my first boolits

[lylejb]

Ok, so i finally got enough of my ducks in a row to try casting my own:-D

Tue night was my first casting session, and i quickly run through the top ten list of beginner's mistakes......one at a time.

My boolit for this session is the Lee 358-158-rf from a 6 cav mold, very generously sold to me by another member (Thanks again)

my pot is the Lee 10lb bottom pour, i picked up used off of craigslist.

my load is going to be a reduced 38 special load, about 600-650fps. this very light load is for my wife and kids to shoot. I'll also work up a heavier load when time allows.

Because of the low velocity i'm intending and the lead i have on hand, i went with a softer alloy, 1/3 pure 2/3 WW. i added 80 grams of 95tin / 5 antimony solder to the pot to reach the 2% tin i see so often quoted. The finished boolits came out BHN 10

I expected the first few molds full to be rejects, to heat up the mold. After about 10 min, i started to get a nice pace going, the sprews were cooling in about 2 or 3 seconds, just a few taps with a "wood hammer" aka small piece of 2x4, to drop the boolits out of the mold. all is good....i thought.

I stopped to put the sprews back in the pot, and to look at the 100 or so boolits i'd made. WHAT... almost every one was as wrinkled as a shar-pai dog. Bright and shiney yes, but badly wrinkled. back in the pot they go, turn up the pot.

OK, lets try this again. I set the mold on top of the pot to warm up, and let the pot heat for another 20 min or so. the pot is now set on 8.

The next run seemed to go good, the sprew was taking longer to freeze, but were easier to cut and the boolits were dropping just by opening the mold:-D

after about 150 or so, stopped to put the sprews back ing the pot and admire my handiwork.....WHAT:shock: these boolits are frosted. Not a little bit frosted, these been in the ice storm. the surface is rough, like 80 grit rough. Back in the pot they go.:???: Turn down the pot.

Add a cold ingot to help cool down the pot, flux and stir. skim again.

OK, let's try this again. now the boolits want to stick in the mold. tap..tap..tap.
next pour, tap..tap...tap...tap.. Next pour tap...tap...tap..TAP..TAP..TAP.. Not working. for a while had to use the end of the 2x4 to push on the bases to get them out. after a while, this cleared up. HMMM must be a temperature thing. Didn't recall about smoking the mold till the next day.:roll:

ok, here we go. this time it seems like everything is going good. Got a good pace going, boolits are dropping alot better, some lightly frosted, some not. WAIT, the lead stopped comming out of the pot. a quick look inside found this was because the pot was EMPTY....and glowing slightly orange. AHHH....controled panic, grab sprews...YEEEOUCH... that one's still hot. Ok, BOTH gloves on, grab sprews, back in the pot, the orange glow goes away. Sort boolits, some of the last ones had inclusions...back in the pot.

Ok, FINALLY got this working. cast the last few with no pain, burns, or nuclear meltdowns.

all totaled, i got 245 keepers in about 2 1/2 hrs. Probably cast 500+ to do it.
I learned alot that night.

HMMMM...... now for some lube......

[qajaq59]

Casting is one of the few things in life where you can toss your mistakes back in the pot. Nice isn't it. And don't worry about the other mistakes. Everyone seems to make them at first and you wont make them again.

The only mistake you never want to make is NOT wearing eye protection!!!

[Nate1778]

Very nice, I have the 125g version of that bullet and love it, I am sure you will to. Time to lube and load...........

[bigboredad]

hey lyle welcome to the very frustrating at times but fun world of casting once you start getting good ones the frustation goes away and the fun starts and just wait til you send your first home made boolit down the barrel. I use the same boolit for my wife with 3 grains of trail boss she loves it and I love since it leaes no lead in the barrel to clean out

[mold maker]

You have crossed the threshold of boolit casting madness.
Welcome to the,
"Royal Order of the Silver Stream."
Bad news is, you have already started down the slippery casting slope from which you'll never recover, and the fascination never ends.

[hobbylink1]

They look very great. Now lube them, load them and let us know how they shoot for you.

[nascarkent]

I hope my first ones come out looking that good, In the next few day I will be giving it a go. Kent

[MtGun44]

Great start. Get those "OH, crap" moments behind you and pretty soon you'll be doing
it just to relax.

Lube 'em up and get 'em loaded. Please report back, we like to hear how it is going,
esp for the new guys.

Bill

[runfiverun]

your done for,start looking for the second job [to cover the expenses needed to save money.]
nice job..

[Le Loup Solitaire]

