Boogedy_Man
03-12-2018, 07:20 PM
Hi folks. I've been casting about a year, but mostly just solid lead muzzleloader bullets. Just when I feel like I am getting somewhere with that, I started casting with wheel weights, and now wheel weights plus 2% tin.
Anyway, I was casting some bullets for my 444 and 30-30 the other day using WW + 2% tin. The first few hundred went well...then I had to tend to something with my wife. I dialed my pot (Lee Magnum) down to 5 and added some fresh sawdust to slow the oxidation a bit. I came back to jelled lead. So I cranked the pot back up, and when it was liquid enough fluxed with sawdust and stirred it up.
Odd thing, I had some clumps on top that wouldn't dissolve. They looked about like a "corn flake", except probably 1/8 thick and black. They were heavy...felt like metal. Unable to get them to melt back into the mix, I ended up having to skim them off. After this, I couldn't keep my oxidation under control. I still had probably 1/2 a pot of lead...but I was getting yellow (and sometimes very orange) powder accumulating on top very quickly.
So here's my questions:
1. Did monkeying with the pot temperature cause the antimony to separate and not flux back in?
2. Does the quick oxidation I experienced towards the end indicate my pot was too hot..maybe it crept up as the lead volume went down?
3. Is sawdust a suitable flux for dipper casting? I use a bottom pour ladle, and unless a clump of ash falls off the side at the start of the pour, I seem otherwise happy. I don't want to fix something that isn't broken.
And yes, I know I need a thermometer. I started the session with one (RCBS), but it had gotten condensation inside of it and it let loose to the atmosphere shortly after I immersed it.
Thanks for any advice!
Anyway, I was casting some bullets for my 444 and 30-30 the other day using WW + 2% tin. The first few hundred went well...then I had to tend to something with my wife. I dialed my pot (Lee Magnum) down to 5 and added some fresh sawdust to slow the oxidation a bit. I came back to jelled lead. So I cranked the pot back up, and when it was liquid enough fluxed with sawdust and stirred it up.
Odd thing, I had some clumps on top that wouldn't dissolve. They looked about like a "corn flake", except probably 1/8 thick and black. They were heavy...felt like metal. Unable to get them to melt back into the mix, I ended up having to skim them off. After this, I couldn't keep my oxidation under control. I still had probably 1/2 a pot of lead...but I was getting yellow (and sometimes very orange) powder accumulating on top very quickly.
So here's my questions:
1. Did monkeying with the pot temperature cause the antimony to separate and not flux back in?
2. Does the quick oxidation I experienced towards the end indicate my pot was too hot..maybe it crept up as the lead volume went down?
3. Is sawdust a suitable flux for dipper casting? I use a bottom pour ladle, and unless a clump of ash falls off the side at the start of the pour, I seem otherwise happy. I don't want to fix something that isn't broken.
And yes, I know I need a thermometer. I started the session with one (RCBS), but it had gotten condensation inside of it and it let loose to the atmosphere shortly after I immersed it.
Thanks for any advice!