bad day of casting

[bohokii]

i guess ive benn lucky up till now melting lead on a coleman stove in a skillet

today i was getting lots of boolits out of my lee mold that had torn shoulders

what is going on has my lead ben posessed by the devil?

i am usign range scrap brass all stirred together with a candle

i generally have a round butt problem where all my boolits have a little of a roundover on the bottom but they fly good enough and they load better with less shaving

i pour with a spoon both cavitys at the same time (did i mention i am a cheapskate and only use the lee 2 cav cause they come with free handles)

funny the furthest away from the handle boolit has nice flat bottom the close one always has slight roundbutt

[Marlin Junky]

Sounds like your metal is not hot enough but I haven't a clue what you mean by torn shoulders. Can you post pics of your bullets? I recommend investing in a cast iron pot and real ladle before you hurt yourself. A thermometer would be a good idea too.

MJ

[putteral]

I also use a coleman stove although I have a 4 qt cast iron pot. I will get that problem when I first start cause either I have not got the mold hot enough or the lead hot enough. A few more pours and I am good to go. If I were not looking to save money, I would not be casting.
I also use the double cavity molds so don't feel bad.

[superior]

Whenever I get rounded bottoms, I refill the gas tank and pump the heck out of it to get more heat. Works everytime. It needs to be HOTTER! Then I get perfect boolits in BOTH cavities. I'm looking at a turkey fryer burner to eliminate the hassle but for now I'm still using the Coleman pumped up to 50 pumps and I KEEP it pumped up. I also use car gas in it. It seems to burn a little hotter.

[AZ-Stew]

A torn shoulder could be caused by dumping a boolit that's not fully solidified. Let the boolits cool a bit longer before opening the mould.

I suspect your rounded base boolits are the second ones you pour, i.e., you fill the farthest cavity first, then the nearest. I'd guess your spoon is nearly empty by that time, so you're not able to get a good fill. You need to fill each cavity quickly, with hot metal, and allow a generous sprue to form on the sprue plate. Since you're using a small-capacity "ladel" (the spoon), the small amount of metal left in it after you cast the first boolit may be cooling so much that you can't make a good pour for the second.

If you want good accuracy, square boolit bases are a requirement.

Regards,

Stew

[mooman76]

+1 with what AZ-Stew said. If what is happening is what I am thinking or understanding, You need to leat your mould set a little longer or turn the heat back down a little so it cools quicker. Also always pour extra on top of the sprue. It heats it up and keeps it hot and has extra lead for when it cools and shrinks down as extra to fill the void. You need to get a feel for the lead and how it is pouring and how the mould wants it. I generally always start hot and as I see signs that the bullets are dropping too hot, I gradually lower the temp a little at a time til they are comming out the way I want ot until I feel the temp is right .

[FN in MT]

Your using a SPOON? Like a table type spoon???

THAT may be the problem as well. A dedicated casting ladle would probably help.

FN in MT

[bohokii]

yes i use a spoon like as in a table spoon

i used a dremmel to fut a channel between the holes and fill both with the one spoonfull i leave a generous sprue and wait till i see little sucked in dimples

how long should you let the lead cool in the mold i generally do about a 1onethousand -8onethousand

i tried ove and over to get a shot of what i'm talking about but my camera's up close setting has the bullet look either too blurry or far enough away to not see the deatil i'm talking about

also i was getting a real oatmeal look on the top i spooned it all off but it was weird i normally notice my lead is cold if it is solidifying around the circumference

the "round butt" ive been getting is very slight like a 1/16 or less radius like they were hit with a little routers round over bit

they all size through the sizing die leaving the bearing surface nice and shiny

[e15cap]

Oatmeal looking - solidifying around the edge!!!! Dude - have you read anything on this board. Cheap is cheap but C'mon. Get some real tools and your results will improve.

[docone31]

Useing a ladle, as challenging as I find it, they are heavy metal. That helps hold the heat.
I am not sure you did yourself a favour cutting out a channel in the sprue plate.
The sprue plate cuts two sprues, that is a lot easier on the plate than dragging a mass and cutting. It will work, but, it will be a little harder.
With the sprue cutting, forget counting. Watch the colour. When it flashes from silver to grey, at that moment push the sprue plate. It sucks in just before the grey.
Dang Dude, using a spoon is an accomplishment. I can see a soup ladle, but not a spoon. Too little mass to keep the heat during the transfer.
From the oatmeal mass, you need more heat. That sounds like zinc in the melt. If you want to pour it, crank up the heat. You can also lower the heat and spoon it out. I use it, but I also paper patch smokeless loads. The resistance of the denser metal seems to help in that capacity.
The best thing you can do, is to get a cast iron ladle for pouring boolitts. I use mine to make ingots. The ladle screeds the slag from the pour pretty much.
Good luck and keep on pouring.

[bohokii]

first off i didnt cut all the way through the sprue plate just a channel linking the 2 holes

second try a spoon it stays pretty darn hot and after filling the 2 cavitys there is plenty of overpour

so far my results have been decent

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e366/bohoki/DCP_6878.jpg

and they make pretty good looking cartridges

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e366/bohoki/DCP_6891.jpg


here is a sprue i saved just to show the channel
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e366/bohoki/DCP_6696.jpg

[Beaverhunter2]

I have a mold that prefers that the near boolit be poured first. If I do that- they both have square butts. If I pour the far boolit first, the near boolit has a rounded butt. Perhaps some of the near cavity venting is under the sprue plate toward the outside boolit. Actually I prefer to pour the outside boolit first, but with this mold I give it what it likes.

I do mostly ladle casting and I'm with the other guys- invest in a ladle. They're not that expensive and they are very convenient to use.

Good shooting!

John

[Suo Gan]

Grandpa said that one of the reasons we prevailed in WWII was that we were able to fix things with what was available to us in the field. He said that it amazed the Germans that we could do this. While we could scavenge parts from two other bombed out vehicles to get a third going. The front was scattered with German tanks, troop carriers, etc. that there was nothing wrong with.

So in my opinion you are doing what comes naturally to you, and what really makes America great today (Yankee ingenuity), even though we have gone the way of the Germans mostly. Lets face it technology has made us dumber!

But I think that I would take the advice about the ladle, and buy a Lyman, Rowell, or RCBS version. You are still going to be money ahead no matter how you chalk it up.

PS Your bullets look to be shooters, just the way I like them!

[JIMinPHX]

If the round base boolit is the second one that you pour, then I agree with AZ Stew. In that case, try to alternate which one you pour first & see what happens. It is also possible that the side of the mould you pour first is getting hotter because it spends more time with hot lead in it. If the square based boolit is the second one that you pour, then you probably need to clean some vents.

That channel between the sprews is probably not a good thing. A little lead dripping in the second cavity & hardening up before the rest gets poured in, may give you unbalanced boolits.

[bohokii]

you dont get how i pour with the spoon i let the lead run out the side like a little niagara falls and fill both at the same time and leave a heaping pile of melt on top wait for the freeze the whack it

hmm how does zinc contamination act cause this was not freezing quick it would stay kind of mushy longer cause i had an ingot i made long ago with random ww

[JIMinPHX]

you dont get how i pour with the spoon i let the lead run out the side like a little niagara falls and fill both at the same time and leave a heaping pile of melt on top wait for the freeze the whack it


I had missed that. Sorry for my misunderstanding.

You might want to try a ladle with a spout. It makes a difference.