First Try

[rtyler8140]

So my molds came in today, and patience isn't my strongest virtue. I decided to clean them, smoke them, and test them out. They are Lee 2 cavity dies (309-150 and 309-170). Definitely a learning experience. I think I wasn't getting the mold hot enough to begin with. Ended up with about 50% rejects. Here is a picture of two that came out decent. Ladle pouring is an art of which I am no where close to mastering. Lead is COWW heated on a hot plate in a cast iron pot using a Lee ladle.

https://i.ibb.co/fMTQgrr/IMG-20200406-210702136.jpg (https://ibb.co/4W0Jq44)

Once things settle down a little, I'm looking forward to a lesson from Green Frog.

[sigep1764]

Those look great! Small tip, set the mold on the hot plate for a minute or two before you start casting. Itll heat the mold to a better temp at the beginning. As soon as the sprue solidifies, cut it. When the mold starts getting hotter it will take longer to solidify. That's when I start to slow down and find a rhythm.

[smoked turkey]

rtyler8140 I'm no expert but from the looks of your new boolits you are off to a good start. In my opinion the art of casting has a pretty long learning curve. If you don't already own a Lyman Cast bullet handbook, you need to buy one and not only read it, you need to study it. and while I am on the subject the stickies have much to offer as well. Getting help from a mentor is a great way to jump start your casting experience. So get Green Frog on the line and invite him over for a casting session.

[Muddydogs]

Wish guys would stop smoking molds, causes more issues then it fixes. Clean your new molds well with carb cleaner, brake clean or even white gas and cast away. From your pic the bullets look good, keep it up.

[StuBach]

Very nice looking first go. Well don sir and welcome to the insanity. Come for the lead, stay for the banter.

[Rcmaveric]

They look good. Your molds will cast better and easier with use and time.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

[charlie b]

Congratulations!

50% is not bad from a new mold.

[pworley1]

You're of to a good start.

[Outer Rondacker]

I hope one of the most important aspects of this hobby was not forgotten. Did you enjoy yourself? The bullets look great bye the way. Beautiful thing about lead. There’s no bad casts just more raw material for the pot. Toss the other 50% back in the top and no one will ever know.

[Wayne Smith]

Two things - a good mold should not need smoking or anything else other than cleaning. Two, lose the Lee dipper, it is way too small in capacity. Get either the Lyman or the RCBS dipper. Green Frog should have an extra he can loan you? You do have two of everything, don' you Charlie?

Good first try. A decent ladle will improve your success percentage greatly.

[toallmy]

Your producing good looking boolits , so just recast the bad ones - practice makes perfect .

[fixit]

my own experience is that lee molds like to run hot..just into the range where the boolit is frosted. my lee 309-150 is one of the best running molds i have, you'll probably love the results when all is squared away. btw- i use the lee 10# drip-omatic, so it's easy to keep the mold hot!

[country gent]

Some simple to do tips. As above pre heat mould on hot plate or even on the lead pot for a few minutes. I set moulds on the warming plate when starting the pit and let them come up slow with the pot. I find it easier to cast slow to temp down than cast faster up to temp. The Lyman and rcbs ladles are much better and easier to use than the lee. Ine mod to the LYman and RCBS is to open the spouts hole to around .200 diameter for faster pour. Not mentioned yet, When ladle pouring set mould over edge of pot fill ladle and pour the whole ladle full letting excess run back into pot and let the sprue be what it is. This keeps the base sprue molten longer allowing the bullet to solidify from nose up. It helps with filling shrinkage as metal cools and allows gasses to vent better.

Last is the biggest thing to remember when starting out. If your casting cast if your sorting sort dont try to do both at the same time. This slows and messes up your cadence allows mould temps to vary, and just isnt productive. Cast and glance at the bullets as they drip but no more.

And no matter how pretty that freshly dropped bullet is and is beckoning to be looked at it is still HOT, dont touch LOL

[rtyler8140]

Thanks for all the tips/suggestions. I plan on making a few adjustments tonight and trying again. After reading through "From Ingot to Target". I think my mold was getting to temp, but my sprue plate was still a bit cool causing the lead to drop in temp prior to really filling out the mold. I also plan on giving the molds a good cleaning to get all my Lee approved smoke soot off haha. I also bent my ladle a little to hopefully give a better scoop and pour.

[Wayne Smith]

You will also eventually learn that each mold has it's own demands. I have Lyman 457122 Gould HP mold that demands a pressure pour - holding the mold sideways and placing the nozzle of the ladle on the sprue hold, turn the whole assembly upright, hold for a slow count of three, remove ladle. Any thing else gives rounded edges - do that and you have a perfect boolit each time.

[lightman]

Those look good. Keep doing what you did to get them to come out like that. I agree with the others about smoking molds. I prefer to have nothing near the cavities in my molds. But, others swear by it.

[gwpercle]

You're doing just fine .
New moulds need to be broken in by two or maybe three casting sessions.
Like a cast iron pan , they need seasoning . After a break in and a little practice your keepers will go up . Here's what I've learned in the last 50 years . Run the metal and mould hot 750 - 725 degrees F , cast them right at "frosty" and cast from a 20 Lb. pot . Once your mould , metal and dipper are all hot keep casting untill all the alloy is used up .
Refilling a small pot with ingots and reheating alloy mould and dipper just wastes a lot of time, I wished I had gone to a 20 pound pot from day one ...Lee Magnum Melter is a dipper casters friend.

One more thing...after the mould gets seasoned you usually don't need to smoke them any more .
Gary

[WRideout]

Two things - a good mold should not need smoking or anything else other than cleaning. Two, lose the Lee dipper, it is way too small in capacity. Get either the Lyman or the RCBS dipper. Green Frog should have an extra he can loan you? You do have two of everything, don' you Charlie?

