My first casting session

[onesonek]

Once I get the temperature thingy figured out, and get a system down for preheating the mold.
I had just the mold on top of pot for 10 min. and it took 8 drops to get rid of wrinkles cast ing 725. Made the mistake of turning it up to just under 800 , and then,,,,,,,,,,the frosties came.
So I remelted the rejects, wrinkle's and sprue's and got it going at 750,,,, the one on the far right shows just a hint of frosting so I'm thinking 720- 740 range is about right for this alloy, which is roughly a 93-5-2. Although I can see more time casting will help too, as it's a progress in learning for me.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v629/onesonek/100_4139.jpg

[stubert]

Frosting doesn't hurt anything, they will shoot fine. good looking bullets .

[lwknight]

Slow the cadence just a little after you get the mold up to temperature and the frosties will stay away. It gets frosty when the molds are hot enough to prevent the alloy from cooling fast enough. What happens is that the antimony gets slushy and the lead-tin part are still liquid and shrinking. Cooler mold molds chill the alloy fast enough to prevent this effect.
The frosties are just fine to shoot. Only problem is that if you let it get extremely bad the bands will start to shrink and you might get voids because the sprue will be solid before the bullet in the cavity.

[mooman76]

Excellent boolits, especially for a first time. Like stated Don't fret the frosting. It's a lot less headaces having the frosting and having good fill out. I think the lube sticks better to frosting anyway.

[onesonek]

Slow the cadence just a little after you get the mold up to temperature and the frosties will stay away. It gets frosty when the molds are hot enough to prevent the alloy from cooling fast enough. What happens is that the antimony gets slushy and the lead-tin part are still liquid and shrinking. Cooler mold molds chill the alloy fast enough to prevent this effect.
The frosties are just fine to shoot. Only problem is that if you let it get extremely bad the bands will start to shrink and you might get voids because the sprue will be solid before the bullet in the cavity.

Never gave it a thought to slow it down abit,,, I guess I was thinking it might get too cool and I would end up with wrinkles again. And at one point it was hot enough I was noticing the voids you speak of. Thanks for the headsup and advice!!!


Excellent boolits, especially for a first time. Like stated Don't fret the frosting. It's a lot less headaces having the frosting and having good fill out. I think the lube sticks better to frosting anyway.

I can see your point on the lube, and I also know that the frost generally don't hurt if not extreme. Only thing I noticed that I don't care for about them,,,,they are shrinking more than I care to see. There's more than .001" difference beteween them, and those smaller frosty ones are pushing the mininum of my desired diameter. The shiney ones drop .4597-8" with is alloy. That's .0016"+ over my slug.

So next time I will try again at that target temp of 720-740 and slow things down abit after mold is up to temp, and see how it goes. I might be off on that pour temp abit,,,we'll see. Maybe warmer,750-775 and slower is the key.
I didn't expect a fast learning curve and near perfect boolits, in the first attempt(s)(s)(s),,,,,,,,
Time and practice,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Thanks for input and support guys!!!

[Az Rick]

Good job! You obviously studied some before casting. The boolits look great. I too am fairly new to casting. I've reloaded for years but this adds a new dimension. Just wait until you load some up and shoot them, very satisfying.

Rick

[jmsj]

onesonek,
Those are great looking boolits !! Congrats.
The frosting won't hurt a thing, when I cast Tumble lube boolits I actually try to get them a little frosty.

[JIMinPHX]

Wow, those are from your first casting session??? Those look GREAT!

Nice job.

[Echo]

Good looking boolits, for sure. You are to be congratulated.

[Bret4207]

Doesn't matter if you are BP or ladle casting, the mould temp is determined by your casting tempo. I would say you are the exception among new casters. Most spend far too much time staring at their new born boolits to ever worry about frosting. Just slow down a bit and you'll do fine.

[onesonek]

Thanks Guys,,,Yep Jim, first time other than recasting large ingots into smller ones. Going to give it another go later this afternoon after I get some holster work done.