tinhorn97062
09-16-2015, 09:45 AM
Right from the gate, I'd like to thank all of the fine folks here who so generously share their tips/tricks/advice/other information. Long before I melted my first bit of lead, I spent roughly a month cruising around on this site studying all I could about the world of cast lead. I avoided a lot of pit falls by investing that time in studying, and I really appreciate everybody's help along the way. With that said:
I finally made good boolits! The back story is that I bought a 1000w single burner from Walmart to melt lead with. Using a small stainless steel saucepan and a cast iron ladle, I was able to melt lead enough to pour into a mold. The issue that I kept running into was wrinkled boolits. For the life of me, I could not seem to get to this "frosty boolit" stage that I read some much about. So, back to CastBoolits and the wonderful search function. What I found is that shiny and wrinkled boolits seems to be a product of lead and mold temperature not being hot enough. So, I had a light bulb moment. My single burner would only get things so hot, so I moved my operation into the kitchen and fired up the kitchen stove. Much to my satisfaction, the second pour (after heating my mold up and whatnot) yielded great looking (to me), well filled, frosty boolits. I was using a Lee 457-340 mold, beagled a bit to drop large enough for my needs. They weigh in at 350gr (ww/pure lead mix) and drop at about .462-.463. Can't wait to shoot these guys... :lovebooli
149060
I finally made good boolits! The back story is that I bought a 1000w single burner from Walmart to melt lead with. Using a small stainless steel saucepan and a cast iron ladle, I was able to melt lead enough to pour into a mold. The issue that I kept running into was wrinkled boolits. For the life of me, I could not seem to get to this "frosty boolit" stage that I read some much about. So, back to CastBoolits and the wonderful search function. What I found is that shiny and wrinkled boolits seems to be a product of lead and mold temperature not being hot enough. So, I had a light bulb moment. My single burner would only get things so hot, so I moved my operation into the kitchen and fired up the kitchen stove. Much to my satisfaction, the second pour (after heating my mold up and whatnot) yielded great looking (to me), well filled, frosty boolits. I was using a Lee 457-340 mold, beagled a bit to drop large enough for my needs. They weigh in at 350gr (ww/pure lead mix) and drop at about .462-.463. Can't wait to shoot these guys... :lovebooli
149060