Good first try. A decent ladle will improve your success percentage greatly.


I completely agree about the Lyman dipper. I acquired one from a member here a while ago, and it has helped considerably with fill-out and keeping my rhythm up.
Wayne

[jimb16]

And BTW, There will be days when no matter how you try, you simply will not be able to cast anything worth keeping! We all have those days. Don't give up. Just walk away for the day and try again another day. You might be casting too cold, You might need more tin. You might need to flux more. There could be any number of things that just aren't right that day. Just shake your head and walk away. Tomorrow is another day and it will all come together. I've been casting for 50+ years and still have days like that. Right now, you are off to a good starts. Just don't let a bad day turn you away. And I can tell you that there is no better feeling than dropping that buck with a bullet that you cast out of a cartridge that you loaded. It doesn't get any better than that.

[rtyler8140]

Thanks again for all the feedback. I'd say it went slightly better this evening. About halfway through I switched up the way I was pouring and saw a marked improvement. Tilting the mould and pouring while rotating the mold gave me more consistent results. Green Frog said he had a Lyman ladle that he would gift me! I can see where that will make a big difference over the Lee spoon.

[Mitch]

Welcome to the addiction.Your bullets look great you are off to a great start.I see you are trying some differnt things and learning all ready.Ladleing makes some real nice bullets.Country Gent is the one who get me going with the ladle on big 45 bullets.It will not be long and you will be getting perfect bullets all the time.a few more casting sessions and your molds will be broke in.

[gwpercle]

Thanks again for all the feedback. I'd say it went slightly better this evening. About halfway through I switched up the way I was pouring and saw a marked improvement. Tilting the mould and pouring while rotating the mold gave me more consistent results. Green Frog said he had a Lyman ladle that he would gift me! I can see where that will make a big difference over the Lee spoon.

Casting with a Lyman Ladle ...or any side spouted ladle...lets you pressure cast ...doing it this way yields me my best results... I'm picky and if I'm going to cast I want perfectly filled out flawless boolits and the Lyman dipper does that ... so work with it and you'll be a happy caster .
Gary

[kmw1954]

I have been casting for only about 8 months and I admit I'm still learning and improving. I have been using much smaller molds in the 100-225gr range and all one or two cavity. With the Lee molds I place the mold on my pot while it's heating and melting alloy. Once it's full I place an end of the mold into the molten metal until it will come out clean like your spoon will once hot. Then when I start I pour very large sprue puddles to start and many times let the alloy run over the sides. It really helps bring the heat up and doesn't hurt anything as when I ladle pour I pour over the top of the pot.

Also I melt up a full pot and drop the cut sprue and rejects right back in the pot because these small pcs. do not change my temp enough to make a difference. From there I pour until I am down to 1/2 a pot and then I stop to add more metal. This also gives me time to clean up messes and quickly look at the dropped bullets for really frosted or wrinkled that need to be culled.

Your bullets do look terrific!

[rtyler8140]

I have been casting for only about 8 months and I admit I'm still learning and improving. I have been using much smaller molds in the 100-225gr range and all one or two cavity. With the Lee molds I place the mold on my pot while it's heating and melting alloy. Once it's full I place an end of the mold into the molten metal until it will come out clean like your spoon will once hot. Then when I start I pour very large sprue puddles to start and many times let the alloy run over the sides. It really helps bring the heat up and doesn't hurt anything as when I ladle pour I pour over the top of the pot.

Also I melt up a full pot and drop the cut sprue and rejects right back in the pot because these small pcs. do not change my temp enough to make a difference. From there I pour until I am down to 1/2 a pot and then I stop to add more metal. This also gives me time to clean up messes and quickly look at the dropped bullets for really frosted or wrinkled that need to be culled.

Your bullets do look terrific!

Putting the mold down in the pot to ensure its up to temp is a good idea. I got down to about 25% rejects last night and again I think mold temp was my issue (probably goes back to that patience thing). I installed gas checks on 25 of both the 150g and 170g. Have some powder coat coming in today. Hopefully I will be loading some of these up to try here pretty soon.

[rtyler8140]

Got a new mold yesterday (Lee 457-340-f). Cleaned it up and took it through a few heat cycles. Used it tonight and got pretty good results. May drill and tap the mold for a set screw. Seems like it likes to be run hot and the sprue plate screw comes loose every so often. I also took my Lee ladle and drilled a 3/32 hole in the bottom. That has given me more consistent pours by letting gravity do the work. Here are the ones from tonight powder coated.

https://i.ibb.co/qnG8Gbb/IMG-20200421-214029029.jpg (https://ibb.co/4fyLyBB)

[unclemikeinct]

Those look really good. For better fill out on rifle bullets add some small % of tin to your mix. Scrap pewter or Silver solder is 95% tin. uncle mike

[charlie b]

On my Lee dies I found that they really need lube on the sprue plate to keep from backing out the screw. I use three little 'dots' of beeswax on the screw and washer. It should move freely when hot.

If the screw has come loose then go ahead and remove it and flatten the sprue plate. Use a flat surface and some fine sandpaper. Reinstall and lube.

[rtyler8140]

On my Lee dies I found that they really need lube on the sprue plate to keep from backing out the screw. I use three little 'dots' of beeswax on the screw and washer. It should move freely when hot.

If the screw has come loose then go ahead and remove it and flatten the sprue plate. Use a flat surface and some fine sandpaper. Reinstall and lube.

Yeah, that is probably my issue. I forgot to lube that pivot point. I have flattened the sprue plate and added some lube. Unfortunately, it looks like i did a little damage to the mold at the pivot point where the steel gouged the aluminum a little. Hopefully this wont cause too many issues.