New to casting! have questions

[50 Caliber]

I am new to bullet casting on a big scale, I have been casting small amounts of .495 lead balls useing a Lee production pot and one lee 2 cavity mould. The wife got me a "Bunch" of casting equipment at a yard sale as follows:
1 RCBS Furnace
around 150# lead ingots
18 moulds of vareiose manufacture and caliber, some of them have really loose sprue plates.
large cast iron smelting pot and the accompanying turkey cooker burner/w propane tank.
several ingot moulds (about 8)
she got all this for me for $150.00[smilie=1: , is this a good deal:confused: ? I think so as the RCBS furnace sells for over $200.00, I might be wrong though.
My question is this, the moulds are all wrapped in wax papper and sprayed with some kind of preservative(smells like WD40), there is no rust, whats the best way to clean them prior to use? Brake clean? Its what I use on my aluminum mould and works well, I'm new to cast iron and I think steel moulds as well.

[44woody]

welcom to the nut house the best way I have found to cleen moulds is hot water and dish soap and a tooth brush as far as your wifes find at the sale she did a great job in geting them for you :castmine: 44Woody

[seagiant]

Hi 50,
Yea you got a hell of a deal!!!


Now, about the reloading stuff you done good!

[largecaliberman]

Welcome to the forum. You're very blessed to have a wife that will purchase equipment like that. I'm sure. Most wives won't even think of mentioning to their husbands that such equipment was on sale anywhere.

To best clean the mold, you may wash off the mold with detergent then soak them in acetone, or use a brake cleaner in a spray can. The bottom line is getting any form of oil and foreign matter from the cavity. After you've done that, blacken the cavity with a match, this will act as a mold release.

[madcaster]

Great deal,great wife,does she have sisters?LOL!

[50 Caliber]

Yes madcaster, she does have one sister, But....She's fat and ugly. I got the best of that small litter.

[Buckshot]

............My wife wouldn't buy me squat. She'd figure I already had it or something. My neighbor Ralf works construction. I guess they were building some kind of repository for radioactive stuff. An outfit out of Texas was doing all the shielding and building the doors. They were using tongue and groove lead plates about 6"x 14" x 3/4". When they were finished up Ralf said there was about a half a pallet left.

He knew I cast boolits so he asked the foreman if he could take some of the lead. The foreman said he could have all he wanted, but he had to take it before the salvage company got there. He called his wife and had her call my wife to tell me to come grab a bunch. My wife said I had enough lead :-) Actually I work nights and was asleep so I wouldn't have been able to go get any. But it's the idea :-)

However, Ralf (bless his heart) grabbed a couple laborers and they loaded as much in the back of his Ford Ranger as he felt safe hauling. As it was he said the bumper was a couple inches off the road and his tires were pretty fat.

http://www.fototime.com/8E4953F3C91136C/standard.jpg

Not only did he haul it home, he stacked it next to my garage! Weighing a couple slabs, near as I could figure he hauled about 1600 lbs home. It's pure and soft as butter. Nice stuff! He said he figured he got about a fifth of what was there.

................Buckshot

[50 Caliber]

I got lucky with my wife, as long as the bills are paid, she dont care what I buy. As far as lead goes, My Brother in law owns a scrap yard and I pay my nephew $2.00 per 5 gallon pail of wheel weights. He collects about 10 buckets a month for me. when I have a months worth I fire up the gas burner and I use an old cast iron pot for melting down the wheel weights.

[steveb]

My wife wouldn't buy me squat


Huh, sounds like my wife. Anything cast/realoding/or gun related I'm on my own. Sounds like you got you a fine neighbor there Buckshot!

[454PB]

Yes madcaster, she does have one sister, But....She's fat and ugly. I got the best of that small litter.

You better hope your sister-in-law never EVER finds this post:veryconfu

Fat and ugly can be overcome by some attributes[smilie=w:

[50 Caliber]

OK OK OK....she's meanern a snake, and kicks puppies too.

[Bad luck Bill]

Buckshot! You lucky old son-of-a- beautiful man! I wish I had luck like you. I've been looking for a source of pure lead for shooting my BP revolvers! Damn! Why don't anything like that happen to me? I did meet a guy who is getting me some weights out of the old styled windows. I won't know if it's pure or not until I see it myself. I hope it is, if not I'll shoot it out of my .357! I hit some tire places today and got a full five gallon bucket of wheel weights! Damn was it heavy, I almost busted my guts trying to carry it to my car. Next time I'll break it up into three buckets!

BLB.