NEW MOULD & FIRST TRY AT CASTING

[Blacktail 8541]

Wel I got my very first mould today from Mountain Moulds. Was in so much of a hurry to try it after cleaning and lubeing it , I reliazed that I didn't have a ladel. Waiting for my RCBS Pro Melt to show up also! So I heated up some wheel weights and pre warmed some lino, while I was doing that I formed a mini ladel out of a new basic rifle case that I had and used a hose clamp to attach a handle. warmed up the mould and started at it. After the first few they started comeing out ok and when I had about 16 I added 50 % lino to make a 50/50 mix and try that. I casted about a dozen more and said good enough for now. After culling a few I had a good sample of each to mic. The weight as cast from wheel weights averaged 246.5 with a high of 247.1 and a low of 245.6 grain. The 50/50 mix was 240 grains with a high and low of a 1/2 grain either way. Fill out was good and they both droped .41225 and .413. The target diamiter was .412. the mould was designed for a drop a weight of 250 grains. I can live with the lighter weight, any heavier than 250 would have been a little to much. I will be shooting these out of a model 97 FA. Can't wait to get going for real. :castmine:

[carpetman]

Blacktail---You may well go down in history as Beagle(for Beagaling molds)and felix(for FWFBL--Felix World Famous Bullet Lube)by coming up with another catagory---making your own ladle. What to use other than an ingot mold for making ingots has been written about a little--well ok rather extensively. I suspect we'll have folks using special stuff to make left hand models too.

[9.3X62AL]

Yes, the home-grown ladle gets the sobriquet "Blacktailing", and the use of a hose clamp gives it some Buckshot Style Points, too.

This improvisation is in the deepest, most hallowed tradition of Cast Boolits.

Technical Merit--9.3

Artistic Impression--9.7

[Blacktail 8541]

Used a cut off flat sided shiskabob skewer for a handle, does that help with technical merit?

[carpetman]

Blacktail---Now tell us how you anneal your brass and what you use for an ingot mold.

[SharpsShooter]

Outstanding first effort! You have raised the bar for for those in the future. Your determination to "git er done" will be an advantage in this great obsession of ours. :grin:

[madcaster]

BUT-if you're going to make a ladle,why not make one with 2 or 3 spouts like the one pictured in Sixguns,by Keith!
JMHO,Jeff.

[Blacktail 8541]

In reply to carpetman about annealing and ingot moulds I anneal brass the same way most do, either stand the case in water or put it in a shell holder of the right size an use a pencil with an eraser as an arbor, chuck that in a battery opperated screw driver to rotate it evenly. the heat is provided by a mini butain torch. I use that instead of a bigger one because I can control the heat better. On ingot moulds I use small loaf pans and old cast iron mini french roll pans that I can get at a good price on EBay, they come up often enough that the price doesn't get to high, I usally bid on the ugly ones, less people wan't them.

[carpetman]

Blacktail----Darn,how you anneal and what you use for ingot molds has nothing really creative. I'd suspect Deputy Al would not even give his ratings for artistic impression etc as he'd be afraid of offending you. But you do have another chance to excel and be creative. How do you flair the mouth of the neck? Please don't tell us you use an M die. Darn those things cost $10.00 or so.

[Blacktail 8541]

No I do not have an M die. I use an expander assembly for Rcbs cowboy dies or if they are not available in my caliber I machine one from a standard expansion manderal. somtimes I need to get an oversize to get the tapper needed. If you do not want to mess with this you can always use a tapper punch to open up a single case and then use Brownells steel bed to cast a mould around the undersized expander mandrel. then you can get the presise dimensions you prefer. finaly just dress up the casting, it is plenty hard for belling case mouths and even sizeing if needed.