Newbie Help with wrinkling Lee Slugs

[WideAwake]

Ok, I sure it's been asked here a 100 times. But I been Reading for 3 days and I can't find it.. I have a Lee 1oz slug mold and yes I smoked it like crazy. still wrinkles?? I used old fishing sinkers, fluxed it many times(candlewax&sawdust).
Still Got wrinkles, I did get 2 out of 20 last night useing the sawdust to flux. and I know it's only slugs and they don't have to be pretty, But I got a 1943 Enfield sporter at a grage sale for $80. In Great Condition.. So I'm looking to cast & reload 303 british at some point, as I learn this craft a bit more.

Just fyi, I use a coleman single burner, small pot and one of those high dollar lyman pouring ladles. if that matters..

Thanks in advance..

[lead Foot]

Yeah it's good fun casting slugs. Your problem will most likey be ~ is that your mould is to cold. Try heating your mould with your burner first. Welcome to the forum ~ plenty of good people here to help you along.:drinks:
Lead foot;

[copdills]

Iam with Leadfoot your mold is too cold and you might want to add a little tin to your mix, I use a hot plate to preheat my mold while my furnace is heating up to temp I turn them both on at the same time with mold on the hotplate at about 3/4 the way on to high when the lead is at the temp I like (725) the mold is ready to go and makes good boolits if I get tired I put the mold back on the hotplate for a few mins and when I come back its still hot and ready to go

[Gelandangan]

What do you use to smoke?
If you use oil based smoke (eg, candle), then the smoke may still contain oil and this will wrinkle casts.

[mac1911]

my mold stopped with the rinkles when it got nice and hot. With my heavy gloves I can just feel the heat through the handles. I get about 65 slugs before its to hot to handle.

[Moonie]

2 things I would suggest, 1 be sure the mold is clean, use dish soap and a tooth brush to clean it real well, you can also use break cleaner. 2 aluminum molds like to be run hot.

I have the mold in question and once it is clean (and with no smoke) and hot it runs well.

[docone31]

All I use are Lee molds. I have never used any others other than when I made fishing lures.
Hokay.
Soak your mold for two days in mineral spirits. Forget candleing Lee molds. Not needed.
Then.. get your source material ready, PREHEAT your mold. I mean really preheat it. That is where the wrinkleing comes from. The mineral spirits should take care of any soluables.
From there just cast. As you cast, the mold will heat up also. Keep on casting, and tossing the rejects back in the pot. The sprue should freeze to the count of six. If it freezes too fast, speed up the casting. If it freezes later than that, rest it.
With practice, it will become second nature. You can probably use the wrinkled castings. No biggee there. Severe wrinkling, toss them in the pot.
That should work. I put Kitty Litter on the top of the pot, and set my molds in the Litter. Sounds funny, but it does work. The litter also slows down the rejects so if you water drop, there are no steam explosions. The water evaporates before the casting remelts back in.
Works for me.

[WideAwake]

After about 20 slugs the mold wouldn't close all the way, so I stopped. So guess I need to know what everyone uses for a mold pin lube? cause the stuff I used was smoking and wasn't working..

I would say, By your comments I need MORE Heat on the mold,cause I wasn't using glooves at all. Dumb on my part , I know..I'm an Old Oil & Gas Pumper so We are Tuffer then most!![smilie=l: did have saftey glasses on..

I got it, Clean, Hot, lube? Smoke or No Smoke..oh and Glooves!!!!

Thanks for all the input. Great Site, alot of info. U guys know your stuff!!

Ps the Wrinkles look frosted like impuritys so am I not getting this lead clean enough??

[mac1911]

one thing I really like about castboolits.
Even if you question is the 1,000,000,000 time asked you get answers or links to answers
unlike a lot of forums where you get "not this """" again" ect ect

wideawake Im not sure if its right or not but I use a high temp synthetic brake grease on my mold hinge pins.

It does start to smoke at the end of my castings----about 65 on the lee 1oz mold.

[docone31]

I have found, on my molds, that when the hinge pin starts dragging, I lubricate with penetrating oil. This leaves a deposit on the pin. This deposit helps keep the pin moving smoothly.
When I first started, the first thing I did was scrub with brake cleaner, smoke the snot out of the mold, and grease everything I could see.
Well, that one did not work well. It was a .45 ACP mold, and I finally got the mold "going" after casting a bunch of castings.
When I got my .303 mold, I soaked in in mineral spirits for a couple of days, then heat soaked the mold prior to casting, and cast away.... It worked right out of the box.
I had one, that was picky. I moved the sprue plate to one side, cast through a nut on top of the sprue opening. The nut got cast into the casting. I made six of these.
These castings, I smeared some valve lapping compound on the castings, and with a wrench rotated the nuts. I alternated the castings so I did not get a large cavity. I tried to keep them all the same.
Now, that mold drops them right out. I did not bother to clean it, I just cast with the grit in place. A few castings later and it was spotless. I used the grit castings to firelap my bore.
A great shooting rifle. My castings drop right out.
You will get there. Keep on casting, and taking notes of what you are doing. I use my Lee 20lb pot at 9. I keep my alloy hot, my mold hot, and I water drop everything.
Frosting makes an easy to lube casting also. Frosting is good.

