First pourings

[kgb]

Never thought I'd get into casting, but some time back I picked up a single Lyman 41028 just in case. A Lee 175gr dual seemed about right when they went on sale. Then there were these group buys so I went in on a wadcutter and LFN style in Lee 6-shooters. Finally a gunshop had an RCBS two holer Keith-style on sale.

A week ago I bought a fish frying setup and ran the smelting process on a bucket of wheelweights.

Today, although it was too cold, I opened the garage door, fired up the Lee pot (sitting on the floor) and liquified a bunch of those wheelweight ingots. I like the sawdust idea so I set a coat of that on top of the liquid. Found out the correct way to adjust the pouring mechanism so lead won't just flow out. Good advice to keep the ingot mould under the spigot, but lead solidifies on the base as well.

Four moulds were cleaned with solvent and coated with Kroil, it's stuff I have around anyhow. I'll get around to the RCBS mould soon enough, I just wanted to pour some lead.

Down on my knee, peering at the spigot, wrapped up in long sleeved jackets, gloves, goggles, a respirator in place to help fog the goggles, I think I made many of the mistakes already. Didn't really have time to do things right, but as with the government, there's always time here to do things over.

The LFN version got the most use, it finally got pretty hot and the bullets looked better, but swapping the handles between 3 moulds left little time to get things right and I didn't want to make all the mistakes the first time out.

No lube or sizing yet, and I haven't even checked diameters, but from left to right checking heaviest examples from each mould, the Lee weighs 169gr, the Lyman RFN is 212gr, the WC is 198gr and the LFN is 232gr. I'll size them and stick the Lyman and LFN in some older cases to check fit and flow through my Marlin and pistols.

I think I'll get to liking this hobby, it'll be fun to get a procedure down and I've got a lot of reading to do.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd256/Gordonpicsrus/castings001.jpg

[lwknight]

It looks like you might just get the hanh of it.

Welcome aboard.

Those super wrankly ones might be caused by a film of oil in the mold. I accidently got some wax on my mold and before I knew it it was i every cavity. It mgrates like crazy. Even hot molds and hot alloy stil had wrinkles. so I just shut down to let the mold cool and clean it later.

[chris in va]

I'm new at this myself, but a couple things might help.

I was getting the wrinkles until the mold broke in. Also be sure it's up to heat, stick it in the pot and wait until the lead doesn't stick to it anymore (it's in the instruction book).

Mine seems to pour best at 5-6. Anything more and the lead gets too runny causing all kinds of interesting failures. You want it to pour, then leave a nice puffy quarter size overfill on the sprue plate. Shake a bit, whack.

[Shiloh]

Without being there, I would think that the mold needs a thorough cleaning. This was stated above.

Other than that. a bit more heat may help. Make sure the mold is up to temp.
My iron molds take a bit more castings to get up to temp. Once there, it holds the temp.

My six banger LEE molds start throwing keepers after about 1/2 dozen fills.

Shiloh

[Cherokee]

I preheat my molds on a hot plate. Often, the first casting is useful from the Lee 6 cavity molds. Iron molds take a little longer. Recleaning the molds will not hurt and run the alloy temp up some.

[jsizemore]

You can also preheat your mold by sticking the corner of the mold in the melt.

[AZ-Stew]

Don't overload yourself trying to read everything with the expectation that if you read enough, you'll automatically cast good boolits. Reading is fine and useful, but you'll learn more from actually casting and seeing what works than you will from reading what worked for someone else. I've seen things posted here that I KNOW don't work for me. Read to get the basics, then cast to learn what works. Keep in mind that some of us began casting LONG before there was an internet. We read the Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook and whatever magazine articles we could find, then started doing it for ourselves. The successful OFs here are giving back what they've learned, and it's good stuff, but you can OD on it. Cast, observe, shoot. Repeat. Repeat again. You'll learn faster.

If you were paying attention and taking my advice, you'd have stopped reading and plugged in your pot after about my fourth sentence.

Regards,

Stew

[hornsurgeon]

you had four sentances?

[AZ-Stew]

I had 12 sentences, but none were longer than a year.

P.S. Love that Adlerbrau.

Regards,

Stew

[kgb]

Read to get the basics, then cast to learn what works

That's pretty much the plan.

Bird hunting today, will head out with a muzzleloader in the morning for deer and it's supposed to be 15deg; this morning it was down to 12deg, I'm not in a hurry to fire up the casting just yet--no heater in the garage. I'm sure curiousity will get the better of me soon enough, though. Seems the garage floor should make a good sink to pull heat from any overwarmed moulds, the big thing will be to get the pot up around chest high to make things comfortable.

First question, is it correct to "contact pour" by snuggling the sprue plate holes up to the spout? Or, do you leave a little space for the lead to free-fall? I adjusted the mechanism to pretty much maximize flow and held each sprue plate hole against the spout.

[mpmarty]

It depends....:kidding:

I like to use a somewhat smaller stream than maximum flow and hold the mold about a quarter of an inch below the pour spout, resting on the LEE supplied little metal bracket.

I know that some casters use the bottom pour like a vertical dipper and jam the mold up against it. In my experience that won't work for me. It seems like the spout loses heat into the sprue plate and stops flowing and also I don't get any kind of extra lead on top of the mold for the cooling boolit to draw from and my bases don't fill out properly.

[kgb]

Yeah, with the bracket I figured you had to maintain a little clearance and either drop from there or simply rest the mould on the bracket as you slide each cavity under the spout. I wound up pulling the mould away immediately prior to releasing the handle to get a small, or not so small, blob atop each hole. Sometimes it even worked.

Sized the bullets and seated them in cases. First thing to discover is the Lee sizer ram is not made for a Dillon progressive and it's the only press I own. I really don't want to buy another press/ram as there's no room for it.

The S&W eats them all up, the Ruger, Marlin and T/C don't like the WC crimped in the last groove so those will have to go flush with the case mouth. The LFN's are too long for the M97, so heavies in it will have to be a WFN design like the Cast performance 250 that I already know fits.

That Lyman 41028 is pretty slick, if it shoots well I'll be on the search for a multiple cavity version. The Marlin fed all but the WC design very well, so variety is there. I've shot SWC's of 210-215 so the RCBS should be another useful slug.

[9.3X62AL]

Sounds like things are perking right along. Best of luck on the hunts.

[Goatlips]

"Down on my knee, peering at the spigot, wrapped up in long sleeved jackets, gloves, goggles, a respirator in place to help fog the goggles, "

I sure can't think of a less comfortable way to make boolits. Got a picnic table? Here's my setup...

http://goatlipstips.cas-town.com/casting.html

but whatever way works for you, welcome to the fun house! [smilie=w:

Goatlips

[Changeling]

"Down on my knee, peering at the spigot, wrapped up in long sleeved jackets, gloves, goggles, a respirator in place to help fog the goggles, "

I sure can't think of a less comfortable way to make boolits. Got a picnic table? Here's my setup...

http://goatlipstips.cas-town.com/casting.html

but whatever way works for you, welcome to the fun house! [smilie=w:

Goatlips

I don't mean to hi jack this posting I just wanted to thank Goatlipd for the link. I really needed it.

[kgb]

No picnic table, really don't have room for much of what I've got right now and I just panicked with winter finally arriving and having everything I need to cast. Started wondering which bullets would fit in my FA97 and the way to know was to cast some "samples". Worked for what I was wondering, I'm happy for right now. When I'm ready I'll get it set up right, and thanks for the link as well!

[WHITETAIL]

kgb, Welcome to the world of boolet making!:cbpour:
You can ask the people here anything.
They are great!:grin:

[Mk42gunner]

[QUOTE=kgb;736071]
Today, although it was too cold, I opened the garage door, fired up the Lee pot (sitting on the floor) and liquified a bunch of those wheelweight ingots. I like the sawdust idea so I set a coat of that on top of the liquid. Found out the correct way to adjust the pouring mechanism so lead won't just flow out. Good advice to keep the ingot mould under the spigot, but lead solidifies on the base as well.

Four moulds were cleaned with solvent and coated with Kroil, it's stuff I have around anyhow. I'll get around to the RCBS mould soon enough, I just wanted to pour some lead.

Down on my knee, peering at the spigot, wrapped up in long sleeved jackets, gloves, goggles, a respirator in place to help fog the goggles, I think I made many of the mistakes already. Didn't really have time to do things right, but as with the government, there's always time here to do things over.

The LFN version got the most use, it finally got pretty hot and the bullets looked better, but swapping the handles between 3 moulds left little time to get things right and I didn't want to make all the mistakes the first time out.


QUOTE]

Set your pot up on a bench or a sturdy crate, or possibly a cooler. I like to be able to move if something bad happens, or at least think that I can, I seriously doubt that I can outrun the tinsel fairy.

I use a fullface shield instead of goggles, less fogging that way. I also use a fan to draw air away from the casting area, and don't worry about fumes, the lead doesn't get hot enough to give off vapors.

While casting with multiple molds can give a larger pile of bullets; IMHO it is best to start with one and learn what each mold likes; for example, I have a Lee 312-185 that casts best when it is run fast enough that I cannot use a second mold, conversely I can utilize two two cavity lymans at the same time.

Part of your wrikled bullets could be dirty molds or cold molds.


Good Luck,


Robert

[kgb]

Robert, I'd like to get a full face shield for just the reason you state. I'm figuring on the mould temperature being an issue as well, keep in mind I was just wanting to scratch an itch and get some bullet examples from the various designs this time around. I'll figure out the details soon enough. Maybe in time to work up a load for late doe season in January. If not, I have some CPBC 265gr LFNs ready to go.

Kirk