The 8 Phase Casting Cycle

[John Boy]

If you haven’t read the 8 Phase Casting Cycle, it is highly recommended to become a better caster with quality bullets, especially bullets in the 300 to 550 plus grain range... http://www.longrangebpcr.com/Part1.htm

[kevin c]

That was a good read and a useful way of breaking down the casting cycle for fine tuning. My boolits are a lot smaller, but my molds seem to run best in a narrow temp range that is a bit hard for me to maintain and which has led to what I think are hot mold issues (lead smear build up on the sprue plate and oxide build up on the mold faces). This will help me think through how to deal with the problems. Thanks for posting it!

[John Boy]

Many casting posts on the forum are answered in the Article. And for the advanced caster, information to enhance your casting skills

[Lead pot]

John there are a few things in that 8 phase cycle I cant agree with :) the major thing is watching a second hand moving. I would quit shooting cast bullets.
But I guess we all have our way of doing this.

[charlie b]

I guess it depends on what you want your casting results to be.

For pistols I take little care in the casting cycle and don't even weigh the bullets. Just toss the obvious defects back and load the rest. Get many bullets done very fast. Out to 25yd they are as accurate as I am.

For rifles I am looking for MOA or better performance to long ranges. For these I try to be very consistent in the cycle. I do not count seconds on the clock, but, I do a count in my head to wait for the sprue to harden. The rest is set with the rhythm of the casting process. And yes, I do notice if there is a hiccup in the cycle. For example, the next pour might take a second shorter for the sprue to harden.

I would add one more item. The amount of lead in a bottom pour ladle when 'pressure' casting. If bottom pour pot then consistent level of lead in the pot and consistent spout opening (same flow rate).

Bottom line is the key to consistent results is consistent temperatures of the melt and the mold along with the 'turbulence' or 'pressure' of the fill.

But....am I good at this? No. I use a bottom pour pot. The stream will hit the sprue plate. Or a bullet will stick in the mold. Or I take an extra second or two to get the mold lined up under the spout. Or I let the lead level in the pot get too low. etc. etc. I still weight sort the bullets and store separately for loading and shooting.

[dverna]

The most important factor is cadence. Once a mold is running well, it becomes automatic...at least for me.

I cringe when I see comments about people picking out "bad" bullets during a casting session. No way to establish cadence if doing stuff like that. Just as bad is admiring your work as you cast. More interruption to cadence and both quality and productivity suffer.

If you are not making good bullets, make the changes needed to get there.

I only shoot cast pistol bullets currently, so ultimate quality is less important than productivity. But I still want "good" bullets.

[Lead pot]

I guess it depends on what you want your casting results to be.

No ugly bullets in my shiny brass, good clean sharp edges, complete fills, less than 1 grain weight variances with bullets 500 grains plus. :D
There is not just way to cast bullets or equipment used. I can cast bullets just as well in a 5 quart dutch oven fired with a turkey cooker burner or the electric Waage lead pot as well as a Lee. I just will not use a bottom pour lead pot.

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[mdi]

Appreciate the OP's "help", but I think it's overthinking a simple process, which may be helpful to those that have never thought about casting ("Pre Bullet Casting 101"). The basic process is extremely simple, but the finer points come into play when casting good bullets. Temperatures, and timing are important as is alloys and tools. Anybody can use the 8 steps to pour lead into a mold (I was making sinkers at 12) but that's only a small part of making bullets...

[robg]

makes it sound very complicated.i run the pot hot and use multiple molds and only flux before casting then again when i refill the pot ,i find weight of boolits more consistent that way.

[Mr_Sheesh]

That would be very very easy to rig a few ICs and LEDs together to build a cadence assistant, if someone wanted one. It's all at 5 second or multiples of that so you could do it with 4000 series CMOS parts even, or 74HC series. An RPi would be overkill but far easier to get this going on :)