monadnock#5
03-01-2009, 04:07 PM
The night 'fore last, I heated up my Mag 20 BP in preparation for casting. Once melted, the full pot had the normal gunk covering the melt. I had fluxed the pot well previous to pulling the plug the casting session previous, but that doesn't matter in my experience as there's the same amount of dross on top at the next melt. This time around, when I drew the dross into a pile and saw it was the about the same diameter and thickness as a silver dollar, I said "the heck with it", and covered the melt with a thick layer of wood ash. "Time to cast a few."
I cast up a bunch of .45 and .32 cal pistol bullets. Three pots worth. I didn't flux at all. Not once! I'm here to tell you that I've never gotten so many keepers with so few culls, ever. They were much prettier than usual too. It's easy to tell when dross inclusions are heavy on the boolits, as you can see it on top of the sprues as they harden. This time around, the sprues and boolits were much, much cleaner. I'm thinking that whatever other good qualities the wood ash imparts, it's the thick layer of insulation that keeps the heat cycles fewer and shorter in duration. Thus, the convection currents in the melt don't cycle as much dross from the top to the bottom of the pot. Just my WAG anyway.
The next time around, I'll dump the ashes, fire up the pot, and then see where I'm at. If I don't see anything that gives me pause, I might just apply a fresh coat of ash and keep on truckin'.
I thank the posters who originally came up with these ideas that I've picked up through osmosis. In particular, thank you Boerrancher for the tip on the wood ashes. Except for that period when I was putting lubed culls into the pot, I didn't run the exhaust fan at all, and not a peep out of the wife! Life is good!!:castmine:
I cast up a bunch of .45 and .32 cal pistol bullets. Three pots worth. I didn't flux at all. Not once! I'm here to tell you that I've never gotten so many keepers with so few culls, ever. They were much prettier than usual too. It's easy to tell when dross inclusions are heavy on the boolits, as you can see it on top of the sprues as they harden. This time around, the sprues and boolits were much, much cleaner. I'm thinking that whatever other good qualities the wood ash imparts, it's the thick layer of insulation that keeps the heat cycles fewer and shorter in duration. Thus, the convection currents in the melt don't cycle as much dross from the top to the bottom of the pot. Just my WAG anyway.
The next time around, I'll dump the ashes, fire up the pot, and then see where I'm at. If I don't see anything that gives me pause, I might just apply a fresh coat of ash and keep on truckin'.
I thank the posters who originally came up with these ideas that I've picked up through osmosis. In particular, thank you Boerrancher for the tip on the wood ashes. Except for that period when I was putting lubed culls into the pot, I didn't run the exhaust fan at all, and not a peep out of the wife! Life is good!!:castmine: