting those first new shiney boolits, if you've been reading along here during the winter. You don't have to shoot your casting mistakes, just melt them back down and pour again. With 134 lbs of lead, you'll get lots of practice!

Safety first! Wear long sleeved shirts, long pants, pant legs over the tops of durable shoes, heavy leather gloves and safety glasses. I really hate to have an errant boolit or sprue puddle drop into the top of my shoes!

Pre-heat your mold on a hot plate or setting on the ledge over the molten lead. About 400*F is a good place to start.

Start with your lead alloy temperature about 100*F over the point that the alloy is fully melted.

Pour generous sprue puddles to keep the heat up on your sprue plate. This will help to prevent rounded edges on your boolit bases. Save the cut off sprue puddles up and return to the pot to remelt at intervals to prevent cooling your alloy down. Resist the urge to knock them off right back into the pot to prevent splashing molten lead on yourself.

Develop your timing or a casting cadence that keeps your mold at a high enough temperature. The sprue puddles should "set" and turn a dull, greyish look in about 5 seconds if your pot and mold temperatures are right and you're using the proper cadence. Try to pour the first casts of boolits without looking at them or inspecting them until noticing that they are coming out with a frosted, greyish look. Then slow down a bit and the boolits will start coming out perfect.

Good luck!

[websterz]

That's a load of good advice right there! ^^^

[paralaska]

Thanks for the info . . . I now have about 50 lbs of more or less pure lead that I'll make into ingots . . . But it's supposed to rain for the next couple of days, so I'll get back to work when the weather cooperates . . .