Am I doing it right?

[Nick Quick]

Watch the picture and please let me know what am I doing wrong. To me, some of them look wrinkled. I heat up the mold really well, I can see it radiates heat when I take the glove off and go with the hand in close proximity. The lead is at 750F. Mold is Lee 120gr 6 cavities. I know I have to keep the mold hot so I try not to take any break or so. But some they are still wrinkled.
Am I doing it right or what the heck.
Constructive criticism much appreciated. Please try to enlarge the picture for a better view. The picture is taken with a camera with huge resolution so magnifying shows great details.

Thanx

http://i68.tinypic.com/erwoih.jpg

[Nick Quick]

Cropped.

http://i64.tinypic.com/15o7yf7.jpg

[oteroman]

What is the alloy???

[Nick Quick]

Straight WW. Nothing added.
Yesterday I casted some .45 LC bullets out of a LEE two cavity and they came out perfect. In the beginning until the mold got hot they were wrinkled but after that everything went smooth and the bullets came out beautiful. With these lil' 120 grain out of a six cavities no luck. And I casted about 150 already and put them back into the pot.

[runfiverun]

your still running the mold cold.
I know it seems hot but the shiny is telling me other wise.
plus I can tell it's a pretty new mold still.

bump the alloy temp just a bit more and keep on going.
the mold hasn't developed it's patina just yet either.
you'll get them to come a dull grey color [galvanized look] in another 20-30 f mold temp, then you should have good fill out.
spend a little time focusing on a good smooth fill of the mold and pour a pretty big sprue puddle, that will pay off in the long run.
your learning a new skill here and it takes some practice.

I'd probably still shoot the ones you pictured just to get a load length for feeding and to do some load development.
the next session or two will get better.

[AggieEE]

Try adding a little more tin. Are you using a bottom pour pot? How clean is your alloy? The reason I ask is some of the bullets look just like some of mine when I need to clean the crud out of the pot. That said, unless you are going after a world record in pistol they are good enough to plink and do semi serious target work with. Guys any other ideas?

[Nick Quick]

Yes sir. All of a sudden it make sense. The mold I just bought it in the morning and I was doing another mistake. The sprue puddle was scrooge and individual instead to be one long uniform puddle. That would keep also my mold hot. Everything you said is damn true. I will keep casting another 1000 bullets and see afterwards how it is. Respect.

Aggie, I do not have tin as of right now. I ordered some and will come. The alloy is super clean, fluxed. I might exaggerated a lil' bit with fluxing tho. It is a RCBS pro melt bottom pour.

I will raise the temp all the way up. Is a lil bit windy and 850F on the knob will be probably 800F inside the pot. I'll try again now.

[robg]

As long as the base of the boolits are good I'd shoot them

[bangerjim]

You are on the right track. MUCH hotter mold. Heat to full casting temp on your electric plate, not just warm.

Raise your alloy temp and mabe add a bit of Sn. I always use 2% for everything.

Still, what you show are 100% shootable! This is not a beauty contest! As long as you do not have big voids and holes, a few waves in the lead are OK. The pictures you see posted on here most times are culled, picked-over, and hand polished for the photos! I have cast, PC'd, and shot boolits MUCH worse that those in your pix in the past!

And remember.......they all go splat on the other end, so don't sweat the teeny wrinkes.

bangerjim

[Loudy13]

I have that exact Mold and it is a little fickle, if you can get the bullets to have a little frost to em it starts filling pretty well. As soon as I bumped my pot temp up that helped. Its funny you say that about the 45 Grain 2 holer I have the exact same experience. I cast a few hundred outta that one and have 4 or 5 bad ones. My six holer is another story. I am a noob but that's what I know so far.

[toallmy]

The more you use the lee 6 cavity the better it will cast , I cast so many wrinkled bullets I thought I had zink in the melt with a lee 6 hole to start with . I scrubbed and cast over and over until I gave up on aluminum , then finally listened and pre heated the mold on a burner now it's a favourite . Keep on it you will like that mold ,

[fredj338]

More heat. Smaller bullets have more mold to heat up & keep hot.

[Nick Quick]

Yes that is true. The darn heat was causing all the ruckus. Now they are coming nice and shiny with almost no wrinkles at all.
Anyway this is the last aluminium mold I will ever buy. Not bashing Lee or anything like that, but that mold is actually losing heat very fast and forces me to cast faster than I can keep up with my safety measures. I'll keep this one and use the living heck out of it. The bullets looks sexy and once I break it in she'll make a ton of nice bullets.
I'll post pictures later.

[toallmy]

Big sprue keeps it hot

[Nick Quick]

OK, let's conclude the thread I started with one picture who shows the truth. As a conclusion: aluminium molds(especially the 6 cavity ones) has to be hot in order to have a nice looking bullet. The smaller is the bullet in 6 cavities, the finicky is the work with.
So, before and after increasing temp in both, pot and mold:

Before:
http://i64.tinypic.com/126332r.jpg

After heat increase:

http://i66.tinypic.com/w2q7a.jpg

Thank y'all for the input. I've been reading this place for years but never been man enough to join. Now I'm happy that I finally did it.
All the best and God bless.