[Moonie]

Bullplate spru lube works great. I use the lube I got with my Mihec mold, similar stuff.

[dogbert41]

I heat of my mold by just pouring hot lead into it and letting it sit for a minute. I'll consider that first pour or two a write off just to heat the mold.

I recently bought a can of spray on carbon from Frankford Arsenal.

http://www.midwayusa.com/viewproduct/?productnumber=763758

Works pretty good! Read reviews to get some tips on how to use it.

Also, I found that the handle pins like to drop out of Lee slug molds. After I lost my first pin I started putting a drop of lead on top of each pin to keep it from happening again. It's just a quick and easy solder fix. If it falls off, just put another drop of hot lead on.

I break the spruce the second it hardens. Even leave a little smear when I break it. Cuts like butter that way, and you can just use your hand. -gloved of course.

I found as long as the slug is fully formed, it won't make much difference if it has frost or wrinkles when you shoot it.

This picture shows where I put those drops of lead.

[turbo1889]

The only cure I have found for the Lee slug mold is intense heat, namely running the lead temp well above what I would cast at for almost any other mold, not so much the mold temp as it is the lead temp:


"Blue-Gold with Pure" is as hot as I ever cast. I don't know the exact temp but when you heat up pure lead it first melts, then you add more heat and it gets a gold colored sheen on the top, and then you add more heat and it gets a blue-gold sheen on the top, and if you add any more heat beyond that it starts to glow in the dark !!!

To get it up to that temp I have to run my old Lyman pot full out hotwired so that that the heating element never kicks off due to the thermostat. The only thing I ever need to cast that hot for is pure lead boolits in hollow base aluminum block molds such as the Lee wad-slug mold, the Lee 45-70 hollow base mold, and a couple other aluminum hollow base molds I have. Don't need it that hot for aluminum hollow point molds unless your hollow point is huge. Brass, iron, or steel molds there is absolutely no reason for that kind of heat hollow base or point not withstanding.

P.S. What HeavyMetal said is absolutely correct if the HP or HB pin isn't attached to the mold so it can't be removed which unfortunately is how the Lee molds are set up so that trick don't work with them.

Bull-plate lube is what works best on the pin alignment grooves and the waffle face grooves on the inside mating surfaces of the blocks. Forget the smoke and use bull-plate instead (Not inside the cavity! Just on the waffle groove mating surfaces and pin alignment ring.)

Do not smack the pin base bracket with your sprue plate knocker to nock loose stubborn slugs (you will bend the bracket and things won't line up when closing the mold) instead smack the pivot bolt for the handles.

I should note that when running the lead temp this hot the aluminum of the mold starts to get a little gummy over an extended casting period and you can expect the aluminum smash rivet assembly that keeps the base pin in place to fail at about the 500 castings point and you will have to fix it with an appropriately sized drill bit and pan head sheet metal screw. Also the total expected useful life span of a Lee slug mold run hot furious like this is about 2,000 to 3,000 slugs so if you do a lot of casting with it you should expect to have to buy a new mold on a regular replacement schedule. One of these days I’m going to throw in the towel and find someone to make me a copy cat mold from steel with a free floating screw thread positive mechanical advantage extractor pin.

[JIMinPHX]

I have a hard time getting my 1-oz slug mold hot enough to get rid of the wrinkles. My little Lyman 10-pound pot only has a 450 watt heater element & it struggles to provide enough heat. If I insulate the pot, preheat the mold in a second pot & don't throw my sprue back into the pot, then I can just about get things hot enough to give me good slugs.

You can shoot the wrinkled ones if they are not too bad. Accuracy is not quite perfect, but they do fly pretty well.

[WideAwake]

I would Like to Thanks Everyone for Taking the Time To Answer My Old Questions.

The Wife Found 3 pewter Mugs for a $1 made about 2lbs. I cast about 40 last night only had 8 reject.. Very little to No Wrinkling this time around.
Water dropped them, and Got everything Hot. I can see a Big difference adding the Tin..
I shot the Enfield WOW!!! a Nail Driver.... after some research I found this Gun only has 5 serial Numbers 1 which is Maltby,Eng MFG, & 4XXX. I wish it had never been made into a sporter!!:groner: Oh, well it's a shooter Not a wall hanger!!!

Thanks again, Men!!!!