ugly boolits?

[aussie460mag]

I cast some 300gr .45s from a 6 cav lee mold, using a 10lb lee pot, on inspection the outsides have dark spots, they don't seem to be inclusions, this pattern was random and was not effected when i turned the heat up or down, my metal was fluxed COWW with a little solder added for 2% tin.

Anyone know what may have caused this?

[Wayne Smith]

Fluxed with lube, that is the lube residue? If you ladle pour you can get that, or I have. Don't know about bottom pour pots though.

[cajun shooter]

From the pic, I would say that you had the alloy that contained the material and you did not start off with a clean alloy or pot.If your alloy and pot are clean and well fluxed then your bullets will reflect that. It has nothing to do with the equipment unless it was contaminated.

[sqlbullet]

Were these water dropped?

If so, I would suspect minerals in the water. Here is why...

Air cooled bullets I have cast look fine, but, water dropped bullets look like this. Or, rather, they did. Recently I finally got to the point in the re-plumb of the house that the water softener was hooked up. Since then, the discoloration has gone away with water dropped bullets.

[prs]

Yuk! Now that old song is playing in my head and won't quit:

"If you wanna be happy for the rest of your life, never let a pretty woman be your wife. Just from my personal point of view, get an ugly girl to marry you......"

prs

[snuffy]

COWW? Cream Of Wheat W----? C-- O-- Wheel Weights? Whatever you fluxed with didn't work! That much is for darn sure. I never have seen anything like that come out of my molds, hope I never do!

[Bass Ackward]

All look serviceable to me. The pipe don't care either. Except for maybe the one on the end not being filled out completely. Looks more like a 38.

Life is a series of learning experiences. I find that you can have clean guns, shinny brass, pretty bullets or you can be shooting.

I prefer the latter.

[MBTcustom]

Is the mold clean? I agree with others, you need a better flux. sometimes my boolits start getting small spots like those that you show, but It's always a sign that My pot needs flux. Use paraffin or bees wax, "i prefer bees wax". there may be alox "which is aluminum oxide" or some other stuff that's in your lube that is staying in the pot after you flux. If the solder you are using is flux core solder, then I would say that those spots are definitely caused by the resin in the flux. It takes a lot of stirring with a good pot flux to get rid of that resin. Be sure to stir the heck out of the pot when you throw the flux in there, it does no good to just chunk it in and leave it.

[troy_mclure]

my boolits were looking a bit like that(not so extreme) it turned out to be ash from my fluxing stick trapped on the bottom of the pot.

i recommend a through pot cleaning.

[leadman]

Did your solder contain rosin flux? Hard to tell from the pictures but if your temp was on the low side it may not have burned off.

[303Guy]

A neat way of fluxing is with Kitty Litter on top and a dry wooden rod poked through and stirring. A layer of carbon forms under the litter (sand works too). Rub the insides of the pot too. This does not make much smoke and the litter or sand stops the tinsel fairy effect too. Holding the rod still produces vigorous agitation of the melt. The litter can then be skimmed off leaving a clean pot.