lee 459-405-hb issue

[craveman85]

i got my lee 405 grain hollow base mold today from midway. wne i cast the bases arent coming out that great. i have a 25% keep rate of my bullets. i made sure the mold is hot enough as it takes several seconds for the lead to cool down so i can tap the sprue. i have also tried shaking the mold from side to side gently while pouring and also have tapped it gently with my wooden stick. the noses on my bullets are all coming out kind of pitted as well.

[myg30]

Clean the mold well with hot soap water, dry well or spray clean with brake cleaner.
If thats not the fix, turn up the heat on the lead, my 405 liked it HOT. When you get frosty's then its time to lower the temp. Not sure what lead mix your doin either ? More details might help if the above wont fix it.
Good luck, be safe.

Mike

[craveman85]

wheel weights for lead. im using a propane burner which is melting 10lbs of lead in about 6 mins so id say its pretty hot. looking to get some pure lead to put some of those out and see how they do.

[Wally]

myg30 has given good some very good advice. I had one some years ago & could never get satisfacory bullets from it. I got a Lyman 405 RNF mold and never had any problem with it--but it is not a HB type. IMHO the HB is quite tricky to work with.

[craveman85]

i may grind off the point for the hollow base and turn it into a 450 grain or so.

[Maven]

craveman85, I have that mold and like you, I've had problems with base fill-out as well. What I've done to largely eliminate that issue is to polish the HB stem with 0000 steel or bronze wool (You may have to disassemble the mold to do so), degrease it thoroughly, and then coat it with soot from wooden matches or a Bic lighter. While you can and should initially cast at ~800 deg. F with that mold, you'll find you can drop the temperature to ~750 - 775 deg. once you get perfect CB's. Btw, you may find that a good casting thermometer is very helpful in these situations.

[Larry Gibson]

With the Lee 405HB I agree with maven, drop the temp.

As also suggested make sure the mould is degreased.

I also suggest adding 2% tin to your WWs to make the alloy fill out the mould better. Sound slike you are using a ladle also(?). I use a Lyman ladle to cast bullets over 350 gr with with but have drilled the spout hole out larger. This gets the molten alloy into the mould quicker before it cools as much. My technique is to hold the mold in the left hand with the sprue plate at 90 degrees to the right. I dip the ladle down through the alloy and put the nose of the spout into the cut off hole in the sprue plate and hold it there. I quickly turn both the mould and ladle to the upright position. This kind of "pressure" feeds the molten alloy into the mould. After a second I slowly remove the ladle turning it back sideways and leave a good sprue on the sprue plate. Doesn't take long to get the hang of it. My rejection rate for this bullet casting with this technique is very low.

Larry Gibson

[Freightman]

My 405 HB is the easiest mould I have to use, pour , cut sprue, turn over and the boolit drops out.

[Elkins45]

If you have a common propane torch handy, here's another thing you might try. As soon as you drop a bullet, hold the mold open and use the torch to heat the base plug for a few seconds, then close and pour. Repeat after each bullet.

Keeping the base pin hot provides a reservoir of heat that might keep the lead liquid just a bit longer, allowing it to fill out the base.

[craveman85]

i figured that out this morning when i was casting im getting good bases now. the noses seem to want to break apart a little and their also slightly pitted after i whack the sprue.

[craveman85]

maybe my sprue plate hole is too big and trying to cut off too much lead at once? i may make a custom one out of a piece of stainless i have. im also working on making a drop spout for my cast iron pan. got brass fittings and a valve and when its heated up enough i should be able to pour a nice stream out of my cast iron pot.