[Cowboy_Dan]

Don't swear off aluminium entirely. If the boolit is big, it is easy to keep the mold hot and the reduced weight is geat for a multi-cavity mould. Last weekend I tried out a new to me .44 200 gr WC Lee 6 cavity, and I only scrapped 10 boolits that were fully filled. I was using my Lyman ladel and the sixth hole didn't always fully fill.

[Walter Laich]

also get a thermometer and check our temp. The numbers on the dial don't relate directly to real temperature.

I've got the same pot and it's set by PID for 710* For me that's a great temp for all my molds: .32 up to 45-70.

[454PB]

Mould temperature is just as important as alloy temperature. Use a hot plate or others means of keeping the mould hot. It's not hot enough until you get the frosted appearance.

[Spector]

+1 on the hot plate. It's made a big difference in my success from the first pours.

Mike

[Nick Quick]

I casted today again using the same mold around 500 bullets. But today was different. I knew my lesson and respected the basic rules. Today it was flawless. The bullets of today where not that shiny but rather whitish. The shape was perfect with no imperfections at all. Quenched in a bucket of water with ice the result was amazing.
I observed tho that after I smoked the insides of the mold the bullets were not sticking when the mold jaws were open and I could cast quite fast.

[Blackwater]

Nick, please accept a little pat on the back for your initial efforts, sir! You've done very well, approached the task from the right angle, asked good, intelligent questions based on accurate observation, and listened to good advice and ... voila! Darn near perfect bullets! You did very well. Most go looking for "rules" and when they are told what to do, they can often not comment very well on what the results were. This makes it a lot harder to help them.

But you took the bull by the horns and wresteled it to the ground in no time. We don't see to many do that, so you've really done well above average. One note on the 6-cav. Lees: Aluminum molds will ALWAYS throw off heat faster than the iron alloys or brass will. But once you get used to it, and feel comfortable with your safety procedures (kudos to you for keeping that first, too!), I think you'll find you can turn out more bullets in a shorter time than with iron or brass molds will. I can go either way, but as I've gotten older, and there are less demands on my time (at least once I get a pot hot), I kind'a like the slower pace of the iron molds. Cast too fast with them, and they'll heat up too much. It's all a balancing act, and what you can do with one type of metal mold, has to be dealt with by the rate at which you pour, and so, no alloy is really "better" than another. It's really just a matter of how we adjust ourselves to whatever mold we're using. Once you get an iron alloy mold, I think you'll notice the difference. You HAVE to cast a little slower with them to keep your bullet quality consistent. Consistent bullets come from consistent alloy and mold temps, and that's another sort of juggling act we have to deal with to get "perfect" bullets that are all the exact same dia. and wt., or very, very close to it.

You've really done well, and ought to feel very good about what you've done. You're off to a very good and quick start!

[runfiverun]

good post Blackwater.
Nick:
you now have a good basic understanding of what it takes to cast good boolits.
you can apply those basics to just about every type of mold you run across now and can adjust your pace and temperatures accordingly.

[Nick Quick]

I appreciate your kind words gentlemen and I thank you so very much for all the input gave during my struggle. Thanx to everyone who contributed to my humble success. I've learned many good basic things that I had no idea about before starting in my new quest.
I was always attracted towards reloading but due to all kind of changes in my life I always delayed the starting moment. In years I bought one by one at slow pace all kind of reloading items. You cannot believe how many things I bought before even casting a bullet. But that's how I am and I will always be.
I read tons of info on this place even though I was not a member until recently. I have a Dillon 550B(with tool heads and all set up for 9mm, 45ACP, 45LC, 38/357), a Mec 9000, an RCB Pro melt, 1000 lbs of WW(collected slowly but steady) thousands of unprimed brass in various calibers, tens of thousands of primers all kinds and lots and lots and lots of other reloading gadgets since many years now. But I never used them . I guess my time has come.
Recently I bought from the SS section here a Star lube sizer and I can't wait to put that thing at work. I just called today LsStuff for an order of lube and soon I'll get messy. Can't wait.

And if you think I'm done with the questions.....you better think again. I didn't even start. I never start a thing I'm not 100% sure I can finish it. And I just started the whole reloading and casting thing.
What an amazing mix of metallurgy, craftsmanship, ingenuity and lots of patience this hobby require. Amazing. I have to admit that I have a thing for molten lead. I'm fascinated. But I also know is quite dangerous and that's why I think safety as a religion. Trying to keep that 6 cavity mold hot at all time I was kinda rushing the things and at one time I hit the pot with my elbow and few drops of molten lead bounced out of the pot luckily not in my direction. Then I realized I need to set up a strict procedure of my moves that will allow me to be fast but with safety as a priority. So I'm learning a lot even from myself.
Patience. I think a reloader main skill should be patience.

I will end up my rant here with a picture of my last batch of yummy bullets. Better than everything I casted previously.
All my respect gentlemen.

http://i63.tinypic.com/28red8i.jpg