Magma Bullet Master - bad fillout with big boolits

[hunter74]

I'm having trouble with bad fillout with heavy bullets. I cannot get my BM to throw enough lead to get both cavities properly filled out.

I'm out of ideas to try next. Here's some info and what I have tried so far

*The lead is hardball sn2sb6
* I've tried different temperatures on lead and moulds without any better results
* The machine is aligned and adjusted so it drops lead straight into the cavities, but the speed of the right side pour is a bit slower, when eyeballing the lead stream.
* I emptied the pot and cleaned it all out in case debris was trapped.
* I took out the pouring rod and cleaned it. It looked ok.
* I took out the orifice plate and cleaned both the orifices, with a #44 drill bit.

After all this, the same, just one cavity with proper fillout! I have backed out the pouring rod at the edge of constant dripping, so it cannot be backed out further. The solenoid is also adjusted to throw max lead.

Is it possible to get it to throw a tad more lead? Drill 2 bigger holes in the orifice plate? This problem only occurs with 240 and 250 gr bullets.

I'm trying to get answers here before I hammer Eric at Magma with questions. I know he's loaded with work.

Thanks!



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[Winger Ed.]

In the scheme of things, 250s aren't really that big.
Just a wild guess, but your mold may not be hot enough.

Have ya tried pre-heating the mold with a small torch or on a hot plate?

[hunter74]

I've tried from cold to almost smoking hot, way abowe casting temp, same result

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[Winger Ed.]

Hmm. That works for me.
Something else that improves flow is add in a bit more Tin.

[shell70634]

I'm starting to have that problem with mine too. I've just turned up the open time to max. I have a large sprue on one cavity and a small one on the other but both fill fine. I intended to clean the pot soon so I figured this was a temporary fix. Last time I cleaned the pot I tore the gasket on the orfice and it blocked one port so I took it back apart and made a new gasket.
I assumed my current problem was dirt now I'm re-thinking that.

Shelly

[ReloaderFred]

There are 8 molds on the carousel, and it appears it's happening with all of them, and consistently on one side. When you had the orifice off, did you also clean out the little trough between the holes? If the flow isn't equal to both sides, then one gets all the lead, etc.

You shouldn't be having this problem with bullets of that weight. If they were 500 grains, then that would be a different matter, but the Bullet Master normally easily fills 240/250 gr. bullets. Something is interfering with the lead flow, since you've investigated everything else.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[hunter74]

Through? I didn't see any. My orifice plate is flat between the holes. I emptied the pot and blew down where the pouring rod sits, with my air pistol, when the pot still hot. Maybe I should take it all apart again? Clearly the left/front orifice has more lead release

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[ReloaderFred]

My orifice plate has about an 1/8" groove milled between the spigot holes. I also made a bent wire just under the size of the holes to clean them when some debris gets caught in there. I used high carbon spring wire (because that's what I had) and bent it 90 degrees by heating it with a torch. Then I epoxied it into a wooden file handle to make it easy to use. It's saved me removing the orifice plate countless times.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[hunter74]

My orifice plate is plain but it is a through on the walve housing (the part that the orifice plate screws on to)

I cleaned the through with a flat screw driver and some steel wool, when the pot stil hot. I also opened up the orifices to 2.5 mm.

Now it works great with 250 RNFP boolits. With the bigger orifices maybe I have to order a new plate for casting small boolits. Time will show!

Thanks for the advice!

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[243winxb]

Had a Saeco 357/158gr 4 cacaty that would not fill out. Maxumum Temperature on Lee 10 lb pot , botton pour. Mold maximum heat. Making the sprue plate hole diameter a bit larger fixed it. Need to taper the hole after drilling hole bigger.

But first the amount of lead flow must be sufficient.

[Tazza]

From what i understand from your picture is that the incomplete fill out is from the sprue freezing, not allowing the required lead to be drawn down?

The machines i bought off a commercial caster used big heavy sprue cutters, they looked like the ones that balisti cast used? they were big and heavy, he said he used the big ones as they held the heat, the magma ones were too small and cooled too fast, and i guess can possibly cause issues like this.

With that said, i was casting 700 grain .50 cals, i was getting small indentations on the side from when it was trying to suck more lead in from the sprue as it was cooling. An increase of about 30c to the lead temperature seemed to cure the issue.

Making a new nozzle with slightly bigger holes may help get the lead in faster, i made a new one for my master caster that needed a single hole, they aren't too hard to make.

[hunter74]

A short update! Now it works!


I cleaned the through with a flat screw driver and some steel wool, when the pot stil hot. I also opened up the orifices to 2.5 mm.


Now it works great with 250 RNFP boolits.


With the bigger orifices I may have to order a new plate for casting small boolits. Time will show!



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[Tazza]

Glad you got it working as it should.

I don't see why you'd need smaller holes in the plate for smaller cast, you may just need to use smaller pour times.

Happy casting!