Bottom pour pot

[docone31]

I have cast a bunch of bullets through the years. I have used a bottom pour pot almost exclusively.
What is the best technique to pour with these pots?
I have always eyeballed the pour to the sprue hole. It is messy a lot. Is it better to put the sprue hole to the pour spout? I have never tried this and I do not really like hot suprises.

[AZ-Stew]

I prefer a space between the spout and the mould. A big sprue puddle is a good thing. It gives the boolit cooling in the mould a place to draw alloy from as the boolit cools and shrinks. This prevents boolit base voids.

If you're not getting good fillout with this method, try increasing flow rate or casting a bit faster to get the mould up to a higher temperature.

If you try the pressure casting method, with the pot spout in the sprue plate countersink, you may have to run the pot hotter to avoid having the spout freeze up. When you put the mould against the spout, it is colder than the pot. Since the spout doesn't have much mass, the mould will quickly suck the heat out of it and the alloy in the spout will freeze. If you become successful at this method, be sure to hold the casting valve open on the pot for a few seconds after the mould fills to give the cooling boolit a supply of alloy to suck down into the boolit base during the cooling/shrinking process. Also, you'll find that you'll get "whiskers" of alloy along the mould seams on the boolits as the alloy is forced into the mould vent lines. These will brush right off after the boolits cool, but they're an annoyance.

Regards,

Stew

[runfiverun]

i have a couple of molds that once warmed up like to have the lead dribbled in them
and others that like you to line up the fill hole and give it full stream.
and it seems only the smaller boolits like to be force fed.
if they want to be force fed i usually do so with a ladle, to avoid the wiskers.