The Cod Father
05-30-2006, 07:59 PM
Ha I bet that got your attention!!!:mrgreen:
Well after lurking here and reading like a sponge I can finally say :castmine:
My first casting session is now a happy memory, I don't have any kind of big setup yet , I have a 85,000 btu Turkey fryer, a cast iron bake pot ( that both my wife and mother can't believe I bought for melting lead)
I have a couple SS slotted spoons and a SS soup ladle , A Lyman mold I got 2nd hand and a bunch of scrounged WW's .
With this meager collection I ensconced myself on the back deck and assembled my tools like a Medievil Alchemist huddled trying to make gold ,or in my case golden boolits as it were. I got everything up to a good soup and tossed in some old candles my wife had around that smelled like a funeral home , I never had a chance to light the fumes before I was staring down a conflagulation that hasen't been seen in Newfoundland since Mrs. Brown's cow kicked over a lantern in the barn starting the Great Fire of 1862 which burned down over 1/2 the city of St. John's . While trying to remain calm and overide my natural instinct to get gone in the face of the flames I had to convince myself that this was supposed to happen and at the same time remind my fleeting brain that next time I won't arbitrairly toss in a whole votive candle at once but cut it in quarters next time.
It was a busy time in my brain for those few micro seconds !!!
After a thorogh fluxing I skimmed the carbon dust off and tossed it in a small can leaving a nice silver trail across the deck ( note to self , tip the extra lead off first )
I deployed the soup ladle and warmed the mold. As I was about to dip into the lead I slipped the ladle backwards moving any possible dust on the surface out of the way and scooped up my first bowl of silver liquid and nervously tried to get most of the lead to pour into the 2 holes in the sprue plate.
I whacked the sprue plate clean off and opened the mold and out popped a beautifully formed bullet ,regretfully the other one stuck and took several whacks to get it to pop loose. as it did the rest of the casting session. That one side always stuck .
A note to other new casters , don't be in a hurry to pick up and look at your first boolit ,it may be solid but it is still hot as a bugger (don't ask )
Anyway the afternoon ended with me having cast a total of 186 boolits and when I sorted them I had 118 good ones and 68 I will return to the pot for my next session as they were flawed in some way or another
Sorry about the length of this but I was really excited about my first time and really wanted to share with people who would appreciate why I was so pleased.
TCF
Well after lurking here and reading like a sponge I can finally say :castmine:
My first casting session is now a happy memory, I don't have any kind of big setup yet , I have a 85,000 btu Turkey fryer, a cast iron bake pot ( that both my wife and mother can't believe I bought for melting lead)
I have a couple SS slotted spoons and a SS soup ladle , A Lyman mold I got 2nd hand and a bunch of scrounged WW's .
With this meager collection I ensconced myself on the back deck and assembled my tools like a Medievil Alchemist huddled trying to make gold ,or in my case golden boolits as it were. I got everything up to a good soup and tossed in some old candles my wife had around that smelled like a funeral home , I never had a chance to light the fumes before I was staring down a conflagulation that hasen't been seen in Newfoundland since Mrs. Brown's cow kicked over a lantern in the barn starting the Great Fire of 1862 which burned down over 1/2 the city of St. John's . While trying to remain calm and overide my natural instinct to get gone in the face of the flames I had to convince myself that this was supposed to happen and at the same time remind my fleeting brain that next time I won't arbitrairly toss in a whole votive candle at once but cut it in quarters next time.
It was a busy time in my brain for those few micro seconds !!!
After a thorogh fluxing I skimmed the carbon dust off and tossed it in a small can leaving a nice silver trail across the deck ( note to self , tip the extra lead off first )
I deployed the soup ladle and warmed the mold. As I was about to dip into the lead I slipped the ladle backwards moving any possible dust on the surface out of the way and scooped up my first bowl of silver liquid and nervously tried to get most of the lead to pour into the 2 holes in the sprue plate.
I whacked the sprue plate clean off and opened the mold and out popped a beautifully formed bullet ,regretfully the other one stuck and took several whacks to get it to pop loose. as it did the rest of the casting session. That one side always stuck .
A note to other new casters , don't be in a hurry to pick up and look at your first boolit ,it may be solid but it is still hot as a bugger (don't ask )
Anyway the afternoon ended with me having cast a total of 186 boolits and when I sorted them I had 118 good ones and 68 I will return to the pot for my next session as they were flawed in some way or another
Sorry about the length of this but I was really excited about my first time and really wanted to share with people who would appreciate why I was so pleased.
TCF