Inspecting cast boolits

[RegisG]

My new furnace & molds (.356/124 & .358/158) have arrived. Got everything setup and began casting. Cast a hundred or so trying to get the 20# Lee to flow when I want and STOP when I want. About half had serious problems on the base. Many other had various voids or missing parts. I did get about 20 or so clean casts. I also have about another 20 or so with varying degrees of flaws. This prompted me to think "perfect or re-melt if ANY flaw?". So, below is a photo of various flaws and I would like some help determining usable or not (for simple plinking/practice not competitive). I have numbered them so it would be easy to discuss specific flaws. For example, if #3 & #4 did not have the lateral defect near their bases would the rest of these defects be usable? How about #11 or #8? The base on all of these are flat and clean. Re-melt all or?

142295

Appreciate any tips on this.
Regis

[RobS]

The base is the most important part of the boolit............it's the steering wheel. All those will shoot ok I reckon however I would simply recast them as it's going to give you more practice. It looks like your molds are a little cold yet so either pick up your casting tempo/rate or turn up the alloy temperature. If you were having problems with the Lee 20# pot's bottom pour spout freezing on you then I'm thinking you just need a bit more alloy temp. Also make sure to not look at the boolits all the time when they drop from the mold as it will slow you down allowing the mold to cool to much. You are close!

[Alexn20]

If I were you I would throw all back in the pot and re-melt. Looks to me your mold isn't up to proper temp. Get more heat to your mold and those wrinkles should go away. Also when pouring make sure to pour continuously (#10 & 11 show indications of stopping and starting while pouring). Try and avoid stop and start. Pour the lead till it fills the cavity and has a nickel sized sprue on top. This will help the base fill out. As stated above the most important part (IMO) is the base of the bullet. You want sharp, crisp edges and reject rounded bases.

If I don't pre-heat my mold I will get wrinkles on my boolits for the first 20 - 40 casts. I just dump those back in the pot once I start getting decent slugs.

Practice makes perfect!

[RegisG]

I appreciate the input. I did have trouble getting the 2 cavity 158gr mold hot enough. I don't think that I got any excellent ones from it. I had lot easier time heating and filling the 6 cavity 124gr. I was able to get it in a bit of rhythm on the 6 cavity. I do know that I need practice and I plan on doing a lot of that. These will go back in the melt but, I was curious if any of the smaller flaws were commonly accepted.

Thanks,
Regis

[bangerjim]

Use a hot plate to pre heat to FULL casting temp. Works on all my 1,2,4,6 cav molds.

Eliminates wrinkles every time for me and I get perfect drops from the 1st one.

Your wrinkles are from low temps....the main cause of defects....not grease or oil in your mold!

banger

[Echo]

What is your alloy? If I knew what I was talking about, I might suggest that maybe you need more Sn in your alloy - it appears that fillout is a problem, and alloy temp could be a contributing factor, but so could Sn scarcity...

[dondiego]

If the bases are good on those boolits pictured, I would shoot them. Then again, most of my shooting is close range shooting from the hip or plinking soda cans. If I am competing, I cull relentlessly.

[Wayne Smith]

To be specific, divots on the base and flaws most of the length of the bearing surface are guaranteed throwback. The base defect has been explained, a flaw that covers more than half of the boolit allows gas cutting and thus leading even if the boolit fits. For plinking and short range stuff I allow lots of flaws other than these on pistol boolits.

[RegisG]

Thanks again all. That hot plate idea will help me. Also, the alloy is a Lyman #2 clone from the local reloading shop. Thought I better use something proven before using my own alloy mix (that I am working on). Will continue practicing.

Regis

[bangerjim]

More Sn = lower casting temp. I always use 2% and sometimes a bit more.

Remember: the hotter the mix the faster Sn oxidized. Yet the higher Sn, the lower you can usually cast perfect boolits.

Sn is our friend! Get to know it. As with anything, over-indulgence is bad also! 2% seems to be a very good number around what all I have read and done.

banger

[williamwaco]

Those are all culls. Your mold is seriously too cold.

Cast as fast as you can safely go without getting careless . Drop the bullets asap. Do NOT look at them. Somewhere around the tenth filling you will find the sprue is not solidifying. Keep going. When you can tilt the mold and pour the sprue off like water - after two to three seconds, your mold is hot enough and you will begin to see good bullets.

[jsizemore]

I recast mine 5 times before I got it right. Of course I had to shoot a few out of each bunch to be sure. Practice, practice and only change one thing at a time to find what makes a difference.

