new to casting

[sharpshooter79]

Howdy Folks,
A neighbor of mine gave me two 5 gal buckets full of wheel weights. I just bought my Lee 30 cal 180 gr bullet mold with the sizing kit, and hornady gas checks. I've been reading on here about sorting wheel weights. What do I look for when sorting them?
Also Lee says you need to lube the mold before you start casting. I bought some RCBS handgun bullet lube, will this work?
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[sharpshooter79]

I forgot to add that I am casting bullets for my Remington 700 in 30-06. Thanks!

[carpetman]

Sharpshooter--30-06 was the first rifle I cast for. Never forget first time I shot cast in 30-06. Had two loadings--one was with 4064 powder and velocity about 2400 fps--felt about like 30-30. Second loading was with Unique and was about 1600 fps---thought I had a missfire. Little noise and almost no recoil.

[RoyRogers]

You are trying not to have any zinc WW melt into your mix. You won't be able to melt the steel WW in as they don't melt at typical lead smelting temps.

[cajun shooter]

Check out the sticky section first. You will find all kinds of help there. I would even advise you to print some of it for the future. Next find yourself a copy of the Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook and read it. You will find that you look at it quite often when first starting out. Welcome to the forum

[Matt_G]

Howdy Folks,
A neighbor of mine gave me two 5 gal buckets full of wheel weights.
First, welcome to Cast Boolit heaven! :drinks:
If you haven't yet, you really should buy that neighbor of yours some beer. :)

I've been reading on here about sorting wheel weights. What do I look for when sorting them?
This is just MY way of sorting WW's.
I sort out the stick ons from the clip ons. That's it.
The stick ons get melted seperately. That's because they are much softer than clip ons and can be used for making a softer alloy for some applications like hollow points.
While I am doing this, if I see any obviously non lead weights, they go in the trash bucket. Any weights that are riveted to the clip are a good example of this.
If I miss some, and I do, it's no big deal because I let temperature do all the work for me.
Clip on WW"s will start getting slushy around 550 F and are usually liquid around 570 F.
Once everything is liquid, I will keep the heat on until the melt gets up to 620 F or so.
Then I skim off all the clips. Any non lead weights including zinc weights will be floating as well and they are skimmed off also.
The melting temp of zinc is 782 F, so as long as you watch the temp, you don't have to worry about contaminating your alloy.
Obviously a thermometer is handy, but it's not required. Once the melt is hot enough to where lead isn't sticking to the clips, your probably around that 620 mark. Just turn the heat down some and get to skimming, fluxing and pouring.

Also Lee says you need to lube the mold before you start casting. I bought some RCBS handgun bullet lube, will this work?
The best mould lube available is Bullshops Bullplate Sprue Lube. There is a link down below in the "Shootin' Links" section. Don't use that bullet lube on your mould.
You may want to read this thread (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=654) on Leementing your mould.

Just my 2 cents worth.

[qajaq59]

Welcome to the forum. And could you get your neighbor to move in next to me?
Read the stickies and as much in the forum as you can BEFORE you start trying to cast. It'll just make your life easier when you do start. And it does take a while to get everything set so don't get discouraged if you have some little glitches at first. It'll all straighten out pretty quickly.

[sharpshooter79]

Howdy,
Thanks folks. I will check out this sticky section ya'll mentioned and I am checking into that bullplate lube that was also mentioned. They have a copy of the Lyman book here at the local library.
My neighbor and I help each other out when either one of us needs help. I really appreciated the weights he gave me.