Hi, Nice work on your castings. Trial and error is a good teacher, although slow and sometimes painful. Its nice to get into the zone where things are balanced and the results are what you want. Wrinkles and voids are bad because there is missing metal on one side of the bullet or the other ( weight variation) and inaccuracy will result. So those have to go back into the pot. Frosted bullets, although not too beautiful, will shoot just as well as non frosted ones so tossing them back into the melt is wasted labor. Repeated tests for comparison of frosties versus non frosties using machine rests for the guns, demonstrated no difference in accuracy. So keep em. If their unsightly complexion bothers anyone, you can polish then quickly and easily with a pad of #0000 steel wool and no one will ever know the difference. Wear eye protection and welder's gloves are the best as they protect wrists and above. To avoid running the pot dry, check the level every certain number of casts or add an ingot. Not more, as in a ten pounder, its easy to drop the melt temp too low and get wrinklies or freeze-up. Both are a pain. So are inclusions which are dirt or crud-that is missing metal too. Flux often and scrape the sides and bottom of the pot so the debris floats to the surface as dross and skim it out. The velocities that you intend to use don't need any special hard or soft alloying. WW which runs 9-13 BHN is ok. I shot competition with wadcutters traveling at 700-750 fps with WW and got good accuracy/groups. On bullets dropping from molds; I'm not a member of the aluminum blocks club, but I know casters who claim that smoking Alu molds with a wooden match(no candles) helps. Its worth trying. When things are "right" and you have the "rythm", you can, with a 6 cavity mold, (I've got 3 iron ones) crank out an enormous quantity of good cast bullets..with very few. if any, rejects. Like maybe a thousand in 3-4 hours. It just takes some practice. A little tin, 1 or 2% helps make beautiful casts as the tin makes for better "flowability" and there is nothing like the right temp and rythm to go with that. You've done a good job with getting started. Keep up the good work and always ask questions on the forum. Members will always try to help you with any information for problems that you may encounter. LLS

[Landric]

I just started casting myself, so I feel your pain. I'm using a Lee 20 pound pot (not bottom pour) and a RCBS dipper. Its slower I'm sure, but since I've never used a bottom pour I have no basis for comparison, so I'm happy with the method.

I've got several Lee two cavity molds and one Lyman two cavity. So far I have had much better success with the Lyman than the Lee molds. I seem to have a lot more problems with fill out, wrinkles, etc. with the Lee molds. I'm not experienced enough yet to say exactly why, I'm following the instructions from both Lee and information here. The difference is enough between the two, that I will probably eventually replace all my Lee molds with similar molds form Lyman and RCBS. Lee makes a nice .358 105 grain SWC that is great for light .38 Special plinking loads. No one else seems to make a mold for a boolit that light, so I'm going to have to stick with that one and make it work. However, my other Lee molds, a 255 grain .452 RNFP and a .457 405 grain FP are available in almost the same configuration from Lyman and RCBS. Unless I get my problems worked out, I'll probably replace the Lees with Lyman or RCBS molds. I probably will anyway, I really like the Lyman a lot better in general, its much more solid.

I must say that I really like the fact that a bad boolit can just be put back in the pot and re-poured. I'm sure I'll eventually get it all worked out, and I'm having a lot of fun with the process.

[snaggdit]

Nice looking boolits! Sounds like you were able to work through the issues you ran into just fine. Next time you should end up with many more keepers in less time, although you did good for your first time as it was.

[243winxb]

How the bullet looks is one thing. How is the diameter as it drops from the mould? Not good if undersized. Best to check diameter as soon as a few cool.

[EMC45]

One of my favorite bullets!

[nonferrous]

What pot temp seems to work out the best to eliminate some of the trial and error from just using the thermostat on the pot?

[truckmsl]

What pot temp seems to work out the best to eliminate some of the trial and error from just using the thermostat on the pot?

I'm using aluminum 6 bangers for several different boolits and they all seem to have their own favorite temperature. You just need to try different temperatures for each one untill you find the one that produces the best boolit for the particular mold with a particular alloy. Some like it hot, but I always stay below 900 F so the lead doesn't vaporize.

[lylejb]

Thanks for all the replies.

as far as size, this mold drops at .359-.360 on the front driving band when i do my part. This mold originally had a bevel base, that the prior owner had removed. I think the removal went a little too far as i get a little flare on the last .020 or so, to about .362-.364. I'm going to use a Lee push through sizer die at .358, so that should take care fo that.

I did say "when i do my part". Yes, i do have a few that i must not have got the mold fully closed, that dropped at about .364 or so.:-o

At this point, these are for fun / plinkers. I'm just returning to regular shooting after about 12 years of little practice. I can't / don't expect serious accuracy.....I'm too rusty:oops: If they'll do pop cans at 15yds, that's good enough for now.

AS far as lube, there's only a zillion posts on lube here. I know the Lee kit comes with liquid alox, but from much of what i've read, it's a sticky, slimey mess. I'm thinking pan lube, using a homemade cake cutter, then push through the lee die. That should leave lube in the lube groove like it's supposed to be, not all over the place.

I've read the rather long thread on JPW as a lube, and was thinking of using mostly JPW, with a little of the alox. Any thoughts? experiance with this?

thanks.

[runfiverun]

i tumble lube a rapine mold boolit i have with 3 parts jpw and one part b-wax.
melt the wax stir in the jpw. as it cools i swirl the boolits in it,it fills the grooves and covers the boolit.
just keep swirling them around aand use about 1/4 of what you think you need to start.

[Shiloh]

They look good to me!.
Lube, load, shoot, repeat.

Shiloh

[WHITETAIL]

Welcome to the forum!
bigboredad
hobbylink1
nascakent.:castmine:

[jdgabbard]

You boolits look good other than the machine marks left on the mold by Lee, which seems to be the standard as of late. Looks like you got nice square bases and good fill out. Now its time to lube/size and load them up. I'm sure you'll like that boolit. Everyone else seems to.

[jsizemore]

I use a piece of closet rod for my mallet. I hold a few cool sprues back to clean up any small spots of tin/lead on the face or top of the mold or sprue plate. Works like an eraser.

Ain't it fun making your own boolits?!!