Another Cap'n Morgan buckshot mold report

[jsizemore]

Got my 4b and 00 molds today. Decided to cast the 00 first. I have a PID contoller on my Lee 20-4 pot. Set the temperature to run 875 deg. After 6 casts I had about complete fill out on all shot except for the top 2 shot in the middle. These 2 never filled out in the entire time I cast. The top outside shot filled out fine every time so I have no idea what the problem is. Also one of the bottom shot halves is misaligned by .032". After 10 casts the shot was lightly frosted and falling out of the mold. I cut the temperature back to 800 deg and there was no change in fillout and shot quality. For the next 15 minutes I was getting 15 00buck on each pour. Excellent. This was using straight WW alloy. I ate supper and seperated the shot from the sprues. I ended up with 4lbs 7.2ozs of 00 shot for 30 minutes of casting. I'm real happy with this mold. Tomorrow I'll try the 4b mold. I've accumulated 10 lbs of pewter in case this mold requires it.

[masscaster]

Try slowing your pour rate down. Sounds like your getting some air trapped coming from the last hole to the one that doesn't fill out.
masscaster

[jsizemore]

Tried it at a dribble to a torrent and everywhere in between. If those 2 don't fill out, why do the other 2 at that level fillout fine???

Well, I cast with the 4b mold today. With my experience from the 00buck, I tried playing with the temperature and straight WW alloy. 700-850 deg. but no decent fillout. I added 1lb of pewter/tin to the 20lbs of WW alloy. When the temp hit 850 the mold started filling out great except for the top row of shot. 32 shot with each pour was great. I cast for an hour and ended up with 4lbs 7.3 oz of shot. I filled the pot again and started casting again. I discovered that if I waited about 20-30 seconds after the last cavity was poured, the mold opened easily and when I grabbed the deadhead of the sprue with my needlenose pliers to pull it from the mold, it came out easily and I could tap the end of the sprue on the table and the shot popped right off. I'd fill the mold again and dump the old sprues from the previous pour back back into the pot, one sprue at a time (there are 3) and it was about time to open the mold again. After 2 hours I ended up with 11lbs 4.3ozs of shot. Excellent. Ocassionally some of the top row of cavities would fillout, mostly they were misformed.

I have a PID controller for temp control on my Lee 20-4 pot. It uses memory and temp feedback from a thermocouple to control temperature. I have it set to come on 15deg below and turn off 15deg above the set temp. The cycle will stay on a little long sometimes and the extra tin/pewter plated/plugged the vent holes at the bottom of the mold when the temp momentarily hit 900deg and I wasn't paying attention. The mold suddenly got hard to open and got my attention. I found the problem, cleaned the mold and dropped the pot temp to 825. The mold went back to casting like before.

Thanks to Cap'n and Wes for a good group buy. Now I need to find more pewter.

[Slowpoke]

If you will scribe a small vent line for ea cavity that don't fill you will find the mould will work as advertised .

I experienced the same problem with the top two inside cavities, four strokes with a carbide scribe and they fill real nice with plain ole WW 750*, rowell ladle, no added tin .

good luck

[Gee_Wizz01]

Jsizemore, are you getting in fins or flashing on your 4B? I seem to get some flash on the middle cavities. I also have a couple of cavities on the bottom and 2 on the top that don't fill out well. I am using strait WW at about 800. However, its just a minor nuisance as I spent less than 30 minutes to get about 4lbs of shot. I broke the shot off by hand, but about half of the shot have a small dimple or cavity where the sprue broke. Next time I use my cutters. I threw the shot in my tumbler and ran it about 1 1/2 hours and nearly all of the flash went away an the shot looks real good. Overall this was a great buy.

G

[jsizemore]

All my bottom cavities fillout fine. I had a little finning around a couple of the middle cavities. When I saw more then a couple I found I need to clean the mold and/or lower the temp slightly and/or slow my casting pace. I was also using about a 5% added tin/pewter to my WW. I tried straight WW and I wasn't getting decent fillout in the cavities closest to the outside of the mold at temps that ranged from 700-875deg. That's what lead me to add a little tin/pewter. I'm also getting a little dimple when I break off the shot. I've tested patterns with a slight dimple to smooth to slight tit from trimming and I can't see where it makes any difference.

[Gee_Wizz01]

I think I will add some tin on my next casting session and try different temp ranges. I am glad you fired some test patterns as I figured there wouldn't be any notable difference, especially when I have looked at recovered buckshot. The recovered buckshot was dented and dinged from the acceleration and the ride down the barrel. I probably wont be shooting farther than 40 yards max, and most likely much closer.

G

[Bob Krack]

I finally got to try my #0 & #4B for the first time yesterday.

I was extremely frustrated with the results. Lack of fill out on several random locations.

In desperation, I cast just one half at a time and after 5 or 6 tries started getting perfect fill out. I had to jury-rig a rest to make certain the mould was always the same distance below the spout. I had to locate the cavity opening so that the lead always hit at the same location (dead center in the hole worked best for me).

I suppose it's sumpin like riding a bicycle - hard to explain in words, just keep trying.

I used the Lee 6 cavity mould handles and they worked fine. I switched to the RCBS handles and was much happier - they opened wider and let the casting fall from the mould much easier.

I was using clip-on WW with 1% tin added, running my Lee 20# bottom pour at a setting of 7 (after much trial and error and error). Quite often many of the balls would separate from the sprue on opening or removing from the mould.

I am now able to cast either chamber with virtually no rejects and I can cast both chambers with less than one reject in 4 or 5 fillings.


Many thanks to ya Cap'n!

Bob