It's The Little Things.

[.22-10-45]

Over the holiday, I was able to do some bullet casting. Using a Lyman dbl. 358212 I hadn't used since the very early 80's., I was getting badly wrinkled bases..I knew mould was clean..at first I thought something was amiss with alloy..then I remembered how long since I had used it..looked close at top edge of blocks..sure enough..sharp edges..I have learned to stone a VERY slight bevel for air escape. Mould was hot..so being careful, I used a fine India stone & just broke both edges..very next casting..and all others had perfect bases.
Also, this was first time I had used a near mint integeral handled Ideal 36071..bullets hanging up on bottom band of one block..using a hard lead pencil, I ran it around groove..paying particular attention to edges..any burr..or whatever it was was gone..and bullets dropped of themselves or at most light tap on hinge pin.
I was using a fairly soft alloy..so was running hot..noticed whiskers forming on Ideal dbl. 358216...let up on contact of dipper spout to sprue c'sink, to allow alloy to run out up sides of spout..this cured problem. Sometimes you just gotta do things little tweaks on the fly.

[Case Stuffer]

Sad thing is all those little tricks only come from experience and thast is why I say that casting is more of an art than a science. You can read forever but until you have a lot of hands on experience these little things can drive one to drink.

Many years ago I cast tens of thousand per month and then went close to 30 years without casting any. Lucky for me it is like riding a bicycle and it to me less thane 30 minutes to get back in the grove when I started back casting. This morning I was casting with a new alloy with one of my very old Saeco 135 gr. SWC .358 two cavity molds and checked boolits cast in 15 minutes and had 100 keepers and 6 rejects. Rejects were first 3 pours and mold was not quite hot enough.

[1Shirt]

Yep, trick of the trade so they say!
1Shirt!

[jaystuw]

I'm a fan of early ideal molds but I am not familiar with 358216, I can't recall ever seeing one. Maybe a 358416? John

[.22-10-45]

Hello, Jaystuw..Your right..working too many hours!

[jaystuw]

Hi .22-10-45 , I was not sure. With lyman/ideal molds every time I think I have a pretty good idea whats out there, something new and unexpected turns up! All the molds you wrote about are (to me) early classics. Is that by chance or are you an oldies fan to ? john

[.22-10-45]

Hello, jaystuw..I'm definately an oldies fan! One of my favorite lube-sizers is an old Ideal No. 1 1892 nickle and Japaned black sizer..I use this for my .22 cast.

[jaystuw]

Hi.22-10-45, nice to see that you are putting some very vintage equipment to good use.I cant give the old stuff a rest either. I routinely cast with a ideal 7 cavity armory mold and love those integral handled little guys. I watch E-bay for molds that i could not dream of finding anywhere else. I have been nothing less that bewildered a number of times to see something like a common dbl cavity lyman 311291 get bid thru the roof and at the same time a much less seen 3112 or 3113 integral go for hardly anything! I feel like I have found the perfect little niche with vintage guns and reloading. john