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Doubles Shooter
10-06-2021, 01:16 PM
I was recently given a bunch of old cast boolits from a friend. Old and ugly, stored in a leaky garage. A 5 gallon bucket full. Last night my cousin gave me two Lyman ingot molds my late uncle had. They haven't been used in 50 years. Today, they got a workout. I cast 247 ingots. I've been using mini muffin tins but I like the way these stack. Hopefully my uncle is up there smiling seeing them in use again. He got me and my father casting 60 plus years ago. It was fun.
289756

Hopefully I can find a place to get them scanned to see what is in it. Until then, the pencils will do. I'll give them a couple weeks and test them.

bangerjim
10-06-2021, 01:40 PM
Trapezoid ingot molds are the ONLY way to go! Cookware should be confined to the kitchen only.

Easy to stack and pretty consistent in weight for the alloy, I have 6 trapezoid ingot molds I line up and pour like crazy when ingotizing my newly found silver gold. And a stack will not fall off on your toes like round muffins can do.

banger

imashooter2
10-06-2021, 01:54 PM
A shame to melt so many boolits, but recasting is probably half the time of trying to save them. I like purpose made ingot molds myself. Have a half a dozen of them. My days of big smelts are through, but they get lent to younger friends when they want to do a pile.

lightman
10-09-2021, 12:46 PM
Thats a nice pile of ingots. Your Uncle is probably smiling, seeing those 50 year old ingot molds being used again.

GregLaROCHE
10-09-2021, 02:22 PM
I might have just. Put them in the casting pot as I needed them, since to lead should have been pretty clean.

JonB_in_Glencoe
10-09-2021, 03:54 PM
I might have just. Put them in the casting pot as I needed them, since to lead should have been pretty clean.

Fur sure, maybe I'd boil the old boolits, if there was still lube in the grooves (since I cast inside)...the boiling would also remove 50 years of dust/dirt also.

Winger Ed.
10-09-2021, 04:00 PM
Uncle probably knew what he was doing, and for whatever kind of boolits they were originally cast for is just fine.

If you're not making some high speed boolits that need a exotic recipe--
the alloy is probably perfect for you want to do with it also,
or at least to blend in with pure Lead for soft, heavy, & slow boolits to conserve the 'goodies' in the ingots.

Seeker
10-09-2021, 04:29 PM
I've used old lead bullets that were sizes I don't use when casting..lube and all go in to the pot. The lube makes good fluxing.