[gwpercle]

Don't forget to get the moulds "squeeky" clean. I usually clean mine at least twice and usually three times in acetone, with a tooth brush all over. The cutting oils come out when it's heated and contaminates the mould cavities . Causes wrinkles like too cold. Hot water and Dawn helps clean away the oil.
Don't over lube the sprue plate, I am guilty of this and it causes wrinkles too. Be careful with the hot plate, you can overheat an aluminum mould and ruin it...I follow Lee's preheating instructions to the letter.
Just keep at it , casting has a nice long learning curve.
Gary

[gray wolf]

clean the mold --hot water and good dish soap, rinse well

Mold and alloy must be hot enough for the task at hand

don't look at the bullets in-between mold fills

increase/decrease cadence as needed to maintain proper heat factor

[bangerjim]

Sorry guys................I never clean my molds! Even after using PAM as a release agent when casting hot melt glue boolits. Just wipe them out. Perfect drops when back at casting hot lead.

Grease/oil is NOT the cause of wrinkles. Cold molds and cold lead are the main cause of wrinkles. I have proved it many times myself. You can scrub and clean and clean and scrub your molds with all kinds of solvents and brushes until either you wear them out or wear out your arm...... and they will STILL cast wrinkly boolits if under CASTING temp when you start.

Had a buddy that lived by the old "oil & grease cause wrinkles" creed for years and was always cleaning and scrubbing his molds ever time he had a casting session. Once I educated him about the chemistry and physics involved with hot lead in cold cavities and the virtues of a pre-heating hot plate......no more scrubbing and no more wrinkled boolits.

Heck, I can drip blue 2-cycle mold lube oil IN the mold cavities and there still are no wrinkles, just oily perfectly formed boolits in my water pan. The old daze guys used to use beeswax as a mold lube. Still does not cause wrinkles but will eventually leave a brown crud behind. Not highly recommended today.

banger

[gray wolf]

Just a thought--

Have you considered that while your mold comes up to temp the oils if any present have been burned off.

Have you taken a mold while it's casting well and introduced some oil ?
I think it will produce bad bullets UN-til the oil burns off.

I also think we may find us going round and round with this aspect.

[bangerjim]

Yes I have introduced oil and beeswax into the mold cavities many times to test my theory. On the top, faces, sprue plate, and cavities. There is a little smoke, but also perfect wrinkle-free boolits on the next drop because I preheated the mold on hotplate to full casting temp. Mabe it burned off?

So using your comments about oil burning off, why bother wasting all that time scrubbing & cleaning molds if the oil just burns off? That has always been my "inquiring minds want to know" moment. I am not the only one on here that has found out this information.

Just sharing my research findings for y'all's review. Do what you want with your molds to get the quality of boolits you need. Everything I have undertaken can be easily performed by anyone out there doubting the findings.

Have tons of fun casting! :lovebooli

banger

[RobS]

Some use tin in everything............I can name a few people on the forum that will say 2% tin every time something doesn't work quite right from boolit diameter (I'm not saying tin doesn't help here) to accuracy, to who knows etc. I cast for different firearms from high pressure rifle and magnum revolvers to mouse fart plinking loads in handguns. I do use tin but it's only in my 45 ACP hollow point boolits that I do and it's not for fill out rather it is to help the boolits stay together or make them more ductile.

I mostly cast with WW alloy and with 50/50 straight lead to WW's or some variance of WW/lead. Considering most molds there is no reason why a person can't get proper fill out with WW alloy, range scrap or even 50/50 lead to WWs. A person simply has to make sure to get the mold hot enough to have proper fill out. The funny thing is I hear people say the alloy is too hot, you are oxidizing the tin out of the alloy but really.........there is 1/2 % in WW alloy and 1/4% in 50/50.

Tin does make fill out easier as the surface tension of the alloy will be less therefore lower temps should be used, this is widely proven and I'm not refuting any of this so put the flame throwers away. Of course if one is adding tin alloy temperature should not get much over 725 degrees and 700 or less is better due to what was already stated, the oxidizing of the tin from the alloy. The original poster is using Lee molds and I've always gotten as advertised diameter and often times .001-.002 over using WW alloy or 50/50.

[gray wolf]

bangerjim and RobS are two very knowledgeable folks,

So I would like to say I am not disputing what is being said.
I just wanted to put a little more food for thought on the table.

I always try new information that makes sense when explained.
If it works, I learned something, and I am always thankful of that.

Sam

[RobS]

Thanks again all. That hot plate idea will help me. Also, the alloy is a Lyman #2 clone from the local reloading shop. Thought I better use something proven before using my own alloy mix (that I am working on). Will continue practicing.

Regis

You are using a very popular alloy, Lyman #2, and it will cast perfect boolits when you get the hang of things.