First bullet casting session

[bakerjw]

Yesterday, I fired up the lead pot and started casting out some 230 grain .452 TC bullets. I've been casting hard 00 buck for several weeks now so working with bullets was a bit of an exciting thing to do. I also mixed some range lead and soft sheet with my linotype lead to get something a bit softer. I know that I need to test the hardness but that will come in time.

To start with, I cleaned the mold really well and smoked the cavities as instructed and the bullets dropped right out.
I allowed the mold to come up to temperature before starting but the first few sets of bullets came out looking like shiny brains. Not unexpected. As the mold heated up, the bullets started coming out in a much more uniform manner. They were shiny at first but as things progressed, they came out with a frosted look.

I have no idea of the temperatures that I was running. To rectify that, I have an IR temp gun on the way.

After everything had well cooled, I ran the bullets through my new Lee .452 sizing die with a bit of Alox applied to the contact area. They all went through easily enough with some having great looking rings and some not so great. The not so great or deformed ones went into the melt pile.

I had about a 33% success rate for what I would consider usable. Perhaps not the best but I was pleased to be able to say that I made my own bullets.

Question time....
When you drop your bullets, what do you use to catch them? The linotype lead that I use for my 00 buck is very hard so I drop them into an old baking pan. These .452 bullets are softer lead and carry more heat with them so some have dented a bit. Wood? damp carpet? Something else?

What is the preferred texture? Shiny or frosted?

Many thanks for all of the other advice that I have gleaned from this site!

[TjB101]

I drop them on a folded up towel on my workbench. After a few minutes I push all cooled bullets into a pile. I PC and then quench from the oven.

[bangerjim]

I drop them in a 9x12 cake pan filled with water with an old folded towel in it. No drop dings there! I do not rely on water dropped hardness.....it is only an easy way to cool them really fast so I can handle then for inspection when I am done casting. Then after drying them in the air, I PC them.

Shiny or frosted.....who cares. As long as their are free of dings and voids.

[Kylongrifle32]

If I'm air cooling them I also just drop them from a couple inches onto a folded shop towel and move them aside with my tobacco stick spru plate knocker.
Sometimes I will water drop my pistol bullets. Water dropping just tends to go faster for me when casting larger amounts of boolits

[Conditor22]

bakerjw, this is an easy wat to test hardness

I also drop my cast boolits onto a clean towel
https://i.imgur.com/eRJg4lo.png

I'm just guessing but I think your 45 ACP boolits may be a bit hard

A rough rule is apr 1 BHN for every 100 fps

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?378866-Lead-hardness-pencil-testing-trick

https://i.imgur.com/XJyXxfE.png

[Larry Gibson]

AC'd bullets get dropped on a towel also.

"To start with, I cleaned the mold really well and smoked the cavities as instructed and the bullets dropped right out."

Suggest you clean the mould again and don't smoke the cavities. I never smoke cavities any more and cast thousands of bullets in mostly aluminum and iron moulds {I have one brass mould]. I found many years ago smoked cavities give undersized and unevenly shaped bullets. With a properly prepped and clean mould there is no need to smoke the cavities.

[bakerjw]

The linotype lead is certainly too hard for my 45 bullets yet fine for my 00 buck.

I had some range lead and as mentioned lead sheets that I am using for these. A lot of just messing around although some of these will be put downrange.
I do have some WW lead that I am getting from a coworker who is sitting on a lot of it. Like literally a ton of it...
I've also got a hardness tester in the works. But again, just messing around to get more comfortable with casting these bullets.

[lightman]

I built a shallow wooden box with a divider in it and I have my lead pot set up in one side and have a folded towel in the other side for a landing zone. 33% is not bad for the first try but with some practice you can beat it. I'm with Larry, clean the mold and skip smoking it. Some swear by it but I've never seen the need.

[gwpercle]

A folded bath towel (old one) I lay it in the bottom of a shallow cardboard box , when the towel gets covered with cast boolits I lift one end of the towel and they all roll to the far end and make a pile .
Fresh cast are soft and will dent each other and a drop on metal surface .

I cast mine just at frosty , the heat helps with fill out and the slightly frosty surface helps with powder coating or pan lubing .

A good handgun alloy is 50-50 soft lead and linotype some even use 60 - 40 soft lead and linotype . Linotype is getting hard to find and pistol boolits don't need to be that hard .
I typically do 10% linotype , 40% Clip on wheel weights and 50% soft lead ...now that wheel weights are getting harder to come by .

When you melt lead and pour them into mould ...around here they are refered to as " boolits" ..check out site name ...it will all make sense .
Keep on Casting !
Gary

[Land Owner]

It is always a pleasure to welcome a new caster out of the closet for the first time. We were all there at one time.

Heat your spruce plate really well to preclude "alloy cooling" going through, which contributes to wrinkles. Slow your cadence and reduce heat a little to preclude frosting.

[dverna]

Also use an old towel. If I am casting fast, I have used a wet towel and touch the sprue plate to it for a couple of seconds to avoid frosty bullets (frosty bullets mean you are casting hot). But frosty bullets are not a problem IMHO...just look bad.

Make sure you wear glasses, welders gloves, and cotton or wool clothes when casting. A bucket of water nearby is nice for when you get burned...you will get burned eventually.

Welcome to the madness!!!

[whisler]

All good advice. I do as Kylongrifle32 does except my sprue plate pusher is an old hammer handle. Also water drop pistol boolits on occasion.

[Stewbaby]

On the IR gun:

On a shiny surface like molten lead it will be wrong.

The emissivity of the material being measured needs to match the calibration of the IR thermometer.

They are typically calibrated to a black surface, but good ones can be calibrate to a shiny surface using a thermocouple to measure the surface temp and then adjusting the IR to read the same temp.

Best bet, build a PID

[Hanzy4200]

I use a old t-shirt draped over a empty 7.62x54r spam can. It's a nice oblong shape. We recycle around here.

I used to fool with water quenching before I realized how little hardness matters. Would much rather add a small bit of antimony instead of the mess and hazard of water near the pot.

[bangerjim]

You can float a 1" black oxide washer (available in most hardware stores) on the surface of the melt and shoot that with the IR gun with good accuracy. Just NOT the shiny surface! That allows you to use one of those cheeeeep HF IR guns.

Remember - - steel floats on liquid Pb.

banger