Need to iron out the wrinckels

[willie]

I'm making 45, 9 and 38 and seem to be getting "wrinkels" in the bullets. This is ww @ 600-700 degrees. 1. How much wrinkel can I have before I get a squib? 2. What can I add to my mix and what is the ratio to get a better fill. TIA

[UweJ]

hi
did you get all the grease out of the mold before starting to cast ? (brake cleaner,mineral spirits etc.)
try casting a little hotter that might also do the trick.
add a little tin ( maybe 2%) .
Uwe

[Blammer]

clean mould, add more heat and as far as squibbs go, you'd really really have to have a bad one to get a squib. so bad it'd probably not resemble a boolit. :)

[Ken O]

As the others said, make sure there are no petroleum products in the mold. When they are new they always have some in them. I like to clean with carb cleaner because it evaporates.

And, no matter what you temp gauge says, go hotter! Make them hot enough to frost and see if they are still wrinkled, I would bet not. Then you can back down the temp just under the frost and thats where I like to be. There is nothing bad about a frosted bullet except for the looks.

[bigboredad]

Hey Willie as Ken stated you need more heat if by chance you are using a lee mould I run mine around 800-850 and get good fill out and just a touch of frosting

[high standard 40]

Yep, clean mold and more heat should solve those unsightly wrinkles.

[snaggdit]

+1 on cleaning the mold and more heat. Then preheat your mold and get it good and hot. Use a dry q-tip and wipe out the cavities when it is hot then cast 6-12 loads fast, dropping them and don't even look. This will finish heating the mold and hopefully wear off any residual oils. If you still have wrinkles, keep trying for a while to see if the oils fade away.

[Bret4207]

Not just more heat, but increase your casting tempo. The more often liquid alloy fill the mould, the hotter it will get.

[Hurricane]

When you have wrinkles, always suspect that the mold is not hot enough. I have cast iron molds so I oil them between casting sessions. I clean the mold with denatured alcohol before I start heating the lead. I preheat my mold by laying it across the top of the melting pot while the lead is melting. The melting takes about 30 minutes. The heat will completely dry the alcohol and preheat the mold. When the lead is ready the mold is also up to heat and will be ready to use.

[madman]

Yep what they said.

[SharpsShooter]

How old is the mould? Young moulds don't have wrinkles. You could find some andi-wrinkle cream I guess[smilie=1:........or just do what they suggested.


SS

[willie]

All molds are 6 cav. Lee. The first time I cast I only had one mold and it got so hot that the pin pulled out a bit and the mold would not close properly. When I temped it, it was 900-1000. I guess since then I was reserved from getting too hot. Last night I filled the molds (x 3) and let one sit while filling the others thinking they would stay hot and not over heat. The first mold I got I cleaned real good and the next two I guess I could have done a better job.

What I can conclude from all of you is I can run 3 mold at a time as long as I am around 800-850? Or do I need more heat or less molds?

Tin? Without buying stright tin, I know I've seen solder mentioned. Not to up on solder and know there is different types/ratios. What to use and what to avoid?

Thanks for all the help!

[bigboredad]

As long as you can keep your mould temp up go ahead and use 3 if you can,t keep the temp up start working wirh just 2 remember its your mould temp that is important

[inuhbad]

+1 on cleaning the mold and more heat. Then preheat your mold and get it good and hot. Use a dry q-tip and wipe out the cavities when it is hot then cast 6-12 loads fast, dropping them and don't even look. This will finish heating the mold and hopefully wear off any residual oils. If you still have wrinkles, keep trying for a while to see if the oils fade away.We seem to have pretty similar ideas on a lot of things... :drinks:

I'll have to +1 that advice... Clean the mold with a degreaser of some kind, and then 'Smoke' it with some wood/strike anywhere matches or you could try the new 'lightly kroil'ing technique if you want... All three work well.

Oh, and you DEFINITELY need to turn up the heat!

Your first ~20-30 bullets will always be wrinkled unless you somehow pre-heated your molds. I don't preheat my molds - I just cast about 20-30 bullets, dropping them into the box that catches my sprue cut-offs. I can remelt them later into bullets in the next batch. After the mold & lead are both up to a good heat I water drop mine and get excellent results!

Snaggdit, I also run my pot between 7 & 8, but my thermometer tells me that keeps the lead running 800 to ~915 degrees. The temperature will fluctuate depending on whether or not the heat coils are 'running' (they turn on & off) and depending on how much lead is in the pot as well... That's why it's so important to get the Zinc out of your weights when alloying ingots - prior to putting them into the electric casting pots. Otherwise the zinc would melt right in there too.

[Bret4207]

I would work with one mould at a time until I got things running smoothly and was producing perfect boolits. I'd also avoid smoking the mould at all costs. The smoke may fill some scars, but it also insulates the mould from the heat and produces smaller diameter boolits- both bad things. If the mould makes better boolits after smoking then you need to read up on Leementing and fix the problem instead of hiding it under a layer of carbon.