Aluminum molds for wheel weight zinc?

[LAKEMASTER]

Anyone know if the Lee 6 cavity molds are able to hold up to zinc alloy temps?

I spray my molds with graphite spray, after 300 bullets I might see a spec of graphite missing from an edge of the lube groove. That's with lead.

I'm curious if that will help keep it from damaging the mold from the excessive heat people claim some aluminum molds suffer

I'm thinking about making up a batch of zinc bullets for plinking and knowing I'm not getting the bullet back. " Shooting in the desert, or range "

[Finster101]

I believe if I were planning on doing it long term I would try to find a suitable steel mold.

[Winger Ed.]

Everything I've read says to use Iron or steel.

Without doing the Farenhite conversion--- Zinc melts at 419C and Alum. at 660C.

I'd figure if the Zinc was hot enough over its melting point to flow well, the Alum. mold would be getting rather soft.

[Dusty Bannister]

Looking at my cheat sheet, Zinc melts at 787 F and Aluminum melts at 1220 F. Unanswered question is if the person is going to use pure zinc or zinc lead alloy. Next question, will a soft aluminum mold hold up to the sprue cutting and hammering on an aluminum mold? Somewhere I am also thinking there have been comments about a higher shrinkage rate with zinc or zinc alloy.

I certainly would not use a good aluminum mold to, as Bill Ferguson would say, "try it and see."

https://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?230981-First-try-with-zinc&highlight=zinc+alloy+shrinkage

[rancher1913]

I recall that zinc and aluminium react when they are hot. seam to remember somebody destroying a pot trying to cast with zinc.

[dimaprok]

I recall that zinc and aluminium react when they are hot. seam to remember somebody destroying a pot trying to cast with zinc.The pot is steel though. You're talking about Elvis Ammo but I've been using Lee 4-20 pot aware that it might leak and so far its been OK but will see how it holds up.

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[dimaprok]

I used Zinc WW and fluxed with bee wax. I had my PID set to 800F and I tried higher but didn't seems to make a difference.

The biggest problem I was having is nozzle freezing! I had to constantly hit it with the with a torch. Other issues is Zinc sticking to steel molds is hard to clean up and you have to whack the sprue with good amount of force all the time unlike with lead when mold gets up to right temperature it cuts like butter - not with Zinc that's why I would not even try Aluminum molds, you simply going to ruin it. I started with cheap steel mold I picked up from ebay in 357 for 18 bucks with RCBS handles! It was abused mold but gave me chance to mess around with Zinc. At first I was ladle casting and its very inconvenient, been keeping eye open for couple years trying to find old Lyman or Saeco pot but didn't wanted to overpay but prices only got worse. Recently an old but like new condition Saeco pot sold for $305 + $25 shipping on eBay this is why I gave up and started casting with my old Lee 4-20 and I am so glad I did. If it leaks its going to be easy to fix it.

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[Rcmaveric]

Aluminum molds would last a bit. Thats what Elvis Ammo used for his zinc casting. Dont use a stainless steel melting pot and allumin molds dont last long.

The molt zinc is a funny weird stuff. Aluminum dissolves in it like sugar dissolves in water. Aluminum in zinc has the same effect as tin in lead. Matter of fact thats Zamack zinc is. So if you do cast with zink add a couple beer cans to the pot and a touch of tin. I was rather impressed how quickly those cans dissolved. It was like tossing sugar cubes in warm coffee.

With steel it at will slow galvanize it. Eating away as it dissolves its why through. Its not quite on the level of amalgamation that murcery does. Its more like n acid slowly eating its way through till it fails. So if you use a lee bottom pour pot its only a matter of time before catastrophic failure. If you can find an old RCBS furnace with a cast iron insert then thats the perfect zinc casting pot. You can use a cheap Lee mold and it should last for a while enough experiment and see if you like the bullets. If its something that works well enough for you and you like it then get an iron mold. Idont know the affects of casting with brass though. I would be carefull with that though.

Ladel pouring is a safe alternative.

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[243winxb]

Lee molds 400F. Maximum. https://support.leeprecision.net/en/knowledgebase

[LAKEMASTER]

This is all very interesting to me.

I guess I'll just have to see if I can get it to work. I'm ok with a cold mold and wrinkly bullets. I'm ok with them being kinda out of round from graphite spray. There's a lot of wiggle room for this intention. It's for the ammo I don't really care about. I just realized, both molds are over sized anyways, so I'll have to size them regardless. I'm really curious how my 93 gr mold with hold up since there's so much meat in the mold. I'll keep you guys posted once my " new " pot shows up. I'm going to either cast zinc bullets or zinc fishing weights. I got plenty to choose from

[huntnman]

Sizing sink I believe would be very hard to do. Would love to see it done. I cant cut sink wheelweight with a large nine inch side cutter.
YMMV Greg<huntnman

[dimaprok]

Sizing sink I believe would be very hard to do. Would love to see it done. I cant cut sink wheelweight with a large nine inch side cutter.
YMMV Greg<huntnmanBecause it naturally slippery but harder it works, no issues just a tad more effort. Its not same as trying to nip it.

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[dimaprok]

This is all very interesting to me.

I guess I'll just have to see if I can get it to work. I'm ok with a cold mold and wrinkly bullets. I'm ok with them being kinda out of round from graphite spray. There's a lot of wiggle room for this intention. It's for the ammo I don't really care about. I just realized, both molds are over sized anyways, so I'll have to size them regardless. I'm really curious how my 93 gr mold with hold up since there's so much meat in the mold. I'll keep you guys posted once my " new " pot shows up. I'm going to either cast zinc bullets or zinc fishing weights. I got plenty to choose fromSurprisingly it doesn't wrinkle like lead. DO NOT TRY it with cold mold, you will regret!

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