Share Your Tip Of The Day

[Rockindaddy]

I have been casing boolits for many years. Always had Lyman moulds. When Lee moulds came along I started using them. Lee offers so many great shapes and styles of projectiles. As my Lee moulds have been used a lot I noticed a galling on the tops of the mould from the sprue plate. I found that #600 paper cleans and polishes the underside of the sprue cutter that is steel. Its a but tougher to clean up the top of the mould to keep it flat. So to eliminate the sprue cutter from scratching and marking up the top of the aluminum surface of the mould I would spray graphite. Using oil messes up the whole casting process. If you want bullets with lots of flaws; oil your moulds! Graphite without an oil base works great! The sprue cutter plate glides over the mould top. I found that ZEP liquid graphite in the spray can works great!

[nanuk]

I use a lot of poly baler twine around my acreage, camping, and fishing, etc.

using the large square bale twine in place of rope. This stuff is tough, and more strength than usually needed.

to keep it from getting everywhere, I take a plastic pail of appropriate size, cut a small X in the lid, run the twine (Remember to use the Center of the roll) up through the cut X hole, and snap the lid back on.

pull it out, and cut off what you need, leaving only a bit hanging out. Keeps it well organized.

when camping/cleaning up, I just cut it off what ever it is tied to, and burn it in a fire pot. it disappears.

Sure beats trying to undo knots and rolling up small diameter rope/cordage.

I always buy the orange stuff, so it is easy to see.

[Walstr]

no matter how great it sounds don't put kitty litter on the top of your lead in a bottom pour pot. It just makes a mess.

Roger that! Pine sawdust is da best flux, and when smokin', serves to "Smoke the mold." as a natural release agent...
Wally

[Walstr]

When smelting lead from COWW, etc., avoid some comforts.

I got lazy & decided I didn't HAVE to go into the backyard to smelt in the shade with mosquitoes, soo I setup on our concrete patio. What a luxury, chairs, iced tea'n all.

Impatience rose in me whilst waiting for the puddles to start forming. (I filled a 10" Dutch Oven pot w/COWW) Now I was movin' right along skimming steel clips & dross. I reached into my bucket of culled COWW only, grabbed a handful, tossed'em into the pot, took 3 steps for some iced tea & BAMM, it erupted then rained molten lead. I was not touched. Shut off the Propane.

I was dumbfounded, surprised & angry, starring at the concrete patio. ***. Barb (my wife of 47 years then) returned from shopping & walked out to me to offer a popsicle she bought me as a treat, asking "What exactly is that on the patio, looks kinda pretty, what is it dear? Lead I said. Oh well then, hurry & wipe it off before company comes over later. Riiight.

I retrieved my knee pads & continued starring at the lead gripping the NOT smooth surface. I peeled off large patches easily, but the other 40% were embedded droplets. Shall I pause the story for those to share THEIR solution? Nah, no one here is that stupid to cause this mess.

After some trials, I was nose to the concrete with a 1# Propane torch, re-melting the droplets into balls, then lightly swiping them away to cool. Worked like a charm. Put stuff away, showered, dressed & greeted my friends. Sore, & pissed at myself, I gladly partook in libations to soften my self inflected PTSD (Patio Technique Stupid Decision).

To this day Barb gets a lil kick out of pointing to a remote embedded "silver" droplet I overlooked, to report "Ya missed one dear!"

[Minerat]

It sticks to brick too. I just told her it as a defect in the bricks and got the look. You know, stink eye. I some extra bricks so just replaced the nice silver ones.

[Horseman]

Walstr - did you ever determine what caused the blow-up? I follow the same process - once I've skimmed a bunch of clips and trash from the pot, I will add additional wheelweights to the molten pot to increase the yield before I start casting ingots. At the risk of revealing my ignorance, is there inherent risk in adding more wheelweights to an already melted pot?

[dondiego]

Walstr - did you ever determine what caused the blow-up? I follow the same process - once I've skimmed a bunch of clips and trash from the pot, I will add additional wheelweights to the molten pot to increase the yield before I start casting ingots. At the risk of revealing my ignorance, is there inherent risk in adding more wheelweights to an already melted pot?

If there were to be ANY moisture from a wet pocket, condensation, or even a moth in the WW's and you add it to a molten pot you will get the Tinsel Fairey!

[SciFiJim]

Walstr - did you ever determine what caused the blow-up? I follow the same process - once I've skimmed a bunch of clips and trash from the pot, I will add additional wheelweights to the molten pot to increase the yield before I start casting ingots. At the risk of revealing my ignorance, is there inherent risk in adding more wheelweights to an already melted pot?

The inherent risk is caused by including moisture with the wheel weights. It could be water from washing them, condensation from cold weights in a humid environment, or even am unnoticed bug that has crawled into the weights. I mitigated the risk some by putting the new weights on top of the trash and clips in the pot and letting them get hot enough to drive off moisture before stirring them in to the melt.

-edit
dondiego commented while I was writing my response. We said the same thing, make very sure your wheel weights are dry before submerging them in molten lead.

[Walstr]

Walstr - did you ever determine what caused the blow-up? I follow the same process - once I've skimmed a bunch of clips and trash from the pot, I will add additional wheelweights to the molten pot to increase the yield before I start casting ingots. At the risk of revealing my ignorance, is there inherent risk in adding more wheelweights to an already melted pot?

The later responses here are on target & exactly what I made happen, to myself! I will not ADD to a smelting pot in the future. Thanks for elucidating on my experience. Good luck friend.

Wally